An Iron Will to Live

For ten days now, Terri Schiavo has miraculously stayed alive with no life support, no food, and no water, utterly confounding those who insist she wants to die.

The latest extraordinary testimony to Terri's will to live comes from two friends who visited Terri yesterday and witnessed a very personal and heart-rending recollection of their friendship. The Miami Herald published a partial account this morning and Blogs for Terri provides it here:

http://www.blogsforterri.com/archives/2005/
03/terri_schiavos_4.php#more

If Terri's superhuman endurance is not sufficient evidence of a will to live, consider the following cases of the human ability to hold on to life.

My grandfather had bone marrow cancer for more than a decade. He also had emphysema and lost most of his ability to swallow. While he and Grandma lived with my mother, my sister, and I for almost two years, he had many periods of incoherency and extreme agitation during which we thought he was about to die, but he didn't. Grandpa always had goals, things he wanted to live to see, the last of which was my wedding. I had doubts he would live that long, but he was there with Grandma that day in 1992, somehow slightly less feeble than he had been the previous week. He reminisced with Grandma about their wedding day more than 69 years before. He ate a pureed dinner at our reception, then his caregiver, Mary, drove him home. As she put him to bed that night, she said, "I'll see you in the morning, Howard." He replied, "I won't be here." He died that night.

I was tempted to think it was just coincidental, but why did he say he wanted to live to see the wedding, then die just after he fulfilled that goal?

Later, knowing that all was now completed, and so that the Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.” A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus' lips. When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
- John 19:28-30

Jesus endured until his work was completed, then by His will, gave up his spirit. Grandpa held on until he was ready to give up his spirit.

If Terri did not want to live, she would have given up her spirit days, perhaps months, perhaps years ago, but she has not. What but a will to live can explain her survival? Terri is fighting valiantly, for what, we ask? Continued suffering? Who is anyone to judge for her whether her life is worth living? Verdicts be damned! She wants to live!

The testimony by Terri's friends is new evidence that Terri's wishes have been betrayed by her custodian, Michael Schiavo. For the preservation of human rights, Gov. Jeb Bush can still act. This morning I called his office (850-488-4441 or 850-488-2272) urging him to investigate this latest testimony as new evidence in this case that has not been previously considered. I also sent him the following e-mail (mailto:jeb.bush@myflorida.com):

E-mail to Gov. Jeb Bush:

Governor Bush:

Please investigate the accounts by Terri’s Schiavo’s friends who visited her yesterday. This is clearly new evidence that Terri is fighting to stay alive. These accounts were not known at the time of any of the previous appeals and they warrant emergency intervention pending a review of this new evidence. History will vindicate any action you take as an effort to preserve the human rights of a person misrepresented by her custodians.

Furthermore, on the basis of this new evidence, I urge you to order an autopsy, should Terri die, that history will know whether the judgments in this case were correct.

No criminal can be put to death in this country unless their guilt is proven beyond the shadow of a doubt. This latest testimony casts more than a shadow on the testimony against Terri Schiavo (who of course is not a criminal and is therefore that much more entitled to protection of the law), and must be considered. The appeals process is too slow to act on this with the urgency it requires. For the sake of all that this country was founded on, please use the full powers of your office to order that food and water be restored to Terri while this new testimony is considered. I thank you for all that you have done for Terri, but I submit that your part in this is not over. This is a critical time for the conscience of Florida and the entire U.S. Do state’s rights overrule human rights? You know that you have a higher calling than that to which you have answered so far. Please have the courage to do what you know is right.

A person in your state is desperately fighting to live, defying all odds against her. You cannot with a clear conscience deny that Ms. Schiavo’s endurance is evidence in and of itself of her will to live. There are no artificial means whatsoever keeping her alive – it is by will alone she has survived this long and she continues to demonstrate that her wishes are contrary to the determination of the courts.

Your country is watching, history is watching, and highest of all, God will be the final judge of your action and inaction. The voices of the present are insignificant to the voices of history and of Heaven. Please do what you know is right.

Thank you,

Greg Bittner
Coon Rapids, MN