Document text
Ashland, Oregon HOME Valley & State Sports Nation & World Opinion/Editorial Classifieds Business Columnists Local Issues Obituaries Weather Archive Revels Etcetera Backpage Hot Topics Most Viewed Forum Photo Galleries Video Readers Polls O-Zone Online Games Movie Preview Special Sections Real Estate Guide Menu Guide Shakespeare Subscribe Contact Us Rate Card Place an Ad April 4, 2005 Culture of life, culture of death The working premise of social and Christian conservatives asserts that something must be done about our runaway judiciary and its grip of power over life and death. The courts' unwillingness to order Terri Schiavo's feeding tube be reconnected represents a culture of death trumping what President Bush, when commenting on the Schiavo case, called the "culture of life." It is a judicial trend, according to the social and religious conservatives, that must be reversed. Focus on the Family's Dr. James Dobson said the judges that heard the appeals of Schiavo's parents to save her life were not only "guilty of judicial malfeasance but of cold-hearted extermination of an innocent life." Perkins stated that "It is a tragic, unfortunate but avoidable event that should awaken Americas to the problem of the courts. It is no longer theoretical. It is life or death." Rep. Tom DeLay of Texas threatened retribution against the judges who ruled against the Shindler family. The social and religious conservatives point to a trend of specific, highly publicized life and death cases. In 1976, the parents of Karen Ann Quinlan, won the right to disconnect her respirator after it was determined that she was in an irreversible coma. In 1990, the parents of Nancy Cruzan, brain damaged and in a deep coma, won the right to forgo further treatment. In 1997, Oregon passed the Death With Dignity Act (the Supreme Court will soon hear a challenge by the Bush administration). Today, all 50 states allow some form of living will or other kind of end-of-life directive regarding individual care. The problem, as initially framed by the Schiavo case, was that Terri Schiavo had no written declaration regarding her care - only the word of her husband who represented unequivocally that Schiavo would not want to be kept in a prolonged vegetative state. Her parents disagreed and hence this very personal battle was fought out in the courts and on the political and media stage. However, for all of the maneuvering by groups and politicians who have blatantly used Schiavo to further various agendas, the underlying implications are much greater and perhaps ominous. If you take the "culture of life" ideology to its ultimate conclusion, individuals do not have the right to make a determination regarding how much care (or absence of same) they want at the end of their lives. As long as a heart beats then it would be murder to not use all available medical technology to sustain life. Life, according to this line of reasoning, trumps the patient's wish to die with a modicum of dignity. And the courts, according to DeLay et al. have a duty to become involved if a family or the medical profession attempts to do otherwise. In other words, the agenda of the evangelical/ Christian conservatives is to reconfigure the judiciary (to include Bush's nominations to the Supreme Court) to reflect their values. And their values include an amendment to prohibit gay marriage, to allow religious icons and the ten commandments in federal buildings, teach creationism in schools, and promote "the culture of life" meaning to outlaw abortion, keep patients such as Schiavo alive, dismantle Oregon's Death With Dignity Act, as well as prohibit stem-cell research. They just need a judiciary that will support these moral values. That is the broader subtext of this sad and calculated morality play surrounding Terri Schiavo. The Quinlan-Cruzon-Schiavo trend and the courts support of an individual's right to die with dignity is correct. A person's wishes should always be the final determiner in deciding end-of-life care. But then it should also be the right of individuals to legally marry whomever they choose; extensive and urgent research using stem cells should be ongoing; the ten commandments and attendant icons belong only in places of worship; and good science rather than creationism should guide our schools' curricula. --> Copyright © 2006 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers. All Rights Reserved.