I haven’t blogged Terri Schiavo, largely because I can’t get my own feelings clear on the issue. Fortunately, fellow blogger Russell Arben Fox has done the work for me in a magnificent post today entitled "Frayed Garment." Russell and I share, at least in many ways, a commitment to the consistent-life ethic — what is often called the "seamless garment" approach to life issues.
In his post, Russell relies on John Paul II’s Ecclesia in America (1999). An excerpt that Russell cites is particularly fine:
Nowadays, in America as elsewhere in the world, a model of society appears to be emerging in which the powerful predominate, setting aside and even eliminating the powerless: I am thinking here of unborn children, helpless victims of abortion; the elderly and incurably ill, subjected at times to euthanasia; and the many other people relegated to the margins of society by consumerism and materialism. Nor can I fail to mention the unnecessary recourse to the death penalty when other bloodless means are sufficient to defend human lives against an aggressor and to protect public order and the safety of persons….
I’m with His Holiness on that one. I want you to read all of Russell’s piece on Schiavo, but this bit stood out. I can’t remember the last time I read something by a blogging colleague that made me say,"Yes, that’s exactly it." Russell concludes:
Those teen-agers with the red tape over their mouths, silently shouting "Life!" to those who pass by–I would not critique the purity of their intent for a moment. But when the movement which makes use of their intentions is one which separates concern for the unborn from concern for the born, which disaggregates social policy governing feeding tubes from that which governs food stamps, which rushes to engage the federal government to give Terri Schiavo every therapeutic measure, but provides no therapy for those who already lack such…well, perhaps what we have here isn’t wrongheadedness, isn’t crass manipulation, but defect. Something cultish, engaged in a selective and derivative witnessing, rather than something broad and decent. I defer to no one in my horror of abortion, but to make abortion and abortion alone (or euthanasia and euthanasia alone, or even just this case or that case but not all the sundry–and expensive!–cases in between) the measure of one’s seamless garment of life is to wear something frayed and threadbare.
Jeez, that last sentence alone made me sit up at my desk and cheer.
The one positive thing to come from this is that, according to reports I heard on the radio this weekend, more people are realizing the need to write a living will so that there is documentation of how they want issues such as this handled. It’s not enough any more to just tell your family and friends. You have to have it written, notarized, and filed with your doctor(s).
It depends on your state. Every state’s rules are different. Some require a notary, some require witnesses. Some don’t require you to “have it filed with your doctor” (which wouldn’t do much in a case where you are in a hospital other than the one affiliated with your doctor, anyway).
I wish they gave me a cut for recommending them, but they don’t: Nolo Press (www.nolo.com) has excellent books and free resources for this kind of thing.
There’s all kinds of paperwork–wills, guardianships, medical directives–that we all should have, and too many don’t. The results are as predictable as they are heartbreaking.
My problem with this is people who say, “Well, I know I’D never want to go on living that way,” and then use that as their defense for pulling out her tube. It doesn’t matter what WE would do in that situation; we need proof (not assumptions) that SHE doesn’t wish to go on living, or else it CANNOT BE REFERRED TO AS A RIGHT-TO-DIE case, since we wouldn’t know for sure if she wants the right to die…
> Some don’t require you to “have it filed with your
> doctor” (which wouldn’t do much in a case where
> you are in a hospital other than the one
> affiliated with your doctor, anyway).
Although not all states require you have such documentation on file with your doctor, and not in all circumstances would you be in a hospital associated with your doctor, having it on file in your doctor’s office as well as with family members would show legally that what is in the document is indeed what you wished done. It would help to show forethought.