Schiavo from the sidelines

All I can say is, it's appalling to watch two worldviews in an ideological tug-of-war over this poor suffering woman's body. The only lesson I take away from it is: for God's sake, write a living will!

Two more thoughts:

1) From my naïve point of view, she looks vaguely responsive, capable of recognition and attachment. What do I know about a "permanent vegetative state"? On the other hand, what do scientists know? They had to do major funded double-blind studies to figure out that a baby smiles when it feels good.

2) If her parents want to devote their lives to taking care of her, how can anyone stop them? A person who marries may become one flesh with his/her spouse, legally and spiritually; but if the spouse defaults, shouldn't the law provide for the person's belonging and care to revert to his or her family of origin? That is the natural and traditional refuge of last resort. Shouldn't the law recognize it?

- amba

UPDATE: And, what do you know:

Congress Gives Parents a Voice in Schiavo Case

With the clock running down on how much longer Terri Schiavo can remain alive, congressional leaders Saturday announced an unprecedented agreement that would allow Schiavo's parents to petition the federal courts to have a feeding tube replaced for their brain-damaged daughter.

According to this Los Angeles Times piece, Democrats were persuaded to go along with this special piece of emergency legislation because it is narrowly drawn to apply only to Schiavo's case. Probably wise, since each case of this kind is so excruciatingly unique.

UPDATE II: The toughest, most lucid summing-up of the case for letting Terri Schiavo die, with lots of links to the best of the rest, is here and here at the progressive philosophy blog Majikthise, who also calls for a blogswarm to tell Congress to butt out. (Hat tip: Gene Expression.)

Comments

[achromic]

I feel totally torn up about it. I could definatly see my own spouses family trying to tell me what he wanted even with a living will I can see them dragging me to court and draining me of money and keeping me from ever healing. But on the other hand, like you say, family is forever and as much as we like to say marrige is, it isn't. It's a hard thing to think about on all sides.

[Danny]

It is an agonizing situation but I think the way it's being used politically is just hideous and I can't stand how they're trying to cast the husband as wanting to "kill" his wife when he's only trying to fulfill what he believes are her own wishes, something a spouse is *often* able to do much better than blood relatives in my opinion. As heart-breaking as it is for the parents, I don't believe they should have more rights than the husband to make that decision nor do I believe that the husband has "defaulted" in this case.

But you're right—the only solution is for all of us to have iron-clad living wills (even though these too can be contested, especially now).

[Tom Strong]

I don't think living wills are an answer, for the reasons cited above. And the fact that the Republicans are raising a storm over this story while razing Medicaid disgusts me to no end.

Ideally, this issue should never have left the family. The fact that it did, and the courts had to be involved, is terrible; but this congressional overturning of a court decision is beyond the pale.