FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 24, 2004

Statement of Catholic Media Coalition Responding to Florida Supreme Court Ruling that “Terri’s Law” is Unconstitutional

http://www.catholicmediacoalition.org/terrilaw.htm

The Catholic Media coalition denounces the Florida Supreme Court’s decision released September 23 declaring “Terri’s Law” unconstitutional. The court’s action sets the stage to allow Michael Schiavo, Terri’s husband, to remove his wife’s feeding tube for the third time in order to kill her by dehydration/starvation. Since Terri is not dying this constitutes a deliberate and pre-meditated act of murder.

Many questions surround Terri’s 1990 collapse and subsequent treatment. These include evidence of possible spousal abuse, conflicts of interest arising from Michael Schiavo’s long-term adulterous relationship with the mother of his two children, his failure to comply with state guardianship laws, etc. These questions remain unanswered. Despite laws protecting the disabled, Terri’s rights have been consistently denied by the Florida court system.

Yesterday’s decision is one more example of a run-away judiciary facilitating the deliberate murder of the innocent. The Florida Supreme Court has declared Terri's Law unconstitutional because it supposedly violates the separation of powers. But for several generations activist judges have created new rights out of thin air usurping the legislature’s role as lawmaker and using their judicial activism to justify further encroachments. Now the Florida Supreme Court wishes a court judgment to be final and infallible, not subject to any checks and balances from the other branches of government.

Classically understood, however, the role of the judiciary is to interpret the practical application of the legislature's intent. Literally millions of Americans, armed with pitchforks and torches, or today's orderly equivalent in emails, phone calls, and letters moved both the legislature and governor to agree that the court seriously misapplied existing law and intent. The true separation of powers, with its checks and balances, worked with and through “Terri's Law” to keep the judiciary within its proper bounds, stifling the illegitimate act of creating a new precedent and therefore a new right to kill the disabled. The people and the people's government never envisioned such judicial abuse. We have not amended our Constitution and clearly do not consent to the diminution of the enumerated right to life, a basic and pivotal protection. We will not tolerate judges so lost that they would starve an innocent woman to death.

Pope John Paul II has stated unequivocally that nutrition and hydration are ordinary care and may never be removed in order to bring about death. Terri Schiavo as a practicing Catholic would wish to comply with the teachings of her faith.

We call on Terri Schiavo’s bishop, His Excellency Robert Lynch, the Florida Catholic Bishops, and all the bishops of the United States to denounce the court’s failure to protect the religious, civil, and human rights of Terri Schiavo and demand Terri’s protection under the first amendment of the Constitution. We call on all the faithful to pray for Terri and her family. Legalizing the murder of the sick and helpless is an outgrowth and extension of the judicial tyranny illustrated by Roe v. Wade which allowed the murder of the unborn. A civilized people must resist it or risk their own continued existence as a free nation.

END