We're All Nazis Now

A warning, friends, this is my essay on the passion of Terri Schindler Schiavo. I know most of you on my e-list will disagree with my perspective, some of you vigorously I'm sure. For some others, a lot of what I write below will seem merely redundant, but I just had to stop what I was doing and write this.

I've followed this case on the net for several years, and I've always thought to myself, "How sad," but I admit I had other priorities. I comforted myself, whenever pangs of guilt over my indifference struck, that surely someone, some judge somewhere would put a stop to this travesty before it ever went too far. This past weekend focused my attention, as I'm sure it did for lots of other citizens. Now I am convinced, especially after watching the press conference by Michael Schiavo's lawyer on Friday afternoon (3/18), that this is a case where pure evil is winning a battle against life.

I'm not a particularly religious person, although I was raised by parents who were devout. I didn't follow them in their faith, but I did gain from them a strong sense of what constitutes decent and moral behavior. The removal of Terri Schiavo's feeding tube is not an abstract issue for me, since my dad had a feeding tube inserted that prolonged his life for perhaps a year. We all had second thoughts as we watched him in that last year, but we also all agreed that removing it was not going to happen. He died two years ago this coming, Easter Sunday, so my personal pain at this anniversary moment is a good reminder about what's really involved here. The person who was my father was enfeebled and largely not himself, but he was still a person, a living person. My dad was still inside his failing body, and we, his family were not going to kill him by starving him to death. I was the furthest removed, and the least religious, but even I didn't suffer from the hubristic impulse to "pull the plug." Fortunately, when his time came around, I was seasoned enough to know that when there's no belief in a higher power, or anything greater than human reason, it's pretty easy to start playing god with other people's lives. To his family, when my dad died was a matter between him and his God.

Now before those of you on the other side go off on the "this is a private family decision" rant, as was my family's, here's the difference: The various Schindler-Schiavo family members/factions are irreconcilably divided over what to do for Terri. At the point when one side of her family felt compelled to take the case to a court of law, Terri's treatment ceased to be an entirely private family matter. And the facts of Terri's case are still in dispute. Her actual diagnosis and prognosis are much litigated, but remain unsettled — i.e., despite the many assertions by Democrat advocates on Sunday night, and by way too many in the chattering classes since, she is apparently not in the so-called persistent vegetative state — at the very least, insufficient medical testing has been done to meet the "beyond a reasonable doubt" standard. She can breathe on her own, she can respond to stimuli on some limited basis, she is not terminally ill, she is not at what would normally be the end of her life, and she doesn't require more heroic medical intervention than assistance in eating. How many disabled, physically challenged American citizens are out there in the same situation?

On the other hand, the husband's behavior, motives and financial interests are certainly questionable. Michael Schiavo is not a nice guy. According to the most reliable sources (i.e., all news outlets I checked agree on the following), he already received a medical malpractice settlement for her condition, and there may be an outstanding insurance claim that he wants, especially since he's "moved on" and has two kids by another woman. In any event, his testimony that she would not want to live this way is mere hearsay evidence, which is not legally admissible in any court except, apparently, the one holding Terri's life in the balance.

Haven't we all said to friends or family, upon witnessing someone in Terri's circumstances, "I wouldn't want to live like that," but does a casual declaration made in the moment really have the standing of a will? Heaven help me if I am held to account for statements I made in my twenties. No one, not a single soul, wants to live in such circumstances, but does that mean we start making room in our nursing homes if we can find a family member who will consent to a "mercy" killing? Shall we fling open the prison gates and liberate Kervorkian?

This is where the evil comes in: Terri's so-called — but in reality, estranged — husband, and his attorneys, are so determined to kill this woman that he, by his own admission, even turned down an offer of a million dollars to give up guardianship to Terri's parents. Not that there isn't a money interest on Mr. Schiavo's part, only for now the state court has sealed those records. But that contemptible, despicable, little worm of an attorney, Mr. George Felos, Esq., is one sick bastard. I don't know anything about him. Like all of the players in this drama, there are many accusations against him recorded on the internet, but I don't accept much of what I read there. I do know how his performance before the television cameras made him look, and how he made me feel as he went on and on. This man is insane, he is unplugged from any normal human feeling or judgment. Never in my life have I looked so directly into the eyes of evil. If this is who wants to kill Terri Schiavo, then I'm absolutely against it, rock solid.

