In the Balance

I chose to become a lawyer because I wanted to avoid the weighy issues of life and death. I figured that the worse thing I would ever do is lose a lot of my client's money. Even if I had been interested in becoming a doctor, I never wanted the awesome responsibility of saving someone else's life. And now that the battle to save Terri Schiavo is in the hands of lawyers--not doctors.

Lawyers are not life-savers. When someone is drowning, the lawyer is the one who decides that a life-jacket is needed but the lawyer does not carry out the rescue. That is a job for someone else. So why would anyone think that the involvement of lawyers would make any sense of this idea of dignity in death?

I just told one of my clients that she will not find any comfort through the legal process. Our system of justice is not set up to be fair, it is only meant to be equitable. All you get is what will make you whole in the eyes of the law. The law will not soothe your hurt feelings. And in the case of Terri Schiavo, the likely resolution will surely disillusion everyone involved.

In the end, life does a better job of working things out than the law. In life, things tend to get resolved one way or another, and it simply adjusts to accommodate the outcome. Will Terri Schiavo live? Not if she isn't meant to live. And I can't imagine that anyone should live the way she has existed these past 15 years. Thus, the real tragedy for her and similar cases is not in dying, but the compromise of dignity in such a public death.

In contrast, consider the Pope. Here is someone who is clearly dealing with end of life issues, yet he continues on because he believes it is his duty to live and die as Pope. His caretakers have done everything humanly possible to keep him functioning so that he can go through the minimal motions of being Pope--which now consists of waving to the crowd at his window. But at least the Pope is aware of his situation and has made a conscious choice to face it.

In the end, we all will meet death. No one likes it, but it happens. The challenge is to live the best life you can while you are here, because life you can control. I think about the people in my life who have gone on, and how it became easier to accept their deaths when I learned to celebrate their lives.

In Terri Schiavo's case, I wonder if anyone celebrates her life in all of the preoccupation with her death. Her parents and siblings take the position that she should continue to live because she would want to have the chance to recover, while her husband feels very strongly that she should be allowed to die because she would not want to live in this manner.

In the end, life, not the law, should make the final adjustment concerning Terri Schiavo's life. None of us knows for sure what her intentions would have been, not her husband, her parents, nor any of the rest of us. Its time to let nature take its course, regardless of the outcome.