Terri Schiavo Refused Canadian Asylum, Denied Last Rites, Scheduled for Cremation

EDMONTON, October 20, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) –  Canadian Immigration Minister Dennis Coderre has refused a request to grant asylum in Canada to a disabled woman in Florida who had her feeding tube removed five days ago and will starve to death without immediate intervention.  Canadian disabled activist Mark Pickup, President of HumanLifeMatters.com had made the request for asylum for Terri, having secured promises of care for the disabled woman by Canadian doctors and nurses who volunteered.  At the hospice where Terri lies dying, hospice officials and police prevented a Catholic priest that has visited Terri weekly from giving her a final Holy Communion.  The Washington Times reports that Monsignor Thaddeus Malinowski was told by police that the giving of Communion would violate a doctor’s order saying nothing could be placed in her mouth to prevent choking. However, the priest assured the officers there would be no danger of that since he would use, “a small piece of the wafer and dilute it with water before giving it to her.”  He stressed, “It’s a very important part of her faith.”  He was told he would be physically restrained if he attempted to give her the final Viaticum.  Suspicions that Terri’s husband Michael Schiavo was somehow involved in Terri’s becoming disabled were fueled when it was revealed Saturday that he has requested that her body be cremated immediately following her death. Terri’s family has asked at least for an autopsy to determine how she sustained injuries which were discovered only long-after her paralysis.