Larry writes of how a personal loss in his family experience makes the current Schiavo a spectacle that should remain sacred to the family, not of public debate (my summary, not Larry’s words). Read here

Some of what Larry wrote:

…if an individual cannot bear to exist in a conscious state because of excruciating pain is that a life of quality? If a person near the end of life stops eating, should we force nourishment through a feeding tube? If a person with a degenerative condition cannot communicate, recognize loved ones, display cognitive functions, think, is a that a life of quality?

But we don’t have the kind of moral leadership today at the national level that can help us to conduct this important conversation. Even the Vatican let us down on this one. An editorial in L’Osservatore Romano asks, “Who can judge the dignity and sacredness of the life of a human being made in the image and likeness of God? Who can decide to pull the plug as if we were talking about a broken or out-of-order household appliance?”

Well, unfortunately, like it or not, someone is confronted with this dilemma everyday. And framing the question like this does not help them resolve their dilemma, it denigrates their profoundly moral considerations. It may even lead them to prolong life that does not “reflect the sacredness of a human being made in the image and likeness of God.”