Chasing the Wind

One of the longest and largest threads here on Chasing the Wind is the post I made about Terri Schiavo. It’s attracted many, many visitors posting for the first time. I suspect it’s because I originally misspelled her name as Terry Schiavo until some left-wing loonie made a snide comment that right wing people can’t spell. Perhaps not, but the right-wing loonies will at least correct their mistakes. 🙂

Many issues are all brought play all at once, leaving us trying to grasp with what’s most important. Sanctity of life? Right to live? Right to die? Sanctity of marriage? Government activitists? The solutions aren’t easy, and the repercussions of court decisions will reverberate for years.

I’m going to go against the flow here, and say that the government ought to get involved. I know that runs counter to my normal position, but it appears Terri Schiavo may lose her life without due process. That’s the ultimate civil rights violation, and something the federal government is obligated to address. Wisely, the government is not writing sweeping regulations to cover this, but a specific bill to target Terri. As it should; a federal judge this morning declined to reinsert her feeding tube, so she has maybe 10 days to live.

OpinionJournal this morning points out the irony of Terri’s case hitting the federal court system in the week before Easter when Christian everywhere celebrate Christ’s resurrection, a triumph of life over death. Irony abounds; help yourself to a scoop.

Perhaps it is fitting then that this debate should reach a crescendo in the run-up to Easter, a celebration ultimately about the resurrection of life. Several high-profile events have made Americans think about life in ways they might have otherwise been able to avoid. Ashley Smith helped bring in alleged murderer Brian Nichols by convincing him that his life still had meaning, even if he should spend the rest of it behind bars. One way she did this was by reading to him from the best-selling book “A Purpose-Driven Life.” Scott Peterson was sentenced to death recently for the murder of his pregnant wife and their unborn son, Conner, who in different circumstances would have been considered a clump of cells. And Pope John Paul II’s health has made many Catholics confront the realities of growing old and frail. He has persisted in carrying out his duties, even as Parkinson’s disease is robbing him of his abilities, demonstrating that even a life much reduced has tremendous meaning.

This is the backdrop of the national stage upon which Terri Schiavo has been thrust. Her husband, Michael Schiavo, insists her life no longer has meaning and that it was her wish not to live on under such circumstances. Mr. Schaivo blames House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and other Republicans for bringing the federal government into what he sees as purely a private family matter. But this case was destined to make it into the national consciousness long before Washington politicians got involved. Her parents were never going to go along quietly with killing her. They even set up a foundation in Terri’s name to help publicize her case, raise money and provide for her care. Mrs. Schiavo isn’t a cause célèbre for Republicans. The struggle to keep her alive embodies the larger right-to-life battle millions of Americans have been fighting for decades.

How to do we wish to err? On abortion, conservatives have fought a battle for decades to err on the side of life with limited success. On the opposite end, we fight to save Terri’s life against those who want her dead. Conservatives fight against embryonic stem cell research, and against euthanasia. We fight against a “culture of death.”

During the Presidential campaign last year, Geoge Bush talked about our need to promote a “culture of life.” He was talking about anti-abortion then, but it’s a culture that has seeped throughout our society. Do we really want to take on the responsibility of when one should live and when one should die? Or should we leave that decision to the Almighty?

Promoting a culture of death degrades us. We see news stories of mass murders and wonder what kind of person would do that. Is it possible that’s the type of person our society has been cultivating? I think it’s time we stop cultivating death and focus on the sanctity of life in all its forms. Gods going to make that decision without our help anyway, so let’s not muck it up before He’s ready.