| | And the winner is…
Well, in the case of the battles pitched by her family to decide whether to let her die naturally or prolong her “persistent vegetative state,” no one does.
The Schiavo case is a horrible one, where a husband, allegedly following the patient’s wishes, wants to remove her enteral feeding tube and allow her to die. Her parents, devout Roman Catholics, are vehemently opposed to such a move, and hold out hope that with therapy, she will regain some quality of life. 15 years ago, Schiavo was deprived of oxygen after a cardiac arrest caused by electrolyte imbalances. Ever since, she has been unresponsive, and physicians caring for her have declared that the prospects for any improvement at all are nil. Recent CT scans of her brain show that her cerebral cortex, the area that controls higher functions like thought, emotion, and moving around, no longer exists, and the space it once occupied is filled with spinal fluid. For the past 12 years or so, the players have been duking it out in the Florida courts…with the courts ruling in favor of the husband- and removing the tube- all along. Over the past 2 weeks, the case was taken up by Federal courts, which concurred with the local jurists. In a bizarre and disturbing development, the US Congress passed legislation specifically addressing the case, which President Bush immediately signed into law, having flown back from vacation in Texas to do so. Today, the US Supreme Court, affirming a decision of theirs made years ago, refused to consider the appeals.
On paper, at least, Terri’s husband won. I’m not sure I envy his position, though. Whether the tube is removed or not, he still will live the rest of his life without his wife there to celebrate his successes and share his pains and fears- certainly no change from the last 15 years. However, now he’s being cast in the role of cold, heartless murderer. No, Michael Schiavo can’t be the winner.
The parents, Bob any Mary Schindler, feel very strongly that Terri can improve with God’s divine intervention and lots of physical therapy. Hoping against hope, and volumes of evidence, they’re fighting to prolong the inevitable. Yet, the strongest argument can be made that “the inevitable” occurred 15 years ago, when Terri last had a thought, felt an emotion, or performed some meaningful act. I feel enormous pity for them, but being in such denial means that they can’t win either.
The Republican officials trying to intervene in the case, likely trying to adopt another “faith-based initiative” and further forge a link between government and religion are assuredly not to be the winners, once all is said and done. I side with the Republicans on a lot of issues…but they lost me on this one. I can just imagine what their opponents fell about the “small government” people poking their holier than thou noses into a family’s personal heartbreak, to say nothing of the hypocrisy of supporting the state killing someone in capital punishment, while precluding another person from dying naturally. So much for the “culture of life.”
The biggest losers? Us. You, and me, and every one of those hundreds of people each year who are in the same situation as Terri and her parents and her husband. That’s right, hundreds of people have the plug pulled, or the tube removed, each year. Why hasn’t Congress, the Governors, or the President intervened in their cases? If I had the hideous misfortune of being in similar circumstances, I’d much rather prefer to struggle with the ethics of my decision in private with those I rely on for advise and counsel. It seems like our government, and many shortsighted people they represent, want to stand in the way of an already impossibly difficult decision.
No one wins. And we all lose. The only consolation we have, one that Terri Sciavo doesn't, is that we're around to bitch about it and second-guess each other. |
