The Case of Terri Schiavo

Where There is a Will There is a Way

Space is not the final frontier. I believe science is the final frontier. I am convinced that the longer we inhabit this planet, the more complicated life becomes. A nation seems divided on the Terri Schiavo's case. It is gonna take a whole lot of love to get this thing right. At the heart of the matter, is a right to die issue but in this case it is her proxie's interpretation of her right to die in her stead. Another problem is our fleeting existence on this planet. Human beings are not reliable informants on what embodies life or what constitutes the right to die. Our embryonic beginning cannot attest to life's commencement and our last breath cannot punctuate the mystery of death. The right to die has become as much of a question as the timeless controversary over when life actually begins. We still haven't settled that score. In our ire, we bomb abortion clinics over the pro choice vs. pro life battle. There is almost as much fallout from the Terri Schiavo case. This case has divided a family, sparked the nation into water-cooler to religious debate, and will now force the gaveled hand of judicial power.

I have asked myself, would I be able to remove Terri Schiavo's feeding tube if I were her assigned nurse? Negative. Nope. Nada. Not any more than taking employment as an executioner during the French Revolution. Some argue that without man's interference Terry Schiavo was last alive 15 years ago. I am not sure what conclusively constitutes life, a vegative state, or death myself. I have had visitors to my place of employment question why my developmentally disabled clients are being kept alive. One such visitor surveyed the room full of non-ambulatory, non-verbal, medically frail people. He offered up a quick dismissal.

"What an absolute waste of human resources." he commented.

"Consider yourself fortunate." I told that same auditor of life. But I wasted my breath, the same indictment he rendered life on any other planet but his own.

Just because roses cannot be kept in constant bloom doesn't mean you stop watering the rose bush. The reason I work with this clientele is because people who love them can keep them alive. Love needs no affidavit any more than the end of life deserves a subpoena to remove a feeding tube or a judge's landmark order not to reinsert it. People experience life on different levels of existence. We can put a man on the moon and probes in the far reaches of space but humans with all their extraordinary science still can't agree on when life begins and if or when life should end. There is a sad irony and poor commentary on life, in court-ordering the removal of a feeding tube from Terri Schiavo who suffered from an eating disorder. Sustenance and breath are the umbilical cords of life but so is personal choice. Maybe humans were never meant to be in a position to meddle with those things or maybe since science and technology can manipulate life and death we ought to continue to tinker. I do not know if we should. I only know we will because that is the conquistador nature of human beings. One other thing is for sure. One of these days in the not so distant future, I will get around to drawing up a Living Will. Live or die, Terri Schiavo can teach us all that lesson.