Terri Schaivo Post Mortem.
The autopsy report on Terri Schaivo came out yesterday. I suppose that I should, since I wrote so freely and vociferously about her while she was being killed, say something now that her body has been examined.
To be honest, though, there isn’t much I can say. The autopsy found much brain damage – not the “sack of fluid” that we were told time and again was there – but can’t tell us whether it was caused by her injury, by years of normal deterioration, by years of neglect, or by the dehydration that caused her death. The report tells us that she wasn’t bulimic – another thing we were also told repeatedly. It also told us that she didn’t have any immediate signs of physical injury like broken bones which exonerates Michael Schaivo from the most scurrilous charges leveled against him. It doesn’t explain why she could swallow her own spit but couldn’t apparently swallow liquified nourishment.
The report tells us a lot, but it also can’t tell us a lot – the important things, I think. It doesn’t tell us whether or not she deserved to die or even if she wanted us to die. It doesn’t tell us what decision we foolish, flawed human beings should take in cases like these. It doesn’t because it can’t. it’s one of those things on which science just can’t speak.
For what it’s worth, I believe that Congress did the right thin in passing the law that forced her case to a Federal Court and that the courts dropped the ball badly in not insisting on a factual review of the case. I was heartened that both Democrats and Republicans came together to try to give Terri one last fair shake in the court system. I was also discouraged by the apparent glee and vociferous determination I saw out there to kill her.
In the end, I’m not sure if we’re better or worse after Terri’s death. I know her family is worse for the experience. They no longer have a daughter and sister. I believe her husband is better off. He’s a bit richer, is free to marry with women with which he fathered two children while his wife lay in the hospice for so long, and he certainly doesn’t her around anymore to burden him. The rest of us?
Well, I don’t think we answered any questions at all, really. I think that if this happens again, we’ll startt this debate all over again. I don’t know that we’ve learned anything.
There are more comments by the Anchoress that are very much worth reading. She’s a very wise woman and her wisdom shines through very much on this issue.
No related posts.
Category: The Good Old US of A
