The Right To...What?

I am truly speechless. I am about to make an argument, but I am utterly confused as to what is the opposing view. I just don't understand. How could we have come so far? How could it have gotten this bad? I'm talking about the case of Terri Schiavo. A few days ago the Supreme Court sidestepped ruling either way on her case, very conveniently I might add. They refused to reinstate a Florida law that saved Terri's life, in essence sentencing her to death by starvation.

For those of you who don't remember or weren't paying attention, Terri Schiavo is a 42 year-old lady who, at the age of twenty-seven suffered cardiac arrest which caused severe brain damage. She is able to breathe on her own; however, she is unable to swallow which, of course, makes it impossible to eat. The nourishment that she needs to survive comes through a feeding tube.

Her parents have fought valiantly to keep her alive. Her husband Michael, on the other hand, is fighting for the ability to end his wife's life by removing the feeding tube and allowing her to starve to death. His argument: "She told me she didn't want to live this way."

This guy is a sorry excuse for a human being, if you ask me. He received a 1.3 million dollar malpractice lawsuit settlement in which he wooed the jury with his promise to love and care for his invalid wife. Part of it went directly to him while the majority, $750,000 of it, went to Terri.

Now, he lives with another woman with whom he fathered two children. He cannot legally marry her without divorcing Terri and if he were to do that, he would lose the money that was awarded to her in the settlement and his share of her estate. How can anyone not question this guy's motives? If that weren't enough, a nurse giving Terri medical care has quoted Michael as saying, "When is the [deleted] going to die?"

But I am not writing this article to bash Michael Schiavo, although one could build quite a case on his lack of decency. What has me so confused and so, well, saddened, is the fact that this is even an issue. How did we wind up here? How could someone argue for his own right to end someone else's life? How could anyone be arguing for the right to starve another human being to death? Since when has one person's right of anything trumped someone else's right to life? Have we cheapened life this much? Have we progressed to such an extent that we cannot see past our selfish man-made legal loopholes and see the value of one human life? Have we no moral decency left in our society? How? Why? I just don't understand.

Looking back these were probably the same questions that were asked when abortion was being legalized. At that point abortion was to most people inconceivable - now we've moved past 'assisted-suicide' to trying to choose what people are worth keeping alive.

The scary question is, 'What's next?' Really - what worthwhile life does a paralyzed person have? Okay, maybe they can live - but what about the mentally retarded paralyzed person? No real mental abilities, no real physical abilities - are they really even 'alive'? Can we now start killing children with life-long illnesses because they won't be any value to society? You may think that that is impossible or unthinkable, but back then the same was said about abortion, and not that long ago it would have been said about Terri.

But the real, underlying theme isn't about those that are being killed - it's about those that want them gone. What is the value of life to them? Is it found in what a person can contribute to themselves or society at large? Or does life have in itself an intrinsic value? Our founding fathers certainly thought it did. It was one of the first foundational rights they spoke of, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. So I ask again, what's next?

Like the millions of babies whose mothers just thought life would better without them, Terri is now close to becoming the next victim of a horrible ideology taken to its logical conclusion. What can be the harm of legalizing abortion? A whole lot more than we ever expected. The more we cheapen the value of life the harder it will be to stop this slide down the slippery slope of death.