We should 'err on the side of life,' always

By Staff
Unless you've been hiding in a cave for a couple of weeks, you probably know the story of Terri Schiavo.
If not, here's the quick version: Schiavo, 41, suffers from brain damage due to a heart attack in 1990, which was brought on by an eating disorder, and has been in what court-appointed doctors term a "persistent vegetative state," for the past 15 years, being kept alive by a feeding tube. Her husband Michael wants the tube removed, saying his wife would not want to live this way. Her parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, are waging an intense legal battle to keep the tube in and keep their daughter alive, saying she could get better with treatment.
The issue has blossomed into a full-scale political war, with Congress interrupting its Easter recess to pass a special bill pushing the case into federal court, a bill President Bush rushed back to Washington from Texas to sign.
Currently, the feeding tube is removed. And the legal battle goes on.
There are strong opinions all around on the issue. Politicians, especially the Republican right, have rushed to get involved. President Bush said Monday that in all cases, "it is wise to always err on the side of life."
White House spokesman Scott McClellan re-affirmed Tuesday, "we continue to stand on the side of defending life."
U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, a Tennessee Republican with ambitions of running for president, said Tuesday that a federal judge's ruling not to re-insert the feeding tube made it "a sad day for all Americans who value the sanctity of life."
I have opinions on the case, as usual - primarily that it's not the government's business, and that I will make sure my family knows what measures I want taken and not taken to keep me alive if I'm ever in Terri's condition.
But what I've had on my mind this week is the bigger picture, and the consistency of our beliefs.
I am a firm believer in the sanctity of life. I believe life is a God-given miracle, and it is not up to humans to decide when that life should end, save in the extreme cases of self-defense or war to preserve other life. My belief applies to abortion, euthanasia, and….the death penalty.
Yes, I said the death penalty.
I know this is not a popular opinion in the "kill 'em all and let God sort 'em out" climate that exists in our ultra-conservative South, but I believe the folks trumpeting their belief in the sanctity of life should be consistent in their view.
There is a laundry list of reasons I am anti-death penalty. Statistics show it does not deter crime, it is not applied evenly to all ethnic and socio-economic classes, and it carries the inherent risk of someone completely innocent being killed by the state "in error," and as President Bush said, we should "err on the side of life," right?
But Jason, don't you think someone who viciously murders and rapes a child deserves to die? Absolutely. I hate the crimes they commit. They deserve to die. They deserve to burn in a fiery hell, also, but you know what? So do all of us, but God's mercy provides a way out of that. In God's eyes, a sinner is a sinner, whether you rape, murder, lie, steal, or "merely" slander a fellow church member with gossip.
We kill criminals in government-sanctioned ceremonies because as humans, we want vengeance. But "vengeance is mine," God said - not ours.
Twelve times so far in 2005 (according to www.deathpenaltyinfo.org), the government has killed a human being. Four of those 12 were performed in Texas, the state President Bush once governed. Further, Bush allowed 152 death penalties to be carried out as governor of Texas.
The Republican platform has always been staunchly pro-death penalty, yet many of those same Republicans are all but renting their garments over Terri Schiavo, proclaiming their fight for "life."
I'm strongly pro-life - for the unborn, for the elderly, and yes, even for criminals, though I may loathe their actions.
Let us "err on the side of life," indeed - for all humans, not just those we find it politically expedient to defend.