No; It's Not about Terri Schiavo Anymore

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http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/032605G.shtml

 

No; It's Not about Terri Schiavo Anymore

By Mary Johnson

CommonDreams

 

Tuesday 22 March 2005

 

No; it's not about Terri Schiavo. And it hasn't been for quite awhile.

 

It's about us.

 

It's about each of us who thinks " I wouldn't want to live if I

were a vegetable. " It's about each one of us who thinks, as one

blogger wrote, that Michael Schiavo has been " chained to a drooling

shitbag for 15 years. "

 

But it's also about those of us who are those vegetables, those

drooling shitbags. Those of us who want to live but know we're a

burden to our families. Those of us who fear " do not resuscitate "

orders. Those of us who use ventilators, and who use feeding tubes.

And those of us who can communicate with clarity only through

artificial means.

 

How can the two groups of us - those of us who live with severe

disabilities, and those of us who fear such a fate more than death -

come to some common ground?

 

I was recently sent an email from the man who used to read our

magazine onto cassettes for blind people. The man, a Vietnam vet

paralyzed in that useless war, now cannot speak without a battery

operated vibrator. " I sound like R2D2 from " Star Wars,' " he wrote.

 

Just yesterday a listserv that I frequent was holding a discussion

of the type of feeding tube Terri Schiavo had. A number of the folks

talking about it were comparing their own feeding tubes to hers.

 

This is what the Terri Schiavo circus is all about. We may think

it's about political posturing - and it is that, for sure. But it's

about those of us who have scary, messy disabilities, and the fears of

the rest of us.

 

The Texas Futile Care Law, which George W. enacted, gives

hospitals the right to cut off life support. The progressive blogs are

full of the story of the baby pulled off life support under that

legislation this past week, against his mother's wishes. But futile

care acts are in place in many states - so common they aren't even

controversial. Are we only upset about them when we see them used

against a member of what we see as a traditionally oppressed group,

and enacted by a man whose policies we detest? States with liberal

governors have futile care policies in place as well. The disability

rights movement has been worried about futile care policies for quite

awhile - but nobody else took notice. Until now.

 

Those who bring up the Texas dead baby story want to make the

point that the Republicans are two-faced, but we didn't need a dead

baby to figure that one out.

 

There isn't a single disability rights activist I've heard from

who is happy that things ended up at such a sorry pass, and who isn't

afraid that this will make liberals hate them even more than they now

do. Yet it cannot help being noticed that it generally depends on

whose ox is being gored as to what side of the states' rights debate

one comes down on. We're all for federal laws when it comes to things

like civil rights - and gay marriage. We're not, though, when it comes

to things we've labeled as " right to die " - which we say are " privacy

issues. "

 

We might want to take another look at the cost of such privacy.

 

The disability rights movement I cover is made up of individuals

who themselves are living lives that they may not have been able to

previously imagine. Individuals who can communicate only via

technology - who, without today's computers, might very well be

thought to have little or no cognitive ability. Several of these

people, in fact, contribute regularly to Ragged Edge Online. There are

people who have experienced aphasia. There are people with brain injuries.

 

To these people, the case of Terri Schiavo looks very different.

 

They are particularly angered by the belief that Michael Schiavo

knows what Terri Schiavo wants. " We didn't know what Terri wanted, "

Michael Schiavo told Larry King on Friday. " But this is what we want. "

 

This isn't about Terri Schiavo anymore.

 

On New Year's Eve a few years back, 74-year-old Shirley Harrison's

husband came into the hospital where she'd been brought after having a

stroke. He shot her three times in the chest. News media reported it

as a " mercy killing. "

 

Three weeks after Nancy Draper's body was found in the freezer of

their home, husband Larry Draper turned himself in to police, saying

he killed his wife to end her suffering from multiple sclerosis. He

received a reduced sentence.

 

Joseph Brosz, 84, apparently bludgeoned to death Sylvia Brosz, 56,

described as his " mentally and physically disabled daughter. "

 

And we all remember Jack Kevorkian, and those who thought the man

was doing good. Many of us still think that.

 

Villanova University history professor Mine Ener used a 12-inch

kitchen knife to slice the throat of her daughter, 6-month-old Raya

Donagi, who had Down syndrome. Firefighters responding to a house fire

in Elwood, Indiana found the burned body of 8-year-old Mark Adrian

Norris II. Autopsy results confirmed that Mark, who had cerebral palsy

and epilepsy, had actually died the day before - of malnourishment and

neglect. His mother was not charged with murder.

 

And in England last month, the news was full of the trial of

military security specialist Andrew Wragg, who told police he killed

his 10 year old son, Jacob, because he was frustrated that his son was

no longer able to recognize and communicate with him. Jurors were told

he was embarrassed at having a son with a disability.

 

Yesterday's Ukiah (CA) Daily Journal reported that elder abuse is

on the rise - reports of elder abuse rival those of spouse abuse. And

families are responsible for most of the deaths of disabled people who

are dead by unnatural means.

 

Although it's hard for us to get beyond the political posturing,

get beyond it we must.

 

It is absolutely true that mounting a Congressional circus was not

the right way to go about resolving the problems with Terri Schiavo.

But that this is a private matter to be resolved within families? That

is just as troubling.

 

The Republicans, to my way of thinking, are likely guilty of

everything we say about them. I even agree with Michael Schiavo that

Tom DeLay is a " little slithering snake. " But to simply yell about the

Republicans, to turn this into yet another skirmish in the

right-to-life, right-to-die culture wars is to miss entirely the

bigger issue.

 

The danger faced by " incapacitated " or non-communicative persons -

people who have been declared " incompetent " and their legal rights

assigned to a " guardian " - has been worrying disability rights

activists for years. It is not about the " right to life " - it is about

equal protection of the law. Over a dozen national disability groups

have repeatedly urged Constitutional review of cases like Schiavo's .

It doesn't happen. If it had happened with Schiavo, we wouldn't be at

this sorry pass.

 

Now Sen. Tom Harkin (D.-IA), a man with impeccable liberal

credentials, is proposing such a law. Not for Terri Schiavo, but for

the rest of us.

 

" In a case like this, where someone is incapacitated and their

life support can be taken away, it seems to me that it is appropriate

- where there is a dispute, as there is in this case - that a federal

court come in, like we do in habeas corpus situations, and review it. "

Harkin told reporters he was hopeful that Congress would address such

legislation sometime soon.

 

It's past time.

 

Mary Johnson edits Ragged Edge Magazine.

 

 

 

Go to Original

 

Bush's Approval Dying with Schiavo

The Associated Press

 

Friday 25 March 2005

 

Washington - President Bush's job approval slipped into the mid

40s in national polls released this week as he lost some support among

men and other groups of core supporters.

 

Public approval for Bush slipped from 52 percent in a CNN-USA

Today-Gallup poll over the weekend to 45 percent in that same poll

released Thursday. A CBS News poll released earlier in the week found

Bush's approval slipping six points to 43 percent.

 

The Gallup poll found Bush losing support among men,

self-described conservatives and churchgoers while the CBS poll found

a drop among men and Republicans.

 

The polls come after Congress and the president intervened in the

case of Terri Schiavo, a 41-year-old woman whose feeding tube had been

removed. The federal intervention was widely unpopular, even with

conservatives and evangelicals.

 

But Bush's dip in the polls also comes at a time that gas prices

have been on the rise and the president is involved in an uphill

campaign for changes in Social Security.

 

The Gallup poll of 1,001 adults was taken Monday through Wednesday

and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage

points. The CBS News poll of 737 adults was taken Monday and Tuesday

and has a 4 percentage point margin of error.

 

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