I find it hard to believe how much the Terri Shiavo case has affected me and how upset the inexorable grinding of our dysfunctional legal system has made me. A simple reading of the evidence says something is very remiss here and I dont believe what I see is the wishful thinking of a close-minded religious bigot, as I am neither close-minded nor bigoted, and while sometimes prone to wishful thinking (what optimist isnt), I believe in this case I am more coldly logical than normal.
Everyone who can should read the significant postings on the award winning CodeBlueBlog, as well as deal with his $100,000 challenge to any neurologist/bioethicist) involved in Terri Schiavo’s case. The author of the blog is a radiologist with extensive experience in looking at CTs of patients like Terri. I find it interesting that no one seems to be willing to take up his challenge or deal with his highly informed questions, especially concerning her medical history post admission.
That aside, I find the direction my country has taken (as noted by its institutions, including its courts) positing a chilling future and not just for Terri Shiavo. There is still a lot of evidence to be presented before this case is over and its results will not be known until well after her autopsy. Depending on what is found, it could create a firestorm of reaction further polarizing opinion.
The most significant thing about this case, as least from my middling opinion, is how all the grey surrounding these events is disappearing and things are becoming starkly black and white. C. S. Lewis in his science fiction trilogy: Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, and The Hideous Strength, postulated that as the end times approached the grey that men had used in previous periods of human history to avoid taking a definitive stand would disappear and things would be either black or white. No one would be able to straddle the fence any longer.
Is it just me or are things becoming more polarized, black and white; are all the grey possibilities disappearing? I have to ask these questions because this may all be a personal projection, my aging sensibilities reading into the situation, rather than an active sense of discernment and realistic analysis.
If I am discerning something, rather than reacting in an age-effected manner, then things will continue to polarize and the contrasts between positions become greater, not less. People and their decisions will move toward and ever-increasing starkness. Only time will tell.
Update 3/31: Michel Shiavo’s Lawyer has claimed that Michael has turned down several large incentives (including one for a million dollars) to transfer Terri to the custody of her parents.
