Jewish World Review March 16, 2005 / 5 Adar II, 5765

Largest grassroots Orthodox Jewish group to Michael Schiavo: Spare your wife's life

By A. Shreiber

http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | Agudath Israel of America has issued a public plea to the husband of Terry Schiavo, the brain-damaged Florida woman, to not remove the feeding tube keeping her alive.

Circuit Court Judge George W. Greer ruled Thursday that there was no merit to an appeal to delay permission for Michael Schiavo to allow his wife to starve to death, in opposition to the wishes of the incapacitated woman's parents.

The court, following Mr. Schiavo's wishes, has ordered the feeding tube removed on Friday, which prompted Agudath Israel's plea.

A spokesman for the national Orthodox Jewish organization appealed to Mr. Schiavo to "recognize that what a court may consider legal can still constitute a grave violation of a higher law," and asked him to "please allow your wife to continue to live."

"None of us can claim to know what constitutes a meaningful existence," Rabbi Avi Shafran, the organization's director of public affairs explained, "and all of us have a responsibility to preserve even severely compromised human life."