# Terri Schiavo, Now that we have all calmed down **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [May 25, 2005, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terri-schiavo-now-that-we-have-all-calmed-down/305375 "2005-05-25T02:31:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![ouryL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ouryl/32/6067_2.png) [@ouryL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouryL)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2005, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terri-schiavo-now-that-we-have-all-calmed-down/305375/81 "2005-05-31T17:01:26Z")
> [@Fiver](#): > > Why such an article is in the New York Review of Books, I couldn’t tell you, but in the June 9th issue [author Joan Didion presents her analysis of the case](http://www.nybooks.com/articles/18050). > > I haven’t studied it carefully, but she appears to be skeptical of the accepted cause of Mrs. Schiavo’s heart attack, and to give credence to some of the abuse claims against Mr. Schiavo. > > I’ll read the article before making specific criticisms, but I expect to discover she’s full of shit (apologies to **Paul in Saudi** for my potty-mouth). Huh? I guess I must have read a different article by Joan Didion? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Kizarvexius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/da6949/32.png) [@Kizarvexius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kizarvexius)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2005, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terri-schiavo-now-that-we-have-all-calmed-down/305375/82 "2005-05-31T22:42:42Z")
As someone who tends to vote conservative, I was disgusted to see the reaction to this case on the part of many conservatives in the media and in government. I thought that the GOP was opposed to “activist judges”, and yet here was an entire mob of conservatives expressing outrage that none of the judges presiding over the various legal battles would take an activist stance. As I see it, this was fundamentally a test of the legal system. And the fact that one judge after another after another refused to engage in “from-the-bench legislation” (despite a huge amount of public and political pressure) proved to my satisfaction that the system held up as it had been intended. ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2005, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terri-schiavo-now-that-we-have-all-calmed-down/305375/83 "2005-06-01T00:21:28Z")
On the part of the Schiavo parents, it was stubbornness, and spitefulness, and an effort to punish MS for not sharing settlement money with them, which he had spent on all the medical care. On the part of the politicians, it was a shameful example of crass grandstanding, and they even had a “talking points” memo outlining how to use Schaivo in a try for “political capital”. On the part of the banner wavers and demostrators, it was a disgusting act of rself righteous rabble rousing and religious/ethical bigotry. On the part of the christian reconstructionists or dominionists (all those preachers) it was another attempt to get a little more power and to subjugate the law to their whims and arrogance. They all disgust me. ---
**Author:** ![lekatt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lekatt/32/7269_2.png) [@lekatt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lekatt)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2005, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terri-schiavo-now-that-we-have-all-calmed-down/305375/84 "2005-06-01T12:50:52Z")
> [@SteveG1](#): > > On the part of the Schiavo parents, it was stubbornness, and spitefulness, and an effort to punish MS for not sharing settlement money with them, which he had spent on all the medical care. > On the part of the politicians, it was a shameful example of crass grandstanding, and they even had a “talking points” memo outlining how to use Schaivo in a try for “political capital”. > On the part of the banner wavers and demostrators, it was a disgusting act of rself righteous rabble rousing and religious/ethical bigotry. > On the part of the christian reconstructionists or dominionists (all those preachers) it was another attempt to get a little more power and to subjugate the law to their whims and arrogance. > > They all disgust me. Seems you have it all worked out. I think most people just saw a mother trying to prevent her daughter from being put to death by starvation. A horrible and inhumane form of murder. That’s what I saw anyway. ---
