Wednesday, April 6, 2005
Terri Schiavo. Johnnie Cochran. Pope John Paul II. They say death comes in threes.
These public figures don’t have much in common, other than that they all lost their battles with debilitating illness during the past week.
After The New York Times devoted nearly it’s entire Week in Review section to Schiavo last week, I too took a side on the right-to-die debate.
Being stuck in a hospital bed as a vegetable who couldn’t feed herself is no way to live.
Schiavo died Thursday in the swirl of a religious debate. She was cremated Monday after 13 days of starvation and dehydration when her husband ordered her feeding tube be removed. Schiavo had brain damage from a chemical imbalance some said was caused by bulimia. The feeding tube had sustained her in a vegetative state for about 15 years.
Conservatives, including President Geroge W. Bush, who protested the stop-feeding order, said it was the duty of the strong to protect the weak. Because Schiavo didn’t have a living will, her husband and parents fought in court about whether to remove the tube. It was removed and reinserted twice before the courts ruled in favor of Michael Schiavo, Terri’s husband. Her husband, however, would know better than anyone whether she would have wanted to continue living.
But could Schiavo’s experience be considered life? She couldn’t feed herself or communicate. Doctors said she was in a permanent vegetative state with no real chance of gaining consciousness or recovering at all. The New York Times reported that images of Schiavo that protesters extrapolated from a video gave a false impression of how promising her condition was.
Her “life” was nothing more than a blip on a computer screen. Conservatives argued that it was not man’s decision to decide when to end a life. It was, however, man’s decision to prolong it in the first place. Maybe modern science has gone too far.
An inoperable brain tumor caused Cochran’s death. Was that the doctor’s or God’s decision? Protesters didn’t stand outside of his hospital picketing for surgery.
The pope suffered through his final weeks of life. Parkinson’s Disease, heart and kidney problems and a urinary tract infection plagued the pope through his final hours. He couldn’t even speak during one of his final appearances on Easter Sunday. Doctors should not have prolonged his suffering. His achievements should be remembered, but it was his time to go.
If the Bible is correct, and God does control life and death, then Schiavo’s passing was part of his plan. Those who protested her death should realize that if there is a heaven, she is in a better place.
Caster is a Shawnee senior in journalism. He is a copy editor and designer for the Kansan.
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