This case is really getting to my heart – I haven’t become this spirited about an issue for quite some time. Michael Schiavo, Mrs. Schiavo’s husband, is allowing her to slowly die since he removed her feeding tube. So far, it’s been three days since she went off the tube. Her parents are desperately trying to save her life. President Bush and both houses of Congress have become involved.
Two issues are of relevance in this case:
1) The precedent of federal intervention in a case like this. Yes, I think it’s generally bad when the federal government intervenes in a case that ought to be decided by the state. But that’s a secodary issue. The primary issue is why courts are deciding values questions such as this. The courts are not elected by the American people (in many cases). Our country, whether liberal elitists like it or not, is a rule of the majority. This case, involving such deep and crucial moral questions as the right to live, should not be a matter that the courts alone decide on. We are a nation ruled by the people and the people must decide on how the Schiavo case turns out. Let our elected officials decide the matter. If Mrs. Schiavo is allowed to die, it sets a dark precedent for our future.
2) The culture of life vs. the culture of death. It’s amazing to me the amount of people who (thoughtlessly and unreflectively) would want to die if put in Mrs. Schiavo’s position. We understand so little what life really is. Cases like this reveal our beliefs, and many (especially the “academics” who make up our courts) seem to think the human person is just a body. When it ceases to function well, why don’t we just kill it? (Notice the impersonal “it.”) Rather, the human person is body and soul. Mrs. Schiavo is alive. Her soul still functions and she may communicate. That is holy and beautiful. We can’t let her adulterous husband put her to death.
Let us pray that Mrs. Schiavo is resurrected as we celebrate the Resurrection that gives us hope…