**Author:** ![lekatt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lekatt/32/7269_2.png) [@lekatt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lekatt)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2005, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terri-schiavo-now-that-we-have-all-calmed-down/305375/85 "2005-06-01T12:55:32Z")
> [@Kizarvexius](#): > > As someone who tends to vote conservative, I was disgusted to see the reaction to this case on the part of many conservatives in the media and in government. I thought that the GOP was opposed to “activist judges”, and yet here was an entire mob of conservatives expressing outrage that none of the judges presiding over the various legal battles would take an activist stance. > > As I see it, this was fundamentally a test of the legal system. And the fact that one judge after another after another refused to engage in “from-the-bench legislation” (despite a huge amount of public and political pressure) proved to my satisfaction that the system held up as it had been intended. A tree survives by bending in the wind. I guess you didn’t hear the loud cracking sound in the wind of the Schiavo case. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Miskatonic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr.miskatonic/32/310_2.png) [@Mr.Miskatonic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Miskatonic)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2005, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terri-schiavo-now-that-we-have-all-calmed-down/305375/86 "2005-06-01T13:04:37Z")
> [@lekatt](#): > > Seems you have it all worked out. I think most people just saw a mother trying to prevent her daughter from being put to death by starvation. A horrible and inhumane form of murder. > > That’s what I saw anyway. I’d say most saw a woman who was already gone, being allowed to die, per her wishes. The Mother (and Father) was merely someone who could not let go. That was bad, but understandable, to a degree. But once they stated that they would have ignored a living will had Terri had one, and would have happily lopped off all her limbs to keep her shell’s heart beating it was over the top. The grandstanding and slander they did in getting to that goal was disgusting. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Miskatonic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr.miskatonic/32/310_2.png) [@Mr.Miskatonic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Miskatonic)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2005, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terri-schiavo-now-that-we-have-all-calmed-down/305375/87 "2005-06-01T13:06:57Z")
> [@lekatt](#): > > A tree survives by bending in the wind. I guess you didn’t hear the loud cracking sound in the wind of the Schiavo case. Oh? The courts performed their job quite nicely, and only a few loudmouths fail to appreciate that. Those fanatic are now seen for what they are, and many folks finally realise the scariness of the ‘culture of life’ crowd. The cracking sound you heard was their hypocritical morality twisting itself into a pretzel. ---
**Author:** ![Silentgoldfish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@Silentgoldfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silentgoldfish)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2005, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terri-schiavo-now-that-we-have-all-calmed-down/305375/88 "2005-06-01T13:14:15Z")
> [@lekatt](#): > > Seems you have it all worked out. I think most people just saw a mother trying to prevent her daughter from being put to death by starvation. A horrible and inhumane form of murder. > > That’s what I saw anyway. I am so sick of this. FACT: EVEN WHEN YOU **HAVE** A BRAIN, DYING IN THIS WAY IS NOT PAINFUL! It happens ALL the time in hospitals. When someone is being treated palliativly and they get to their last weeks/days of life they are often nil by mouth. They just don’t feel hunger in the same way that well people do: if they did, they wouldn’t be as sick as they are. When you have a horrible flu and you’re throwing up everywhere, are you feeling like a nice steak dinner? I mean, fuck, just think it through instead of going ON, and ON about how inhumane starving these poor defenceless people to death is. God, what fucking willful ignorance! ---
**Author:** ![lekatt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lekatt/32/7269_2.png) [@lekatt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lekatt)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2005, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terri-schiavo-now-that-we-have-all-calmed-down/305375/89 "2005-06-01T15:33:20Z")
> [@Mr. Miskatonic](#): > > Oh? The courts performed their job quite nicely, and only a few loudmouths fail to appreciate that. Those fanatic are now seen for what they are, and many folks finally realise the scariness of the ‘culture of life’ crowd. > > The cracking sound you heard was their hypocritical morality twisting itself into a pretzel. Where did you come to hate morality so much, I should have added the first splinter from the cracking sound I named Owens. There will be plenty more to balance our Judicial system again. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Miskatonic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr.miskatonic/32/310_2.png) [@Mr.Miskatonic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Miskatonic)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2005, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terri-schiavo-now-that-we-have-all-calmed-down/305375/90 "2005-06-01T15:45:11Z")
