Save Terri Schiavo

Gov. Bush, Florida Legislature should keep fighting

It’s a sad world where we can legally starve someone to death:

When Sidney, a young warrior and poet in the court of Queen Elizabeth I, was mortally wounded in battle, legend has it that he passed up a drink of water in deference to a common soldier who lay nearby in the throes of death.

“Thy need is greater than mine,” Sidney told the dying man.

After his own lingering death, Sidney’s body was brought back to England, where he was given a state funeral and held up by his countrymen as a model of virtue to be emulated by all.

Today, Terri’s husband, Michael Schiavo, is trying to take an action that would reverse Sidney’s. Rather than provide water to a stranger about to die, he wants to deny water to his own wife who persists in living. Since 1998, contrary to the wishes of Terri’s parents, Robert and Mary Schindler, Schiavo has been seeking to remove the nutrition-and-hydration tube that sustains Terri, who became mentally incapacitated 15 years ago when her heart temporarily stopped beating.

Probably the best argument against removing Mrs. Schiavo’s feeding tube I have read in awhile. Issues like this just stagger the mind — what kind of society are we becoming, and what does allowing Terri to starve to death say about us and our generation?