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Christian Crusade for Catatonia

© Joseph Newhard

Justice was two-fold in Florida last month: Terri Schiavo was finally permitted to die, and the Christian right received a much-needed lesson in the separation of powers, federalism, and God's indifference or impotence (which is worse?) towards human suffering.

Schiavo's fight against her persistent vegetative state, resulting from brain damage suffered in 1990, finally came to an end on Thursday, March 31, 2005. Her state of infirmity was prolonged thanks to the misguided activism of the religious right and their seven-year legal battle, determined to keep her alive by artificial means despite the wishes of the husband, who according to law is typically considered the fiercest defender of her best interests.

Since time memorable the philosophers have been concerned with discovering the "life worth living." As far as I know, it is only the curious philosophy of Christianity that has led its followers to conclude that such a life includes experiencing the destruction of one's brain material down to the brain stem, rendering one's capacity for rational thought and meaningful experience totally dissolved. This is especially puzzling given the Christian belief that she will regain conscious awareness once mankind stops meddling with her body and allows her to succumb to the death God willed her to experience.

The religious right, or who I prefer to call the "religious wrong," are keen at telling everyone God's opinion on every subject from euthanasia to abortion, from God's contempt for pleasure of any kind to his implied approval of polyester pants. God has so many liaisons on Earth informing mankind of his stances that he has apparently been overwhelmed with confusion in his appointments, as a great deal of these representatives are adept at giving us conflicting reports of his passions and displeasures.

Religious belief, which is nothing more than self-delusion on a grand scale, a collective mental illness deserving inclusion in the DSM-IV, is responsible for the inane approach to life held by the religious defenders of Terri Schiavo's forced life extension. Christians have for 2000 years made it their business to tell people how to live their lives, and readily assaulted them with physical force when necessary. Is shouldn't surprise anyone with a modest exposure to history that the proper functioning of the separation of church and state has induced them to clench their fists and stomp up and down like children just because the courts didn't decide their way.

For added irony, these same people who are allegedly "defending life" are the ones who would deny individuals the right to end their lives with assistance from a professional when they deem their lives no longer worth living. Schiavo didn't have to starve to death, but the same people bombarding us with emotional arguments of the pain and suffering of her death are the first to refuse someone the right to a lethal injection that would swiftly spring their suffering and merely hasten the inevitable.

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