Friday, March 11, 2005
Big Voices for Terri
ProLifeBlogs has called for everyone available to go to Florida and stand vigil for Terri much like some people do when the death penalty is being used. I am normally a person that believes in action, not spectacle, but in this case, our best hope lies in legislation, and the more attention that can be attracted, the more it forces the legislators' hands.
This news is amazing. A San Diego multi-millionaire has placed one million dollars into a trust account for Michael Schiavo should he choose to spare Terri's life. I almost find myself hoping Michael will not take this deal. I want to assume he is operating from a sincere, if misguided, conviction. Should he accept this offer, it would reveal him as a pure opportunist. That's just ugly. Although if it saves Terri's life...
There is now a Polish blog for Terri. (HT: New York Minute Blog) That's what I call solidarity!
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A woman that nearly FULLY recovered from a state similar to Terri has joined the fight. What a difference a husband's attitude can make. If only Terri were given the opportunity.
Cardinal William H. Keeler, chairman of the U.S. Bishops' Committee for Pro-Life Activities has made a statement -- it is worth the read. (HT: Blogs for Terri)
Finally, John Mark Reynolds filled in for Hugh Hewitt on the radio last evening and devoted a good portion of the program to Terri. This is the post that Dr. Reynolds did at his blog after the show. I was very glad to read it, because the call it addresses made me want to scream. I am so grateful things were not as they appeared on the radio. In another related post Dr. Reynolds says:
Many argued with Dr. Reynolds that Terri's current life is not bestowed by God but by the physicians and their machinations. Such an objection misses the point entirely. Can God only bestow the gift of life via reproductive activity? Has a test tube individual therefore not had life bestowed on them by God, whereas a person conceived in a more normal fashion has?
In discussing this with a friend, he mentioned that if absent medical intervention Terri would have died, then it was probably God's will that she die. This is really the same point from the preceding paragraph.
None of it acknowledges that the actions of the doctors and the technology that sustains Terri's life is also a gift of God, because it is a function of our acting in God's created image in us. The link you have just encountered is to my post this morning on "Science and Christianity," where I discuss some of these issues. Science and technology is not not artificial, ungodly, or inherently evil. We can elect to use them for evil, or we can elect to use them for good.
How can saving Terri's life be construed as using it for evil, and removing it to take her life construed as good? I, for one, don't know. Death is the enemy.
I Corinthians 15:55-56
55 "O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?" 56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law;
This news is amazing. A San Diego multi-millionaire has placed one million dollars into a trust account for Michael Schiavo should he choose to spare Terri's life. I almost find myself hoping Michael will not take this deal. I want to assume he is operating from a sincere, if misguided, conviction. Should he accept this offer, it would reveal him as a pure opportunist. That's just ugly. Although if it saves Terri's life...
There is now a Polish blog for Terri. (HT: New York Minute Blog) That's what I call solidarity!
.A woman that nearly FULLY recovered from a state similar to Terri has joined the fight. What a difference a husband's attitude can make. If only Terri were given the opportunity.
Cardinal William H. Keeler, chairman of the U.S. Bishops' Committee for Pro-Life Activities has made a statement -- it is worth the read. (HT: Blogs for Terri)
Finally, John Mark Reynolds filled in for Hugh Hewitt on the radio last evening and devoted a good portion of the program to Terri. This is the post that Dr. Reynolds did at his blog after the show. I was very glad to read it, because the call it addresses made me want to scream. I am so grateful things were not as they appeared on the radio. In another related post Dr. Reynolds says:
Each life has a purpose in Divine Providence as the Founders, not all of them traditional Christians, would have put it. So do body and even cosmological "parts" of the Divine order. Stars are at least partly to light the night for humanity. Eyes are for seeing. Ears are for hearing. In a world that rejects Divine order as our cultural elite do humans are free to make up functions and meaning for themselves.On the show he made the same point somewhat more plainly. He talked about life itself as God's gift. And since it is a gift of God, no one has the right to take it, not even the person on whom it is bestowed.
At first this seems liberating, especially if you have a desire to try something unusual or new. In the end, men realize that there is no real meaning when they create their own meaning. Their personal meaning is dependent on the whims of the majority or the powerful. They also discover that defying teleology is not good for the soul which is the hidden part of a human courts no longer are allowed to consider....
...In the same way, it seems to me courts are now in the process of deciding which lives are worth living. Without a divine framework, there is no limit to what a court can say. I am not looking forward to seeing the results. This new secular picture of what makes a man a man is much more horrifying to me.
Many argued with Dr. Reynolds that Terri's current life is not bestowed by God but by the physicians and their machinations. Such an objection misses the point entirely. Can God only bestow the gift of life via reproductive activity? Has a test tube individual therefore not had life bestowed on them by God, whereas a person conceived in a more normal fashion has?
In discussing this with a friend, he mentioned that if absent medical intervention Terri would have died, then it was probably God's will that she die. This is really the same point from the preceding paragraph.
None of it acknowledges that the actions of the doctors and the technology that sustains Terri's life is also a gift of God, because it is a function of our acting in God's created image in us. The link you have just encountered is to my post this morning on "Science and Christianity," where I discuss some of these issues. Science and technology is not not artificial, ungodly, or inherently evil. We can elect to use them for evil, or we can elect to use them for good.
How can saving Terri's life be construed as using it for evil, and removing it to take her life construed as good? I, for one, don't know. Death is the enemy.
I Corinthians 15:55-56
55 "O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?" 56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law;
