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March 28, 2005

Regeln über Alles

I have an apparently long-running argument with a long-standing acquaintance on the Schiavo case.

My acquantance, a lawyer, seems to believe that since the courts have decided, the entire burden of determining what is right and wrong in the greater scheme of things is satisfied. The laws, drafted and ratified by imperfect men, have had their various letters met; nothing else matters.

Steyn must have had the same argument with someone:

A couple of decades back, north of the border, it was discovered that some overzealous types in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police had been surreptitiously burning down the barns of Quebec separatists. The prime minister, Pierre Trudeau, shrugged off the controversy and blithely remarked that, if people were so upset by the Mounties illegally burning down barns, perhaps he'd make the burning of barns by Mounties legal. As the columnist George Jonas commented:

''It seemed not to occur to him that it isn't wrong to burn down barns because it's illegal, but it's illegal to burn down barns because it's wrong. Like other statist politicians, Mr. Trudeau . . . either didn't see, or resented, that right and wrong are only reflected by the laws, not determined by them.''

For a significant chunk of our society - the part that either rejects the notion of a right and wrong devolving from anything higher than the courts (and, maybe, the legislature), it's hard to recognize the distinction. That, indeed, may be the crux of the culture skirmish we're seeing in the Schiavo case.

Never mind that the memories of his wife's wishes that were seared seared into Michael Schiavo's memory took seven years to resurface (by which time Schiavo was connected to a feeding tube).

Never mind the court decisions that became the basis of facts on which all future appeals rested may have been, like so many court cases, less a matter of "finding the truth" than of one side having better lawyers than the other; Michael Schiavo had hundreds of thousands to spend on attorneys, while the Schindlers had an inexperience pro bono lawyer. Ask anyone who's ever gotten divorced on the cheap; any mistakes in the initial trial will dog you forever.

Never mind. The courts have spoken.

As we reiterated on the show last weekend, it's no longer a matter of rejecting what the courts held; it's a matter of changing Florida law.

And who knows - maybe Minnesota law, too.

Posted by Mitch at March 28, 2005 07:01 PM | TrackBack
Comments

Mitch,

If it makes you feel better, your message Saturday did not fall upon deaf ears.
http://northernalliancewannabe.blogspot.com/2005/03/few-random-thoughts-re-terri-schiavo.html

Thanks for your good work as always.

Posted by: Dan S. at March 28, 2005 09:59 PM

I'll give you this, Mitch--if the Florida legislature wanted to pass a law applying to all Floridians that mandated life support in cases where no living will existed, that would be an appropriate use of legislative power.

Of course, the Florida legislature won't do that, because such a law would be wildly unpopular. Most people know the facts of this case, and most people support terminating life support. There are a variety of reasons for that, but I think for those of us who've either made or been close to those who have made similar decisions, it's because we don't view ending life support for a brain-dead person as wrong.

And that's the majority of your country, Mitch. The vast majority.

You may think that's wrong. But the will of the people spoke in the Florida State Senate, where they rejected the bill I just outlined.

And so it's back to the courts, where conservatives hoped activist judges would overturn the will of the people. I guess irony can be pretty ironic, sometimes.

Posted by: Jeff Fecke at March 28, 2005 10:51 PM

Gotta love the irony, true.

Liberals are decrying media bias.

People who champion Roe V Wade have suddenly discovered states' rights. Not all of the 14th Amendment, mind you, just the phrase.

Michael Schiavo's people say that Terri is non-responsive, yet claim she is more calm than ever now that she is dying.

This is being called a radical right attempt to win political points. Righties like, um, Jessie Jackson Jr. Yeah. That's it.

Those who claim to care the most about the oppressed do not care about a living, breathing woman whose husband is ordering her to die without anything more than hearsay. NOW is silent. (However, Feminists for Life has not been silent, so I'll be fair to not lump all feminists together.)

Liberals are worried about activist judges overturning the will of the people. Apparently there was a Proposition on a ballot about her life that I missed.

And so the left can update their talking points, she is not brain dead. To be brain-dead means to have all functions of the brain ended. She is breathing on her own, and her heart is beating on its own. This knowledge alone could have prevented a number of ignorant letters to the editor at the Strib and other rags across the county.

Personally, I think Bush and Bush should try some reverse psychology on this one. Come out against putting in the feeding tube. Be vocal about it. Get Dick Cheney and Karl Rove to publicly comment in the same vein. The left couldn't make signs and protest plans fast enough. (True, the signs would blame Halliburton and Clear Channel, but that's a small price.)

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