After we went to press last week, the Virginia House Claims Committee voted in favor of Governor Jim Gilmore and denied Michele Finn reimbursement for her legal expenses. "I don’t understand," Finn said after the 8-7 vote. "How can a majority be so cold?"

The Hugh Finn case hit close to home for Carol Anne Jones, a reader from Vienna, who wanted to share her own experiences "to underscore the point of just how far the envelope is being
pushed."

On March 19, it will be two years since Jones’ mother suffered a massive stroke, leaving her almost totally paralyzed and unable to take any food by mouth. She is fed through a stomach feeding tube, similar to Finn. On top of that, her mother has a history of severe, degenerative osteoporosis, making the past two years a period of unending pain.

Despite her afflictions, Jones’ mother is lucid, recognizes her family and friends, remembers details from her past and can still talk. "Amazingly, she has retained her sense of humor and even now
will crack a joke occasionally (‘Eating isn’t everything’) and try to laugh," Jones said. She offers up her suffering "in her own way" and keeps a large picture of St. Therese (another long-suffering
invalid) on the wall opposite her bed.

"The only reason she is still alive today," Jones said, "is because her family refused to take the easy way out." Before her father’s death, he told Jones that he was asked at one of her mother’s medical conferences, "What is keeping you from doing what you know you should do?" He replied, "I don’t see it the way you do."

The medical staff then turned to Jones’ brother and said, "We can fix it so he (your father) won’t have any say in the matter."

"My dad told me they mapped out a procedure for him: slowly decreasing the nutritional intake as they slowly increase the level of pain killers. Supposedly, she would never feel a thing."

Jones said the pressure "to take the easy way out" has been enormous, emotionally, financially and medically.

"Without clear moral directives, people can understandably get lost in the agony of it all, and the cost," she said.

Jones sought advice from many quarters. One moral theologian told her "anything" can be considered "extraordinary means," and that the individual charged with the decision has to be the final authority on the issue. Another priest, who also holds a medical degree, asked her this simple question, "If you remove the feeding tube, what is the actual cause of death? Starvation? Then you are a murderer."

"Watching these events unfold has been a severe test of faith for all of us," Jones said. "Yet I have watched my mother go through all the events of her life, rejoicing in her blessings, recognizing her failures, asking forgiveness, and reconciling herself to things I never dreamed she’d come to terms with. In a way, her bed of pain has been a severe mercy, and perhaps her purgatory on earth."

"Even with watching her live through these long months of suffering, who could be so cruel as to put her down, like a crippled dog or lame horse?" Jones asked.

The Finn case is not an isolated incident. It has become a public sensation. Individual viability continues to be pitted against the interests of insurance companies and the medical community. "No longer is simply being alive adequate justification for staying alive," Jones said, "especially if medical needs require institutionalization" — M.F.F.
 

Send a pro life letter (letter is preferable) or an email to your  Senators and representatives using the Directory at the Congressional Email Directory.  Point and click here to surf to their web site.

 Copyright ©1999 Arlington Catholic Herald, Inc. All rights reserved.

This article was published in the Arlington Catholic Herald,
200 N. Glebe Rd., Suite 607, Arlington, VA 22203; Vol. 24, No 8;
page 4, dated Feb 25, 1999.
E-mail: letters@catholicherald.com
Fax: 703/524-2782;
Editorial: 703/841-2590;
Advertising: 703/841-2594;
Circulation: 703/841-2565

A note from the Web Master:

It is noteworthy and honorable that some folks are willing to stand up for a ban on Partial-Birth Abortion.  Let us not forget that ordinary everyday Abortion is also murder.  We must understand that murder is murder no matter the method.  Because one method of abortion seems to be horrible does not justify the other methods.  We should be horrified and sickened by any Abortion regardless of the method.  The Fifth Commandment spells it out clearly: "Thou shalt not kill."  A fetus is a person, a human being with a God given soul.  Imagine the pain the Lord must feel when any Abortion occurs.  Please contact both of your Senators and Representative, via letter or phone,  to let them know how horrified you are that Abortions are legal and to stop Partial-Birth Abortions and all other Abortions as soon as possible. (It has become apparent that they do not respond to email therefore you will have more of an impact by writing or telephoning.)

Return to Pro Life Corner

---


Today's Date: