Where are the results for Terri Schiavo's autopsy?

***UPDATE***

The autopsy report was released this morning, and is inconclusive in may respects, but not in the one I was most interested in. Terri Schiavo's brain was roughly half the size it should have been. To me this puts to rest the idea that she may have gotten better with therapy and proper medical treatment. How much of the brain damage was due to 15 years of neglect and how much was due to the lose of blood during her colapse is unclear. But, I am not much on conspiracy theories and take the medical examiner at this word.

I am often stunned by what the left passes off as "facts" about conservative Christians. The latest example of this comes in the form of commentary by a "Christian" reverend named Dr. N. Graham Standish, the pastor of Calvin Presbyterian Church in Zelianople (does anyone know where that is?). You can read the e-mail I sent the Dr. below this post. The Dr. ignores 9th commandment..........."You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor" and makes many politically correct accusations against conservative Christians without any facts to back his claims. The one that hits me the hardest is his claim that in the case of Terri Schiavo we (for I am a conservative Christian) " used her to reframe the issue of euthanasia by reducing it to a portrayal of a virtuous family trying to keep a disabled (they refused to call her comatose) woman alive, while her evil husband tried to kill her." Perhaps the good reverend should have found a quote or two to back his claim, for I'm sure many outrageous comments were made, but certainly not by any of the persons he names, and not by anyone I know. The conservative Christians (as well as Jews and others) who supported Terri's parents had (still have) legitimate questions as to the facts of the case............questions like "what has her husband done with all the money?", and "why is he in such a hurry to kill her?". We welcomed the idea of an autopsy on Terri's body so we could all have more facts. We have a legitimate point of view. Commentarys like this attempt to box us in as irrelevant and bigoted are disingenuous and themselves bigoted.

So, where are the results of that autopsy anyway? I want to know what the state of Terri Schiavo's brain was when she was put to death. Frankly, if she was in fact in a "persistant vegitative state" and her brain was mush, as the judge saiddeclared it to be, then I will have learned a lot about this case and others like it, and will gladly proclaim that "I was mis-informed". Likewise, if her brain was fine, and she was in need of medical treatment, not death, I would hope that those who wanted her killed would regret their misinformed attitude. Either way, I will still be against starving people to death.



Here is the e-mail I sent to Dr. Standish

Reverend Standish

It was with great interest I read your commentary on the divisions your percieve in our nation. After reading it all I could think of was the bible passage Luke 18:10-14, and how the Pharisee so proudly proclaimed his righteousness and the tax collector's sinfulness. Phrases like......."As a seminary student in the 1980s", "Apparently I wasn't much of a Christian back then" (a smug way of saying that you've always been the right kind of Christian), "I left the Republican Party in 1992 and registered as an independent precisely because I sensed the Republican Party slipping away from the Christianity to which I had committed my life", "I believe that those of us who are Christian ", all proclaim the superiority of the writer over those who........"suggest that the only political option for Christians is to be Republican.", "Republican-sanctioned, Lee Atwater-orchestrated style of politics in which politicians attack, denigrate, eviscerate and even falsely accuse each other. "

It's odd that you would use the term "falsely accuse each other" then go on to falsely accuse so many people. Apparently your brand of Christianity forgets the commandment to "Not bear false witness". You claim that some Christian Republicans "have an agenda to make the United States a so-called "Christian" nation", but none of those you accuse are guilty of the things you accuse them of. You simply throw out the polictically correct notions without fact and let it lay. That is a textbook example of bering false witness.

This "we're saved, you're not; we're right, you're wrong; we conservatives are right and virtuous, you liberals are wrong and sinful." is a figment of your imagination.

As a conservative Christian Republican, I neither make such claims, not belive such, nor does anyone I know (and I read all of those you name by name). What we do believe is that classic Judeo-Christian values are the best values, and we promote them as such. Values such as life for the innocent, the death penalty for the vilest of murderers, marriage between one man and one woman, anti-suicide, anti-euthanasia, anti-abortion, pro-family, pro-hard work, pro-charity, pro-classic education (as opposed to the politically correct education public schools not present), pro-school choice are what we stand for, and what we believe we want our government to reflect.

As a Christian do you believe it's wrong to speak out for such values?

You condemn us for speaking out for the family of Terri Schiavo, who only wanted to take care of her and allow modern medicine to work in her favor. You say that we "refused to call her comatose" (not even the doctors involved called her comatose..........you obviously don't know much about the case) and "reduced the larger issue of euthanasia to a simple equation" when in truth we were the ones claiming that the situation was far more complex than her husband and the courts were portraying it to be.

I sit here and wonder what you would say if Terri Schiavo's autopsy showed her to have a normal brain. Would you then say her husband and the courts were wrong? Would you say you are wrong in vilifying we who wanted mercy for her and her family?

Mercy seems to be fully lacking in your worldview. Without mercy there is not Christianity. You might want to try some the next time you stand proclaiming your righteousness and our sinfulness. We already know ours, which is why we cried out to the Lord in the first place.

Sincerely (and with a broken heart at your misguided attack on us)
Geoff Milke