Moments
I don’t really care about Terri Schiavo. I know that I should care, in the same way that I should care about murders and injustices everywhere, but I find it very hard to get exercised about Schiavo herself. There are so many distractions: I have to work on taxes; we’ve underbilled for the month and only have one day to catch up; and I’m finally reading Quicksilver, and Hell, I went to Easter Mass — doesn’t that count for something? Evidently not enough.
But then I look at my daughter, and I wonder if the Schindlers worried, when Terri was not yet two, that someday they would fight a protracted legal battle against her husband, each claiming to represent her authentic wishes. Thirty years ago — I’m sure they didn’t. But I wonder about it, and try to imagine being in the Schindlers’ position.
Or even in Michael Schiavo’s position. I have a more cordial relation with my in-laws than he did while Terri was still walking around, but it could certainly happen that I’d feel myself obliged to carry out my wife’s wishes (which have been clearly expressed but not in writing) while being opposed by her parents.
There is so much misery intrinsic in the case that I wonder why so many strangers and outsiders (I must include myself in this group) feel the need to add to it. Is it because we fear that we will be pressed into acting in a case like this? And not particularly in the role of Terri, since as the estimable Brer Fox writes:
Do whatever’s cheapest / easiest / makes you feel better, I won’t care, I’ll be dead. And if my lack of a living will creates havoc on an international scale? Well, that’s too bad, I guess, but I will still be (quite literally) unable to care.
No, it’s not Terri’s role that I worry about filling. As in a passion play, the role I want to avoid — and yet the role I know I deserve — is Pilate’s
I have to admit that I’m not sympathetic to the arguments regarding federalism and the sanctity of process. As many others have pointed out, federalism and process were used to justify slavery and segregation; and it does not seem unconservative to me to claim that human rights should trump states’ rights. But again, conservatively, I do not see the need for urgent action here; a simple federal clarification of the process for resolving disputed right-to-die cases would help in the future.
Nothing is going to help in the present matter. Except perhaps prayer.
Can I tell you something? You, my stalkers, my two regular readers, and all the search engines out there? I’m uncomfortable talking about it, as it seems excessively Baptist, but at Easter, I prayed for all the sorry people involved in this. Yea, for Michael, and for the parents, and for all them all. Even including Terri, though she seemed to need it least. And it did help; anyway, it helped me.