TWO MORE ON GOP SCHIAVO MEDDLING

First, from the Houston Chronicle editorial page courtesy of my buddy Kevin (whose website seems to be down right now, or I'd link it):

So-called 'defenders of life,' where were you when ... ?

I have a question for all those "culture of life" people praying in front of Terri Schiavo's hospital: Where were you last week when President Bush and the Republican Congress were pushing to cut Medicaid? Medicaid is the medical lifeline for the poor. And, by the way, it is picking up some of Schiavo's hospital bills.

Are you aware of your inconsistency? Or are you just pawns of the Republican Party?

You fixate over a woman who has hung in a vegetative state for 15 years, but stand mute as 45 million of your fellow Americans go without any health coverage. More than 18,000 adult Americans die every year for lack of health insurance, according to the Institute of Medicine in Washington.

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And from Emphasis Added:

Endgame

I was hoping not to write about this story again, but it’s so annoying and offensive on so many levels that it’s hard to keep it to myself. First, I am sick of the hideously one-sided media coverage. With polls showing that towering majorities of Americans believe that Michael Schiavo has the right to execute his wife’s wishes in this matter, and who clearly would want, if not exactly the same treatment, at least the space to make their own decision on such an issue if they were ever faced with it, the media from CNN on down seems intent on framing this in terms embraced by the most extreme religious fanatics. There are so many dimensions to this story beyond the facile sentimentalism of what happens to one brain-dead woman: privacy, federalism, rule of law, the power of religious extremists with their extra-Constitutional views on the role of government in private decisions. And yet, all we hear is “poor Terri,” as if continuing to feed a lump of human meat will reverse the verdict that nature has rendered in this case.

What’s more fundamentally morally offensive to me is how the alleged “right to life” people cheapen the whole notion of life and humanity with their shallow, screeching idiocy. Biological life may be measured by having a pulse, but dogs have pulses. Birds, insects, sponges – all these things are animate creatures when they are alive. What makes humans special and different, in my ethical estimation, is our consciousness, our ability to connect and socialize with each other, and interact with the world around us. Without that, our humanity has no meaning, our lives have no dignity, our existence has no further purpose.

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