Miracles Do Happen!
For the second time in the past two weeks, a severely brain-injured patient suddenly began speaking to the amazement of their doctors.
This week, Tracy Gaskill, a 30 year-old woman from Kansas, who suffered critical internal and head injuries when her pickup overturned in 2002 spoke for the first time in three years. Tracy was tube fed for approximately three years, as was Terri Schiavo. However, she received the speech therapy that Terri was denied.
Last week, Donald Herbert awoke from a coma and spoke for the first time in 10 years. A Buffalo, N.Y., firefighter, Herbert was severely brain injured while fighting a fire in 1995. The roof of a burning building collapsed on him, depriving him of oxygen, which left him in a coma. Then, 10 years later, he unexpectedly emerged from his coma and asked to speak to his wife.
Medical experts opinions are valuable in assessing a patient's prognosis, but are never all-inclusive. In Terri Schaivo's case, the medical reports of Michael Schiavo's doctors seemed to the main evidence taken into consideration for Judge Greer's ruling to end Terri's life.
The medical practitioner seldom takes into consideration the spiritual aspect of healing when making the patient's prognosis. Hope, the healing power of prayer and the sacraments, as well as the will of God can result in a complete recovery for someone who is severely disabled. Therefore, we should never consider a medical report or opinion as being the final word on a patient's condition. We should never give up hope on the sick and disabled, but persevere in our prayer and in our corporal acts of mercy for them.
Even if a person never recovers from a state of severe incapacitation, as children of God, they still have worth and should be treated like human beings. Doctors, lawyers, judges, politicians need to realize they are not in control of human life -- that there is only one God who is in control of life. Because God alone creates every human being, the right to take human life is God's alone. God does delegate authority to legitimate government to execute capital punishment as necessary, since the government serves as God's servant to protect life and property. The State's effort to contain the spread of behaviors injurious to human rights and the fundamental rules of civil coexistence corresponds to the requirement of watching over the common good. Legitimate public authority has the right and duty to inflict penalties commensurate with the gravity of the crime. But anyone who usurps God's authority to take human life violates the Fifth Commandment, thereby committing murder and incurring God's judgment.
Miracles do happen. Let us continue to believe and move forward in faith, hope, and love.
For the second time in the past two weeks, a severely brain-injured patient suddenly began speaking to the amazement of their doctors.
This week, Tracy Gaskill, a 30 year-old woman from Kansas, who suffered critical internal and head injuries when her pickup overturned in 2002 spoke for the first time in three years. Tracy was tube fed for approximately three years, as was Terri Schiavo. However, she received the speech therapy that Terri was denied.
Last week, Donald Herbert awoke from a coma and spoke for the first time in 10 years. A Buffalo, N.Y., firefighter, Herbert was severely brain injured while fighting a fire in 1995. The roof of a burning building collapsed on him, depriving him of oxygen, which left him in a coma. Then, 10 years later, he unexpectedly emerged from his coma and asked to speak to his wife.
Medical experts opinions are valuable in assessing a patient's prognosis, but are never all-inclusive. In Terri Schaivo's case, the medical reports of Michael Schiavo's doctors seemed to the main evidence taken into consideration for Judge Greer's ruling to end Terri's life.
The medical practitioner seldom takes into consideration the spiritual aspect of healing when making the patient's prognosis. Hope, the healing power of prayer and the sacraments, as well as the will of God can result in a complete recovery for someone who is severely disabled. Therefore, we should never consider a medical report or opinion as being the final word on a patient's condition. We should never give up hope on the sick and disabled, but persevere in our prayer and in our corporal acts of mercy for them.
Even if a person never recovers from a state of severe incapacitation, as children of God, they still have worth and should be treated like human beings. Doctors, lawyers, judges, politicians need to realize they are not in control of human life -- that there is only one God who is in control of life. Because God alone creates every human being, the right to take human life is God's alone. God does delegate authority to legitimate government to execute capital punishment as necessary, since the government serves as God's servant to protect life and property. The State's effort to contain the spread of behaviors injurious to human rights and the fundamental rules of civil coexistence corresponds to the requirement of watching over the common good. Legitimate public authority has the right and duty to inflict penalties commensurate with the gravity of the crime. But anyone who usurps God's authority to take human life violates the Fifth Commandment, thereby committing murder and incurring God's judgment.
Miracles do happen. Let us continue to believe and move forward in faith, hope, and love.
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