”The case is full of great ironies. A large part of Terri’s hospice costs are paid by Medicaid, a program that the administration and conservatives in Congress would sharply reduce. Some of her other expenses have been covered by the million-dollar proceeds of a malpractice suit – the kind of suit that President Bush has fought to scale back.”

- NPR commentator Daniel Schorr. Congress met on Palm Sunday to pass a law, signed by Bush, to allow a federal judge to override the decisions of Florida courts to remove Terri Schiavo’s feeding tube. The federal judge appointed to the case declined to intervene, though appeals by her parents’ lawyers are forthcoming.

Christian tradition calls us to give special care and attention to the weakest in our community, and to view life as sacred in a way that is not diminished by illness or disability. On the other hand, most Christians believe that the everyday miracle that is our body is not the sum total of our existence. Death, the inevitable surrender of the physical being, is in another way just a step in the life of faith.

- End of Life Ethics, Julie Polter

Courtesy of Sojourners.