Peggy Noonan on Terri Schiavo

As promised, Terri’s tube was removed this afternoon, despite the congressional subpoena that she appear before congress! I sort of picture Michael, George Felos and the doctor standing over Terri watching the second hand hit the 1:00 mark so they could pull it out.

I want Terri to appear before congress. I want America to see this woman and see that there really is no controversy – she is alive and starving her to death is murder.

Peggy Noonan has an excellent article on the topic in today’s Wallstreet Journal Editorial page. Here are some excerpts:

There is a passionate, highly motivated and sincere group of voters and activists who care deeply about whether Terri Schiavo is allowed to live. Their reasoning, ultimately, is this: Be on the side of life. They remind me of what Winston Churchill said once when he became home secretary in charge of England’s prisons. He was seated at dinner with a jabbery lady who said that if she were ever given a life sentence she’d rather die than serve it. He reared back. No, he said, always choose life! “Death’s the only thing you can’t get out of!”
Just so. Life is full of surprise and lightning-like lurches. The person in a coma today wakes up tomorrow and says, “Is that you, mom?” Life is unknowable. Always give it a chance to shake your soul and upend reality.

On the other side of this debate, one would assume there is an equally well organized and passionate group of organizations deeply committed to removing Terri Schiavo’s feeding tube. But that’s not true. There’s just about no one on the other side. Or rather there is one person, a disaffected husband who insists Terri once told him she didn’t want to be kept alive by extraordinary measures.

He has fought the battle to kill her with a determination that at this point seems not single-minded or passionate but strange. His former wife’s parents and family are eager to care for her and do care for her, every day. He doesn’t have to do a thing. His wife is not kept alive by extraordinary measures–she breathes on her own, is not on a respirator. All she needs to continue existing–and to continue being alive so that life can produce whatever miracle it may produce–is a feeding tube.

But in the end, it comes down to this: Why kill her? What is gained? What is good about it? Ronald Reagan used to say, in the early days of the abortion debate, when people would argue that the fetus may not really be a person, he’d say, “Well, if you come across a paper bag in the gutter and it seems something’s in it and you don’t know if it’s alive, you don’t kick it, do you?” No, you don’t.

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