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Louis Wheat
Liberate Tutemae ex Inferis

The case of Terri Schiavo, the Florida woman who was left mentally incapacitated after a heart attack, has dominated the news recently. Schiavo's parents and husband are engaged in a bitter legal battle over whether to keep her alive or not.

The parents want the former, but the husband wants the latter, saying, "It's what Terri said she wanted."

The U.S. legislative and executive branches have even gotten involved in the battle. Lawmakers and the White House passed legislation allowing a federal judge to override the decisions of Florida courts to remove the brain-damaged woman's feeding tube. Anti-abortion activists cheered for the override. The key GOP constituency again cheered as "Jorge Jr." rushed back to Washington to sign the bill early Monday morning after a rare Palm Sunday congressional session. In another sign of the priority that the GOP has placed on the Schiavo situation, they have let it trump their traditional beliefs in a limited federal judiciary and respect for the "sanctity of marriage." At 1:30 a.m. Wednesday, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta, Ga., decided not to order the feeding tube of Terri Schiavo reinserted.

This got my loaded, sleep-deprived mind running off on a weird tangent, posing the question: I wonder what Aquinas might think about this situation? St. Thomas Aquinas was a Roman Catholic priest in France during the 13th century, and he is also one of the greatest political, theological and moral philosophers of all time (see the Great Books of the Western World, Vol. 19). His philosophy and morals are based primarily on two sources: Aristotle and, of course, the Holy Bible.

In "Summa Theologica," Aquinas states that humans are a composite of the body, which houses the soul, and with senses we are allowed to perceive the corporeal world and the soul, which is an incorporeal form that gives us the capacity for understanding what we perceive. Aquinas makes the distinction between the soul of humans and the soul of brute animals - the former being intellectual and the latter sensitive.

When Terri Schiavo lost her mental capacities, she lost her intellectual ability to fully understand what she perceives, leaving her essentially with a sensitive soul. By that definition, it would seem that Schiavo should be allowed to go home and be at peace - not struggle through life having to depend upon others for the basic necessities in life. But being a Catholic priest, Aquinas would also argue on the side of life. He would probably say that since we have the ability to preserve her life and rehabilitate her, then we should exhaust every effort in doing so.

Since every effort has not been exhausted, Schiavo has received neither an MRI nor PET and there are several experts in disagreement about Schiavo being beyond rehabilitation or not, the tube should be reinserted. If after further review it's determined that she can't be rehabbed, the law leaving the decision to the spouse should be honored. Iniquity must be destroyed!