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2005 Ron Paul Chapter 34
HON. RON PAUL OF TEXAS
BEFORE THE US HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
April 6, 2005
Hypocrisy and the Ordeal of Terri Schiavo
2005 Ron Paul 34:1
Clearly no one wins in the legal and political battles over the death of Terri
Schiavo.
Although it has been terribly politicized, a valuable debate has
emerged.
This debate is not about abortion or euthanasia in general, nor
about
death in the abstract.
It’s about
an individual’s right to life and the value of life itself.
Without concern for the life of each individual, liberty is
meaningless
and indefensible.
2005 Ron Paul 34:2
This
debate deals with the passive treatment of the critically and
terminally ill.
This type of decision is manageable most of the time without
government
interference, but circumstances in this case made it difficult to
determine
proper guardianship.
The
unprecedented level of government involvement, questions about which
branch of
government had the ultimate say, and what the explicit intent of the
patient
was, brought national attention to what was otherwise a family conflict.
2005 Ron Paul 34:3
Terri
Schiavo is a unique case, and unfortunately her fate ended up in the
hands of
lawyers, judges, and the legislators.
The
media certainly did their part in disrupting her final days.
2005 Ron Paul 34:4
In
a free society the doctor and the patient-- or his or her designated
spokesperson-- make the decision, short of using violence, in dealing
with death
and dying issues.
The government stays out
of it.
2005 Ron Paul 34:5
This
debate, though, shows that one life is indeed important.
It is not an esoteric subject; it’s a real life involved and a
personal
issue we can’t ignore, especially in this age of Medicare, with
government now
responsible for most of the medical bills.
2005 Ron Paul 34:6
We’re
rapidly moving toward a time when these decisions will be based on the
cost of
care alone, since government pays all the bills under nationalized
health care.
As we defer to the state for our needs, and parental power is
transferred
to government, it is casually expected that government will be making
more and
more of these decisions.
This has
occurred in education, general medical care, and psychological testing.
The government now can protect the so-called right of a teenager
to have
an abortion, sometimes paid for by the government, without notifying
the
parents.
2005 Ron Paul 34:7
Free-market
medicine is not perfect, but it’s the best system to sort out these
difficult
problems-- and it did so for years.
2005 Ron Paul 34:8
Eventually,
government medicine surely will ignore the concern for a single patient
as a
person, and instead a computer program and cost analysis will make the
determination.
It will be said to
be more efficient, though morally unjustified, to allow a patient to
die by
court order rather than permitting family and friends to assume
responsibility
for the cost of keeping patients alive.
2005 Ron Paul 34:9
There’s
plenty of hypocrisy to go around on both sides of this lingering and
prolonged
debate.
In this instance we heard
some very sound arguments from the left defending states’ rights and
family
responsibility, while criticizing the federal government involvement.
I’m anxious for the day when those who made these arguments join
me in
defending the Constitution and states’ rights, especially the 9
th
and 10
th
Amendments, on many other economic and social
issues.
I won’t hold my breath.
2005 Ron Paul 34:10
More
importantly, where are those who rightfully condemn congressional
meddling in
the Schiavo case-- because of federalism and separation of powers-- on
the issue
of abortion?
These same folks strongly
defend Roe vs. Wade and the
so-called constitutional right to abort healthy human fetuses at any
stage.
There’s no hesitation to demand support of this phony right from
both
Congress and the federal courts.
Not
only do they demand federal legal protection for abortion, they insist
that
abortion foes be forced to fund this act that many of them equate with
murder.
2005 Ron Paul 34:11
It’s
too bad that philosophic consistency and strict adherence to the
Constitution
are not a high priority for many Members.
But
perhaps this “flexibility” in administering the rule of law helps
create
problems such as we faced in the Schiavo ordeal.
2005 Ron Paul 34:12
Though
the left produced some outstanding arguments for the federal government
staying
out of this controversy, they frequently used an analogy that could
never
persuade those of us who believe in a free society guided by the
constraints of
the Constitution.
They argued that
if conservatives who supported prolonging Terri’s life would only spend
more
money on welfare, they would demonstrate sincere concern for the right
to life.
This is false logic and does nothing to build the case for a local
government
solution to a feeding tube debate.
2005 Ron Paul 34:13
First,
all wealth transfers depend on an authoritarian state willing to use
lethal
force to satisfy the politicians’ notion of an unachievable fair
society.
Robbing Peter to pay Paul, no matter how well intentioned, can
never be
justified.
It’s theft, plain and
simple, and morally wrong.
Actually,
welfare is anti-prosperity; so it can’t be pro-life.
Too often good intentions are motivated only by the good that
someone
believes will result from the transfer program.
