A rare serious post

I try to keep my blog light-hearted, because life is serious enough, and I want to be a place where people can read and laugh or at least smile. But because talk radio today was saturated with the Terri Schiavo case (for good reason, it's important) I've done quite a bit of thinking about it, and I'm finding it hard to write about anything else until I put down my thoughts about this.

Maybe I'm on this train of thought because it's Easter weekend, but Terri's condition reminds me of the condition of mankind prior to Christ's time on earth. We were disabled (although spiritually), but because we are created in His image, because we are human beings and therefore have innate worth, regardless of our abilities, He left Heaven so that we may live. It's tragic that every intervention to save Terri's life has been blocked, refused, overruled.

Who gets to decide when another human's life isn't worth living? It's a scary precedent that we set when we allow this to happen. Sure, I wouldn't want to live in her condition. But there's a lot of conditions in which I wouldn't want to live. I wouldn't want to live in poverty, or with an abusive husband, or in a war-torn country. But I'm not demanding that people in these conditions be killed, because I don't get to decide when another person's life isn't worth living anymore. Terri may have lost a majority of her brain function, but her value as a human being is still intact - a person's value comes from what we are, not what we can or can't do.

This "culture of death" that America is steeped in began in 1973 with Roe v. Wade, when a few decided to deny personhood to unborn humans. Then, in the 1980s, the case of Nancy Cruzan (denied food and water, much like Terri) was the first introduction most of us in this country had to euthanasia. Other cases followed, such as Dr. Kevorkian's, and a little doubt began to creep into our collective mind - is it humane to allow the elderly, and terminally ill people, to suffer? Shouldn't we just "send them away peacefully" and let them "die with dignity"? Somewhere during that time, "quality of life" became a physical characteristic, not an innate value.

The problem with denying personhood to the unborn was that it led to denying personhood to the elderly. Then we began denying personhood to newborns, who are now being euthanized in the Netherlands, where adult euthanasia has been legal since the 1980s. What's to stop the groups on both ends of the spectrum from growing ever larger, as some decide that more and more types of people have no quality of life and are drains on society?

Why not go ahead and euthanize all disabled people? Especially children - they're going to be teased and they'll face insurmountable challenges, let's put them out of their misery, even if their parents want to care for them - it's the humane thing to do. When an aging person starts to forget things, put them under before they and their families face the heartbreak to follow. Stop the torment of the insane, who talk to and hear from people who don't exist. And what about people who talk to a God who "doesn't exist"? You're probably thinking, "That's ridiculous, it would never be allowed to happen." But is it? Despite the best efforts by many elected officials, Judge Greer of Florida has allowed a disabled woman to starve, when there is no proof that she would want such a thing.

I am afraid for a society where one human can determine whether another human's life is worth living or not. God set up the institution of government, the duties of which are outlined specifically in Romans, Proverbs, and other Scriptures. The purpose of government is to establish laws, based on God's Law, and to punish those who violate such laws, while rewarding those who do right. In other words, to ensure a just society based on the Law of God. What is going on in Florida right now is anything but just. There has been a cascade of wrongdoing as far as Terri Schiavo is concerned - but after the most important question that we will ever be asked, "Who do you say that I am" (Mark 8:29), we will all answer for the things that we do on this earth. (LaShawn Barber seems to find comfort in this, too.)

Since it seems that no one will rescue Terri, I just pray that she is taken quickly, before she suffers any more than she already has this week.

As always, you're welcome to comment and respectually disagree with me, but if you do, don't you dare say "ANWR". I get so annoyed when I see people compare something that they see as an environmental injustice or an injustice against an animal to the death of a human. Humans and animals just do not have the same value.

I'll be back to lightheartedness tomorrow, I just had to get this out!