Kavorkian and Roe: On The Same Page?

Can I write this entry and still be a pacifist?

OK, so we have one Terry Schiavo who, one day, probably in passing, told her husband that she would never want to live like a vegetable. Perhaps they were watching a story on the news about someone in a coma and made the comment, ever so casually, that would evenutally change the way people thought about life and death- at least for a few weeks, 15 years later. Perhaps it was one night after she had thrown up her dinner- again. Maybe she told him she hated living in this skin, and it made sense to him that she would hate living a life any less than the hell she was already going through. So years later, when she had her accident he thought back to this time, knowing that she couldn't bear to look at herself in the mirror each day when she could walk, talk, feed, bathe and use the bathroom by herself, let alone as a "vegetable." So when her parents, too sad to lose their daughter to another world, argued that Michael did not know her true wishes; after all, she never wrote it down, he could do nothing but go to the courts. He was her husband, he knew her best. They were her parents, they taught her those values that would not allow her to end her life "prematurely."

Then we have Jane Roe, who in 1970 decided that it was completely unfair, unsafe, and unconstitutional for the state to deny her the right to safe and legal medical procedures. She was unmarried and pregnant from her rape and living in a state where it was not safe to have an abortion. Not only that, she was too poor to travel to where it was safe and had no where to turn until she met Sarah Weddington. Together, the mysterious Roe, and Weddington filed an injunction against District Attorney Henry Wade. The landmark case ultimately resulted in a constitutional amendment which would allow access to legal abortions across the country. While it is still under debate as to whether or not much has changed in the past 35 years, it is no longer illegal for a woman to seek out and have this procedure. Most abortions, especially in the first term, are preformed by a simple D&E, or dilation and evacuation (it's exactly like it sounds) which causes little side effects or danger to the woman and is normally preformed as an outpatient procedure. The fetus is removed from her body, in more cases than not, before it has even completely developed a heart or a nervous system that does more than maintain life via the brain stem.

Jane Roe and Terry Schiavo have a lot in common. The preservation of life is a tricky thing. As a self-proclaimed pacifist, my ultimate goal is to preserve life, health and safety above all else. I hate guns, hitting and I'm even middle of the road when it comes to throwing things (you gotta have an outlet somewhere). The aggression that motivates these things is the major concern, but the result is just as difficult. Pain and suffering. It is that pain and suffering which drives our opinions on things like euthenasia, abortion, and even the death penalty (I've decided not to even go there on the latter). Why would someone choose to end life when they ultimately have the option to preserve it? The answer to this conundrum is incredibly simple: it's personal. People go through a lot of things: difficult families, bulimia, rape... and it is impossible to judge how it is a person should deal with these things in their own lives. At what point does the government get to determine how to do that and save people from making the wrong decisions? At what point does the general public have enough sense to make them for themselves, learn from mistakes and move on?

Terry Schiavo is laying now, starving at her hospice waiting for a death that should have come to her over 15 years ago. Her family, including her husband, are there with her, helping her through until the end, praying for her. Jane Roe (who actually has a real name, Norma McCorvey, and is a real human being) has most likely moved on although it is impossible to ever fully recover from an abortion, let alone a rape. In fact, it is rumored that she has turned a different corner in her life and now considers herself pro-life. Whether or not she now believes her decision was right, she was at least given the opportunity to make that decision on her own. While it may seem like two great losses, the truth is, the government is, as it should be, looking seriously at the amount of involvement it takes in people's personal lives. And if nothing else, there's a little bit of comfort in that.