Senator Bill Frist last week watched a videotape of Terri Schiavo made by her parents in
2001. He did this in his capacity as Senate
majority leader and as a physician. In both roles, he performed
miserably. As a senator, he showed himself to be an
unscrupulous opportunist. As a physician, he was guilty of
practicing medicine without a brain.
After viewing the tape, Frist felt confident to
question the several courts and many doctors who —
apparently handicapped by first-hand examinations — had
erroneously concluded that Schiavo was in a “persistent vegetative state.”
“I question it based on a review of the video
footage,” he told the Senate. “She certainly seems to respond to
visual stimuli.” Doubtful. What’s more certain is that
Frist and his colleagues were responding to political stimuli.
The unreasonableness of the Republican position —
President Bush hurrying back to Washington to sign the bill
as soon as it was passed — flummoxed speaker after speaker.
Representative Tom DeLay, the House majority leader,
proved you don’t need a medical degree to make foolish
statements about Schiavo. “It won’t take a miracle to help Terri
Schiavo,” he said, neglecting to cite his source. “It will only take
the medical care and therapy that all patients deserve.”
Someone — no one knows who — committed candor
and truth in Washington (a federal offense?) by circulating a
memo to Republicans alerting them to the obvious: Schiavo was
“a great political issue.” Frist, who is almost certainly
running for president next time out, took umbrage at that: “I
condemn the content of the memo,” he umbraged, “and
reaffirm that the interest in this case by myself (and others) is to
assure that Mrs. Schiavo has another chance at life.”
Bravo! But why not insist that whatever state she’s
in, she keeps getting a chance at life — forever? After all,
a miracle could happen (DeLay) and she recognizes
visual stimuli (Frist) and “she can recover substantially if she
gets the proper rehabilitation” (Frist again, this time citing
another doctor). Almost no one here is a hands-on
doctor, but they don’t hesitate to play one on TV.
Watching the House debate Sunday night, I
wondered why the Democrats — some of them, anyway — even
bothered debating the bill. Representative Barney Frank
(D-Mass.) was eloquent and persuasive, but the GOP had
the votes. Congress was intent on intruding into a family
matter in which the courts had ruled repeatedly in favor of
the husband. The parents felt otherwise, granted, but they
had had their day in court.
Those courts, though, did not rule as Congress
would have liked, and so by pretty close to fiat — no hearings,
no witnesses, and absolutely no thought — the matter
was moved to the federal courts where, probably, the
outcome will be what it was at the state level. A change in
jurisdiction is not going to change Schiavo’s condition.
Schiavo’s husband said she would not want to live the
way she does now — and that she even said so. But she was only
26 when tragedy struck, probably too young to give
serious thought to these matters. Besides, what she once wanted
is not the point. That person is gone — or so say the experts
and so say the courts who have heard from the experts.
What remains is a legal case that no longer is
about Schiavo. Instead, it’s about the politics of abortion —
right to life — and political opportunism. Terri Schiavo lives
so that others, notably Frist, can run for higher office. I
know that by watching the tape.
Richard Cohen is a member of the Washington Post
Writers Group.