> [@lekatt](#): > > Where did you come to hate morality so much, Oooh! Oooh! Is this the new version of “Why do you hate America?” > [@](#): > > I should have added the first splinter from the cracking sound I named Owens. There will be plenty more to balance our Judicial system again. You do remember that Judge Greer is a conservative judge, right? ---
**Author:** ![lekatt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lekatt/32/7269_2.png) [@lekatt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lekatt)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2005, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terri-schiavo-now-that-we-have-all-calmed-down/305375/91 "2005-06-01T15:47:40Z")
> [@Silentgoldfish](#): > > I am so sick of this. > > FACT: EVEN WHEN YOU **HAVE** A BRAIN, DYING IN THIS WAY IS NOT PAINFUL! > > It happens ALL the time in hospitals. When someone is being treated palliativly and they get to their last weeks/days of life they are often nil by mouth. > > They just don’t feel hunger in the same way that well people do: if they did, they wouldn’t be as sick as they are. > > When you have a horrible flu and you’re throwing up everywhere, are you feeling like a nice steak dinner? I mean, fuck, just think it through instead of going ON, and ON about how inhumane starving these poor defenceless people to death is. God, what fucking willful ignorance! I worked in a hospital for a number of years and volunteered at a hospice. I guess in my willful ignorance I just didn’t see any of the things you mention. I don’t know where you come to so much hate for main stream Americans, But it is posts like yours that illustrate my belief that “liberals” are out of touch with the thought patterns of main stream America. This country was founded of the people, by the people, and for the people. This means all the people, not just those who consider themselves “elitists”. Compassion is fundamental to life and spirituality. You, or I, or no one else knows the suffering Terri went throught. Some respect for the feelings of others is indicated, if you have no feelings, in my opinion, you’re not human. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2005, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terri-schiavo-now-that-we-have-all-calmed-down/305375/92 "2005-06-01T16:11:22Z")
> [@lekatt](#): > > Compassion is fundamental to life and spirituality. You, or I, or no one else knows the suffering Terri went throught. > Some respect for the feelings of others is indicated, if you have no feelings, in my opinion, you’re not human. If she had the awareness to suffer from the aftermath of the removal of the feeding tube, how much more do you think she suffered being trapped in a dead shell of a body for 15 years? Especially as it was HER WISH to not be kept alive that way? It’s amazing how my black is your white and vice versa. Where you see compassion, I see selfishness and denial. Where I see compassion, you see a total lack of feeling. It’s like two different worlds. Of course, the difference is that my side is right. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Miskatonic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr.miskatonic/32/310_2.png) [@Mr.Miskatonic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Miskatonic)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2005, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terri-schiavo-now-that-we-have-all-calmed-down/305375/93 "2005-06-01T16:13:35Z")
> [@lekatt](#): > > I worked in a hospital for a number of years and volunteered at a hospice. I guess in my willful ignorance I just didn’t see any of the things you mention. > > I don’t know where you come to so much hate for main stream Americans, But it is posts like yours that illustrate my belief that “liberals” are out of touch with the thought patterns of main stream America. . Which is why this turned into such a boondoggle for those who were elected on the efforts of the Christian Right, eh? I’m actually a secular conservative. The one out of touch here isn’t the liberals. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2005, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terri-schiavo-now-that-we-have-all-calmed-down/305375/94 "2005-06-01T16:13:42Z")
> [@lekatt](#): > > I don’t know where you come to so much hate for main stream Americans… Which Americans are these? [The 62% who believe Terry Schiavo’s feeding tube should be removed, or the 22% who were against it?](http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,101826,00.html) You are in the minority in this case, **lekatt**. Your opinion represents the fringe, the far out in left field, way out of the main stream. But we don’t hate you; we just don’t give your opinions any credence. ---
