Pro-Life: February 2005 Archives

Last post of the afternoon: I can understand a judge deciding to let Terri Schiavo live. In our fallen world, I can understand a judge deciding that Terri's husband can get the medical establishment to kill her. But what I can't understand is why a judge would give permission to kill her in three weeks. If I understand the ruling correctly (and I haven't read the text), the judge is conceding that Terri is medically dead already, so why wait three weeks? Not only is the decision wrong, it doesn't even make logical sense.

I'm trying to think of some way to introduce this article, but words are failing me. Just read the first few paragraphs and you'll see why.

Wife details family gathering with Thompson dead in chair

By Jeff Kass, © 2005, Rocky Mountain News
February 25, 2005

ASPEN — Hunter S. Thompson heard the ice clinking.

The literary champ was sitting in his command post kitchen chair, a piece of blank paper in his favorite typewriter, dead of a self-inflicted gunshot through the mouth hours earlier.

But a small circle of family and friends gathered around with stories, as he wished, with glasses full of his favored elixir — Chivas Regal on ice.

"It was very loving. It was not a panic, or ugly, or freaky," Thompson's wife, Anita Thompson, said Thursday night in her first spoken comments since the icon's death Sunday. "It was just like Hunter wanted. He was in control here."

Anita Thompson also echoes the comments that have been made by Hunter Thompson's son and daughter-in-law: That her husband's suicide did not come from the bottom of the well, but was a gesture of strength and ultimate control made as his life was at a high-water mark....

I sincerely hope Thompson isn't undergoing eternal torment, but how does one begin to unpack how sick these people are? God help them — send somebody quickly.

I am not the resident expert on the Terri Schiavo case (that would be Pete), but I had to comment on the following little nugget from this story:

Michael Schiavo says his wife had expressed wishes not to be kept alive artificially, although she left no written directive. He said he is determined to carry on in the case out of love for his wife.

"This case is about Terri Schiavo's wishes," Felos said. "It's about her wishes not to be forced-fed, her wishes not to be kept alive artificially."

Aww. Such a trooper — fighting an endless court battle to judicially kill his wife by starvation.

Somebody remind me: Michael stands to gain something when Terri dies, right? I mean, beyond the ability to marry his shack-up floozy who gave birth to their bastard children? Or does he give up the right to her malpractice settlement money?

This label appears on a plastic container in which, ironically, we were storing toddler clothes. Gotta love trial lawyers for forcing these things on us. (I love that the kid is hovering in mid-air inside the container.)

CL reader Mike wants everyone to know that Christopher West, noted author and speaker on marriage and sexuality, will be coming to Laurel, Maryland soon.

I thought I recognized the name, then I remembered that at one time he was in my living room frequently. When I was a batchelor, one of my roommates was a grad student at the John Paul II Institute, and so was Chris West. Chris hung out with my roommate sometimes, and also he came to several of our house parties. (Let me tell you, there's nothing quite like partying with theology students! They party like it's 1399!)

But as always, I digress. Chris is a bright guy and has many valuable things to say. Full details are here. Here's a short description:

Christopher West, best-selling author and dynamic speaker, will visit St. Vincent Pallotti High School in Laurel, Maryland on Saturday, March 12 to conduct a workshop on Pope John Paul II's revolutionary work, the "Theology of the Body."

The workshop will run from 8:45 am-4pm (Mass at 8:00
a.m. at St. Mary of the Mills across the street from
the high school) and the cost is $20, which includes
workshop materials.

This is the latest member of the Johnson family. Ain't he or she cute?

We haven't decided whether to find out what the sex is yet. But the baby is healthy, and that's all that really matters.

An Illinois judge has ruled that a frozen embryo in vitro is a human being, and therefore the parents of the pre-born can sue over his or her wrongful death in a fertility lab mixup.

The practice of artificial procreation is on an ethical collision course with itself. If the would-be parents get to sue the lab for the wrongful death of one, who's to be held responsible for the wrongful deaths of the equally human siblings: the eight rejected for implantation and discarded with the couple's consent?