Terri Schiavo died today at forty-one, soon after the Eleventh Circuit of Appeals en banc rejected one more appeal with one judge concurring to hold the federal law intended to give the parents one more shot an unconstitutional violation of separation of powers. The opinion, though a bit technical, is convincing though it's enough to say that similar reasons make it bad on policy grounds. Two judges wanted to declare a stay and hear the appeal, but the others probably were sympathic to their concurring collegue.
Nonetheless, using narrow and traditional judicial rules, the court advanced the same point. And, that was probably the best way to do it. As one of the esssays linked by the previous article, there might be some limited cases where special congressional action is justified. It still is rather hard to determine how the special favoritism shown here would be, but so be it: no need for the courts to overturn Congress and rub their noses in it. As I noted to a regular reader, the courts have done their job in this case. And, they deserve some kudos for doing so, since summer patriots of federalism/judicial restraint wanted them to act otherwise.
I voiced some comments on this case before and some more comments are found here, after I had some time to sleep on it a bit. Sad case, but not atypical in the issues it raises. And, philosophically, maybe it is necessary for society and legislatures to now and again focus their eyes on one special instance. As a character said in the sci-fi flick The Core, saving the world is too hard, we need to just focus on saving a few at a time. This does not justify Congress' actions, though it does lead one to understand why they and the country at large focused on one family, as if many more could not fill their place.
But, on some level, it's sad. The now deceased woman, though many feel she has been partially dead for quite some time, lost a lot of dignity in the process. Theresa Schiavo's personhood (not to say that of her husband, who national legislators demonized, ignoring all he did for his wife) is put aside to promote the cause of life, her parents, or perhaps to oppose the alleged malice of her husband. And, even if totally honest people use her fate for totally benign ends (including supporting living wills, which all the same are not going to answer every question), this leaves a bad taste in one's mouth.
To take but a small thing, it is said that she fell into a coma after complications from an eating disorder. She had lost a lot of weight and her appearance was quite important to her. So, what happens? Her shell of a body and the unflattering pic of her face was splashed all over the place. It just seems like she might not like that. [In my paper today, I saw a pic like the one above, a seldom shown picture of her "before." But, then again, we (the nation) known her only "after."]
Some noted that even on health grounds, it would have been counterproductive if the parents won that last ditch appeal. The final rejection served as an appropriate last gasp as she herself was almost done though the parents remained (publicly at least) optimistic. And, now she is truly gone. R.I.P.
[As noted by Amy Sullivan, who provides some good religion and morals coverage, why all the fear in letting her pass way from the likes of the Catholic Church? Atheists, sure. I can see why they might feel life must be clung to at all costs.]