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March 11, 2005 1:08 am

America's conscience

Solomon! where is thy throne? It is gone in the wind.

--James Clarence Mangan (1803-49), Irish poet

WHEN THE OLD Hebrew king was asked to determine the true mother of a contested baby, he said, chillingly, "Bring me a sword!" The resulting protestations of course proved maternity and cemented Solomon's reputation for wisdom.

If only America's courts were so sage. For in the tug of war over the life of Terri Schiavo, wisdom seems to have abdicated its throne. The Florida woman suffered brain damage 15 years ago, and for the last decade her husband and her parents have battled over her fate. Michael Schiavo says Terri would have rejected "life-prolonging medical procedures." He wants her feeding tube removed. Terri's parents, the Schindlers, object, asserting, in a replay of Virginia's Hugh Finn struggle, that their daughter is aware of her surroundings and deserves at least minimal care--feeding and hydration.

Florida's courts repeatedly have sided with Mr. Schiavo, fixing on a few vague oral statements Terri allegedly made while healthy. But perhaps the finding of the 2nd District Court reflects the judges' true thinking:

"In the final analysis, the difficult question that faced the trial court was whether Theresa Marie Schindler Schiavo, not after a few weeks in a coma, but after 10 years in a persistent vegetative statewith no hope of a medical cure but with sufficient money and strength of body to live indefinitely, would choose to consider the constant nursing care and the supporting tubesor whether she would wish to permit a natural death process to take its course and for her family members and loved ones to be free to continue their lives."

The court inferred the latter. In other words, this woman's case is hopeless; it's time to be done with it and let everyone get on with his or her life.

Theologian Francis Schaeffer and former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop, in their book "Whatever Happened to the Human Race?" write that every nation and every age is ultimately judged by one criterion: "The final measure of man's humanity is how humanely people treat one another."

Especially, one assumes, the weak, the poor, the crippled, the diseased, the young, the old, the infirm. Is it humane to withhold food and water and allow a handicapped woman to die of dehydration or starvation? The Schindlers have volunteered to care for Terri Schiavo themselves, releasing her husband (who has formed a new family, fathering two children with his fiancee) from any obligation. He can even keep any money left over from malpractice awards. Yet Mr. Schiavo rebuffed the offer. Why is the only acceptable outcome watching Terri Schiavo die?

By the latest court ruling, doctors will remove Mrs. Schiavo's feeding tube on March 18. In an eleventh-hour attempt to forestall that eventuality, Florida congressman Dave Weldon, M.D., has introduced legislation that would extend to the afflicted woman a federal writ of habeas corpus--relief for those whose liberties state courts have breached. Should this maneuver fail, the death watch will begin. The question then becomes, is the value America puts on life dying as well?

Difficult situations like the one facing Terri Schiavo's family can be avoided with an advance life directive, a statement of preferences regarding medical care in the event of incapacitation. Perhaps its time to include an ALD option on driver's licenses, similar to what is done with the organ donation program.