Abstract

The Schiavo Hypocrites

The article criticizes the actions of the Republican Party over the case of Terri Schiavo, a brain-damaged woman whose husband fought for her right to die. With their handling of the heart-wrenching Terri Schiavo case, President George W. Bush and his Republican allies in tragedy exploitation were awash in hypocrisy. The party that has looked to cut Medicaid services to millions of poor Americans dramatically recalled all its House members to decry what it disingenuously claimed was a denial of care to one person who has been in a severely brain-damaged state for fifteen years. Senate majority leader Bill Frist, a heart specialist presumably familiar with medical ethics, maintained that he could diagnose Schiavo, by watching a video several years old, more accurately than neurologists who have examined her in person. It has been a fight over the culture of law, the culture of privacy and the culture of personal autonomy.