BuzzFlash Reader Contribution

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Experience Shades Thinking: Conservative's Hypocritical "Intrinsic Value of Life"

A BUZZFLASH READER CONTRIBUTION
by Hugh Conrad

When it happens to you, the experience leaves an indelible imprint upon your emotions and upon your memory.

I still remember watching my father on that night more than 15 years ago, lying there with no sense of the outside world. He had waged a valiant battle against Multiple Myeloma, cancer of the bone marrow, fighting the disease and everyone who tried to tie him down.

At that point, the disease was prevailing in the contest, relegating him to a hospital bed, his 83-year-old body strapped tightly to the flat surface, his head slightly elevated.

As he quietly laid there in a coma for the eighth day, I asked myself, "How long is this going to go on? He has lived a full life, was never in a hospital until he was 78. He does not deserve to just lie there, unconscious, with no possibility of his life improving."

Like most children, your mind invariably wanders at times like this to the beautiful reminders of your parent, of the times that you will cherish for your life.

Suddenly, his labored breath stopped, with no sounds emanating from his body. I grasped his arm, searching for a pulse that I knew was never going to be found.

After about a minute during which I thanked God for his mercy, I pressed the intercom to inform the nurses about it. They came running and checked him. Their first question: "Do you want us to try and resuscitate him?"

When he was taken into the hospital and I was asked if we wanted to resuscitate him, my answer was, "Of course." No child wants to allow a parent to die, I thought at the time.

After watching him for eight days, my answer was succinct: "No. He is at peace."

I realized that I was being selfish when I first said those words about resuscitating my father. I had to think about what was best for my father, not what was best for his children.

Finally, he was at peace, something that had eluded him for more than a year.

Today, those who are lamenting the situation of Terri Schiavo would call me a murderer. That is the sad state to which our public discourse has devolved. We should be having a public discussion about the right to die. Instead, we are hearing platitudes about a "culture of life."

Those words are at best a facade, but in truth, they are complete hypocrisy.

For instance, President Bush said about Schiavo, "In cases like this one, where there are serious questions and substantial doubts, our society, our laws, and our courts should have a presumption in favor of life."

His brother, Florida governor Jeb Bush said, "We should always favor life."

Right-wing columnist David Brooks of the New York Times said, "Conservatives believe that life has intrinsic value."

However, all three of them are hypocrites. If life does have intrinsic value, then why did G.W. Bush execute more people (152) than any governor in U.S. history? More than 150 people on death row have been released in the past five years because of new DNA evidence. They were all convicted by a jury. Yet, some of those whom Bush executed may have been innocent.

If he so favors life, why did Bush send American troops to Iraq in an illegal, unjust war? Where is the conservative outrage over a preemptive strike that has killed 1,500 of our U.S. soldiers and tens of thousands of Iraqis, both soldiers and civilians?

If we had allowed the U.N. weapons inspectors to do their job, we would have realized that Saddam Hussein had no Weapons of Mass Destruction and had no ties to Osama bin Laden. He was no threat to the U.S., and we did not exercise a presumptive "intrinsic value of life"in that regard.

Instead, those who are screaming about the death of a poor woman who has been in a persistent vegetative state for 15 years should examine their verbiage that "life has intrinsic value," that they are standing up for a "culture of life."

I was comfortable with my decision not to resuscitate my father 15 years ago, as I am today, because I did what was best for my father, not for his children. I did not want to let go, but God gave me the courage to do so.

Unfortunately, I am not comfortable with those who scream for a "culture of life" on the one hand, and then kill and maim others for no valid moral or religious reason, as we are in Iraq.

The lives of the women and children in Iraq also have intrinsic value. The lives of those on death row also have intrinsic value. Only God can decide whether or not to end their lives. They should also be part of the "culture of life."

A BUZZFLASH READER CONTRIBUTION