Happy?

Some 13 days after having her feeding tube removed for a 3rd time, and eerily some 12 hours after being the indirect subject of a South Park episode, Terri Schiavo is dead.

I'm sure there are many supporters of her husband, or at least those that advocated removing her feeding tube, that feel some sort of accomplishment in this. At least I hope so. Because I certainly don't. I just don't feel good about any aspect of what's happened. A woman has just been allowed, or more accurately, legally forced, to starve to death. Worse still, she was denied her dignity by having her face plastered on the evening news every night. Her parents have just lost a daughter. Her 'husband' (and I used the term loosely because while he was still technically married to her, he has a common law wife and two children) has irreparably ruined his reputation. He'll get Terri's life insurance money, probably marry that woman and go live it up on some beach somewhere. I hope that tool gets hit by a bus, goes into a persistent vegetative state, and is forced to starve to death so his wife can get his life insurance payout and go live with the guy she's been sleeping with while her husband was in the hospital. It only seems fair. But I digress.

I'm mainly upset about the fact that such a drastic decision was made on what seems to be incomplete information. During this whole legal battle, Terri Schiavo was not once re-examined to see if her cognition had changed. She was never given an MRI or PET scan to evaluate the status of her brain. There was never a new hearing despite new evidence in the case and signed affidavits alleging abuse by her husband. And there was no proof or evidence that she had ever claimed to want to die in the first place.

As I've said before, if she'd had a living will, a videotaped statement, anything that showed that this was her desire, there would be no debate. But I simply cannot believe that there are people out there that are content with this decision given the amount of unanswered questions. It just doesn't seem right.

Many supporters of the removing Terri's feeding tube have cited the court decisions in the battle, and have urged that court orders must be followed. Since when? Remember, this is the court system that upheld slavery and found a 'right' to abortion in a 200 year old document. This is the court system that, despite the fact that the vast majority of citizens believe in God, has repeatedly found the public MENTION of God is unconstitutional and illegal. The U.S. Court System is NOT infallible by any stretch of the imagination.

Aside from that, who ever said court orders had to be willingly obeyed? When the Supreme Court ordered that Arkansas schools be desegregated, did Governor Faubus just throw up his arms and say 'Well ok. You win.' Hell no. He summoned the National Guard to literally force segregation. Of course, after that happened, Dwight Eisenhower revoked his access to the National Guard and called in the 101st Airborne to escort the black children to school, but that's beside the point.

A more recent example is the Elian Gonzales case from a few years ago. The court had granted custody to the American family caring for Elian, but did that stop Bill Clinton and Janet Reno from ordering INS agents armed with machine guns to seize the terrified child? Obviously not. In fact, he's probably in school right now learning about the evils of America. Good for him. (Incidentally, after the raid, Janet Reno claimed in an interview to have collapsed sobbing into the arms of a staffer. That was the only time I've ever heard my mother use the word 'dyke'.)

A court order is only as effective as the ability of the court to enforce it. Should Jeb Bush had ordered the National Guard to seize Terri and order her feeding tube reinserted, there's not whole hell of a lot the court could've done about it. There ARE 3 branches of government in this country, and the judiciary is merely one of them. No where in the Constitution does is say that the court is the final authority. But of course, such an action would be too politically damaging, so there are very few if any politicians willing to take such a risk. Hell, over 100 house democrats didn't even show up to vote on the bill to get the tube reinserted. How cowardly is that?

But I guess all of this is a moot point now. The woman is dead, and many of those questions will never be answered. I just hope the people that advocated this, or simply stood idly by, are able to live with their decision. Actually, on second thought, no I don't.