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September 17, 2005

John Leo hits the bullseye

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Writing in US News & World Report, John Leo summarizes my worries concisely:
 
The Schiavo case is a breakthrough for persuading the public to lower the bar on moral constraints. Once we had a bright line between pulling the plug on patients kept alive by life—support systems and killing people like Terri Schiavo who are not on life support but merely being fed through a tube.
 
Requiring clear evidence of consent is no longer required. In the Schiavo case, we have vaguely remembered consent from a party with a vested interest (the husband) some eight years after the patient was stricken...She has never been given a PET scan, one of the most sophisticated tests used to diagnose PVS, apparently because her husband refused to allow it. The killing of Schiavo is a scandal successfully redefined as unexceptional and therefore moral.
 
Hat tip: Alex
 
Thomas Lifson   3 27 05