Funmurphys: the Blog

Terri Shiavo

Power Line has a nice summary of David Gelernter's piece in the Wall Street Journal about Terri Shiavo.

It's a lot better than my local paper's editorial on the same topic, even in summary form. "STATE LEGISLATURES and governors are uniquely unqualified to take over the most difficult decision any family has to make - when to withdraw care from a severely brain damaged relative with no hope of recovery." Yes, but then the Post Dispatch doesn't mind judges doing the same thing. And as my wife pointed out, at least legislatures and governors stand for election, unlike judges, and legislatures aren't just a single person, unlike judges. And the Post Dispatch Editorial board feels that they are fully qualified to speak to any topic, solve any problem, and condemn any stranger to death --unless they happen to be a criminal, in which case they don't think even juries can condemn them to death.

What's their real objection? "The Schindlers' desperate effort to prevent that led them to enlist help from conservative religious groups, who transformed Ms. Schiavo from a young woman into a cause celebre. They built public interest by releasing an excruciating videotape..." It's those conservative religious groups, that good liberals should always oppose on principle. I did laugh out loud when reading that crack about cause celebre - jealousy rears it's ugly head. Yep, the press are the only people allowed to create cause celebres.

"Gov. Bush may have been given the power to stop Ms. Schiavo's imminent death, but he doesn't have the ability to restore her mental function. In the end, he has merely prolonged her death - and her family's suffering." Yeah, the husband is suffering all right, waiting for his big pay day. For a group that is so keen to report on conflict of interest, they fail to mention that her husband has "moved on" with another women with whom he's having a second child, and that he stands to inherit a great deal of money when she dies. Perhaps in this case we should listen to the wishes of her parents, who actually love her, and can better balance the question of her life and death.