« Knifefights On The Internet | Main | Jonah In The Zone »
March 30, 2005
Random Thoughts On The Schiavo Case
The Schiavo case. So, shall I move from trying to decipher the Ph.D.-level discussions on the methodology of the Lancet study to now comment on this sad and infuriating story?
To be honest, these "social conservative" issues don't succeed in engaging me to any great extent. They certainly are valid and important; but a person has just so much indignant outrage to spend--and I choose to spend most of mine on other important issues--education and foreign policy, for example.
Rather than produce a linearly reasoned argument leading to a powerful conclusion (which I can't do anyway, since my opinion is rather "distributed"), let me, for now, just throw out a few bullet points which have been bugging me subconsciously:
1) The intervention of Congress in the case of a specific individual. I know I may not have the entire lowdown on the precise mechanism Congress wished to enforce, but the appearance of Congress acting on an issue of a single individual seems to set a bad precedent. Not to mention the Federalism/state's rights question (and I am a dedicated Federalist--usually).
2) Consistency of judgement. This case has been heard by more than a few judges over the span of fifteen years. I am inherently suspicious of "new" facts that suddenly emerge in the late stages of a legal argument.
3) Perceived promotion of "God's law" over the the laws of our land. I have felt a definite perception from the "pro-life" or "religious right" of the idea that Congress, the Supreme Court, Jeb Bush, or anyone, is morally obligated to help this woman, regardless of the legal or personal cost.
Does anyone remember, several interminable news cycles ago, the low-level debate about whether social security reform would split the Republican party, and dissipate GWB's accumulated political capital? I fear, as I flee from CNN's and Fox's (not to mention one personally beloved conservative blog's) obsession with this case, that this news event might might provide a hand hold upon which the Dems might mount elective attacks in 2006 and 2008.
See here for more that makes sense to me.
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.thebernoullieffect.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/80
