Dear Editor,

The response to The Northerner’s article on the Terri Schindler-Schiavo case by her cousin, Katie J. Brown, missed one point: The Florida Supreme Court justice who ordered the removal of Terri’s feeding tube in his latest atrocity, Judge Greer, has yet to visit her hospice room even once to ascertain her condition – and thus, her qualification for termination – for himself before issuing his decree. I frankly cannot think of a more alarming statement of just what this country is turning into than that. We shed tears to flood stage over executions of serial killers and animal cruelty, but scratch our empty heads in confusion over what to do in this most obvious of situations, citing the expertise of the Greers of the world as our excuse for doing nothing.

I guess the only way to phrase it in a way that will make a dent is to use that old maxim, “There, but for the grace of God, go I”. Should any of us ever find ourselves in the situation of watching as our life-giving feeding tube is removed against our will, let us hope that our fading consciousness won’t tell us it’s our own fault for our lack of political savy in allowing an incompetent purveyor of senseless death to occupy a bench in the judiciary, instead of the pigeon dropping-covered park bench where he belongs.

Dennis Fishel Anthropology