Bush's "culture of life"
White House spokesman Scott McClellan is quoted as saying: "The president believes we ought to be building a culture of life in America. ... The president believes that our society, our laws and our courts ought to have a presumption in favor of life, particularly in cases like this where serious questions and doubts are raised."
Try telling these 442 men and women on Texas' death row about George W. Bush's culture of life. Tell them about the "presumption in favor of life" that Texas laws and courts supposedly maintain.
The "case" McClellan was speaking about is that of Terri Schiavo, the comatose woman whose doctors confirm she is in a persistant vegetative state - a completely unresponsive state that has not changed in years. There is no hope for improvement, her doctors agree. Mrs. Schiavo indicated to her husband (who is legally obligated to pay her medical bills) that she would not want to be artificially kept alive in such a state. Mrs. Schiavo's parents have contested this, and have fought (and lost) repeated battles in court to keep Terry on a feeding tube. The Florida legislature and governor have attempted to create laws specifically to keep this one woman on life support indefinitely. Now the US Congress is using its scarce time to get its politcal hands into the mud.
A president who governed the most bloodthirsty state in the union and who presided over the executions of more than 150 men and women has no moral authority to speak of "presumptions in favor of life" in the legal system. A Republican party that is led by Texans and outspokenly in favor of capital punishment has no business legislating the fate of one woman against her own and her husband's mutual wishes.
Apparently the presumptions of life and Republican culture of life only involve fetuses and invalids. What hypocrisy!
Addendum: I should also point out that many Democrats who participated in this bipartisan meddling are by no means free of hypocrisy - though Hillary Clinton has gone on the record describing abortion as a terrible tragedy, one that our nation should strive to make as rare as possible while not resorting to criminalization, many Democrats still come across as nearly celebrating abortion. The suggestion that abortion is ever anything less than tragic, while at the same time legislatively tinkering in the lives of the Schiavos is every bit as ghoulish and hypocritical as the posturing of the pro-death penalty Republicans.
Try telling these 442 men and women on Texas' death row about George W. Bush's culture of life. Tell them about the "presumption in favor of life" that Texas laws and courts supposedly maintain.
The "case" McClellan was speaking about is that of Terri Schiavo, the comatose woman whose doctors confirm she is in a persistant vegetative state - a completely unresponsive state that has not changed in years. There is no hope for improvement, her doctors agree. Mrs. Schiavo indicated to her husband (who is legally obligated to pay her medical bills) that she would not want to be artificially kept alive in such a state. Mrs. Schiavo's parents have contested this, and have fought (and lost) repeated battles in court to keep Terry on a feeding tube. The Florida legislature and governor have attempted to create laws specifically to keep this one woman on life support indefinitely. Now the US Congress is using its scarce time to get its politcal hands into the mud.
A president who governed the most bloodthirsty state in the union and who presided over the executions of more than 150 men and women has no moral authority to speak of "presumptions in favor of life" in the legal system. A Republican party that is led by Texans and outspokenly in favor of capital punishment has no business legislating the fate of one woman against her own and her husband's mutual wishes.
Apparently the presumptions of life and Republican culture of life only involve fetuses and invalids. What hypocrisy!
Addendum: I should also point out that many Democrats who participated in this bipartisan meddling are by no means free of hypocrisy - though Hillary Clinton has gone on the record describing abortion as a terrible tragedy, one that our nation should strive to make as rare as possible while not resorting to criminalization, many Democrats still come across as nearly celebrating abortion. The suggestion that abortion is ever anything less than tragic, while at the same time legislatively tinkering in the lives of the Schiavos is every bit as ghoulish and hypocritical as the posturing of the pro-death penalty Republicans.
posted by Bob at
3:56 PM
2 Comments:
Bob says: Apparently the presumptions of life and Republican culture of life only involve fetuses and invalids. What hypocrisy!
I say: We must protect those who cannot protect themselves. That starts with fetuses and invalids and proceeds all the way to convicted murderers. Where on that continuum we draw the line is open for debate, but excluding only those who are most in need is morally bankrupt.
As for the "Right to Die", I tend to be more libertine, but we must demand a higher standard of proof than "She once told me..." Convicted murderers must at least meet the "Beyond a Reasonable Doubt" standard.
By
david l. graff, at 8:43 PM
David,
It's been fun having your comments - glad you're reading this crazy liberal blog of mine. ;)
I'm inclined to agree with you when you say, "We must protect those who cannot protect themselves." Personally, I think the situation the Schiavos find themselves in is tragic, and the fact that it's become a political cause celebre is noxious. In a case where there is no living will, we sadly don't have any less blunt an instrument than the judicial system to weigh the arguments. In this case, especially, I trust that questions of Mrs. Schiavo's desire, her cognitive ability, her prognosis, the legitimacy of her husband's custody and right to make medical decisions on her behalf, and all the other witch's brew of considerations have been examined extensively (by 14 judges in six courts, I believe), and that this may be the best conclusion that can be reached.
My point in posting, however, was not primarily to weigh in on the right to die... although I think that's an important issue. My point was that those who are turning the Schiavos' tragedy into a political circus don't seem to have as expansive a view of the right to life as you do. Capital punishment is just as much a moral, right-to-life issue as abortion or end-of-life matters.
Besides, what really gets me is the craven opportunism shown by politicians on both sides of the aisle in taking up this little crusade. Whatever a person's position on these issues, it's disturbing to see lawmakers either crafting legislation that applies to only one specific person or that is written with one hot-button case in mind but opens up a brand new can of worms in its broad application.
Turning Terri Schiavo's life OR death into a Washington/Talahassee circus is about as perverse an exercise as I can think of.
By
Bob, at 10:59 PM
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