A Little Less Certainty

Sat, Mar 26, 2005 at 4:55:45 pm PST

Glenn says that in the Terri Schiavo furor, some on the right are acting like the left, flaming people like Rev. Donald Sensing because they express contrary opinions.

I can vouch that Glenn’s right; I’ve received a few very nasty emails, and been called “Judas” here at LGF, simply for stating that I was uncomfortable with judging the people involved in Terri’s case, and criticizing the junk science and unfounded speculation that has been all too prevalent.

Glenn also points out that the “agree on everything or you’re evil” approach is exactly what has gotten the Democrat Party into such trouble; and I would add to that: 1) the failure to fact check, and 2) the willingness to believe in questionable sources with unshakable certainty.

Jeff Jacoby has one of the best, most thoughtful pieces I’ve read about the Schiavo case: Less certainty, more prayer.

Unlike many of those weighing in on the Terri Schiavo matter, I am having trouble working myself into a lather of outraged certainty.

Is Michael Schiavo’s profoundly disabled wife in a persistent vegetative state, as so many insist? Or is she, as others claim, at least dimly aware of her circumstances? Is her condition quite irreversible? Or might she yet regain consciousness, as Sarah Scantlin of Hutchinson, Kan., did last month after 20 years in a coma? I couldn’t say for sure. How is it that so many others can?

Are the congressional leaders who wrote a law authorizing a federal court review of Terri Schiavo’s case disgraceful hypocrites meddling where they don’t belong? The Los Angeles Times thinks so: In an editorial, it damned the Republicans for their “constitutional coup d’etat” and “Stalinist . . . usurpation of power” and accused them of trying “to appease their radical right-wing constituents.” Would the editorial board have been so angry if, instead of a patient on life support, it were an inmate on Death Row whom lawmakers were so anxious to save?

Is Michael Schiavo a selfish heel, eager to be rid of a useless wife so he can finally marry the girlfriend with whom he is raising two children? Or is he a decent man doing his best by a stricken wife, faithfully struggling to liberate her from a life he is sure she would reject if she could? “Most Americans,” declares Douglas R. Scott of Life Decisions International in a press release that shows up by e-mail, “understand that Mike Schiavo and his lawyer simply want to kill this wonderful woman who . . . is in the way of their personal agendas.” Scott must have remarkable sources to be able to state so authoritatively what Mr. Schiavo and his lawyer want, to say nothing of what “most Americans understand.”