And so it ends. For Terri at least.
The repercussions of Terri Schiavo's fate will be debated for a long time & will have a profound effect on future medical & legal decisions that we have yet to imagine. There may well be changes in state laws, court procedures, medical determinations & Congressional legislation when it comes to determining who will live & who will die.
This country has drifted into a culture of death since Roe v. Wade & the unfettered abortion of millions of babies. Dr. Kevorkian, Doctor Death to his friends, further highlighted this culture with his little killing machine.
What to make of the Terri Schiavo drama itself? It is clear that she was killed when there was no good reason to kill her. Her killing came under the guise of the law & legal proceedings & thus made her killing sound all so right . But it was all so wrong. Not only did the legal system fail Terri egregiously in determining the facts of the case, but it failed her morally by refusing to take another look at those "facts" & maybe, just maybe allowing her her right to live. It would not have hurt the legal system to do so. They would still have their opportunity to kill her if a review confirmed the initial determination & it would have given the courts a firmer legal & moral basis to do so. It's not like she was going anywhere anytime soon.
Instead, she was denied a last chance to live & was put down in a manner that even dogs don't suffer. In fact, jail time or hefty fines await you if you starve a dog. She was starved & dehydrated over 13 long days. Her husband's attorney described her as "peaceful", "calm" & "more beautiful" than he's ever seen her, while she was in the throws of her starvation. He makes it sound like the glorious, peaceful death of Edward G. Robinson as Beethoven's "Pastoral" played in the background in the movie "Soylent Green."
Others contend differently. The Nazis used starvation in the concentration camps as a means of torture. You've seen the pictures. And speaking of torture, the Geneva Convention labels starvation as torture, as does Amnesty International. Naturally, the radical ACLU, which is a star player in the culture of death & who would condemn the Nazis for starvation, were on the side on putting down Terri too.
Part II of this killing story will begin to focus on those specifically responsible for her murder - accomplices, if you will.
....from sea to shining sea