Mr. Felos, Esq., did accomplish one thing, however, by naming the names of some prominent Democrat senators (starting with Hitlery). He was practically screaming that the Congress should get out of the way so Terri can be killed. It takes big brass ones, or a demented mind, or both to call Congressional actions "thuggery." By screeching that if they allowed Congressional intervention in the case to go forward, "the Democrat party deserves to remain the minority party, even to disappear," Mr. Felos made more than a few politicians squirm, no doubt. I noticed with a great sense of irony that only Tom Harkin appeared to represent Democrat senators on this issue over the weekend, and hiding in her hole somewhere was Ms. Rodham.

I also watched as much of the Congressional debate on Sunday night (3/20) as I could stomach — it was riveting stuff for the politically-minded. Here's what struck me about that exercise: The save-Terri advocates were debating from a perspective of fundamental rights, first of all the right to life. These members of the government believe that government exists to protect and preserve the right to life of citizens. They used, quite properly, the provision of the Constitution (Article III, Section 1.) that directs Congress to set the jurisdictions of the courts, in order to allow for a full, Federal review of the issues in this case, particularly with respect to Terri Schindler Schiavo's 14th Amendment rights to due process of law. The point of their advocacy was to be sure that a murder is not being committed.

The Congresscritters on the other side of the argument — it's not quite fair to call them the kill-Terri advocates, but that's what they are functionally — were.... Well, I've sat here at my computer for over an hour trying to find words to describe the advocates against preserving Terri's life, and for once words fail me. The temper of their arguments was impassioned, many impugned the motives of the pro-lifers, but as politicians will do, they raised some slick political arguments in favor of letting her die. To me, they and their arguments seemed petty, and overly legalistic — you know, that splitting of technical hairs, that gives lawyers the collective reputation they so richly deserve. Ultimately, the advocates against revealed themselves as shockingly cavalier about allowing a vulnerable, innocent citizen to die by design.

Parenthetically, I am struck by how many Jewish-Americans, at least among the Florida Congressional delegation and the tv talking heads, are on the side of allowing this killing to go forward. Given the received history of the Holocaust, I should think they would be among the strongest supporters of the Congressional bill. And I saw a couple of African-American representatives stand up to argue against Federal review of a state court's execution of a death warrant. Again, I am speechless.^[1]

I must say a word about the implications of this case. I think the storm over Terri has grown beyond her personal fate now. This is America's first collective ethical confrontation with the runaway technology we have had such a hand in creating. In my lifetime I have seen the social order I was born into dissolve before the onslaught of the artificial and the contrived. Frankenstein is no longer metaphor enough. As we more and more compete for the natural resources of our fragile planet, not only among ourselves, but more ominously against our technological stepchild, judgments over the fates of countless other Terri's will have to be decided.

At the same time, our political and social institutions seem to have all collapsed. What has always distinguished and elevated Western civilization, and especially America, is our traditional emphasis on the value of the individual person as a unique and autonomous being. Now the alien idea that euthanasia is acceptable, so long as there is governmental imprimatur and a willing family member to cover a bureaucrat's or a judge's ass, seems to have seduced a majority of citizens. That this poor soul has burst onto the national consciousness bespeaks a tragic failure of our laws, our courts and our judges. Our press, our leaders, and our priests as well. The economy and our borders already reek of a latter day Weimar Republic. America is becoming Holland right before my eyes.

Tonight I reach for the keyboard out of respect for the Schindler family. Frankly, I would much rather reach for a rope. If the American herd needs to be culled, I know where to start, Mr. Felos, Judge Greer, Mr. Schiavo. Of course I won't do any such thing, and that is what distinguishes civilized people from these three ghouls.

So what is the hurry to cut off Terri's food and water, and cause her to die, especially when her blood relatives are willing to assume all responsibility for her care? I can appreciate that the "husband" of Terri Schiavo has the most venal motives. What depresses me is that there appears to be a majority in America, a substantial majority, even among the ostensibly religious, that is willing to allow what amounts to a murder of convenience. I will admit that all laws are imperfect, and that justice is rare and fleeting. I know America was never a perfect utopia. After all, Margaret Sanger gave Hitler his lessons in eugenics. Maybe my memory, or my knowledge of history, is faulty, but wasn't it the much-reviled Nazis that started this kind of legally sanctioned eugenic killing?

If Terri Schindler Schiavo is killed, nominally by judicial fiat, actually by our collective willingness to look away, then we - all Americans - are Nazis now. Are we not?