Ashtray Monument

by

For all the endless cigarettes, cups of coffee, wrenching blog posts, and television talking heads taken in and tossed aside in the past few weeks, here is the true lesson of the Schiavo case:

In the three decades since the Karen Ann Quinlan case, there have been only a few big legal battles over the "right to die." Alan Meisel, a University of Pittsburgh law professor, said only one case in several thousand winds up in litigation — hardly a legal crisis. "Schiavo is the exception that proves the rule: We haven’t had a lot of agonizing cases," said Bruce Fein, a former Reagan administration lawyer.

Ms. Schiavo isn’t evidence that the system is broke.  An unjust result in this one case — if it is indeed unjust result — does not indicate an unjust system.  Indeed, the fact that Ms. Schiavo remains a lonely example shows that the system is working.

But what of all the ink and images and words spilled?  The presence of television cameras at one woman’s bedside does not create a national crisis.  A thousand wrathful blogposts will not alter the fact that the current laws already "err on the side of life."  A hard case is not evidence that the law needs reforming.  It is only a hard case. 

No good will come from pushing sheriffs and judges and bureaucrats further into the hospital room.  Life will not be sustained or improved by making the private anguish of a patient and her family the subject of public debate (and scorn, for those whom we — in our instant and distant wisdom — decide to be the "bad guys"). 

Leave end of life decisions where they have always been:  with the victim and her family. 

12 thoughts on “Ashtray Monument”

  1. I went to a bunch of openings last night and plenty of people were discussing Terri’s death. Again and again I heard responses like this one from a good friend:

    And I was in the lunch room and there up on the large screen is the news that she had died and my first response is “what am I supposed to do with that?” I don’t know this woman. I don’t have any right to know this much about her or her family. I don’t want to know this much about her or her family. Why is this in my face?

    The New York Times echoed this in what I think is one of the most beautiful editorials they’ve ever published:

    In the case of Terri Schiavo, the whole world witnessed what happens when that natural emotional frailty is taken captive by politics.
    It was awful, and according to the polls, the American public shrank from the sight of it.
    What little we know about Terri Schiavo – the person, as opposed to the videotape – tells us that she would have been appalled by the last weeks of her life. What worse nightmare could a rather shy and affectionate young woman conjure up than 15 years of lingering unconsciousness, in which the entire globe became intimately familiar with the sight of her wasted limbs while the people she loved most engaged in a vicious court fight for control of her body?

    Those who can watch all this and then turn around and see fit to pontificate about the details are hideous in my eyes. This is not my business. This is not their business.

  3. If only your most reasonable point would have some impact on this debate.
    The religious right prefers to embrace the “killed” and “murdered” meme, so reason directed at them will fall not just on deaf ears, but will be drowned out by the bullhorns shouting “killer” and “murderer.”
    Bush’s “political capital” derives largely from this crowd of investors, so expect him to exploit their anger in the looming judge confirmation fight.

  5. Von, nice post, and a particularly apropos title. Great song from a great album. “A life spent waiting in cement” seems like a good description of Mrs. Schiavo’s last years.
    No one ever said that this life was easy.

  8. Great post, von, and true.. oh so true….
    But what makes this whole tragic affair so awful to have to contemplate and deal with this is fact that while it IS, really “none of our business” (actually, our business, i.e., the collective “us” and our families’ “business”, and ours only) – it is the fact that the unfortunate Terri Schiavo’s situation has been seized on and exploited by a huge, well-organized and well-financed bloc of political obsessives for their own policy ends – and ONLY that fact that has made it the “business” of the public. AS it should not have been, and still should not be. But, alas, I really don’t think that is to be.
    Oh, and dmbeaster, your line:
    “If only your most reasonable point would have some impact on this debate”
    is quite true, achingly so, but still prompted me to think of Goya’s famous caption:
    El sueño de la razon produce monstruos
    I hope at SOME of us can still stay awake.

  10. Good post, but the Fein quote is disturbing.
    “We haven’t had a lot of agonizing cases”
    Aren’t they all agonizing? Hell, they all involve the death of a family member. Fein only relates to ‘public agonizing’ which is a nice way of saying ‘political circus’. What a jerk.

  11. von, while I can’t disagree with your sentiments, I have to part ways on your idealism. Too much Mad magazine in my youth has red-lined my cynicism tachometer.
    It appears that the circus is planning a return engagement.

  12. DeLay is flogging this one like crazy, too: he’s promising the House will hold hearings on ‘judicial reform,’ with an eye to setting ‘guidelines’ (for Congressional review of judicial decisions, and sanctions against judges who fail the review) which will no doubt be very amusing.
    I wonder whether the ‘reforms’ will just come out and say ‘All judicial decisions must conform to current Republican interpretations of Christian Scripture.’

Comments are closed.