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Many people have been talking about the case of Terri Schiavo. Schiavo, a woman who suffered brain damage in the early 90s after her heart stopped beating for 10 minutes thus preventing any oxygen from getting to her brain, is dying this week. She is not dying of her permanent condition; instead, she has been slowly starving to death after her husband requested to have her feeding tube removed over a week ago.
However, the majority of the people discussing this case are not debating whether Terri Schiavo should live or die, but rather they are asking the question of why? Why are the media constantly making this issue important? Why should we care whether her husband has the right to remove her feeding tube? Why has this become a national issue? Sadly, the answers to these questions continue to go unanswered. Maybe you are one of those people who doesn’t know why? Hopefully, by the time you’re done reading this, you will have at least some kind of answer to your question.
To begin with, we must examine why this case is important. This case is important because it is not about Terri Schiavo.
Schiavo is a representative for those who cannot speak for themselves. Schiavo is a living individual who is not brain-dead or in a coma. She can breathe on her own, blink her eyes, laugh, cry and create audible noises with her vocal chords. She has a pair of loving parents to care for her, a brother who loves her and the support of her friends. Her fault, however, is that she cannot feed herself. The part of her brain that controlled that ability has been damaged beyond repair.
This has become a national issue because if we are going to allow a husband to remove nutrients and water from his dependent wife, then what else will we allow? Thousands of babies born each year are completely dependent not only upon feeding tubes, but also upon respirators and a full-time staff just to make sure they survive through the day. These babies have no written or living will. They have no voice.
They are helpless. So what if one of these infants’ parents decides that the probability of their child ever fully developing is far less than they deem desirable. They have bills to pay, things to do and a life to live after all. Ask any doctor or nurse what they would do in this situation, and I guarantee you, they would not happily skip over to the infant’s incubator and pull the tubes out of the wall, then shake the parent’s hand saying, “Better luck next time!” Doctors fight every day for their patients’ lives. Their business is saving lives, not picking and choosing who deserves to live or die. That is God’s job. Whether you believe in God or not, what right has man to take away innocent life?
It also could potentially influence decisions made concerning the elderly. This is especially evident in those senior citizens who have been placed in homes by their family members or are hospice patients. The elderly often require life-sustaining medical treatments, therapy, long-term care or even a personal nurse. They are still living, breathing beings who have lived incredible lives.
Simply because their bodies are growing old and possibly deteriorating into such a state that would leave them dependent upon other people or machines, does this give anyone else the right to speak for them? Some people say finance is an issue that causes them to sway their opinion in the direction of Schiavo’s husband, who spent some of the $2 million malpractice suit he won in his wife’s name on her medical expenses. However, human life is worth far more than any material object, including the almighty dollar.
While I understand that this article may be read after the life of Terri Schiavo has ended, it is her life, not her death that is worth examining. If a human being can be deprived of nutrition and hydration due to laws or decrees ordained by the government of the United States, it is a very sad thing indeed.
The fight is about the right to life — a life that any human being should have the right to live. In World War II, we condemned Hitler for extinguishing the lives of those who were too young or too old, too weak or too sick — yet we will say that the life of someone who is alive, just not very functional, is not a true ‘person’ or human being because they cannot communicate normally.
Since when does another human being, institution or society have the right to determine whether an individual lives? The Declaration of Independence states, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
It is the obligation, the responsibility and the duty of not only the government, but also of each American citizen, to ensure that our rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are endowed to every individual — regardless of their state of health. Everyone deserves to have the chance of life that is given to them — and everyone includes Terri Schiavo.
Submitted 3-31-2005
MALIBU, CA
