That annoying intractability

By Diogenes ( articles ) | Mar 02, 2005

Terri Schiavo has a date with death, and you found yourself wondering what her bishop has to say about it.

Wonder no longer; he's taken his stand.

Bishop Lynch announces that "the decision to remove Terri’s artificial feeding tube will be that of her husband, Michael." That's good, because the decision shouldn't be left to "the courts or certainly the governor or legislature..." (Notice that word: "certainly." You wouldn't want Republicans making the decision.)

Still, the bishop realizes that there is a problem: "A significant part of that family feels they are outside of the decision-making process and they are in great pain and suffering mightily."

Yeah, that's a problem, all right. So the bishop proposes a solution: If everyone could just get together, and join in the decision-making process, then we could all relax.

Except Terri Schiavo, who would have been dead long ago but for the "intractability" of her parents-- the very factor that Bishop Lynch wants to eliminate from this equation.