**Author:** ![holmes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e95f7d/32.png) [@holmes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/holmes)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2005, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terri-schiavo-now-that-we-have-all-calmed-down/305375/95 "2005-06-01T16:16:43Z")
What does that mean, \*\* lekatt\*\*? That a person’s feelings should trump science, biology and human anatomy? That because a person feels the Moon is made of cheese, we should ignore that it’s not? If “mainstrem” America believes something, we should all bowdown to their collective insanity or selfishness? I guess you’d would’ve like segregation or a state sanctioned religion. Not me, my friend; not me. The part of Mrs Schiavo’s brain that controls “feeling” was mush. Period. The end. She couldn’t feel anything anymore. Now if you want to have the fantasy that she could, no one can stop you from having that fantasy. If you feel better believing that she suffered a horrible death, that’s YOUR issue and you really need to figure how why that gives you comfort. Me, I am glad she’s no longer being used as a prop and wished we were a mature enough nation, that we would give her and others like her, the same decency we give animals. Hate for mainstream Americans? I guess you missed the majority of mainstream Americans who wouldn’t wish the existence of Terry Schiavo on their worst enemies, let alone a loved one. I would post cites, but my prior experience with you, tells me you ignore what doesn’t fit your worldview and so I would be wasting my time and the SD hamsters. ---
**Author:** ![Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hentor_the_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2005, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terri-schiavo-now-that-we-have-all-calmed-down/305375/96 "2005-06-01T16:48:47Z")
> [@lekatt](#): > > I don’t know where you come to so much hate for main stream Americans, in addition to hating morality, people who disagree with you hate “main stream” Americans? I wonder what will be next. Why do you hate posters whose name starts with “l”? Appealing to the proportion of support for a given position as justification for your opinion is usually not the strongest tactic, particularly when you’re demonstrably in the minority, as the public opinion polling consistently showed. > [@](#): > > But it is posts like yours that illustrate my belief that “liberals” are out of touch with the thought patterns of main stream America. Again, “liberals” tended express the same opinions as those expressed by the majority consistently in public polls. How this makes them out of touch with the “main stream” is beyond me. > [@](#): > > This country was founded of the people, by the people, and for the people. This means all the people, not just those who consider themselves “elitists”. Precisely. Which is why it is best to leave decisions about their own deaths in the hands of the people, rather than try to legislate such decisions against the will of the people, as the Republicans tried to do here. > [@](#): > > Compassion is fundamental to life and spirituality. You, or I, or no one else knows the suffering Terri went throught. Then please quit contending that you do. You admit here the possibility that she did not suffer at all. ---
**Author:** ![Shayna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shayna/32/17976_2.png) [@Shayna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shayna)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2005, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terri-schiavo-now-that-we-have-all-calmed-down/305375/97 "2005-06-01T16:53:38Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > Months later I still see both sides of this case way too clearly. I think Michael was a tool for not relinquishing her care to her family when he had moved on with his life… Michael Schiavo didn’t relinquish her care to her family because he knew that, given the opportunity, they would physically abuse her body, and as her husband, he vowed to care for her until death, which includes preventing people from chopping up his wife. He may have allowed his broken heart to heal sufficiently to be able to find love and companionship, but that didn’t absolve him of the duty, both legally and morally, of continuing to care for his wife and carry out HER wishes, which her parents admitted in court that they would not do, even if they knew first-hand that that’s what she’d want (see below for more). > [@lekatt](#): > > A court decision is not proof of anything, it is an opinion as applied to the law. > > As for Terri’s pain, the doctors couldn’t agree on anything. My opinion is that she felt all the pain, right along with the millions of people who sympathized with her. Have you ever been in a situation where someone was being starved and helpless to aid them. Those who wanted to help were compassionate human beings. Others have addressed the rest of the nonsense, so I’ll just skip to the last line, as well as this comment… > [@lekatt](#): > > …I think most people just saw a mother trying to prevent her daughter from being put to death by starvation. A horrible and inhumane form of murder. There is nothing compassionate or humane about how the Schindler’s were treating their daughter, let alone what their intentions were in lieu of force-feeding her. They acknowledged her condition as being persistently vegetative, and yet were willing to do despicable things to her body in a gruesome effort to maintain a shell to hover over because they “derived joy” from it. They didn’t give a damn what was best for Terry or what Terry wanted, they only cared about their selfish selves. > [@](#): > > [Page 16](http://www.miami.edu/ethics2/schiavo/wolfson%27s%20report.pdf) (bolding mine) > > Testimony provided by members of the Schindler family included very personal statements about their desire and intention to ensure that Theresa remain alive. Throughout the course of the litigation, deposition and trial testimony by [sic] members of **the Schindler family voiced the disturbing belief that they would keep Theresa alive at any and all costs. Nearly gruesome examples were given, eliciting agreement by family members that in the event that Theresa should contract diabetes and subsequent gangrene in each of her limbs, they would agree to amputate each limb, and would then, were she to be diagnosed with heart disease, perform open heart surgery.