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A recent statement by the Florida Catholic Conference asked Governor Jeb Bush to save death row inmate, Clarence Hill, convicted of shooting a police officer to death during a robbery of a Pensacola bank in 1982, from lethal injection and to stay his execution. The Florida Bishops state they are disheartened over this execution, as there are unresolved constitutional issues in regard to lethal injection. (Hill was executed Wednesday night.)
Among the Bishops signing on to save the death row inmate was Bishop Robert Lynch from the Diocese of St Petersburg, Florida. Bishop Lynch took no action toward saving the life of Terri Schiavo.
The Bishops were not disheartened over Terri Schiavo's lethal murder and the unresolved constitutional, medical, legal, and bioethical issues in her case. There are unresolved states and constitutional issues regarding lethal starvation and dehydration, and not just in PVS patients. There are no constitutional laws permitting lethal extermination via euthanasia, irrespective of the methods employed. There are no laws permitting euthanasia, except in the state of Oregon, and that under the false pretense of assisted suicide for the terminally ill.
This is not the first time the Florida Catholic Bishops begged to spare a murderer's life. In 2003, the Florida Catholic Conference asked Governor Jeb Bush to commute the death sentence of Paul Hill to life in prison without possibility of parole. This Hill was convicted of the 1994 shotgun murders of an abortionist and his driver.
Pamela Hennessy, volunteer media coordinator for the family of Terri Schindler Schiavo at the time, took issue with the Florida Bishops, but to no avail. They simply placed a competent person in higher esteem than a disabled person.
http://www.cnsnews.com/Culture/Archive/200308/CUL20030826a.html
Where were the Florida Catholic Bishops' disheartened pleas for Terri Schiavo's life? Why did they not ask for a stay of her execution? Where was the Bishops' equal dismay over the unresolved states and constitutional issues permitting euthanasia in Terri's case?
If the Bishops are troubled that the death penalty exists and question fairness, where were their troubling concerns and comments over fairness before Terri was executed by starvation and dehydration?
The Bishops' state, "There are increasing concerns in society about what the death penalty does to us as a people and a nation, and we perceive growing doubts about its effectiveness. We sense a change in public attitudes and see signs that many people are reexamining and reconsidering their past support for it."
There are many in society holding the same views and concerns about euthanasia; passive and active. As the Bishops profoundly articulated, "……..execution will further desensitize society's understanding of the sacredness of all human life." Why do the Bishops pick and choose their issues in defending whose life they wish to speak out to save?
Was Terri Schiavo, as a disabled person, of lesser value and therefore, demanded scant attention in their minds, even though society has a growing distaste for lethally starving and dehydrating persons to death?
The Florida Bishops have declared lethal injections as unfit for humans, but lethal starvation and dehydration of the mentally and physically incapacitated is fit for humans. Are these persons less human? What is it about the incapacitated that prevents the Bishops from fighting for their lives, as they do for death row inmates? Is it because many of the disabled cannot speak? Is it because many of the disabled have committed no crime? What is their rationale behind permitting the disabled to be euthanized?
The EOL argument of resource utilization is impotent in comparing a "life sentence without parole" to an Alzheimer's or PVS patient, such as Terri Schiavo. Makes one wonder what will happen to all these prisoners and inmates once euthanasia is legalized.
The Bishops' state that the death penalty destroys persons' hopes of repentance, restitution and rehabilitation. Starving and dehydrating a person to death destroys their hopes of repentance, restitution and rehabilitation, as surely as God gave us all air to breathe. Also destroyed are the families and friends left on this earth to cope with the senseless killings in the name of self determination, rights and autonomy.
Society has a right and responsibility to protect the disabled, and this includes the Bishops in this country. Society cannot be safe from euthanasia when our Bishops and other members of the clergy support the act by deceitful and indirect routes of application.
As the Bishops themselves state, "The dignity of all human persons demands respect for life, even the life of those who have done great wrong." This should also hold true for the disabled and mentally incapacitated.
The Florida Bishops remained silent on the Terri Schiavo matter and their silence is not unnoticed in Florida. 9-21-06
Karen is a registered nurse with a specialty in obstetrics and currently holds licenses in Ohio and Florida.
© 2006 North
Country Gazette
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