Science!

Mickey Kaus and others makes an excellent point regarding the Terri Schiavo case. Shouldn't liberals and Democrats be pro-feeding tube?:

What's a sounder basis for ambitious liberal affirmative government--a) an optimistic desire for often-expensive government action to preserve and extend life or b) a resigned, fatalistic willingness to delegate life-ending decisions to private citizens? If the answer is a), shouldn't left-wingers be pro-tubists? NPR's "bias legend" Nina Totenberg was ridiculed for saying, on Inside Washington, that:

"if we really believed in an unmitigated, uncurbed in any way culture of life, we would be having universal health care."

But it seems to me that Totenberg has pointed in exactly the direction the Democrats should have been heading on the Schiavo issue. Has their political and moral sense been so twisted by the hard dogma of "abortion rights" (and disdain for fundamentalist Christians) that they don't see this? ... "More chances at life for all citizens, whatever their status or station"--that's still more of a Democratic slogan than a Republican one.

The trouble is that Americans have learned the libertarian, live-and-let-live philosophy only too well. We are also pretty procedure-oriented too, especially with regard to the courts. Which is usually good, but not always. Few people want to intervene in the Schiavo case: it's private. We don't trust the Religious Right. And we've all been taken by surprise by the issue: we weren't prepared for it and haven't thought it through.

But mostly I think liberals just don't believe an optimistic technology-oriented approach would work in this case. Terri's cerebral cortex is mush. Would stem cells help? Doubtful. Maybe we are just too educated for our own good! Liberalism is an optimistic faith. Blithe ignorance about our chances for success may be better in this case than bitter knowledge!