Remembering Terry Schiavo

March 31, 2008 marks the third anniversary of the longest public execution in history. That was the day Terry Schiavo was finally starved to death, a case that became the biggest news story worldwide for a period of time.

As a last resort, Terry’s parents pled with Christian attorney David Gibbs, III of the Christian Law Association to enter the case and save Terry’s life although her husband wanted her dead. Several legal maneuvers were ultimately fruitless, and Terry died a pathetic, agonizing and painful death. Gibbs wrote a stirring book, "Fighting for Dear Life," which I highly recommend. He also told his full story at the Reclaiming America Conference in 2006. I just listened again to his complete account for the third time, and I cried for the third time.

Gibbs reviews his first visit with Terry. He found that she was not dying, was conscious of her mother and her father and could utter monosyllabic answers to basic questions. Experts suggested she could live for another forty years, but the Florida court with jurisdiction ruled that her husband, Michael Schiavo, had the right to order his brain damaged wife’s death. After fruitless appeals to advocacy groups, the U.S. Congress, President Bush, several court appeals and four appeals before the U.S. Supreme Court (two in ten days), Terry’s feeding tube was removed and she was starved to death.

Gibbs was there with Terry’s mother for that last visit after a full week without food or water and witnessed Terry, in the final stages of dehydration, cry the only time as she nuzzled her Mom.

Gibbs says, "I was raised in a Christian family, I’d grown up taught to salute the flag, to be patriotic, and I do live America, but for the first time in life I was ashamed for our nation. I thought, ‘In God’s name, what are we doing?’"

As her mother walked out that last time she turned to Gibbs and said, "David, I’m no lawyer and I’m no doctor. But one thing I just don’t understand. Why do they have kill my little girl?" Gibbs replied, "Mary I’m a lawyer, I’m not a doctor, I don’t understand. It doesn’t make sense."
In countless post-death interviews with the international news media, it was always the same question, "By what moral authority does America let this girl die?" "It’s a good question," Gibbs says, "because there is no moral authority to do what we did to Terry Schiavo." Gibbs adds, "It was Terry today, but the question is, ‘Who will it be tomorrow.’"

What is our reaction? First, we should mourn the decision to starve Terry Schiavo. Gibbs reminded his audience of Matthew 25:35-40. "For I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me." Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, "Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?" And the King will answer and say to them, "Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me."

Then we should pray for revival lest we fall under God’s condemnation. Proverbs 24:11-12 warns, "If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small. Deliver those who are drawn toward death, and hold back those stumbling to the slaughter. If you say, ‘Surely we did not know this,’ does not He who weighs the hearts consider it? He who keeps your soul, does He not know it? And will He not render to each man according to his deeds?"

Dave Virkler