An open letter to Congress about Terri Schiavo

March 16, 2005

I am writing in support of the Incapacitated Persons Legal Protection Act of 2005, currently before Congress (S. 539, H.R. 1151). 

It has become obvious from the case of Terri Schindler-Schiavo that our current legal procedures are not sufficient to ensure that the level of protection expected by all Americans is extended to disabled people, whose prolonged lives may be "inconvenient" to their legal guardians. 

Let us as a nation think more creatively and compassionately than Nazis and Communists who rushed to kill people whom they would define as "inferior" or "non-productive."

How ironic in Terri Schiavo’s case that her maiden name (Schindler) is the same as that of a German hero who risked his life to save hundreds of Jews during the Holocaust. And now here she is, facing an agonizing death by starvation and fluid deprivation in the very country that once defeated Hitler, all because her life is not useful to one man ... a man whose love and loyalty are no longer reserved for her. 

Let our definition of value in human life extend beyond a mere economic or functional capacity. All human beings deserve food, water, shelter and comfort to the extent it is possible for anyone to provide such. 

I would love to see the day in our nation when the preservation of life trumps the destroying of it, no matter what the ambiguity of a particular situation. 

Respectfully yours,

Cynthia Edwards 
Plano, Texas 

    Terri died on Good Friday, 2005. 

Learn more 

Visit Terri's Fight web site 

Learn how other disabled people feel about this issue at Not Dead Yet

Read press stories and announcements from religious leaders about Terri 

Above all, PRAY that no other disabled patients 
are put through this terrible ordeal