More Than Just a Heartbeat
Since my last post, Terri Schiavo died, the pope died, and I had a chance to read (well, skim) the cover story from this week's Nashville Scene. (See the link above.)
The subject of the Scene's lead story is Paul House, a Tennessee death-row inmate who is obviously innocent based on new DNA evidence, but whom the legal system maintains is guilty. Actually, seven of the fifteen judges on the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals are convinced of House's innocence. The other eight have sided with the state, presumably for political reasons. The state has refused to re-evaluate its case; I would guess that the state's motive is also political. I won't bother you with an analysis of the evidence; the article does a pretty thorough job.
Assuming House was falsely convicted, he has been denied 20 years of his life. In those years Paul House has developed MS and, unless the Supreme Court intervenes, he will soon be transferred from his wheelchair to the electric chair. Sadly, House is not the lone Tennessee death-row inmate convicted on questionable evidence; but I don't have time to go into the stories of Philip Workman and Abu-Ali Rahman.
Elected officials, church leaders, and others put forth an extraordinary effort to prolong Terri Schiavo's life. For Schiavo, life consisted of a beating heart, breathing, and some rudimentary brain functions. While her living in a persistent vegetative state for so many years makes her death no less painful for loved ones who wanted to preserve her life, I don't know that she was truly denied life when her feeding tube was removed. Paul House, on the other hand, has been denied twenty years of life. Even if his conviction is overturned, the criminal justice system will have taken significant steps toward "killing" House, leaving him aged and ailing, having lost some of his best adult years. Where is the public spectacle for Paul House? Where is the pro-life crowd?
I am glad that Pope John Paul II died while his capacity for living was fleeting. What if he had been left alive but lifeless? Until his final weeks, the pope, though suffering, truly lived. He performed his duties and relished his life until he could do so no longer. I think that, in so doing, JP2 proved that life is more than breathing; more than a heartbeat.
The subject of the Scene's lead story is Paul House, a Tennessee death-row inmate who is obviously innocent based on new DNA evidence, but whom the legal system maintains is guilty. Actually, seven of the fifteen judges on the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals are convinced of House's innocence. The other eight have sided with the state, presumably for political reasons. The state has refused to re-evaluate its case; I would guess that the state's motive is also political. I won't bother you with an analysis of the evidence; the article does a pretty thorough job.
Assuming House was falsely convicted, he has been denied 20 years of his life. In those years Paul House has developed MS and, unless the Supreme Court intervenes, he will soon be transferred from his wheelchair to the electric chair. Sadly, House is not the lone Tennessee death-row inmate convicted on questionable evidence; but I don't have time to go into the stories of Philip Workman and Abu-Ali Rahman.
Elected officials, church leaders, and others put forth an extraordinary effort to prolong Terri Schiavo's life. For Schiavo, life consisted of a beating heart, breathing, and some rudimentary brain functions. While her living in a persistent vegetative state for so many years makes her death no less painful for loved ones who wanted to preserve her life, I don't know that she was truly denied life when her feeding tube was removed. Paul House, on the other hand, has been denied twenty years of life. Even if his conviction is overturned, the criminal justice system will have taken significant steps toward "killing" House, leaving him aged and ailing, having lost some of his best adult years. Where is the public spectacle for Paul House? Where is the pro-life crowd?
I am glad that Pope John Paul II died while his capacity for living was fleeting. What if he had been left alive but lifeless? Until his final weeks, the pope, though suffering, truly lived. He performed his duties and relished his life until he could do so no longer. I think that, in so doing, JP2 proved that life is more than breathing; more than a heartbeat.
posted by Tinley | 6:58 AM
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