Our office is quiet and somber this morning; we don't feel much like discussing and debating the day's events as we usually do in the morning. I would prefer to recommend the worthwhile thoughts others have written this sad morning.
The editors at National Review write about how the euphemisms employed to manipulate the courts and public opinion about Terri's case, and how dangerous these are in changing our values. They write: "...While the public may have agreed with the removal of Schiavo's feeding and hydration tube, apparently there are limits to the public's willingness to tolerate euthanasia ? and apparently its defenders recognized these limits. So we saw euphemism after euphemism deployed to cloud the issues. Perhaps chief among these was the fiction that we were 'letting her die.'
Maggie Gallagher writes about the danger of elevating the "right to die" rather than the right to life: "It's not dying, or even being killed, that scares me. It's the willingness to kill. Even more, it's the way we are transforming killing into an act of compassion, a new human right. I know what human beings are capable of. And I don't mean just other human beings; I mean myself, too. What scares me most about Terri Schiavo is how easy it is to lose the horror at killing."
Marc Thiessen draws our attention to the Pope's witness to the value of human life: "The principal task of the pope is not the effective management of the Church bureaucracy ? it is to serve as an effective witness for Christ in the world. John Paul does this more eloquently today, through his silent suffering, than he ever did with words. It does not really matter if he can use his voice intelligibly ? or at all. By carrying on, despite his afflictions, he stands as a living rebuke to our utilitarian culture ? and a living witness to the value of every life, especially the elderly and infirm."
Many have observed the irony, the coincidence, the providential timing of the Pope's illness and the starving of Terri Schiavo, the contrast of caring for the sick and killing the disabled. These are two lives that should cause us to stop, think, consider, take stock, and reorient ourselves to God's values and the best of what we ought to do.
President Bush said this morning, "The essence of civilization is that the strong have a duty to protect the weak. In cases where there are serious doubts and questions, the presumption should be in favor of life." He encouraged us to honor Terri by working to create a culture of life.
Finally, for now, Dr. Robert P. George, Princeton ethicist, offers these thoughts:
"Let us mourn, but not be discouraged. Let us forgive those who have acted wrongly in our name, even as we beg forgiveness from the Author of Life for whatever failures and delinquencies on our own parts have contributed to the culture of death. We are all sinners, and have fallen short; and the wages of sin truly are death. Let us resolve that Terri's death shall not have been in vain. In her name, let reform and renewal be our undoubted mission. Let us now, even in the depths of sorrow, rededicate ourselves to our ancient creed, affirming that every human being, as a creature fashioned in the divine image, possesses a profound, inherent, and equal worth and dignity--a worth and dignity that it is the high duty of the officers and institutions of constitutional republican government to respect and defend."
(HT: Between Two Worlds)