22 Mar 05 A Life Worth Living

I have been troubled, for quite some time with the legal battle being waged for the life of Terri Schiavo. I have also, for some reason I can’t quite articulate, avoided writing about Terri until today. So why am I writing now? Maybe I just can’t stomach it anymore. This whole situation is absolutely ridiculous!

The husband (who currently lives with another woman) and his attorneys have won a court order that Terri stop receiving food – not just a feeding tube, but that no one can give her food. Seeking to justify starving her to death they prop themselves up by saying “we are just trying to carry out Terri’s wishes.”

Her parents are fighting to save her life – asking a judge to prevent someone from legally killing their daughter.

In spite of all the rhetoric, in spite of all the posturing, this case at its most basic level is about the sanctity of life ‚Äì the sanctity of Terri’s life, the sanctity of all human life.

There are those who wish to make this a “quality of life issue” that somehow her life, because of those things she cannot do, is not worth living. Is that true? Do we honestly want to open the floodgate and travel down this road? Is this really a position we want to defend – that when my life is defined by those things that I cannot do then my life is not worth living?

Terri can smile, can blink her eyes, can recognize her family members, can breathe (on her own) and she can swallow, Her parents could feed her – and would willingly do so - if allowed.

Her parents, no doubt, remember an earlier time in Terri’s life when she was defined by all those things she could not do. She could not talk, she could not walk, she could not run, she could not completely understand her surroundings or recognize everyone who looked at her adoringly – there were so many things she could not do!

But there were some things she could do! She could smile, she could blink her eyes, she could breathe and she could swallow – and as a baby she had to be fed or she would have starved to death.

It is a sad commentary on any society who preys upon and abuses those who are unable to speak for themselves, those whose voice we cannot hear. Shame on us a people who invent and tolerate legal ways to end human life.

Sadly, we have already opened the floodgate where quality of life is more important than life. Our nation has legally killed over 40 million babies since 1973, and right now it sure looks like very soon we will have killed one more.