More thoughts on Schiavo

Christopher Hitchens has a piece on Terri Schiavo:

I think it is obscene that she is held in absentia to exert power from beyond the grave. As for the idea that this assumed power can be arrogantly ventriloquized by clerical demagogues and self-appointed witch doctors, one quivers at the sheer indecency of the thing. The end of the brain, or the replacement of the brain by a liquefied and shrunken void, is (to return to my earlier point) if not the absolute end of "life," the unarguable conclusion of human life. It disqualifies the victim from any further say in human affairs. Tragic, perhaps, unless you believe in a better life to come (as, oddly enough, the parents of this now non-human entity claim that they do).

I would agree with him if I were as certain as he is that her brain had been replaced by a " liquefied and shrunken void." One of the maddening things about this is that I don't know whom to trust. I don't trust Mr. Schiavo or his lawyer. I'm not sure what to think about Judge Greer, but I tend to think that so many judges have reviewed the case that their findings are likely to be correct. There have been qualified experts on both sides of the question of her sentiency, and, of course, lawyers all over the lot. I wish someone in the media had given us a FAQ like this. Here's another good discussion on the PVS issue including her CAT scan.

I don't hold Congress and the President in contempt for their efforts to resolve questions that remain, although I generally disagree with such federal interventions. It's not as though there hasn't been plenty of precedent for government inserting itself into issues beyond its competency, and I credit their motives in trying to defend life.