“What has happened here is that the GOP, famously the party favoring limited government intervention into people’s personal lives, has inserted the federal government squarely in the middle of an incredibly personal medical issue. And they’ve done it all in the name of making sure that some of their core voters stay with them” (Athens Banner-Herald, 3/22).

The Terri Schiavo case shows the utter hypocrisy and opportunism of the Religious Right. They mobilize Congress and the President to preserve a women in a vegetative coma against the wishes of her husband and the courts, but they don’t think twice about 100,000 dead civilians in Iraq. They don’t mention the thousands of children dying of hunger around the world every day, as if that is not our responsibility.

The situation has promted anti-poverty organizations to launch a new campaign called “Feeding Tubes for the Third World.”
“We’re entirely serious,” said FTTW Executive Director Jacqueline Padrone. “Thousands of people, including thousands of children, die every day for lack of food or medicine. The United States government supports economic and debt repayment policies, and trade policies, not to mention wars and occupations, that promote these deaths. The level of aid provided by the United States continues to shrink in relation to past contributions, and in relation to the growing problem, as well as in relation to the impact of these destructive policies. We’ve run out of answers. We’ve arrived at the solution of providing feeding tubes.”

This case is another example of right-wingers using personal tragedy for political gain.
The political manipulation of a personal life-and-death issue by right-wing leaders is shameful and morally repugnant. Make no mistake about it: President Bush, Tom DeLay and Bill Frist are no friends of the Schiavos. DeLay’s unprecedented attack on Terri Schiavo’s husband, Michael, was designed solely for political gain and represents a new low for the ethically challenged House leader. A memo distributed by Senate leadership to right-wing members called Schiavo “a great political issue” and urged Senators to talk about her because “the pro-life base will be excited.”

And reporters are now raising questions about a right-to-die law Bush signed as Texas governor, contradicting his position in the Schiavo case. Just last week, the law was applied for the first time, allowing doctors to remove a critically ill infant from life support against his mother’s wishes. According to the Houston Chronicle, this marks the first time in American history that courts allowed a pediatric patient to die against the wishes of their parent. As the Knight Ridder News service reports:

“The mother down in Texas must be reading the Schiavo case and scratching her head,” said Dr. Howard Brody, the director of Michigan State University’s Center for Ethics and Humanities in the Life Sciences. “This does appear to be a contradiction.” Brody said that, in taking up the Schiavo case, Bush and Congress had shattered a body of bioethics law and practice.”

“Coming at a time when crucial health care services are being slashed, it is particularly upsetting to see this kind of expensive grandstanding on the part of congressional Republicans over one high-profile case. This is not compassion: This is cold-blooded political calculation” (Charleston Gazette, 3/22).

Christians should take a real, consistent stand on life. Being pro-life and also pro-death penalty, pro-war, and pro-rich is counterproductive and removes any moral value from their argument.

sources:
http://www.mediachannel.org
http://www.moveon.org