I have an article in the current Weekly Standard on the Rom Houben case. I find it fascinating that Terri Schiavo–and what happened to her–is the subtext of the entire event. From my article:
The case of Terri Schiavo–who died five years ago next March, deprived for nearly two weeks of food and water, even the balm of ice chips–continues to prick consciences. That may be one reason the case of Rom Houben, a Belgian man who was misdiagnosed for 23 years as being in a persistent vegetative state, is now receiving international attention.
When Houben was injured and misdiagnosed, the idea of dehydrating him was unthinkable. No more:
During the years that Houben was thought unconscious, society changed. Bioethicists nudged medicine away from the Hippocratic model and toward “quality of life” judgmentalism. Today, when a patient is diagnosed as persistently unconscious or minimally aware, doctors, social workers, and bioethicists often recommend that life-sustaining treatment–including sustenance delivered through a tube–be withdrawn, sometimes days or weeks after the injury.
I discuss the notorious Haleigh Poutre case, (about which I wrote more extensively here), the little girl who would have been dehydrated but for the time it took to get the Massachusetts Supreme Court’s approval, allowing her the time to wake up. I discuss the controversy over whether he is not actually communicating. And I point out something that I think is just beneath the surface of the entire discussion:
In any case, why the sour response to a good news story? It is hard to shake the feeling that the emotional crosscurrents stirred by Terri Schiavo have been stirred again. Time reported that Schiavo-type “legal fights are likely to become more common as classifications of brain-injury severity are revised.” According to ABC, Schiavo’s family “felt both heartbreak and vindication” about the story.
And so, it seems, Terri Schiavo remains very much with us. Indeed, every time we hear about the newest “miraculous” awakening, we find ourselves wrestling again with the moral import of all that happened; haunted it seems, by her beautifully smiling face.
December 5th, 2009 | 1:51 am
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Vince Humphreys, Wesley J. Smith. Wesley J. Smith said: Rom Houben: “The Long Awakening” » Secondhand Smoke | A First Things Blog – http://shar.es/aIdc9 [...]
December 5th, 2009 | 3:17 pm
Look at the picture. Amazing, isn’t it, how Houden “talks” by having somebody move his finger around the keyboard? Almost like operating a ouija board. Maybe it’s balm for believers in Santa Claus.
Wesley J. Smith Reply:
December 5th, 2009 at 4:15 pm
That’s Houben, not Houden.
December 5th, 2009 | 10:05 pm
I wouldn’t care if his name was Houdini; the whole thing’s a sham. Nonsense. BS.
December 5th, 2009 | 10:23 pm
You are getting at something, Wesley. Terri Schiavo’s case caused the whole nation to stare at …a lot of things. The fact of suffering. The possibility of being cut off from everything you think of as your identity. The yawning, frightening unknowable. The guilt and relief of finding a reason to get rid of these reminders of our weakness.
Passionate protests against Terri’s worthiness (and that of others whose humanity is similarly hidden) are partly due to the phenomena of: “If I assert it loudly, and with enough vigor, it will become true.”
And there, the grown-up version of the playground bully is born.
These people even stoop to pouncing on the minutest discussion board commentary about the subject of Terri and others like her, protesting. They feel compelled to make rude comments that deride the appearance or motor skills of people with disabilities. They bring the conversation back to Terri whenever possible, to assert again how much of a non-person she was. Sometimes these protesters even use horrifyingly offensive terms for people who have lost cognitive function.
At that point, you realize that, anyone who is so deeply invested in denying the humanity of such persons must be terribly frightened about his own human worth.
December 11th, 2009 | 8:56 pm
[...] more at Wesley Smith’s blog about the truth, not myth, of Schiavo and the impact of patients who are not denied care and regain consciousness [...]
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