[Mb-civic] ROBERT SCHEER Life, Death and Cynical Grandstanding

[Michael Butler]

latimes.com
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-scheer22mar22.story
ROBERT SCHEER
Life, Death and Cynical Grandstanding
Robert Scheer

March 22, 2005

I cannot remember a time when Congress and the president have acted with
more egregious political opportunism and shameless trafficking in human
misery than last weekend, leaping into the 15-year-long Terri Schiavo saga
at the last possible moment as grandstanding defenders of the defenseless.

Although Schiavo's relatives on both sides of the issue are assuredly acting
in good faith, national politicians certainly are not.

That was clear even before ABC News revealed the contents of a memo
circulating among Senate Republicans that trilled over how exploiting this
complex case in the most simplistic way would "excite" the GOP base and
would be "a great political issue."

Otherwise, they would have taken up this tortuous issue in earnest long ago.
Better yet, they should have trusted the Florida state legal system and
doctors who have examined Schiavo's case over and over again.

Instead, facing a media storm dominated by heart-rending but inconclusive
video clips of Schiavo, Republican demagogues led by Rep. Tom DeLay
(D-Texas) ‹ who is battling ethics problems ‹ took the easy, cynical way
out. They rushed through a bill, past cowed Democrats, that moves the case
to federal court and applies only to Schiavo's parents.

Even more shocking, President Bush did what he would not do in August 2001
when terrorism warnings were "blinking red," in the words of the then-head
of the CIA: He returned to Washington from one of his many sacrosanct
vacations, in this case to sign this ill-conceived legislation.

Despite the shrill howls of outrage that have been inciting politicians from
talk radio, 70% of Americans polled nationally by ABC News called
congressional intervention in the Schiavo case inappropriate, with 58%
holding that view "strongly."

It seems obvious that such a delicate life-and-death case should not be
decided by radio shock jocks hunting for ratings, embattled politicians
looking for wedge issues or even majority rule ‹ in this case the 63% of
Americans polled who believe that Schiavo's feeding tube should be removed.
Instead, it is family members, doctors and, when needed as an impartial
arbitrator, the courts that must carefully and dispassionately weigh the
extremely complex medical, ethical and legal issues involved.

Which, in fact, is exactly what happened in the Schiavo case. Impartial
doctors and judges methodically examined Schiavo and the legal case,
respectively, for seven years, consistently backing the guardianship rights
of Schiavo's husband and his decision to end artificial life-support
treatments that kept her alive in what the Florida courts concluded is "a
persistent vegetative state Š with no hope of a medical cure."

Further, the federal courts already had the power to act if they believed a
fundamental right had been abrogated. On Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court
turned down an appeal to intervene ‹ as it had done in 2001 and earlier this
year. But that didn't stop the Christian right and the politicians in its
thrall from seizing on the Schiavos' plight to advance their "right to life"
agenda. If only this agenda were consistent. For example, as governor of
Texas, George W. Bush refused to review cases involving mentally retarded
death row inmates. Nor can I remember any time Congress rushed back from a
vacation to deal with real-time incidents of genocide in the Balkans, Rwanda
or Sudan. This is selective compassion of the most pandering sort.

In the end, it is not about who is right in the depressingly ugly battle
between Schiavo's parents on one side and her husband on the other. Those of
us who have dealt with the slow death of a beloved relative in the hospital
are all too familiar with the pain in facing the myriad decisions that can
tear us apart.

What this case is really about is keeping politics and state-endorsed
religion out of our private lives. Many seniors like me now must dread that
our most personal and painful private matters might be turned into political
footballs by those cravenly seeking approval from certain voting blocs, or
that we could be imprisoned against our wishes inside a dead body because of
somebody else's religious beliefs. This is why seniors polled by ABC were
the most likely of any age group to support the removal of Schiavo's feeding
tube.

The one bright spot in this sad story is that millions of Americans are now
talking about how they want to be cared for medically and are writing or
reviewing living wills.

As the polls show, while our Beltway politicians are making fools of
themselves, those of us in the real world are trying to ensure that our most
private moments are not turned into a humiliating circus.

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