Backpage Editorial by Richard David Smith III
SICK, SAD WORLD
Florida must have been dealt a bad hand by the cosmos, as seemingly every story of great controversy takes place here in the “land of flowers.” The case of Terri Schiavo has become a sad reality for her family. For the rest of society, it has become a pathetic one. Who could really blame her parents and siblings for begging Governor Bush to intervene? I would imagine that any family would use whatever means necessary to save their daughter if they thought she wanted to live and their was a chance, even if overly hopeful, for her recovery. That the rest of society also cares about this issue is also understandable considering the way that this could affect any one of us some day. The legal, medical, and philosophical implications of this event are resounding, and for us not to be interested in it would make us rather robotic. As a result, armchair doctors and/or lawyers everywhere are diverting their attention from the Michael Jackson trial to chime in. What is disturbing is not the level of concern, contemplation, or even flippant water cooler discussions, but rather the manner in which average folks and politicians have chosen to involve themselves.
A lot of topics appropriately merit partisan debate. However, personally, when I hear of a story such as this, it makes me want to stand back and reach for a tissue rather than my voter registration card. Representatives, pundits, and average citizens have tactlessly made this very emotional, personal dilemma into an arena to propagate their own political agenda. There is almost no question that the right-to-lifers want to try and set this up to create a scenario where the government intervenes to save a life that cannot independently communicate its wishes. This would establish a precedent that could eventually lead to the government’s authority to legally stop a woman from carrying out an abortion. The right-to-death crowd is screaming for the State and Federal Government to stay out of it. Of course, a decision in this direction would devastate a family and end a life. With Schiavo’s wishes not in writing, the decision rightfully and legally should be left in the hands of her husband. It’s the husband’s questionable character that further complicates things. Let’s face it, no one has an immaculate solution; but in a matter in which either decision leads to a possibly horrific outcome, it’s difficult to imagine why people are being so strident in their opinions.
The reason could be rooted in this very divisive culture we have created. This issue epitomizes the complete manifestation of the new American culture that is being spearheaded by radio media outlets such as all day conservative AM radio and the liberal Radio Free America. We don’t merely discuss issues with information presented by the rather objective BBC or NPR these days; instead we argue, debate, and ultimately try to have our position win, as if it were a football game. No one seems to be content with contemplating anymore, we must conquer. But if there was ever a time to step out from behind the debate podium, that time would be now. The fact that we haven’t speaks volumes in showing that we may be beyond salvation. Not even a women’s life will get in the way of our bantering now. Analogically speaking, this should be the moment when adults stop fighting because a child has entered the room. Instead, this issue has just further fueled the fires of misplaced ideology.
The most befuddling aspect of this is that everyone seems to be on the wrong side of their respective opinion. The usually pro-civil rights left is going against a family pleading for help and aligning themselves with the position of the death of a disabled woman who had possibly been severely abused by her husband. The Christian right wants Schiavo to live seemingly at all costs, the law be damned. You’d think that a group so certain that a wonderful life after death awaits us wouldn’t have so much of a problem with the passing of a woman who is obviously not living much of a life anyway. Don’t they give their God enough credit that He would understand that letting Schiavo die in this case is not an act of malice? Why is it that the Christian right seems to place more value on entities that are only technically alive than indigent people who really need their help.
George W. Bush, elected in large part by those same evangelicals, also doesn’t seem to be siding with himself on the issue. While Governor of Texas, he signed into law a bill that would allow medical doctor’s the ability to remove life-support from a patient, regardless of the families wishes, if they deemed that there was no chance of recovery if the family did not pay for said patients transfer to a different medical facility within 10 days of the decision. This law was implemented in the case of an infant with dwarfism who the doctors deemed unsalvageable. The infant’s life support was removed, allowing him to die despite many pleas from the mother. With that in mind, did George W. take an emergency flight back to the Washington over the weekend to help congress enact a law to try and stop the remova of Schiavo’s feeding tube? And John Kerry was the one who flip-flopped? W. does all of this amid trying to convince everyone of a Social Security crisis. How are we supposed to be able to pay out Social Security to everyone if we are going to keep everyone on life support for 15 to 20 years beyond what they normally would have lived? If he really cared so much about trying to help patients in Schiavo’s predicament, perhaps he should have allowed Federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. With all of these people on the opposite side of their usual stances, it should be clear that it is politics, not conscience, driving the efforts on either end of the spectrum.
Given that most of Schiavo’s doctors have diagnosed her as being in a persistent vegetative state without the possibility of recover and the court systems have been absolutely exhausted, the humane thing to would probably be to let her pass. Even if we were to allow Schiavo to remain on the feeding tube and she were indeed to miraculously recover, what kind of world would she be coming back to? If she lives and thanks God for her life, will the Left call label her a right wing kook? If she lives and opposes the war, will the Right label her a traitor and immediately order her back into a vegetative state?
Rather than opining, perhaps what we should be doing is learning form this. Mainly, that it is wise to fill out your life support wishes while you have a fully functioning brain as to avoid perpetually appearing on Fox News watching a balloon float around the room. Taking an arrogant role in speaking for the Almighty, Republican House Majority Leader Tom Delay has said that God has brought us the Schiavo case in order to show us what is going wrong with America. I think what we are really being shown is how absurd life can sometimes be. As for what to do with Terri Schiavo, I have a solution: I say that we cryogenically freeze her and leave her in the care of a more advanced civilization down the road, as ours is obviously not evolved enough to handle it.
RDS3
