Marking an anniversary

Two years ago today, a disabled woman -- who could make responsive sounds but not sentences, who smiled at friends but was wary of strangers, who brightened up at John Denver songs, who laughed to hear a familiar voice on the phone, who had a family who wanted to take her into their embrace and care for her -- died after her adulterous 'husband' got a probate judge to rule in favor of her being starved and dehydrated.

Law enforcement let her down; instead of protecting her life, police helped keep her friends and family and clergy from even giving her ice chips to suck on to ease her suffering, even after the suffering became acute. Government let her down, starting with the judge who made it possible for her to be deprived of the barest necessities of life. The press let her down, portraying her as a vegetable at best. (Now, being a John Denver fan might not be overly sophisticated, but c'mon.) Feminists let her down; if ever there was a time to protest a man's treatment of a woman this was it; he had chosen and publicly announced his next wife but wouldn't cede control of the first. Her bishop let her down, too, not putting his weight behind Catholic teachings to fight for the defenseless and defend the dignity of human life, not to mention the call to love even when that loving calls for self-sacrifice; worse than that, he put out statements contrary to church teaching, giving ammo to the people who wanted to starve her.

What happened to Terri Schiavo was inexcusable.

It was also a wake-up call. I don't know if you had imagined that health care and courts and legislatures had people in them campaigning for the view that a handicapped life wasn't worth living, much less campaigning successfully. I hadn't. I was still walking around assuming that a doctor who thought there wasn't much more he could do would say "I'm sorry, there isn't anything else I can do." The idea of a doctor who decided that since he couldn't make you as well as he'd like you would be better off dead simply didn't occur to me, much less that any doctor would think he had a right or even duty to hurry things along. And even in my nightmares I don't think I could have conjured up judges to provide doctors and nurses with legal cover if they actually caused death. I wouldn't have thought that withholding food and water from a living creature, much less a human, would ever be sanctioned, much less legal in the case of humans, much less the weapon of choice of the death-defeats-difficulties crowd.

I also assumed that the law would never side with a husband who wanted his wife killed and asked someone else to arrange it. That a husband can do this amazes me. That the person to whom he goes to arrange it is a judge worries me. (Not personally. I don't have that sort of husband. But in general, it definitely worries me. Where are you supposed to go for protection after judges get in the habit of signing death decrees for people not on death row? It seems a bit too much like a woman going in for a restraining order and the judge siding with the stalker and having the bailiff do her in. Well, no, maybe not. But you get the picture? You see why I'm concerned?)

We are not talking about not doing some fancy futile thing for a person in the final days of her life here. I can understand not throwing everything imaginable at a person who is terminal and wants to die in peace, naturally and without interference. By all means, more people should be allowed to die in peace, naturally and without intervention. For that matter, I support the rights of anyone to forgo any medical procedure or treatment they want to forgo, minor, major, or in between, for whatever reason or none at all, whether they are dying or not. I support the right of guardians to draw the line on medical care they don't think is appropriate for someone who isn't capable of deciding amongst options for herself. But that's not what happened with Terri Schiavo and that's not what we're talking about here. We are talking about cutting a life short by taking deliberate action to make living impossible. And getting away with it. Openly.

I thought my country was better than this.

I think it can be.

But we have a long way to go.

At least these days, due in large part to the family and friends of Terri Schiavo, there are more places a disabled person can turn if he finds himself fighting for his life, faced off against people who see the downsides of disabilities but look right past the person coping with trouble.

In addition to other efforts, there are coalitions of bloggers dedicated to helping get the word out if anyone finds he needs public support in a right-to-life case. Blogs for Terri, organized to fight for her life, is still in business. ProLifeBlogs.com is also in the fight.