Schiavo Autopsy Report: No Excuses for Dehydrating the Disabled

WASHINGTON, June 15 /Christian Wire Service/ — Concerned Women for America (CWA) responded to the autopsy report on Terri Schiavo, released today by a medical examiner for Florida’s Pinellas-Pasco County, which confirmed that the “removal of [Terri’s] feeding tube resulted in her death.”

“Terri Schiavo’s autopsy results confirm what was feared – she was disabled, and her death was due to the deliberate denial of hydration,” said Wendy Wright, CWA’s senior policy director. “The autopsy report described Terri’s medical history and condition in detail, but the cold reality of the truth is that her cause of death was ‘dehydration.’ Terri Schiavo died because the court ordered the removal of the instrument that provided her water.

“There is no medical condition or disability that should ever be championed as a justifiable reason to deny water to a human being. Every human life has worth and a purpose apart from its ‘merit’ to society that must be vigorously defended and upheld, not crushed.”

“While people may personally dread becoming handicapped, people with disabilities deserve mercy, not malice. Only a calloused society in moral freefall would deny a disabled person her most basic need – water,” said Wright.

Concerned Women for America is the nation’s largest public policy women’s organization.

Contact: Rebecca S. Jones of Concerned Women for America, 202-488-7000 ext. 126

CWA Responds to Schiavo Autopsy Report: No Excuses for Dehydrating the Disabled