I remember the summer I was sixteen. There were cabins and there was rain ... and there were incredible stories.
1971 Lakeside Bible Conference
Sam, Laurie and SuAnn Mannhardt
I was working at Camp Joy in Carmel, NY as a counsellor for kids from NYC. Our kids were from the inner city and had their own (often frightening) stories to tell. But the story I am thinking of tonight I heard in the chapel where we gathered every night with the children from the adjacent Camp Hope.
Camp Hope was divided into A and B for physically and mentally handicapped children and as the name indicates, the camp founders believed in hope for the handicapped.
Some of the children were there because of the horrible things that had been done to them... some had been thrown out of upper story windows, some had been beaten to a pulp by their caregivers. Others were, for reasons known only to God Himself, simply born that way.
I think the boy in the story I'm remembering was damaged at birth - possibly cerebral palsy. He definitely didn't move at all for the first 15 or so years of this story. I think he could easily have qualified as being in a "persistent vegetative state", but I don't remember vegetative states being part of our vocabulary in those days. Certainly nobody had given his parents any false hopes - or any kind of hopes at all. But they kept him at home and cared for him. One day his mother found him on the floor. And then again. And then again. Since he was profoundly handicapped and had been so for many years, his mother didn't immediately assume his falling off the bed was volitional. But when he persisted in falling off the bed, she began to have niggling doubts. Maybe he was cognizant...
So she began to work with him - and, miraculously, he responded! Eventually he achieved a certain amount of mobility and learned to communicate.
The really incredible part of the story and the part I found hard to believe - until one of my sisters actually met him and heard him speak - is that he eventually married, had children and became a pastor. Perhaps I've got the details wrong - I'll ask my sister tomorrow. But I KNOW that after many years a profoundly brain damaged young man "woke up"and lived a "meaningful life."
So while I don't for a minute believe that Terry Schiavo will ever be the Terry she was before losing consciousness that night long ago, I believe with all my heart that Peggy Noonan was absolutely right when she said:
"Again, life is mysterious. Medicine is full of happenings and events that leave brilliant doctors scratching their heads."
But in the end, it comes down to this: Why kill her? What is gained? What is good about it?"
Yes, why kill her? What IS good about it?
Camp Hope was divided into A and B for physically and mentally handicapped children and as the name indicates, the camp founders believed in hope for the handicapped.
Some of the children were there because of the horrible things that had been done to them... some had been thrown out of upper story windows, some had been beaten to a pulp by their caregivers. Others were, for reasons known only to God Himself, simply born that way.
I think the boy in the story I'm remembering was damaged at birth - possibly cerebral palsy. He definitely didn't move at all for the first 15 or so years of this story. I think he could easily have qualified as being in a "persistent vegetative state", but I don't remember vegetative states being part of our vocabulary in those days. Certainly nobody had given his parents any false hopes - or any kind of hopes at all. But they kept him at home and cared for him. One day his mother found him on the floor. And then again. And then again. Since he was profoundly handicapped and had been so for many years, his mother didn't immediately assume his falling off the bed was volitional. But when he persisted in falling off the bed, she began to have niggling doubts. Maybe he was cognizant...
So she began to work with him - and, miraculously, he responded! Eventually he achieved a certain amount of mobility and learned to communicate.
The really incredible part of the story and the part I found hard to believe - until one of my sisters actually met him and heard him speak - is that he eventually married, had children and became a pastor. Perhaps I've got the details wrong - I'll ask my sister tomorrow. But I KNOW that after many years a profoundly brain damaged young man "woke up"and lived a "meaningful life."
So while I don't for a minute believe that Terry Schiavo will ever be the Terry she was before losing consciousness that night long ago, I believe with all my heart that Peggy Noonan was absolutely right when she said:
"Again, life is mysterious. Medicine is full of happenings and events that leave brilliant doctors scratching their heads."
But in the end, it comes down to this: Why kill her? What is gained? What is good about it?"
Yes, why kill her? What IS good about it?
1 comment:
Hey Laurie, I haven't been able to read your blog in a while but was sifting through old posts. The Schiavo case is pretty troubling for me. Autumn and I have discussed it at length and come to several conclusions. There is no way the courts should have allowed the husband to take her off the tubes. There was just as little medical hope for her when she began to live in this way, the only thing that has changed is HIS level of hope, which is a sad way for the courts to make any life and death decisions. There is quite a big difference between allowing someone to slip away naturally, and giving them life sustaining food and care for years and then ACTIVELY denying those essentials based on your waning hope. He also had moved on with his life, started another family, essentially divorced himself from her. That should have been enough to make the courts see that he did not have her interests in mind, only wanted to ease his guilt. I feel bad for him, but I feel worse that the courts would make a decision based on this case. Her parents, not moving on with life, were willing to choose life, to choose hope, but the courts choose to up hold the husbands 'rights' based on a contract (marriage) that fails over 50% of the time, over a bond between parent and child! He didn't have to do anything, simple hand the care over to people that WANTED the burden. The courts got stuck on the question of quality of life and the husband's rights. Goodness! When in doubt of what is the right road, I say choose life! ---Jacob
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