Many people don’t live as long as Terri Schiavo has been dying. For the last 15 years, Schiavo has been in what doctors call a persistent vegetative state. According to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, patients in such a state have lost higher brain functions, though breathing and circulation remain intact, and their eyes may even open in response to external stimuli.
Schiavo is brain-dead, though her heart beats on. If she’s alive, it’s only because of some misguided definition of “life” that strictly refers to the existence metabolic processes; the only reason she’s not “dead” yet is because Republican politicians in Florida and Washington change or try to change the law at every turn to keep her on life-support, as they did this past weekend.
A Florida judge made a factual determination that Schiavo is in a persistent vegetative state and that she’d indicated she wouldn’t want to be left in such a state. He then ordered doctors to remove Schiavo’s feeding tube, and appellate courts affirmed his ruling. But Florida Gov. Jeb Bush called for and used a law specifically crafted (it was even called “Terri’s Law”) to make an end-run around the courts.
Various courts, from Florida trial courts to the Florida Supreme Court to federal courts, have ruled 20 times against Schiavo’s parents, who want to keep Terri alive. That’s not even counting the number of times appellate courts declined to review lower courts’ judgments.
On the eve of Schiavo’s release, congressional conservatives decided to prolong this painful battle. Congress invited the Schiavos to testify before Congress, granting them federal witness protection. That means that anybody who does anything to impede the Schiavos’ testimony breaks federal law. For complying with a Florida judge’s order, and for respecting Terri’s wishes, Schiavo’s doctors could face criminal penalties.
Congress also wants to give federal courts jurisdiction over Schiavo’s case. That’s like Congress telling the judiciary, “We didn’t like your decisions, so we’re going to legislate that another judge handle this case.”
The Florida judge handling the case for the last several years thankfully decided enough was enough. Ordering the life supported ended, he is letting Schiavo die with whatever shred of her dignity remains. Let’s hope Republican lawmakers keep whatever shred of respect they have for the rule of law intact.
I’m all for saving life wherever possible, but Schiavo is beyond hope. Her cerebral cortex, the part of her brain that controls conscious thinking, is literally gone. Terri Schiavo, the person, is dead. Keeping her organs alive isn’t keeping her alive. And even if she is alive by some perverted definition, the courts have found clear and convincing evidence that she would not want to live this way.
Schiavo’s condition, as determined by her doctors and the court’s own independent doctor, is hopeless. By refusing to pull the plug, conservatives aren’t supporting her right to life, they’re infringing on her right to die.
It’s galling that our Congress is willing to go into extended session to keep a heart beating, but didn’t think of doing the same to fix Social Security, protect Medicaid, fund medical research, balance the budget and deal with other pressing issues.
Schiavo’s case, coupled with party-line Republican stances on abortion and social welfare programs, reveals the contradictions in their so-called “pro-life” platform. While pro-lifers fight for fetal rights and nutrition for the already dead, those who are unquestionably alive and suffering are ignored.
Roughly a fifth of infants in the world today don’t get the cheap vaccines that would prevent debilitating or even deadly illnesses, like polio and measles, claims UNICEF. The medical journal Lancet estimated that causes 27,397 preventable deaths per day. The World Health Organization found that fully a third of humanity was malnourished in 2000.
Inexplicably, pro-lifers haven’t been on the forefront of efforts to vaccinate all children or end world hunger. Rather, they’re concerned about the nutrition of one brain-dead Florida woman. Seemingly, Schiavo has more of a right to life than the two billion malnourished people worldwide.
The “culture of life” that President Bush and other pro-lifers embrace, ironically, is limited to the unborn and the already dead. As the bumper sticker quips: Vote Democrat, because life doesn’t end at birth.