"The Schiavo Verdict"

Catholic Exchange kindly invited me to rework my blog of Monday morning. The revision, published today, had been finished before the news of Terri's death this morning.

The denouement of the Terri Schindler Schiavo case has yet to play out, but the results are already in. The winners are lawyers, experts, and men. But we are all losers, really.

In the legal department, judicial supremacy has been confirmed. Rather than the alleged checks-and-balances of separate-but-equal branches designed for our democratic republic, we can now see that one branch has successfully arrogated to itself the last word on any issue. Nobody in power anywhere in the legislative or executive branches found any way — or should I say any will? — to break through the circled wagons of the black-robed lawyers. The founders of our nation would be appalled at what we have allowed to happen to our government(s).

Appalled? Sure. But maybe not surprised.

The usual raft of “experts” chimed in last weekend, as if on cue, to let us know that starvation and thirst lead to an easy, peaceful death. One wonders why, then, in several jurisdictions around the country, farmers and ranchers are in various stages of prosecution for having starved cattle to death — yes, cattle, not people. The Donner party, we may surmise, didn't know how lucky they had gotten. And actors and actresses have wasted a lot of years begging for funds to save the children overseas from starving to a blissful end.

These experts, one must assume, actually thought that we would believe such claptrap. And, as far as I've been able to tell, mainstream media has been more than willing to allow the proponents of Easy Death By Starvation And Dehydration a nationwide venue without providing the same venue to contrary voices. Dare we think that Starve Yourself Into Bliss is so obviously claptrap that even reporters and editors knew it didn't need to be rebutted?

The truth is coming out already, though: it's being reported that Terri Schindler Schiavo is being administered morphine. Why? To ease her bliss? One must wonder, then, wonder very much, how and why the Total Deprivation Is A Great Way To Go story was ever presented to the public. And why the experts aren't going to be questioned about the need for morphine as loudly as they were allowed to speak up earlier.

Three or four decades of social deconstruction have finally stifled the feminine voice. I don't mean just that Michael Schiavo is being allowed to kill his wife while his partner in adultery and the mother of his children waits to take Terri's place. (Hey, Jodie Centonze, here's my advice to you: Don't ever get really sick.)

I mean that the medical professionals — doctors — who actually spent some time with Terri Schindler Schiavo and pronounced her to be in a "permanent vegetative state" are men. But the medical professionals — nurses — who actually spent even more time with her and pronounced her a living, aware, responsive human being are women, whose word apparently doesn't count for much, if anything at all. True, other factors may be at play: the "priestcraft" of being a doctor may, rightly or wrongly, carry more weight than the more nurturing role of the nurse, for instance. Still, it strikes one forcefully that the medical-professional divide was a male-female divide that left the women's opinions out of order.

Betty Friedan, call your office.

Finally, let us say loudly and repeatedly that whatever person(s) concocted the detestable phrase "persistent vegetative state" must have done so out of hatred for the human race. It conjures the image of a life no human being could ever really want to live, while insinuating that a human being is no longer really at issue — only vegetation or a vegetable.

The desired mindset? Simultaneously Yuck! and So what?

The diabolical psychology at work should cause the mind to reel and revolt.

We should very well pray that God have mercy on Terri Schindler Schiavo. We should pray just as well that God have mercy on the rest of us, too. Our need, as a society and as individuals, may be or become no less than hers. And our defenses are being obliterated as we watch.

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Thu. 03/31/05 06:32:25 PM
Categorized as E.L. Core @ Catholic Exchange & Terri Schindler Schiavo.