Mike Spence, a pro-life activist, spoke on the Terri Schiavo case to undergraduate and graduate students on Monday, April 11 th . Stanford Students for Life, a campus group dedicated to pro-life advocacy, sponsored the event.

Mike Spence is the vice president of the California ProLife Council and has spent decades campaigning against abortion. He is also actively involved in other life-related issues, such as euthanasia.

Becky Currano, the chief organizer of the talk, said the effort was partly designed “to educate people about the objections and potential dangers of legalized euthanasia and the potential implications of the way the Terri Schiavo case was handled in the courts and in the media.” Noelle Patno, the group’s president, explained that although Schiavo had already passed away, her death “revealed the coun­try’s lack of clarity regarding end of life issues. The importance of discussing these situations has been enhanced rather than diminished.”

Eleven students were in attendance when the talk began at 6:30 PM, but half a dozen more people had arrived up by the end. Spence introduced himself to the group as one of their own, noting that he had started out at a very similar group called Bruins for Life when he studied at UCLA.

Schiavo wasn’t “the first killing done through starvation,” but usually families lack the resources and will or interest to keep a family member alive.

The goal of the “death movement,” he continued, “isn’t to starve people to death.” Advocates of legalizing assisted suicide, he said, appeal to compassion by highlighting how horrible it is to die as Schiavo did. “We’re talking about active euthanasia,” he asserted as their ultimate objective.

After a brief introduction of the issues, the audience was shown “Death as a Salesman: What’s Wrong with Assisted Suicide,” a documentary featuring interviews with doctors and others involved in this issue. The video argues that assisted suicide has too much “potential for abuse,” that “the answer is hospice care,” and that “copycat suicides” are a real problem because the idea can become conta­gious especially among the elderly. Also discussed was the Remmelink Report, which concluded that as many as 18,000 people had been killed involuntarily after euthanasia was legalized in the Netherlands, either through overdoses or lethal injections from doctors without prior knowledge.

Spence explained that the right to refuse extraordinary care (such as life-support machines, which did not apply to the Schiavo case) already exists, and that basic sustenance should not be considered “extraordinary” even if done through a feeding tube. He also argued that a suicide hotline exists at Stanford because suicide is ultimately an “irrational decision.” He described the Supreme Court as untrustworthy, noting problems in “dealing with precedent,” reversals of itself, and judicial fiat.

When asked for his opinion on the talk, junior Chris Candelaria responded that Spence “talked about issues that were relevant,” while Clint Taylor, a graduate student in political science, described the event as a “very effective and reasonable discussion about a controversial issue.”