Rush Limbaugh: America Protects Animals, Not Its Vulnerable

"If the Republicans had just waited and tried to save Barbaro instead of Terri Schiavo, do you realize how things could be different in Washington today? What a political miscalculation!" - Rush Limbaugh

Of course Mr. Limbaugh was speaking tongue-in-cheek. When word of racehorse Barbaro's life-threatening injury made headlines, donations poured in from across the country raising more than $1.2 million for a fund in his name. When treatment was unable to save his life, the media labeled Barbaro a hero, calling his death a tragedy, and the public wept and mourned.

And yet every day, in hospitals right here in the heart of America, human beings, like Terri Schiavo, are starved, dehydrated and suffocated to death simply because they are disabled in some way. The national media turns a blind eye to their suffering, while a largely uneducated public goes about their daily lives as though nothing were out of place.

Something is sadly amiss in America when, in this nation founded on the principles of LIFE, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, all the facts seem to indicate that the public will rally around an animal while human beings suffer and die silently and needlessly.

As I write this letter, a debate rages in a Texas hospital over the life of a 15 month-old baby boy who became ill in December, was hospitalized and needed breathing assistance. He was placed on a ventilator as his family fought to save his life. Just last week his hospital informed the family that they believed this child has "no hope for meaningful recovery" and called a meeting of the hospital's "ethics committee" to get permission to remove his life support.

Understand, this little boy is not immediately dying. He has a life-threatening condition that requires treatment. His mother desperately wants her son to be treated, as does the entire family. There is no dispute - everyone who loves this child wants him to receive the best care possible. And yet it is not up to them.

As difficult as it is to comprehend, it is absolutely true that in Texas and a number of other states, a hospital and NOT the patient or his family has the power to choose life or death.

Like many Americans, I was saddened to hear of Barbaro's death...but it is beyond my comprehension that the same media which openly mourned the loss of a horse can so cavalierly ignore the life and death struggle of vulnerable human beings. These patients and their families are the real heroes on the American landscape, and their deaths are a tragedy beyond measure.

We at the Terri Schindler Schiavo Foundation are committed to stand up for the value and dignity of their lives. At this very moment we are establishing a nationwide lay and professional support network to help families who contact the Terri Schindler Schiavo Foundation and are facing life-threatening situations. Our goal is to ally ourselves with these hurting families and assist them in their crisis.