** There was additional, difficult testimony that appeard to establish that despite the sad and undesireable condition of Theresa, the parents still derived joy from having her alive, even if Theresa might not be at all aware of her environment given the persistent vegetative state. Within the testimony, as part of the hypotheticals presented, **Schindler family members stated that even if Theresa had told them of her intention to have artificial nutrition withdrawn, they would not do it.** Throughout this painful and difficult trial, **the family acknowleded that Theresa was in a diagnosed persistent vegetative state**. I thank og every day that Congress wasn’t allowed to run roughshod over Terry’s own wishes, which is really ALL that matters in this entire case. Not the wishes of her delusional parents who would intentionally defy their own daughter’s wishes. Not the wishes of politicians who are pandering for votes. And certainly not the wishes of armchair quarterbacks like you, who have no business in the marital decisions of complete strangers’ lives, to carry out legal remedies with regard to their own bodies at death, painful as _you_ might think it to be. Feel free to do whatever you want with your own body when your brain turns to liquid, but leave mine and everyone else’s alone, thankyouverymuch. I choose whatever degree of pain might or might not accompany a lack of hydration for the comparatively minimal amount of time I might experience it, in lieu of my husband having to endure the emotional and financial trauma of caring for my unresponsive, breathing corpse indefinitely, which is exactly what Theresa Schiavo chose, and what her parents prevented her from doing for way longer than should ever have been allowed. Compassion finally won in this case, after 15 long years to torment. ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2005, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terri-schiavo-now-that-we-have-all-calmed-down/305375/98 "2005-06-01T17:41:49Z")
> [@lekatt](#): > > I don’t know where you come to so much hate for main stream Americans, Hate to break this to you, but Mainstream America was shocked and disgusted by the whole affair. At least, that is what various polls and surveys showed. As far as hating “morality”, it isn’t that at all. It’s the cynical misuse/abuse of a false morality, in order to achieve personal agendas that is hateful. > [@](#): > > “This is not about Terri Schiavo,” says George Annas, chairman of the health law department at Boston University School of Public Health. “I think this is about abortion and stem cells. Congress wants to say that we need pro-life judges because the judiciary is out of control and favors death over life.” > Most Americans disapproved of the congressional action and showed little faith in the stated, high-minded motives behind it. In a TIME poll conducted last week, **fully three-quarters of respondents (including 68% of Republicans) said it was wrong for Congress to intervene, and two-thirds said they believed that Washington’s action was more rooted in politics than principles**. > Having conspicuously interrupted a vacation to return to Washington to sign Congress’s bill in the wee hours of the morning, although he could have approved it from his ranch in Texas, President George W. Bush did not escape the public’s displeasure. **In TIME’s poll, 70% disapproved of his role in the drama**. As federal and Florida state courts continued to reject appeals from Schiavo’s parents to reinsert her feeding tube, Washington may have started to get the message. > [@](#): > > To many Americans, the idea that there could be any winners in this ugly and tragic family spectacle, filled with accusations of greed, abuse and adultery, must have been hard to believe. Beyond the heart-wrenching specifics of the case, the Schiavo controversy \*\*raised alarms for many about the federal government encroaching on \*\* states’ rights, **individual rights and the judiciary, not to mention the role religion should play in politics and the legal system**. Most of all, though, it got people thinking seriously about what it means to be alive or dead, and how they might prepare for their own death. > [@](#): > > On the Internet, conservative bloggers questioned whether an anonymous **G.O.P. talking-points memo calling the Schiavo case "a great political issue**" was in fact a fake cooked up by Democrats. And DeLay, for whom the Schiavo