Starved for Logic
Published March 26, 2005
Highlighting the method of Terri Schiavo's impending doom is a favorite rhetorical flourish for those lining up on the side of "life" in this fractious medical and moral drama that's saturating the 24-hour news cycle (a recent Google search on Schiavo and "starve to death" yielded almost 27,000 results).
Here's a comment from the inimitable Dr. Laura Schlessinger illustrating this tendency:
Now, I have a living will. My living will says no extraordinary techniques should be used to maintain me. Y'know, it doesn't say to torture me and starve me to death. This is grotesque, this is barbaric, this is mean, this is cruel.While Dr. Laura compares Schiavo's treatment to "torture," there are some bloggers out there making an even more obvious play for the emotions by comparing her treatment unfavorably with the final exit of prisoners on death row. Here are a few samples:
- From the Catholic Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam blog--"Terri Schindler-Schiavo has won a temporary stay from [sic] execution by a method too cruel to be used for convicted criminals."
- From the anti-liberal weblog moxie--"Scott Peterson will face (eventually) a sterile, painless death after brutally murdering his wife and son Connor. On the other hand, Terri Schiavo — who is guilty of nothing other than having poor health [understatement of the year!-ed.] — will have to starve to death so her cheating husband can collect her insurance payout and get remarried."
- From The Powers That Blog, quoting a nurse named Cheryl Ford who worked for Schiavo's parents in 2003--"This is not a painless or dignified way to die," Ford said. "It's against the law to dehydrate and starve to death a prisoner on death row. Why should we allow it to be done to a disabled woman — or anybody?"
Because these writers oppose euthanasia, the method of Schiavo's death is immaterial. They would be against it no matter how brutal or humane it might be. Pointing out that she is being "starved to death" is the height of hypocrisy because it is the very lobbying efforts of such people that have ensured this outcome. Because euthanasia is illegal, to answer Cheryl Ford's question, Schiavo's doctors have no recourse other than to withhold treatment. Murderers on death row die a more humane death than this poor woman because this is what the anti-euthanasia pro-lifers, in their wisdom, have demanded. Seen in this light, Terri Schiavo's slow starvation is more of an argument for euthanasia than against it.
Some commentators are so eager to scoff at the idea of Schiavo's "death with dignity" that they fail to recognize that the dignity is not in the method of death but in the freedom from a non-existent life.
- Starved for Logic
- Published: March 26, 2005
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- Section: Politics
- Writer: Pete Blackwell
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RJ sez...
*perhaps she's in a sort of blissful ignorance that people like us do not get to enjoy.*
not according to 19 different Court appointed experts that have examined her over more than 10 years of litigation..
but let us Postulate..for the sake of Argument here...that even tho the EEG is flatline...what you might call her "Soul" is still in there and somehow "Conscious" to some unknown extent..
since medical science has stated that no pain can be felt in her condition..which would be worse..perishing from renal failure ..or spending 15 YEARS trapped in the hell of your own skull..unable to commit ANY voluntary act or communicate in any way with the outside world
my deepest sympathies to BOTH sides of the Families involved...but we live in a society supposedly under the Rule of Law..and the Law is quite clear, and have been followed to it's fullest extent with all due process
but that's just Logic talking
if it Offends..then work on changing it
me?...i got my living will right here
how about you?
Excelsior!
Thank you for the mention. I am proud of my position and grateful that you saw it worthy of repeat.
"I am proud of my position..."
IF the previous post was actually by Dr. Schlessinger, I would point out that your comment was used as an example of "a favorite rhetorical flourish" as opposed to "an argument based on reality".
So sorry Doc.
You are right that those who disagree with this ruling are likely against euthanisia full stop. Finding loopholes , such as the inhumanity of starving someone to death, does not make anyone disingenuous however. It just points to yet another factor in this whole case, which highlights just HOW wrong EVERYTHING about it is.
RJ, how can you say she's "clearly" not in a persistent vegitative state? That is the diagnosis and has been since, like, forever.
Oh, and Pete, I agree that this case is a great argument in favor of assisted suicide and euthanasia. We need to put those laws in place so we can choose the manner of our own deaths.
Yep, bhw, but its not everyones medical opinion.
CLICK 3rd link down and more on this site, gives cause to doubt the diagnosis is actually accurate.
Doctors are not always right. Even when its a multitude of the same opinions from them.
The U.S. Congress sanctions actions that unjustifiably kill one or two hundred thousand Iraqis (but who's counting, really), lowers pollution standards and reduces accessibility to healthcare, while abusing a brain-dead woman to demonstrate their "reverence for life". I don't know if starvation is a torturous affair, but most certainly the U.S. government's sending of prisoners to foreign prisons to be "questioned", is.
Hypocrisy has never been so well defined.
The worst evil is evil done under the guise of righteousness. They are using her tormented body and soul as their political football. The U.S. Congress is the protectorate only of the brain-dead, the unborn and the wealthy.
It is ironic that bulimia was the primary contributor to Terri's current condition, and Congress wants to force her to keep eating! (If you don't know about the eating disorder bulimia, look it up) In the end, it will be true that Terri starved herself to death.
Maybe I am being too harsh and judgmental of Congress, and should assume the best intentions. Maybe what I'm seeing is simply one brain-dead body empathizing with another.
Add your comment, speak your mind
(Or ping: http://blogcritics.org/mt/tb/27283)
My first option for Terri is that she have the feeding/hydration tube re-inserted, and be examined by specialists. If she ain't in a PVS (which she clearly isn't), she should be given some rehabilitation. She won;t ever be "normal" again, but she could possibly improve by some small measure. And anyway, she's clearly not in pain in her present state; perhaps she's in a sort of blissful ignorance that people like us do not get to enjoy.
Option number two is a painless, quick death via euthanasia. Of course, if we are willing to go down this road, we should all be kicking ourselves for not having done it like 15 years ago.
The WORST POSSIBLE OPTION is starving her to death, and refusing to have her re-examined. Which is exactly what the courts, in all their infinite wisdom, have deemed appropriate in this situation.
I realize option # 2 is not possible under current Florida law. So how about option # 1, instead of the horror that is occurring as I type...