With a loving family standing by her side, Terri Schindler Schiavo, a severely brain damaged woman, has been sentenced to death by starvation. Even though Mrs. Schiavo is not Jewish, the Jewish Defense League stands in solidarity with her mother and father, and the members of her family, who are begging for intervention by the federal government to overturn a court ruling allowing Mrs. Schiavo’s husband to remove the feeding tube that sustains her life.

Terri Schiavo is not brain dead. The following information about her condition is from terrisfight.org:

Terri's behavior does not meet the medical or statutory definition of persistent vegetative state. Terri responds to stimuli, tries to communicate verbally, follows limited commands, laughs or cries in interaction with loved ones, physically distances herself from irritating or painful stimulation and watches loved ones as they move around her. None of these behaviors are simple reflexes and are, instead, voluntary and cognitive. Though Terri has limitations, she does interact purposefully with her environment.

Judaism emphasizes the sanctity of life and teaches that it is the sole province of Hashem to choose the time of death for his creation. We are, of course, reminded of a group of evil individuals from the last century who sought to eradicate Jewry and other “undesirable” populations. JDL joins with other conscientious Americans in solidarity with Terri's family.

I sit here and ponder the fate of Terri Schiavo. It is the wee hours of the morning on Easter Sunday. It has now been nine days since Terri Schiavo's feeding tube had been removed. Terri's family informs us that she is down to her final hours. Her family has exhausted all it's legal options after the Florida Supreme Court dismissed the petition by the Schindler family to re-insert Terri's feeding tube. The Supreme Court of the United States of America refuses to hear her case. She is essentially condemned to death. And what kind of death?
 
The most barbaric, horrific kind. The kind that smacks of a cruel totalitarian regime that ruled Europe during World War II. When Adolf Hitler came to power in January of 1933, he sought to annihilate the entire Jewish population of Europe and any other undesirables. His easiest of most vulnerable target were the physically and mentally disabled. They were not deemed to be part of the supreme Aryan race. They were blemished, useless to society. They were categorized as excess baggage. And so, the hospitals and facilities that care for the mentally retarded and the physically challenged were quickly emptied and the fate of these souls were that of the gas chambers at Auschwitz.
 
Nazi Germany was a society that defined cruelty and barbarism. Just ask the victims of Dr. Josef Mengele. The unspeakable horror of Nazi atrocities still haunts us today. And we will never forget.
 
Let's fast forward to America 2005. The "shining city on the hill" as the late President Ronald Reagan called it. The civilized, compassionate nation that respects the value of each human life. The nation that proclaims to care for its sick, its tired and those more vulnerable.
 
And what do we see on our nightly news reports? We see Terri Schiavo, a woman who suffered a devastating heart attack at age 26 due to an alleged eating disorder. We see that for the last 15 years she has been hospitalized due to the fact that her brain can no longer function as well as ours. Yet, it still functions. It is true that Terri cannot swallow and requires a feeding tube for essential nutrition. She cannot speak and we cannot hear her words or feel her thoughts.
 
She did not indicate her end of life wishes in a living will and we only have the word of her husband and legal guardian, Michael Schiavo, to rely on. A man who for the last ten years has been living with another woman and has fathered two children with her. A man who claims that his wife, Terri, told him that she does not wish to live if she were dependent on life support. No one else close to Terri makes this claim. Michael Schiavo claims to love his wife, but didn't have the decency to divorce her when he took up with another woman. Michael Schiavo has been shopping around for funeral homes for Terri since 1993. Michael Schiavo has denied her parents' request that she receive communion on Easter Sunday. Michael Schiavo plans to have his wife cremated and buried in the Schiavo family plot in Pennsylvania. Michael Schiavo has been litigating his case to have Terri murdered for the last eight years.
 
And what do the courts have to say? They callously agree with Michael Schiavo that Terri has no rights. She deserves to be dehydrated and starved to death. While Scott Peterson and John Evander Couey sit in their prison cells and eat three square meals a day, Terri Schiavo suffers a fate that even a sick animal wouldn't have to endure.
 
Her family, namely her parents, Bob and Mary Schindler have importuned Michael Schiavo to hand guardianship of Terri over to them. They wish to care for her. They wish to preserve her life. Yes, Michael Schiavo won't hear of it. Being her husband means being her legal guardian. The one who will make life and death decisions for her.
 
Congress has intervened in this highly charged moral issue. President Bush and the governor of Florida have weighed in on this matter as well. And yet, the courts remain adamant. They will not relent in their decision to sanction the murder of Terri Schiavo.
 
And we sit and wait. As each minute goes by, we can only feel the pain of Terri's parents and her brother. We sit and witness the heinous act of murder being perpetrated against a woman whose only crime was to live and be stricken with this grievous illness.
 
And to those who claim that Terri is in a persistent vegetative state, let us inform you that as long as this woman breathes, her soul is inside her. Her feelings and sensitivities are no less than ours and cannot be devalued. She is no less of a person because she does not speak or function in a way that we see fit. The only people who feel that way wore brown shirts and swastikas and goose stepped their way through Berlin.
 
We who truly respect the sanctity of life must speak up. We who believe that life is a gift given to us by a higher power, by G-d Almighty, must speak up. The Torah enjoins us to pursue justice and to pray to G-d to annul an evil decree. We just celebrated the holiday of Purim, a holiday that speaks to that exact point. To fight evil, to preserve life and to pray and fast so that we can arouse the compassion of the Almighty, that He might deliver us from the cruelty of our enemies.
 
We ask all Jews and all people of good faith, to speak up and voice outrage and indignation at this horrible crime that is unfolding before us. For if we do not speak up, Terri will be unjustly condemned in silence. And history has recorded that others who are deemed useless might expect the same fate. 

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Fern Sidman is the former national director of the Jewish Defense League.