Culture of Death Wins in 21st Century's Scopes Trial

Terri Schiavo: Culture of Death Wins in 21st Century's Scopes Trial

by Rabbi Aryeh Spero
Posted Mar 28, 2005

Terri Schiavo is dying. She is being killed. The culture of life lost this round to the gods of the cult of death entrenched in our courts, media, and other institutions.

This was never, as liberals claimed, a constitutional crisis. It was, first, a question as to the definition of death. Up until now and throughout the Bible death was declared when autonomous respiration and heartbeat ceased and, as of late, when the brain-stem and brain were devoid of function. With the Schiavo case, popular culture has expanded death's contour and hastened its arrival by redefining death as the inability to swallow albeit the wherewithal to breathe, pump, and feel. The Angel of Death is, I'm sure, thankful to those who have provided him this new-found overtime.

But more important, this case revolved around the more transcendent question as to the definition and meaning of life. Our nation is divided. Some view life not as an end in itself but a means toward -- in other words, teleologic. Others see life not simply as an avenue but a state in and of itself -- in other words, immanent.

Read the rest here.