case served as a well-timed media distraction in the midst of his growing ethical scandals, told a private gathering of the conservative Family Research Council that “this is more than just Terri Schiavo. This is exactly the kind of issue that is going on in America … attacks against the conservative movement, against me and others, to destroy everything we believe in.” Note: the memo was genuine, and the author eventually admitted it. It WAS a GOP talking points memo. how cynical could they be. > [@](#): > > Still, many Republicans reject the notion that anything but deep moral conviction motivated the extraordinary legislative measure. “It’s hard to say it’s politics when you get that kind of consensus in a divided U.S. Senate,” says Republican Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa. Yeah right. > [@](#): > > Some on \*\*the religious right \*\* think the Schiavo case shows that their agenda is more realistic than ever. “When I heard that Senate minority leader Harry Reid was with us, I thought I had died and gone to heaven,” says the Rev. Louis Sheldon, chairman of the Traditional Values Coalition. “[This] says that being pro-life is respectable and has political credibility. **The issue is broadening** ; it isn’t just abortion.” > If people like Sheldon get their way, \*\*it will be about almost everything \*\* that encompasses the so-called culture-of-life movement, including restricting stem-cell research and assisted suicide. Social conservatives are almost certain to use the Schiavo case as another weapon in the coming war against what they castigate as judicial activism, the practice of creating new rights from the bench. > [@](#): > > Certain social conservatives **don’t believe in any kind of right to die, even if someone has asked for death in a living will**. In their minds, ending any life-sustaining medical treatment is tantamount to murder or assisted suicide. The G.O.P. probably would never go that far. Still, as an aide to the House leadership puts it, “the fight is not over.” All the above By DANIEL EISENBERG, Wednesday, March 30, 2005 > [@](#): > > even the Roman Catholic Church is not unified in its stance on Schiavo. The Rev. John J. Paris, a bioethics professor at Boston College and an expert on the intersection of law, medicine, and ethics, believes that past statements made by the pope have been taken out of context, misrepresented as church doctrine and applied to the Schiavo case. He says Schiavo, who has a moral right to die, **has been exploited by the religious right to further its agenda** > [@](#): > > The editorial page of The New York Times said she has been **“exploited” by the religious right** in this country. > I agree with that. First of all, this is not a fight about a feeding tube in a woman in Florida. > [@](#): > > The Republican riposte to this is astonishing: interest in states’ rights disappearing, interest in privacy of the individual to be free of government intrusion disappearing. The above is from “No Moral Sense”, Newsweek By Brian Braiker. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2005, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terri-schiavo-now-that-we-have-all-calmed-down/305375/99 "2005-06-01T17:48:48Z")
> [@SteveG1](#): > > Hate to break this to you, but Mainstream America was shocked and disgusted by the whole affair. At least, that is what various polls and surveys showed. Yeah, even my staunch religious-right anti-abortion fundie extremely-pro-Bush relatives thought it was disgraceful that the polititians got involved and tried to prevent her from dying with dignity. ---
**Author:** ![GLWasteful](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f05b48/32.png) [@GLWasteful](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GLWasteful)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2005, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terri-schiavo-now-that-we-have-all-calmed-down/305375/100 "2005-06-01T18:39:27Z")
> [@lekatt](#): > > I worked in a hospital for a number of years and volunteered at a hospice. I guess in my willful ignorance I just didn’t see any of the things you mention. As you have demonstrated, you see very little that doesn’t hew closely to your narrow worldview. > [@](#): > > This country was founded of the people, by the people, and for the people. This means all the people, not just those who consider themselves “elitists”. Nor does it mean only those who view those “elitists” with disdain. You _did_ know that, right? > [@](#): > > Compassion is fundamental to life and spirituality. This fairly drips with irony coming from someone who thinks that the Schindlers were right. They demonstrated no compassion whatsoever to their daughter, nor do you. > [@](#): > > Some respect for the feelings of others is indicated, if you have no feelings, in my opinion, you’re not human. And as you have demonstrated, your opinion is worth perilously little. Too, last time I checked, I was human. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terri-schiavo-now-that-we-have-all-calmed-down/305375.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terri-schiavo-now-that-we-have-all-calmed-down/305375.md?page=6)