Though he’s not one of or favorites, we have to give credit where it’s due, and it seems to be due at present to Rev. Jesse Jackson who visited Bob and Mary Schindler Tuesday and condemned the decision to allow Terri Schiavo to die.
Jesse Jackson Defends Terri
He said “Law without mercy is cruel and crude. Law must be informed by mercy to arrive at justice.” When he learned that Terri is not even allowed to have water put on her parched lips after nearly two weeks without water, he exclaimed “We cannot be that callous about human life.”
Jackson energized the crowd and helped seek a rehearing by the Eleventh Circuit Court. and asked state lawmakers to discuss emergency legislation to have her feeding tube reinserted. Wednesday he plans to meet with Gov Jeb Bush.
League Joins Not Dead Yet Protest
Members of the Pro-Life Action League joined members of Not Dead Yet outside the State of Illinois building Tuesday. We held “Save Terri” signs and passed out hundreds of leaflets explaining the case and its flaws.
We did few interviews since it was Not Dead Yet’s protest, but we wanted to support their efforts and thank them for coming to our defense in the NOW vs. Scheidler case, filing an amicus brief on our behalf. We appeared on Fox News and Channel 7 with our “Save Terri” signs,as well as in the Chicago Sun-Times.
Two Good Columns on Terri
Among the better columns on the Terri Schiavo case is one by Dennis Byrne, “Giving Life some Pause” where he points out that Terri was denied a MRI by the Florida Circuit Court, even though this could have shown that she is minimally conscious, and not in a vegetative state. Schiavo was never given the benefit of any doubt. “We give convicted murderers more of a chance at life than we give to Schiavo, he said. “Is it possible that Schiavo knows that she is slowly being murdered?”
And in John Kass’s Tribune column, “Abuse of science again threatens sanctity of life,” he says that Science moves so fast and offers so much that we’re ordered to drop certain unsophisticated superstitions like the belief that human life is sacred:
So we have the right to take that life if it is unborn and adopt a Hitlearian philosophy that some lives are not worth living and our scientists and doctors and courts are the ones who decide, and now a big push is on to get relatives and friends to make the decision when the patient is unable to make it himself. Pretty big favor to ask someone accept the moral consequences of the act to carry the weight of your death, as though it carried no consequences.
Abstinence Saving Lives in Uganda
A story out of Johannesburg, South Africa, says that since Uganda has adopted an “abstinence only” program its HIV rate has dropped to the lowest of all Sub-Sahara African Nations. But opponents call it “a dangerous program.”
Uganda’s own President Yoweri Museveni approves of the abstinence only program and wants to keep condoms out of Uganda because they gives a double meaning that weakens the abstinence program that is working. He says condoms promote promiscuity.
The anti-abstinence buffs say “abstinence only” doesn’t work because, “The reality is there are youths out there who cannot abstain.” What a brilliant argument for dropping a program that is working.
But Uganda’s leaders have seen the success rate and are increasingly opposed to promoting condom use. These leaders, such a Museveni and his wife, are promoting chastity pledges for youth.
But there is always some naysayer who has a better plan, even though the only better plan is “abstinence only,” and it is succeeding. The fact is that condoms do not protect one from getting AIDS. The AIDS virus is one one-hundredth the size of the holes in the latex.
Mom Opposes ES Cell Therapy
Read a touching letter in Wednesday’s Chicago Tribune on the morality of using embryonic stem cells for research into a cure for Juvenile Diabetes, written by a mother whose daughter has the disease, yet believes it is clearly morally wrong to experiment with embryonic stem cells to try to find a cure for this or any other disease.
She explores the logic and morality of all the arguments and makes it clear there is none. You are killing people. Read it.