They
never ask who must pay, who must be threatened, who must
be arrested and imprisoned.
They
never ask whether the welfare funds taken by forcible taxation could
have helped
someone in a private or voluntary way.
2005 Ron Paul 34:14
Practically
speaking, welfare rarely works.
The
hundreds of billions of dollars spent on the war on poverty over the
last 50
years has done little to eradicate poverty.
Matter-of-fact, worthwhile studies show that poverty is actually
made
worse by government efforts to eradicate poverty.
Certainly the whole system does nothing to build self-esteem and
more
often than not does exactly the opposite.
2005 Ron Paul 34:15
My
suggestion to my colleagues, who did argue convincingly that Congress
should not
be involved in the Schiavo case, is please consider using these same
arguments
consistently and avoid the false accusation that if one opposes
increases in
welfare one is not pro-life.
Being
pro-liberty and pro-Constitution is indeed being
pro-life, as well as pro-prosperity.
2005 Ron Paul 34:16
Conservatives
on the other hand are equally inconsistent in their arguments for life.
There’s little hesitation by the conservative right to come to
Congress
to promote their moral agenda even when it’s not within the
jurisdiction of
the federal government to do so.
Take
for instance the funding of faith-based charities.
The process is of little concern to conservatives if their
agenda is met
by passing more federal laws and increasing spending.
Instead of concentrating on the repeal of Roe vs. Wade and
eliminating federal judicial authority over issues best dealt with at
the state
level, more federal laws are passed, which strictly speaking should not
be the
prerogative of the federal government.
2005 Ron Paul 34:17
The
biggest shortcoming of the Christian Right position is its adamancy for
protecting life in the very early, late, and weakened stages, while
enthusiastically supporting aggressive war that results in hundreds of
thousands
of unnecessary deaths.
While the killing
of the innocent unborn represents a morally
decadent society, and all life deserves an advocate, including Terri
Schiavo,
promoting a policy of deadly sanctions and all-out war against a nation
that
committed no act of aggression against us cannot come close to being
morally
consistent or defendable under our Constitution.
2005 Ron Paul 34:18
The
one issue generally ignored in the Schiavo debate is the subtle
influence the
cost of care for the dying had on the debate. Government paid care
clouds the
issue, and it must be noted that the courts ruled out any privately
paid care
for Terri.
It could be embarrassing in a
government-run nursing home to
see some patients receiving extra care from families while others are
denied the
same.
However, as time goes on, the
economics of care will play even a greater role since under socialized
medicine
the state makes all the decisions based on affordability.
Then there will be no debate as we just witnessed in the case of
Terri
Schiavo.
2005 Ron Paul 34:19
Having
practiced medicine in simpler times, agonizing problems like we just
witnessed
in this case did not arise.
Yes,
similar medical decisions were made and have been made for many, many
years.
But lawyers weren’t involved, nor the courts nor the legislators
nor
any part of the government-- only the patient, the patient’s family,
and the
doctor.
No one would have dreamed
of making a federal case of the dying process.
2005 Ron Paul 34:20
A
society and a government that lose respect for life help create
dilemmas of this
sort.
Today there is little respect
for life-- witness the number of abortions performed each year.
There is little respect for liberty-- witness the rules and laws
that
regulate our every move.
There is
little respect for peace-- witness our eagerness to initiate war to
impose our
will on others.
Tragically,
government financing of the elderly, out of economic necessity, will
usher in an
age of euthanasia.
2005 Ron Paul 34:21
The
accountants already have calculated that if the baby-boomer generation
is
treated to allow maximum longevity without quality of life concerns,
we’re
talking about $7 trillion in additional medical costs.
Economists will determine the outcome, and personal decisions
will
vanish.
National health care, of
necessity, will always conflict with personal choices.
2005 Ron Paul 34:22
Compounding
the cost problems that will lead to government ordered euthanasia is
the fact
that costs always skyrocket in government-run programs.
This is true whether it’s a $300 hammer for the Pentagon or an
emergency room visit for a broken toe.
And
in addition deficit financing, already epidemic because of our flawed
philosophy
of guns and butter, always leads to inflation when a country operates
on a paper
money system.
2005 Ron Paul 34:23
Without
a renewal in the moral fiber of the country and respect for the
constitutional
rule of law, we can expect a lot more and worse problems than we
witnessed in
the case of Terri Schiavo.
When
dying and medical care becomes solely a commercial event, we will long
for the
days of debating what was best for Terri.
2005 Ron Paul 34:24
Hopefully,
this messy debate will lead more Members to be convinced that all life
is
precious, that family and patient wishes should be respected, and that
government jurisprudence and financing falls far short of providing a
just
solution in these difficult matters.
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