It took me a week to get
through the first 30 pages or so of Fighting for Dear
Life by David Gibbs III, because it was that
moving. Besides being a moral conservative activist, I’m also
a cop and supposed to be tough yet many times I had tears in
my eyes. During the year or so that Terri was in the news, I
was never quite sure if the media was telling us the whole
truth and apparently not only were they not presenting the
whole truth, they were actively engaged in hiding it, and in
many cases, telling us outright lies.
How could we have fallen so
far in America that despite the pleas of Congress, the
Governor of the state that Terri lived and died in, the
President of the United States and the overwhelming majority
of the American people, that we as a nation forced an innocent
young lady to be starved and in effect, tortured to
death? David
Gibbs’ book does not have all the answers, but Mr. Gibbs lays
out the whole story for you to consider. But keep in mind that
once you read this book, you will never be the
same.
The book opens with a quote
by Thomas Jefferson:
“The first duty of
Government is the protection of life, not its
destruction. The chief purpose of
government is to protect life. Abandon that and you
have abandoned all.”
As an eyewitness to the last
year of Terri’s life, and as lead counsel for the Schiavo
family, Mr. Gibbs had a unique view into all that was
happening, legally, medically, and emotionally. And
unfortunately now, historically, as Terri has passed into
eternity and legacy. He points out that once we cross this
boundary, where will it end? Will we kill the handicapped, the
elderly or the very sick? You might say “It can’t happen
here!” but it happened in Nazi Germany and it’s beginning to
happen in the more liberal European countries. With the death
of Terri Schiavo, it has begun to happen
here. Will we stop it or will we allow more of the helpless to
be put to death?
Fighting for Dear
Life offers some suggestions and also some
practical advice on living wills as
well.
One of the more probing
points throughout the book is the question of whether or not
Terri was in a “persistent vegetative state” (PVS) or what
doctors call “minimally conscious”. Mr. Gibbs describes how
Terri would react differently when various people would come
into her room at the hospice, and how she’d display a “lemon
face” whenever her dad, with his scratchy beard, would kiss
her. He describes how Terri would squeal with delight whenever
her mother would
enter the room. As David Gibbs talked to Terri and walked
around the room, Terri’s eyes would follow him. There are
many, many more such examples in the book, but does that sound
like a young lady who deserved to be starved into a prolonged
and torturous death?
Mr. Gibbs goes on to
describe how they would ask Terri to pronounce certain words
and she did it. So, here we have a young lady who the media
tells us is beyond recovery and yet Mr. Gibbs watched her obey
verbal instructions. When Terri’s mother would leave, tears
would begin to flow down her face. When I read that, tears
were flowing down my face. Big tough cop, right? But the truth
has the ability to pierce the heart, and thank God that David
Gibbs has found the appropriate vehicle to tell us the truth
with his book.
Mr. Gibbs quotes Dr. Laura
Schlessinger who says:
“The measure of a
civilization is how we treat the weak, the dependant, the
helpless, and the ill.”
Fighting for Dear
Life presents the testimony of many doctors, including one
who says:
“…she has demonstrated
behaviors that are context-specific, sustained, and indicative
of cerebral cortical processing that, upon careful
neurological consideration, would not be expected in a
persistent vegetative state… As I looked at Terri,
and she gazed directly back at me, I asked myself whether, if
I were her attending physician, I could in good conscience
withdraw her feeding and hydration. No, I could not… I could
not withhold life-sustaining nutrition and hydration from this
beautiful lady whose face brightens in the presence of
others.”
Almost all of the doctors
who actually visited Terri came to similar conclusions,
including those who felt that she could have benefited from
rehabilitation.
It is stunning and
practically beyond belief that the very judge, Judge Greer,
who repeatedly ordered her feeding tube to be removed never
went to see Terri for himself. I find that utterly remarkable.
Even condemned criminals get hearing after hearing in the
presence of those to whom their fate is entrusted. Mr. Gibbs
makes the point that criminals sentenced to death get more due
process than Terri did, and are more humanely put to death. In
essence, Judge Greer sentenced an innocent young lady, one
that medical science said could be treated, to execution by
starvation and dehydration.
The book also makes the point that medical science,
and specifically neurology, make such great advances year
after year, that who knows if Terri could not have been
rehabilitated to a great degree in the near future? Keep in
mind that a few short years ago AIDS was a death sentence.
Nevertheless, she did not deserve to be killed. She had a
right to life, and that was taken away from her most
unfairly.
The difference between the
motives of the Schiavo family and David Gibbs and the lawyer
for Michael Schiavo, George Felos and Judge Greer, is like
night and day. One side believed that Terri, like all humans,
have a fundamental right to life, and the other side believed
that the State has a fundamental right to take it away despite
the overwhelming evidence and testimony showing that Terri was
minimally conscious and could improve with the care and love
of her family.
Fighting for Dear Life points out that Terri’s
parents would have given anything to save their daughter’s
life. They offered everything to Michael Schiavo if he would
just allow them to take care of their daughter, yet he refused
time and again, even though he was living with another woman.
It exposes the real motives for Michael wanting Terri to die.
All was not as it
seemed
The media told us that Terri
told Michael she would want to die and would want her
sustenance removed rather than unnecessarily prolong her life
if she were ever on life support. Yet there was nothing on
paper to that effect and Michael apparently only remembered
that after a decade or so.
The book also lays bare the
lie that the end would be peaceful – it was far from that. I
believe we were lied to by Michael Schiavo, his attorney and
most of the media. Terri died a horrible, painful and
protracted death over the course of two agonizing weeks. Try
going without water for a few days and see how you feel.
Certainly Terri felt that way too, and worse as time went on.
Remember, this is the same woman who made the “lemon face”
when her father’s scratchy beard brushed against her
cheeks. Something
is just not right with the story you were told, is
it?
The efforts of Terri
Schiavo’s legal team were noble and heroic in that everything
that could be done was done. In contrast, everything was done
that could be done except for Judge Greer going to see Terri
for himself; except for Michael Schiavo’s insistence that she
die; except for his lawyer (in my opinion) putting pocketbook
over principle; and except that we as a nation have allowed
our country to slip into such moral and spiritual decline that
we would ever have even arrived at such a place.
Where do we go from
here?
The book addresses that too.
Fighting for Dear
Life paints such a vivid picture that at the
end you will ask “What’s wrong with the picture the media
showed me?” It accurately tell the story of a helpless, yet
deeply loved, young woman unjustly deprived of her life and
the possibility that she could have been helped by therapy and
advances in medical science. She was not defenseless, however,
for her legal team provided by the Gibbs Law Firm, did all
that could be legally done to save her. For reasons known but
to God and possibly to Michael Schiavo, George Felos and Judge
Greer, Terri has left this earth. But her story lives
on.
Every day’s a gift, and in
this book David Gibbs has given us the gift of truth. Terri
Schiavo gave her family gift after gift, even when she was
beyond the ability to do so physically. She has also left us
with a gift – it is the gift of example. It is the gift of
persistence. It is the gift of questioning, because after
reading this book, you will question all that transpired and
furthermore, you will question yourself.
For more info
and to purchase David's book, click
here
Guy
Adams
www.GuyRandallAdams.com
You can see videos of Terri at http://www.ejumpcut.org/currentissue/SchaivoPreston/index.html and http://www.TerrisFight.org/