A sacred duty

Terri Schiavo's legal seesaw teetered toward life this week, if tenuously. The death sentence for the innocent woman was, thankfully, delayed for more lawyerly contortions.

We admit to being at a loss as to the difficulty of the case - and why it has taken brief after brief, argument after argument, ruling after ruling, year after year. The matter is rather simple to us: Is Terri Schiavo alive? If so, she must be cared for.

And feeding her is the absolute basic care.

Her estranged husband, Michael Schiavo - who long ago moved on and is living with another woman - wants her dead. He claims she would want that too. He wants to starve her. He claims she would want that too.

We don't believe him. What's more, we believe that life is sacred. And caring for someone in Terri Schiavo's condition - alive, yet unable to feed herself - is a sacred duty.

We also believe starving another human being is beyond sin. It is as cruel an act as we can imagine: to intentionally withhold daily sustenance from a totally dependent human being.

We look into the plaintive eyes of this beautiful 41-year-old Florida woman, and we can tell you without reservation that she has continued to live since a "chemical imbalance" caused her catastrophic brain damage 15 years ago. We also believe that life has meaning under any circumstances.

We pray she will be allowed to live. We encourage you to join us.