Pro Life vs. Pro Marriage
One interesting tidbit about the Terri Schiavo case is that it pits pro-lifers against pro-marriage people. Think about it - the pro-lifers are asking the parents, the Governor, the President, anybody to interfere with a marriage. Which I guess means that pro-lifers don't regard marriage as all that important.
family.org does look at pro-life and pro-marriage people as two distinct groups:
Now just think for a moment about strengthening marriage as a pro-life strategy. What if in 1973 pro-lifers had decided upon marriage education, marriage preparation, marriage enrichment, and divorce prevention as their primary strategy for reducing abortion? Imagine if they had been successful and in 1996, 75 percent of all women of childbearing age had been in healthy marriages. Had abortion rates held steady, there would have been 770,000 abortions in 1996, a net reduction of 596,000 abortions (44 percent). In short, one could confidently argue that investing in marriage is an excellent way to reduce the abortion rate....
It's just a hunch, but it seems that respect for the sanctity of marriage goes hand in hand with respect for the sanctity of life....
Well, under certain circumstances (again, from family.org):
The Bush administration is withdrawing from an agreement that gives an international court jurisdiction over the United states in reviewing death sentences meted out to aliens.
Some observers say the president is reasserting American constitutional authority over our laws. The United States originally complied with the World Court decision to review the death sentences of 51 Mexicans because they were not informed of their right to consult with their country's diplomats.
gotquestions.org has an interesting statement on marriage:
One sex is not exalted over another, but God did make man to be the head of the household, and the women are supposed to submit to the authority of their husbands....Christ loved the church (or His people) with compassion, mercy, forgiveness, respect, and selflessness; the same way husbands are supposed to love their wives....
We should never submit to our husbands if it requires disobeying God; the relationship we have with Him is the most important (Deut 6:5)....
Although women should submit to their husbands, the Bible also tells men several times how they are supposed to treat their wives. They are not to take on the role of the dictator, but show respect for his wife and her opinions as well....
When a husband and wife marry, they become one flesh and their body is now shared with their partner; it no longer belongs solely to him or herself....
So, Terri Schiavo's husband Michael can be overruled if he is disobeying God. Otherwise, his word prevails. But how can secular authorities argue that a husband is disobeying God, and therefore his wishes are not to be considered? Answer: talk long and loud about being pro-life, and ignore that nasty pro-marriage stuff.
Meanwhile, the world is divided about Michael:
Doctors have testified that 41-year-old Terri Schiavo is in a persistent vegetative state, the result of a collapse that deprived her brain of oxygen 15 years ago. Michael Schiavo insists that his wife told him she would never want to be kept alive artificially; for seven years he has fought her parents to carry out what he says would be her wish....
Through much of that time, he has been vilified — on talk shows and the Internet, and in protests in front of his own home — as an abuser, an adulterer, a murderer. But to friends and family, Michael Schiavo is just a well-meaning guy caught in an extraordinary situation.
Schiavo, also 41, was the youngest of five brothers brought up in the mass-produced suburb of Levittown, Pa....
The brothers were confirmed in the Lutheran church, though Sunday services weren’t always a priority, says Scott Schiavo, who still lives in Levittown....
After high school, Michael enrolled in nearby Bucks County Community College. It was there, in a sociology class, that he met Theresa Marie Schindler.
They were engaged just five months later and married in November 1984. After a year and a half, the couple moved to Florida for Terri’s work at an insurance company, and her parents followed them three months later. Michael Schiavo got work managing a restaurant.
Friends of Terri’s have said that Schiavo became possessive of his wife, tracking her movements and begrudging time she spent with her family. Terri had been overweight as a girl, and he reportedly rode her about her weight — and threatened to leave her if she got fat again.
Terri’s brother, Bobby, has said Terri was even contemplating leaving Schiavo. Scott Schiavo says he saw a happy couple....
Then, in the early morning of Feb. 25, 1990, Terri Schiavo collapsed, changing everything.
Initially, Michael Schiavo felt that his wife might benefit from therapy. He staged fund-raisers to pay for a flight to California for rehabilitation.
During a medical malpractice case in 1992, Schiavo testified that he was studying nursing at St. Petersburg College to better learn how to care for Terri....
When asked how he felt about being married to Terri in her current state, he said: “I feel wonderful. She’s my life, and I wouldn’t trade her for the world. ... I believe in the vows that I took with my wife. Through sickness, in health, for richer or poorer...."
But by 1993, Schiavo was fighting with his in-laws, Bob and Mary Schindler, over his wife’s care and guardianship. In a deposition, the ruggedly handsome Schiavo was forced to admit that he had already been involved in lengthy relationships with two women since his wife’s collapse. One of those women, a nursing assistant at the home where Terri was being cared for, told the Schindlers’ attorneys that Schiavo would “whine all the time” about how Terri’s illness had ruined his life, and that he couldn’t wait to collect the malpractice settlement. She described Schiavo as obsessive and claimed he stalked her for more than a year after their breakup.
Trudy Capone, who worked as a nurse at a home where Terri was treated in the early 1990s, says Michael Schiavo is “an evil, evil, evil man” who repeatedly told her that he and his wife had never discussed what to do if she was incapacitated. She says he was always asking, “What should I do?”
“This man is a liar,” Capone says.
That is not the Michael Schiavo who Jill Schad knows. A fellow nurse, Schad has known Schiavo for six years and has seen him on the job and with Terri. He strokes her hair and holds her hand and kisses her, Schad says....
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