Life != Living

This may fall in the "Well DUH!" category, but it's on my mind.

The way I see it, the debate over Terri Schiavo has nothing to do with life. Life is something that everything from we as human beings to single-celled parameciums do; we are organic machines that consume and use energy and expel waste until the machine breaks down and no longer functions. If these conversations were about life, we wouldn't give a rat's ass whether or not a machine is on-hand to pump Terri full of nutrients.

The debate is actually about something much harder to discuss: the existence of the soul.

The Bushes believe in the existence of the soul (though, despite all observations, none of them seem to possess one). Terri Schiavo must be kept alive so that the temple that houses her soul remains intact, so that her parents can look into those blank, emotionless eyes and peer into the windows of Terri's soul. It's the exact same reason why so many are opposed to safe and legal abortion; that fetus, with its Macadamia-nut-sized brain and gills that are not evidence of evolution, I swear, has a soul, and how dare someone intentionally kill it?

Corollary to the soul argument is the age-old conflict of science and faith. How do doctors, with their years of book-learnin' and their fancy big words know that Terri's not feeling pain, emotion, or, well, anything? Faith will tell you that inside that useless shell of a person is a beautiful soul that must not be destroyed.

As someone who believes that what we perceive as the "soul" is simply the firing of neurons combined with the anxiety of unanswered questions, I certainly believe that those who think Schiavo should be kept alive are preposterous, and many are the same people who believe evolution is a theory, that abortion is an abomination, and that our soul is transubstantiated from an Earthly carrier of our emotional fiber to either a heavenly being in communion with the Holy Trinity or a charred ember in the Lake of Fire. That's all just silly.

But.. for the sake of further proving these people are on the wrong side of the Schiavo case...

Let's say there is a soul. And let's say that soul and the body that houses it was created by God.

What is the purpose of possessing a soul on this floating rock if we are unable to use it? Our souls are what allow us to bring joy to ourselves and to others. Without souls, we wouldn't make the connections necessary to procreate and bring more souls into our lives. Our souls are what drive us to leave things better than we found them for the next generation. Falling in love or experiencing religious highs or even playing with a puppy—these experiences are what the soul brings us.

Terri Schiavo can experience none of this.

Therefore, doesn't it make more sense to allow Terri's soul to ascend into Heaven? Wouldn't she be happier frolicking on a cloud than laying in a hospital bed? Blessed are the meek, and she's about as meek as it gets.

Furthermore, God made Terri's body; God did not make feeding tubes. This situation is not like abortion, where God created a life. Terri's body is damaged beyond repair, and the tools of man will not save her body. God wants Terri's soul, and if you believe in God so much, you should let God have what He wants.

Of course, I don't believe in a soul or God or any of those myths that we dreamt up to fill in those anxiety-causing gaps I mentioned earlier. However, I do believe that just because someone is alive does not mean she is living. If you aren't living, you might as well be dead.

What irks me the most is the hypocrisy. God has dominion over nature, but Christians are keeping a brain dead women alive by artificial means. Marriage is a sacred, sanctified tradition, but this woman's husband doesn't know what his wife would want. And as Low Culture recently observed, it's an awful thing to let die a woman who has no control over her actions, but it's perfectly justified to execute a man who has no control over his actions.

No matter how one looks at the situation, there's really only one conclusion: it's time for Terri's body to die. Her parents should be comforted by the quaint notion that they will see their daughter again soon.