Life at any cost?

There are so many issues involved with the Terri Schiavo case. I turned off c-span radio in disgust after it became apparent that the one voice of reason, Congressman Wexler, failed to reach the House.

This troubles me on so many fronts, first the usurpation of the Florida Courts by the Randall Terry Right to Life movement and his ilk. Second the media attention that has been for the most part almost bordering on fraud in the way they’ve presented this. I swore if I saw the fabricated video or pictures from it one more time I was going to scream. (So yes I screamed) I have to give the Schlinder’s credit in selecting Randall Terry, he has done a good job in making this not about facts but emotion no matter whether it’s true or not, as long as it creates emotion. Michael Schiavo’s side has failed in getting the facts out there or correcting the numerous lies the Right to Lifers have put out there. It’s not about having the Court decide you are right anymore it’s about public opinion. Lose that and look what happens to you.

The downright ignorance in this case from the average person should not be surprising; after all we have a large number of people out there that still believe there were WMD and that Saddam somehow had something to do with 9/11. The manner in which Congress can race to get legislation thru yet ignore so many other important issues that are not related to one person is also disturbing. It demonstrates it’s more about soundbites than it is about real work.

What happens when the federal courts come up with the same conclusion the Florida courts have? Then what? A constitutional amendment? A special election where we get to decide Terri’s fate?

I read an interesting op ed piece, I’m not sure I feel as strongly as she does to the financial aspect of this case but here is a part of it:

Consider this: Our collective obsession with end-of-life augmentation costs billions each year. The federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality released a report in 2003 showing that last-year-of-life expenses ate up 22 percent of all medical costs, 26 percent of Medicare expenses, 25 percent of the tab for Medicaid and 18 percent of all non-Medicare health-care costs. If only we could let go of our obsession with end-of-life medical heroics, think how much we could save not only in medical costs, but also in insurance and in heartache. But no, the godly among us will have none of that.

That's not to say we should not try to save lives, or even use heroic measures when necessary. But when the patient is medically dead, when the doctors give up hope, it is no longer about saving a life. At that point, it's all about saving a principle. With public money. It's easy to stand on principle when the bill goes elsewhere.

Fine, then. Let those whose mores dictate preservation of life at all costs, pay those costs. We would see feeding tubes and respirators across America not pulled but ripped out at lightning speed.

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She does have an interesting point, with Social Security in crisis and Medicare in even worse shape we have to face reality. The reality is we have increasing numbers of elderly in similar situations where there is no brain function or there is minimal brain function with no chance of recovery. I’m not suggesting a Soylent Green type solution, however it does make common sense to start looking at what these increased costs do to creating a situation where no one will have care because too many dollars have been expended. I think Texas has gone to far only giving families ten days before life support is disconnected, but there has to be a middle ground somewhere.

I can look at this situation and see the clear manipulation and I wonder when America is going to wake up. This is not something new to politics, but the Republicans have learned how to create emotion and propaganda to a level unprecedented in our political history. Howard Dean was right when he said the failure of the Democrats was that they have not learned from the Republicans. Of course it would be awesome to be the party of ethics who did not lower themselves to the swiftboat mentality. The problem with that is that too many Americans don’t take the time to find out the truth. They assume what they “hear” or they “know” just has to be right. We are sitting there watching a cheap magician, we know he’s a fraud, yet rather than expose him we watch as he pulls rabbits out of his hat, not paying attention to where his other hand is.

It’s time we woke up before it’s too late. We cannot continue to exist if the Republicans are allowed to do as they have done in the Schiavo case. If this is allowed to happen it adds another straw on the back of the camel of destruction of what our Founding Fathers tried so hard to create.