[Speed Gibson,
Thursday March 17, 2005 at 9:31pm]
Terri Schiavo: What I Missed
I've heard and read many headlines regarding Terri Schiavo. But I tuned out the broadcasts and passed over the articles and blog posts, figuring it was just one of those unfortunate cases. The kind where the person has been in a coma for months or years, with no real prospects for recovery. Yes, once in a great while the patient recovers, at least for a while. But barring a living will, I am very sympathetic to such families and their desire for closure. Conservatives tend to overplay such cases in my opinion, so I skipped over the details.
Well, some additional news has come out. Bogus Gold has a good account. I retraced this story, finding it's not at all what I expected, as you likely also know by now. So I then questioned where I got this expectation. The answer is a sympathetic media that lumped this case with the cases I described above.
We know from the coverage of Dr. Jack Kevorkian's trial and conviction in 1999 how the MSM feels on such issues. He was charged with second-degree murder for "assisting" a patient with suicide, and it was clear that we were to consider this a miscarriage of justice. This case may not be all that analogous but the media's handling of the story is certainly consistent with that of "Dr. Death" who is now in prison.
The most recent coverage of the Dutch "Groningen protocol" for "mercy" killings including infants was more balanced and questioning, but again, the sanctity of life was ... negotiable ... by many press accounts in this country.
So while I'd prefer a state law response since this involves the criminal code, I understand and support the efforts underway to save the far from comatose life of Terri Schiavo.
Well, some additional news has come out. Bogus Gold has a good account. I retraced this story, finding it's not at all what I expected, as you likely also know by now. So I then questioned where I got this expectation. The answer is a sympathetic media that lumped this case with the cases I described above.
We know from the coverage of Dr. Jack Kevorkian's trial and conviction in 1999 how the MSM feels on such issues. He was charged with second-degree murder for "assisting" a patient with suicide, and it was clear that we were to consider this a miscarriage of justice. This case may not be all that analogous but the media's handling of the story is certainly consistent with that of "Dr. Death" who is now in prison.
The most recent coverage of the Dutch "Groningen protocol" for "mercy" killings including infants was more balanced and questioning, but again, the sanctity of life was ... negotiable ... by many press accounts in this country.
So while I'd prefer a state law response since this involves the criminal code, I understand and support the efforts underway to save the far from comatose life of Terri Schiavo.