The following letter is from the newsletter of Bobby Schindler, brother of Terri Schiavo. There seems to be no end to the evil which masquerades as "choice":
Schindler:
I want to share two names and stories with you this morning.
Alfie Evans, a precious infant with an undiagnosed condition
requiring a ventilator.
Vincent Lambert, a disabled non-terminal adult who simply needs
assisted food and water.
European courts have ruled in two separate decisions today that
both Alfie and Vincent are to die. Alfie, by court order to physicians
to deny oxygen to the infant against the parents wishes. Vincent, by
court order to deny him food and water, starving him to death at the
request of his wife. Vincent faces almost precisely the same fate as
Terri Schiavo.
To some, it might seem ironic that one of the only voices for
sanity in either case has been the Catholic Church. First, in Alfie's
case of offering to take the child and care for him in a Vatican
hospital. And second, in Vincent's case, where Elio Sgreccia, a
cardinal and bioethicist who defended Terri many years ago, and is
again pointing out the potential for Vincent to recover from his PVS
diagnosis. He has stated clearly that Vincent "is not terminally ill
and may still live a long time when treated with care." Denying
Vincent food and water would be a violation of the man’s basic human
rights, Sgreccia contends.
I am thinking especially of both Alfie's and Vincent's
parents right now. They, like my own parents in Terri's fight, are
victims nearly as much as their children who are about to die by court
order. It is unthinkable, and it my heart breaks for Alfie, for
Vincent, and for those who love them unconditionally and demonstrate
that love with a desire to care rather than to bring about
death.
What we are witnessing is the increasing power of a global
euthanasia mentality. Those who advocated for so-called "limited" or
"reasonable" allowances for euthanasia in certain instances, or for
assisted suicide, know that inevitable the "limits" fall away once the
primary reason for euthanasia captures the minds of a culture. And
that primary reason is, in essence, the attitude that we need a way to
remove undesirable persons whom those in power decide have a "quality
of life" insufficient to justify their existence.
In practice, the right to euthanasia will always and everywhere be
primarily a right for the state to euthanatize its must vulnerable
citizens.
God bless you,
Bobby Schindler
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