by Matt Barr

In the wake of Terri Schiavo

As the news channels sift through the remains of the Terri Schiavo story, I heard two things I'd said on this blog. And I haven't said much about Ms. Schiavo. (I'm not crowing or regarding myself as smart or anything, as you'll see if you read on.)

The President said:

Today millions of Americans are saddened by the death of Terri Schiavo. Laura and I extend our condolences to Terri Schiavo's families. I appreciate the example of grace and dignity they have displayed at a difficult time. I urge all those who honor Terri Schiavo to continue to work to build a culture of life, where all Americans are welcomed and valued and protected, especially those who live at the mercy of others.

That phrase, "at the mercy of others," is the one that forced itself to the front of my mind when I first posted on the matter. Ms. Schiavo's wishes were not memorialized in a signed writing. You can argue that "in writing" isn't some magical legitimacy-inducing prophylaxis, and that you can rely on other methods of getting to what someone wanted or intended. But if you do, as I mentioned in the linked post, you have to wonder why wills in the state of Florida require three signatures and a notary. No one's life is at stake when you're deciding where someone's stuff is going to end up, most of the time, anyway.

Because we didn't have proof, defined to the standard Florida uses for wills, of Ms. Schiavo's wishes, I argued the default position should be life. The most horrible deprivation of liberty I can imagine is to have your life in the hands of others. If there was someone willing to care for Ms. Schiavo -- and I heard somewhere there was -- she should have been turned over to them as an exercise in imaginative restraint.

I won't go rooting around for a transcript, but the other thing I heard was Randall Terry making the same point I make in this post. (Not with regard to Andrew Sullivan, I mean the larger point.) Normally I wouldn't point out that Mr. Terry and I agree on something, but we happen to be right, even if one of us is a nut. While I'm at it, those hectoring Congress in protest of "government intervention in a private matter" need to reacquaint themselves with the fact that the judiciary is a branch of government. It's also a coequal one. An independent judiciary is a staple of a free, functioning republic, but if we start attributing godlike omnipotence to it we risk succumbing to tyranny.

My final thought on this matter is the one I posted here. Elaboration on it seems unnecessary. If you are going to order someone killed ("allowed to die," if you insist), then order the end of their life hastened painlessly. Starving and dehydrating to death over nearly two weeks is barbaric, and there is no justification for it other than letting the people who wanted this result better sleep at night. And it was all about Terri, not them. Right?

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