RETRACING THE TERRI SHIAVO CASE
Mind fucker of the year

PUNK

"A society is judged by the way that it treats its most vulnerable citizens."

- Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind .

"I thought about what form this debate would take in a parallel universe, one where the Democrats held majorities in both Houses and the White House - where it wasn't a brain-damaged woman who was being starved to death, but instead a pregnant woman forced to carry a child to term under some bizarre court order. Would Democrats flinch at a special session to pass a law that would allow an abortion to take place?

- Matthew Hoy , blogger and metro page designer

at the San Diego Union-Tribune

"I am not sure I understand the almighty urge to kill Terri Schiavo, or torture the husk. Many experts have concluded that she is already dead. So what? If she is already dead, then keeping her alive does no harm beyond financial. Why the insistence on killing her?"

- Alfred Sunnyside, Creator of The Original Blog.

He is also a columnist at www.byte.com

".given that we've had no small amount of propaganda from right-to-die activists about the purported humaneness of letting Terri wither and die, why doesn't someone just shoot her - or at least administer the procedure employed to execute in capital cases. It would, after all, be quicker and thus more humane, right?

- Andrew C. McCarthy , National Review

"I said to her, 'Terri, if you can just say "I want to live," we can just end this whole thing today. Terri, can you just try really, really hard?'"

- Barbara Weller, attorney for Terri Schiavo's parents, Robert and Mary Schindler.

"It's just hard to believe a woman can be starved to death with the protection of the judicial system."

- the Rev. Patrick Mahoney of the

Christian Defense Coalition.

"I beg Michael Schiavo, for the love of God, to allow Terri Schiavo, a practicing Roman Catholic, to have Holy Communion on the highest feast of our church."

- Paul O'Donnell , a Roman Catholic Franciscan monk

"Things are all done in God's timing. Does He have His hand upon this? Oh, yeah. The parallels are there with what happened to Jesus Christ. He was condemned to death, an innocent man. She's an innocent woman."

- David Vogel, a Steubenville, Ohio, musician who was arrested for trespassing when he tried to enter the hospice to take water to Mrs. Schiavo.

COUNTERPUNK

"More than 16 years ago, the DeLay family endured its own wrenching end-of-life crisis. The man in a coma, kept alive by intravenous lines and a ventilator, was GOP Rep. Tom DeLay's father, Charles Ray DeLay.

"Today, as House Majority Leader, Tom DeLay has . pushed emergency legislation through congress to shift the legal case from Florida state courts to the federal judiciary. DeLay has denounced Schiavo's husband, as well as judges, for committing what he calls 'an act of barbarism' in removing the tube. In 1988, however, there was no such fiery rhetoric as the congressman quietly joined the sad family consensus to let his father die."

- L.A. Times article by Walter F. Roche Jr. and Sam Howe Verhovek

"According to every medical expert who has actually examined Terri Schiavo, her cerebral cortex has turned to liquid - she no longer has the grey matter necessary to experience higher cognitive functions, much less emotions."

- Austin Cline, moderator of the Agnosticism/Atheism blog at www.about.com

'These people are playing Weekend at Bernie's with Terri Schiavo, many of them for the sole purpose of furthering their own anti-choice, anti-dignity, anti-science, right-wing agendas."

- from www.hundredpercenter.com

"Michael Schiavo just wants to inherit Terri's fortune. What fortune? Even the pro-tube Terri Schiavo Foundation reports that of the nearly one million dollar malpractice settlement earmarked for Terri's future medical care, less than $50,000 is left."

- Lindsay Beyerstein, who holds a masters in philosophy from Tufts, is a freelance pharmaceutical writer

The great conflict of the 21st century will not be between the West and terrorism. Terrorism is a tactic, not a belief. The true battle will be between modern civilization and anti-modernists; between those who believe in the primacy of the individual and those who believe that human beings owe their allegiance and identity to a higher authority; between those who give priority to life in this world and those who believe that human life is mere preparation for an existence beyond life; between those who believe in science, reason, and logic and those who believe that truth is revealed through Scripture and religious dogma. Terrorism will disrupt and destroy lives. But terrorism itself is not the greatest danger we face."

- Robert B. Reich, founder and national editor of The American Prospect.

"I find it frightening when not only a governor but also the Congress, the Supreme Court, and even the President intervene in such a personal and intimate issue. God is left completely out of the picture, and in his place we are left with legal hair-splitting over a disabled person's "constitutional right to live."

- Johann Christoph Arnold, Bruderhof Online

"I hope we're not ... making this human tragedy a political issue. We've got plenty of other issues that are political in nature for us to fight about."

- Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.