Terri Schiavo

I think that there is a law somewhere stating that all bloggers must comment on Terri Schiavo, so here I go.

On the moral issue, I don't think we have enough accurate information. Can she respond? Did she talk to her brother? Is she in a PVS? A MCS? The answers to those questions comes down to her parent's word vs. her husband's. I do think that there can be times when allowing someone to die is the most obedient decision. Newsweek has an interview with a Jesuit bioethicist who states this case. Here is money quote:

Here's the question I ask of these right-to-lifers, including Vatican bishops: as we enter into Holy Week and we proclaim that death is not triumphant and that with the power of resurrection and the glory of Easter we have the triumph of Christ over death, what are they talking about by presenting death as an unmitigated evil? It doesn't fit Christian context...
But is anyone arguing that for Schiavo to die would be an "unmitigated evil"? They just don't want her death to happen unnecessarily.
It's not happening unnecessarily. It's happening because her heart attack has rendered her utterly incapable of any future human relationships.

I don't know if she is, in fact, incapable of any future human relationship, and I think there are reasons to question the way that both the husband and the parents answer this question.

There are certainly political questions raised here, and nobody should be surprised that I find the actions of the congressional Republicans to be unethical and hypocritical. As in Bush v Gore, the conservative are intervening in a situation strictly for political reasons AND they want to claim that their intervention should not set a precedent for future cases. If the intervention was the right thing to do, then why not set a precedent?

The hypocrisy abounds. You have Republicans judge shopping, looking for the federal government to overturn the decision that the state courts have consistently made, trying to intervene in the sanctity of marriage.

When I hear Republicans in Congress expressing their concern for creating a culture of life, I am amazed. These are the politicians who are advocating tort reform that protects insurance companies from the victims of medical malpractice, just last week pushed a budget resolution through the House that would cut funding for Medicaid by between $15 - $20 billion, and passed the bankruptcy bill authored by the credit card industry.

In the Republican version of a culture of life, the next Terri Schiavo would not have her malpractice award, leaving her more dependent on Medicaid for her care (at least what's left of Medicaid). If this future Terri Schiavo lived in Texas, the hospital will be legally permitted to withhold life-sustaining care over the family's objections thanks to a bill signed by Gov. Bush. Oh yeah, her family will also have a more difficult time getting back on their feet financially thanks to the bankruptcy bill.

That's a culture of life?