St. John Paul II, Terri Schiavo, and Kevin James

Kevin James, a Hollywood actor/comedian, recently came to the defense of the medically targeted, condemning the language used to justify killing these innocents. In his new Amazon Prime stand-up comedy special “Irregardless,” James tells the story of a comatose mother who is about to be euthanized by her family by removing her life support, but to their surprise, she wakes up.

Furthermore, James continued his short segment by referring to the dangers of terms such as “who would want to live that way” and “quality of life,” and how this type of language is used to end the lives of people who are supposedly in a hopeless situation. James finished by asserting that if he were ever in a similar condition, he would want continued care, insisting that only God can determine when his life will end.

I don’t pay much attention to comments made by Hollywood when it comes to moral teaching. However, it’s refreshing to hear someone in those circles speak for those who are portrayed as having no value, especially in a country experiencing a moral decline.

Indeed, decades of discrimination against people with brain injuries have taken a toll. If I had to guess, a nationwide survey would expose a culture that believes the brain injured and the profoundly disabled no longer retain their God-given human dignity.

Every day, I read offensive comments directed at my sister Terri Schiavo, the elderly, and others who are “needlessly suffering” and are vilified as “financial burdens.” We have reached the point where ending their life is rationalized for almost any reason under the pretense of “compassion,” just as it was for Terri.

In case you do not remember, Terri had a mysterious accident in 1990 at the age of 26 while at home with her husband, Michael Schiavo. She went several minutes without oxygen, which resulted in a brain injury. Terri was not in a coma, was not “brain dead,” and did not need the assistance of any machines to live. However, because she had been denied physical therapy, she had difficulty swallowing and required a feeding tube for nourishment.

Sadly, Michael, who was her legal guardian, became involved with another woman and successfully petitioned a Florida court in 2000 (with perjured testimony) for permission to deliberately kill Terri by having her feeding tube removed, even though our family was willing and able to care for her. Thus, Terri died an unjust and agonizing death by dehydration. She was so physically healthy that it took nearly two weeks for her to dehydrate to death.

It was once unthinkable, a criminal act, to knowingly dehydrate a brain injured person to death. However, in the 1980s, bioethicist Daniel Callahan set out to fundamentally change the basic nature of feeding tubes for those who struggle swallowing when he openly stated, “The denial of nutrition [feeding tubes] may become the only effective way to make certain that a large number of biologically tenacious patients actually die.”

Eventually, Callahan’s disturbing view proved successful. Feeding tubes are now considered “medical treatment” rather than basic care, and as such, can legally be removed from or denied to patients—patients who are neither dying nor do they have any other extraordinary means for keeping them alive—in all 50 states.

If not for this change, Michael Schiavo’s petition to remove Terri’s feeding tube would have had no merit. To make matters worse, it was during the trial in 2000 when a Catholic priest, Father Gerard Murphy, testified on behalf of Michael that to stop feeding my sister was consistent with the Church’s teaching. Fr. Murphy’s statement was of grave error, and while feeding tubes have been secularly redefined as medical treatment, the Church’s position has not changed: food and water are basic and ordinary care.

It was Fr. Murphy’s scandalous submission that compelled Pope John Paul II to issue an allocution in March 2004, titled “Life-Sustaining Treatments and Vegetative State: Scientific and Ethical Dilemmas.” The pope reminded the faithful that, even if a person has been diagnosed as being in a “vegetative state,” but is not terminal and can assimilate a feeding tube, there is a moral obligation to continue their care.

Unfortunately, no official correction has been issued regarding Fr. Murphy’s illicit testimony that was against Catholic teaching, even after my family met with Bishop Robert Lynch of the Diocese of St. Petersburg, pleading with him to issue a public clarification. The significance of this and its long-lasting impact cannot be over-emphasized.

However, this is how the culture of death radicalizes the public when their wickedness is met with indifference, or worse, acceptance by those who have a duty to fight back. Arguably, it is the reason today’s healthcare system is controlled by extremists who do not share the same values and are unapologetically imposing their eugenic worldview on those who don’t have the means to defend themselves, or their loved ones.

Indeed, one can look at what happened during the pandemic: mandating the vaccine and the useless masks, refusing to allow family members to be with their loved ones in their final hours, prohibiting the Holy Mass, and other ways in which our leaders capitulated to the bullying imposed by our government.

Nevertheless, corruption in our healthcare system didn’t begin with the pandemic. These same godless individuals have been guiding the bioethics movement, insurance industry, hospital systems, and bureaucratic elites, who have structurally altered policies by removing what little there is left to safeguard a patient’s autonomy, informed consent, and decisions about when (and when not) to continue care.

While there is a much-needed guiding document created by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), namely the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services (ERDs), it is difficult to know whether these guidelines are being enforced or obeyed at most of our Catholic healthcare systems. What is unquestionably evident is the lack of any organized effort by our Dioceses to educate the faithful on appropriate treatment in today’s healthcare, especially regarding death and dying.

The Catholic Church has more than a billion members, and thus, extraordinary influence. The faithful deserve moral clarity regarding the treatment of those who are marginalized, particularly on matters of life and death for those who don’t have a voice.

As St. John Paul II eloquently affirmed in his 2004 allocution, “In this regard, I recall what I wrote in the Encyclical Evangelium Vitae, making it clear that ‘by euthanasia in the true and proper sense must be understood an action or omission which by its very nature and intention brings about death, with the purpose of eliminating all pain’; such an act is always ‘a serious violation of the law of God, since it is the deliberate and morally unacceptable killing of a human person’.”

At least there is a Kevin James who clearly understands the Holy Father’s concern for our fragile brothers and sisters and their need for our protection.