What’s happening, America?

HOW ugly! How barbaric! How have things gone down to this pit of human insensibility, to this abyss of brazen stupidity?

It’s ironic that in a country that boasts itself of being the most developed if not the most civilized in the world, a world leader in democratic principles and a powerful guardian of human rights, a very basic point of common sense and human compassion is painfully and cruelly contradicted.

I’m referring to the now well-known Terri Schiavo case, today’s object of
intense and seething debate not only in the US but also all over the world.

Here’s a helpless 41-year-old woman, severely brain-damaged, but definitely alive and awake, needing no extraordinary care other than tube feeding that can easily be administered to her by anyone with a bit of sacrifice.

The husband, now living with another woman, thinks that after 15 years of such condition, his wife must not like to live any longer, and should be allowed to die. The parents, and the rest of the life-loving humanity, think otherwise.

Of course, if you have a weakened person, what do you do? Do you kill him? Would you not rather help him as far as you could?

The shocker is that the American legal system, supposedly well-honed in democratic legal justice, seems to have so lost its common sense, or so trapped in its own conceits that it allows the inhuman option of the husband to happen.

They have taken away the feeding tubes and are now leaving the woman to die. I have never seen such callousness, such barbarity before.

To top it all, the American legal system prohibits anyone—the parents of
Terri, for example—to feed and take care of her, since the husband is unwilling. What is this?

Am I missing something? America, I just could not understand what you are doing. If you cannot take care of her, send her here quick to our poor country, and we’ll take care of her, gratis et amore.

When my father was dying and was needing special help, we did all we could, no matter what the expenses, no matter what the odds, to help him, even if it was just to make his inevitable death as pain-free as possible.

We don’t have to talk theology to handle situations like this. It’s just plain common sense, a very obvious and basic element of human compassion that would lead anyone to save or help any person in a difficult situation.

What is this madness and foolishness called? It’s unbelievable! This is pure and simple euthanasia, the so-called mercy-killing that has nothing to do with mercy.

Rather what is shown is the perverse dislike for any sacrifice and inconvenience, for any suffering. So inhuman, so unlike what Christ did and taught, so unlike what the Pope is showing us right now!

I think what we are seeing is a world that is going mad, deranged, blinded
by its own immorality, a result of its systematic indifference to God and to his laws. We are seeing a world that has become impatient with suffering, where the inevitable Cross has no place.

The Pope has been warning us about the spread of the culture of death, that starts with justifying simple immoral acts like contraception and infidelities, and then legalizing them like abortion and divorce.

Now they are talking about same-sex unions, and even euthanasia. I don’t
know where this perversity will end. But certainly, looking at what is happening now in the Terri Schiavo case frightens us. The slippery slope to more evil is already very clear.

It’s a culture that excels in blurring if not erasing the distinction between good and evil, right and wrong. Only what one likes, what one society likes, detached from an objective law, from God, are pursued.

In an attempt to soften the ugliness of the Terri Schiavo case, some people talk about the “living will,” where whatever is said there should be followed.

They forget that this “living will” is no absolute thing, but is subject, like anything else, to an objective moral law.

So even if a patient puts in his “living will” that no life support be given in case he goes to some sickness, that provision should not just be followed blindly.

As I’ve always said, we have to go back to God. Let’s take our faith more
seriously. Let’s stay away from the smugness of our own self-sufficiency, because frankly that attitude is simply ridiculous.