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Schiavo Protesters Not All Christian
Conservatives
May 22, 2005
Reuters (no author provided at originating website)
Pinellas Park, Florida - Conservative Christian groups have called for
mass vigils outside the hospice caring for brain-damaged Terri
Schiavo, but many of the few dozen who have shown up said they were
drawn for personal reasons unrelated to organized religion.
Eleanor Smith of Decatur, Georgia, sat on Tuesday in a motorized wheelchair in front of the hospice, baking in the sun, with a sign on her lap reading, "This agnostic liberal says 'Feed Terri."' Her background was a far cry from the evangelical right wing more generally seen as the lobbying force behind the U.S. Congress' scramble over the weekend to draw up a special law to try to prolong Schiavo's life, and President Bush's decision to cut short a Texas vacation to sign it. Smith, 65, had polio as a child and described herself as a lesbian and a liberal who had demonstrated before in support of the disabled and causes supported by the conservative establishment's arch foe, the American Civil Liberties Union. "What drew me here is the horror of the idea of starving someone to death who's vulnerable and who has not asked that to happen," Smith said. She said she thought that people who left written instructions to withhold medical treatment should have those wishes honored, but that withholding water and nutrition from Terri Schiavo, who left no such written instructions, was tantamount to murder. "At this point I would rather have a right-wing Christian decide my fate than an ACLU member," Smith said. She was among three dozen or so protesters who stood in the sweltering sun outside the hospice on Tuesday, behind a fence of orange mesh erected by police to keep the hospice entrance clear, as an Atlanta appeals court mulled the latest legal bid by Schiavo's parents to keep her alive. The parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, have fought for seven years against state court rulings siding with medical opinion that their daughter is in a "persistent vegetative state" and her husband Michael Schiavo's view she would not have wanted to be kept alive in that condition. Schiavo's feeding tube was disconnected on Friday and doctors say she is likely to stay alive for up to two weeks without it before slipping into death.
'NOT MONOLITHIC'
The Reverend Pat Mahoney, a Presbyterian minister from Washington, D.C., has organized the hospice vigils under the auspices of a group called the Christian Defense Coalition, which has organized faith-based protests on numerous issues. Mahoney was formerly the national spokesman for Operation Rescue, an anti-abortion group whose members were arrested across the nation in the late 1980s and early 1990s for blocking access to clinics where abortions are performed. "The ideological issue is the same, that all life should be treated with dignity and respect. A child in the womb has no voice. Terri doesn't have a voice," Mahoney said. "We have." But he added, "It's not a monolithic, pro-life group." Becky Dula said she came from Chicago to Pinellas Park for her first public protest because she believes the courts should protect the disabled but were instead violating Schiavo's constitutional right to life by removing the feeding tube. "You can have quality of life and be a person, even being brain damaged," Dula said. She said she felt compelled to show up and speak out because "I would want that done for myself." Tracy Dettman of Big Rock, Illinois, said it was a call from God, and not from any organized group, that compelled her to come and express her view Schiavo's feeding tube should be reinserted. She said she had a friend who died slowly of multiple sclerosis and who initially left instructions asking not to be fed through a tube if he could no longer feed himself. But he later indicated by blinking his eyes for "yes" when asked that he did want food and water, and was given it, she said. "When he found out what it was like at that moment, he wanted to change his mind," Dettman said. "People can change their mind."
Copyright 2005, Reuters. http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=domesticNews&storyID=7977535
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