Thursday, March 31, 2005
News: Final and Only Word on Schiavo
I've avoided blogging about Terri Schiavo, mainly because everyone else is and there's not much more I could say, but also because who am I to say anything in the first place?
There has been an overload of self-righteous posturing and irrelevant debate in our nation during this situation's recent few weeks. Now that she has passed away, we can only pray that she's in a better place than she was previously. I also hope that her family ulitmately finds peace with their loss.
Personally I'm disappointed that death triumphed over life in this case. And no matter how you argue it, that's what it came down to -- death triumphing over life. The only real remaining question is: where do we go from here?
An overwhelming majority of Americans seem to think that Schiavo was, for all intents and purposes, dead long before doctors removed her feeding tube. I don't agree, but that's only pert of the matter. What concerns me is the Pandora's Box that this slippery slope argument has opened.
My grandmother turns 98 in a few months. She's in good health for someone of that age, but her mind is just about gone. She's afraid of her shadow, requires constant attention from one of my parents or my older cousin, and she leaves the house, at most, once per week. Her short-term memory deteriorated long ago to the point that she doesn't remember conversations you have with her even minutes later, and she's incapable of caring for herself.
What separates my grandmother from Terri Schiavo? A simple feeding tube. That's about it. I, personally, hope that I'm never in my grandmother's condition. I'd hate to think that I'd cause such a burden on my family, and that I had reached a point where I was just a shell of my former self. But it doesn't really matter. I still love my grandmother, as does the rest of my family, and no one is going to stop caring for her because she's not the same person we remember from the past. I'd hate to think that if they wanted to, my parents could just stop caring for her and leave her to die. I fear, though, that cases such as Schiavo's could lead to that being a legal -- and acceptable -- situation.
Death triumphed over life today. You're not going to convince me otherwise. May God comfort Schiavo's family in their hour of mourning. And may he take mercy on the rest of us for allowing it to happen.
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There has been an overload of self-righteous posturing and irrelevant debate in our nation during this situation's recent few weeks. Now that she has passed away, we can only pray that she's in a better place than she was previously. I also hope that her family ulitmately finds peace with their loss.
Personally I'm disappointed that death triumphed over life in this case. And no matter how you argue it, that's what it came down to -- death triumphing over life. The only real remaining question is: where do we go from here?
An overwhelming majority of Americans seem to think that Schiavo was, for all intents and purposes, dead long before doctors removed her feeding tube. I don't agree, but that's only pert of the matter. What concerns me is the Pandora's Box that this slippery slope argument has opened.
My grandmother turns 98 in a few months. She's in good health for someone of that age, but her mind is just about gone. She's afraid of her shadow, requires constant attention from one of my parents or my older cousin, and she leaves the house, at most, once per week. Her short-term memory deteriorated long ago to the point that she doesn't remember conversations you have with her even minutes later, and she's incapable of caring for herself.
What separates my grandmother from Terri Schiavo? A simple feeding tube. That's about it. I, personally, hope that I'm never in my grandmother's condition. I'd hate to think that I'd cause such a burden on my family, and that I had reached a point where I was just a shell of my former self. But it doesn't really matter. I still love my grandmother, as does the rest of my family, and no one is going to stop caring for her because she's not the same person we remember from the past. I'd hate to think that if they wanted to, my parents could just stop caring for her and leave her to die. I fear, though, that cases such as Schiavo's could lead to that being a legal -- and acceptable -- situation.
Death triumphed over life today. You're not going to convince me otherwise. May God comfort Schiavo's family in their hour of mourning. And may he take mercy on the rest of us for allowing it to happen.
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