Terri Schiavo

This story is one that I have followed in the Christian media for several years. I didn't realize until last night's Nightline how many lies the Christian media have been telling about the case. Unfortunately, I can't find a link to a transcript and I can't even remember the name of the doctor who formerly served as Terri Schiavo's guardian under Florida law. Christians who engage in assassinating the character of Michael Schiavo should be ashamed of themselves.

Digby has a well-written summary of the political aspects of this case and Republican hypocrisy over the issues of medical care, funding, bankruptcy 'reform,' tort 'reform,' etc.:

By now most people who read liberal blogs are aware that George W. Bush signed a law in Texas that expressly gave hospitals the right to remove life support if the patient could not pay and there was no hope of revival, regardless of the patient's family's wishes. It is called the Texas Futile Care Law. Under this law, a baby was removed from life support against his mother's wishes in Texas just this week. A 68 year old man was given a temporary reprieve by the Texas courts just yesterday.

Those of us who read liberal blogs are also aware that Republicans have voted en masse to pull the plug (no pun intended) on medicaid funding that pays for the kind of care that someone like Terri Schiavo and many others who are not so severely brain damaged need all across this country.

Those of us who read liberal blogs also understand that that the tort reform that is being contemplated by the Republican congress would preclude malpractice claims like that which has paid for Terri Schiavo's care thus far.

Those of us who read liberal blogs are aware that the bankruptcy bill will make it even more difficult for families who suffer a catastrophic illness like Terri Schiavo's because they will not be able to declare chapter 7 bankruptcy and get a fresh start when the gargantuan medical bills become overwhelming.

And those of us who read liberal blogs also know that this grandstanding by the congress is a purely political move designed to appease the religious right and that the legal maneuverings being employed would be anathema to any true small government conservative.

Those who don't read liberal blogs, on the other hand, are seeing a spectacle on television in which the news anchors repeatedly say that the congress is "stepping in to save Terri Schiavo" mimicking the unctuous words of Tom Delay as they grovel and leer at the family and nod sympathetically at the sanctimonious phonies who are using this issue for their political gain.

This is why we cannot trust the mainstream media. Most people get their news from television. And television is presenting this issue as a round the clock one dimensional soap opera pitting the "family", the congress and the church against this woman's husband and the judicial system that upheld Terri Schiavo's right and explicit request that she be allowed to die if extraordinary means were required to keep her alive. The ghoulish infotainment industry is making a killing by acceding once again to trumped up right wing sensationalism.

This issue gets to the essence of the culture war. Shall the state be allowed to interfere in the most delicate, complicated personal matters of life, death and health because a particular religious constituency holds that their belief system should override each individual's right to make these personal decisions for him or herself. And it isn't the allegedly statist/communist/socialist left that is agitating for the government to tell Americans how they must live and how they must die.

One of the things that we need to help America understand is that there is a big difference between the way the two parties perceive the role of government in its citizens personal lives. Democrats want the government to collect money from all its citizens in order to deliver services to the people. The Republicans want the government to collect money from working people in order to dictate individual citizen's personal decisions. You tell me which is the bigger intrusion into the average American's liberty?

Republicans do not know the meaning of 'liberty.'

For the spiritual aspects of the case, read Terri Schiavo: Whose Will Should Prevail? by Johann Christoph Arnold:

. . . the media attention it [the Terri Schiavo case] has received has also created an atmosphere of paranoia, and this has harmed Terri more than it has helped, and has clouded the real issues that are at stake. These issues are our society's terrible fear of death and suffering and our over-reliance on medical technology in a desperate attempt to avoid both. In fact, God alone is in control of human life, and our idolization of science and medical technology needs to be subjugated to his much greater wisdom and love.

Arnold's concluding paragraphs:

If Terri dies, she will leave a very big hole in her mother's life: after all, she has loved and cared for her daughter faithfully, for years. But it is just here that we need to turn to God in prayer. He knows everything, and he will heal the most wounded heart, providing we take time to grieve. All the service Terri's parents -- and her husband, and her doctors and nurses -- have given her over these many years will never be in vain and will be richly rewarded in the next world. May Bob and Mary Schindler and Michael Schiavo be given the wisdom of Job who, after his suffering, could finally experience the beautiful words, "The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord."

As a culture, we have become too reliant on science and technology. We have also become dangerously dependent on the State to make decisions for us. Shouldn't we rather try to discern what God would have us do? In Terri's case it should not be the end of the world to remove a feeding tube. Where medical knowledge and capability end, there God can begin to work. And if it is God's will for Terri to recover, she will: for Jesus is truly the only physician who can heal the sick and raise the dead. If Terri should die, it will be painful, but no cause for despair: we all have to die one day.

We are too afraid of death and dying. We forget that those who are dying are stretched out between earth and heaven, between the physical and the spiritual, between the finiteness of life on earth and the eternity of life beyond. Every dying person has a message to the living. Even in her current condition, Terri's living is not in vain; all who come in contact with her have an opportunity to be taught love and compassion to others.

That an intensified struggle over Terri's life is occurring right at Easter highlights the message of Good Friday, when we think of the death of Jesus, who longed to reconcile everything in the universe. His crucifixion remains the supreme example of suffering that was not in vain.

The temptation to run from pain -- to choose the path of least suffering -- is only human. Even Jesus begged his Father to "take this cup from me." But that isn't the full story, for Jesus added, "Yet not my will, but Thy will be done." In Terri's case, there will be suffering on both sides, no matter how the controversy is resolved. All the more, shouldn't each of us lay aside our agendas and opinions and ask what Jesus asked -- that God's will alone be done?

And now, my two cents: I wonder what Christian witness is being made by people protesting Mrs. Schiavo's immanent death. Is our physical life so precious that it must be grasped at all costs--as if it were the entire sum of our existence?

We all have to muddle through this brief, physical life, with pain, trouble, and suffering. We all have to make decisions with imperfect information. And we should have the grace to let other people make their own decisions. In this case, this is Terri's husband Michael, not her parents, and certainly not the cold, stale hands of politicians, more concerned with making 'pro-life' political points than making sure that all Americans have access to adequate medical care.

Ye who think of sin but lightly
Nor suppose the evil great
Here may view its nature rightly,
Here its guilt may estimate.
Mark the Sacrifice appointed,
See who bears the awful load;
'Tis the WORD, the LORD'S ANNOINTED,
Son of Man and Son of God.
--3rd verse of Stricken, Smitten, and Afflicted by Thomas Kelly, 1804