You Have to Hand it to Them

From CNN:

As Congress considered legislation today that could lead to the re-insertion of Terri Schiavo's feeding tube, her mother urged members to set politics aside. "Please gentleman, don't use this bill as your own personal agenda," Mary Schindler said. Shortly after on Capitol Hill, House Republicans delayed a possible vote and scrambled for support in the face of Democratic opposition.

This is accompanied by a picture of Mrs. Schindler looking like a martyr before the cameras, all these religiously frocked people laying their hands on her as she speaks, directly in front of a lovely sign that says "Auschwitz Pinellas Park Division."

I'm not a Jew but I'm deeply offended by that comment. Comparing the Schiavo case to the extermination of six million plus Jews, Catholics, dissidents, and others in Nazi death camps is a bit extreme, even for the nut crowd.

I'm also offended by CNN's constant postering on this... the carefully chosen images that are clearly meant to evoke sympathy toward one side alone, the dramatic words from the mother telling Congress to set partisanship aside (which is ridiculous given that it's a particular agenda that's allowing this to consume Congress and the White House alone), just before they wrap it up by making the Dems seem like the bad guys.

Faux, of course, was worse. The two times I've turned on the station since Friday, they refer to it as "starving to death a young woman" (who's 40 who hasn't said a word, felt deep pain stimulus, recognized when she's peeing or defecating, or lived a moment of life in fifteen years). But all of the channels are making the husband and the court seem like executioners.

Meanwhile the judge in Florida who has been handling this case with careful consideration for more than five years - a man described as socially conservative and deeply religious - is receiving death threats and threats to remove him from the bench. Why?

That's a rhetorical question: most of the "don't abort fetuses but go ahead and execute minor children" crowd is very happy to inflict death in many cases. They're the ones who love to see fourteen-year-olds sentenced to death, who wouldn't pay an extra tax penny to feed a hungry child unless they see an angle in it, and among whom doctors who practice proper gynecology and obstetrics are targeted for murder.

Some of the abortion changes drafted in the last few years NO LONGER weight the life of the mother in risky pregnancies as a major factor in determining whether a termination of pregnancy can take place. The intent here is to weight the fetus, an incomplete human being, as worthy of more protection than the mother and having more rights than the mother.

But aside from all this crap comes one simple issue: the court has repeatedly recognized (and appeal courts upheld) that the woman's husband serves her best interests as guardian, that there is sufficient case to believe that she would not have wanted to live in this state, that all reasonable medical evidence indicates there is no hope for recovery, and that we have 15 years of evidence that she will not progress.

This is a private family decision. Every day in this country, families face it. Not everyone agrees with the decision ultimately made but courts don't have to recognize anyone but the accepted guardian. Congress, the president, and all those people touring this woman's room have no right to interfere.

Unless you want Congress to tell you how to live and die and what choice you make for your loved ones, I think we need to be sending a message to them that's it time to leave this case alone.