E.J. Dionne Should Apologize

In his Washington Post column today, E.J. Dionne is demanding an apology from all those who stood up for Terri Schiavo's personhood.

He insists that the autopsy proves them wrong.

Dionne is wrong.

He writes, "We are entitled to our moral, ethical and philosophical commitments. We are not entitled to our own facts."

I agree; and he's making up a bunch of his own facts.

He condems the comments Bill Frist and Tom DeLay made during the debate over whether Terri should be put to death by pulling her feeding tube, defending her.

Dionne says, "Most Americans were uneasy about compelling Schiavo's husband, Michael, to keep his wife alive if -- as the state courts had concluded and as the autopsy confirmed on Wednesday -- she had suffered irreversible brain damage and was incapable of recovering."

The issue was never whether Terri could fully recover. The issue was whether or not it is acceptable to kill a profoundly disabled person, when there is no living will or written documentation spelling out the individual's wishes.

Dionne claims "the big-government conservatives had to invent a story. They had to insist that they knew, just knew , more about Terri Schiavo's condition than the doctors on the scene. They had to question Michael Schiavo's motives and imply that he wanted to, well, get rid of her."

Since Dionne is hung up on facts, it seems odd that he fails to point out that there was disagreement among the doctors.

He concludes the column with this:

You wonder: Will DeLay now say to the media that he's sorry? Will he acknowledge that, in the Schiavo case, he honestly didn't know what he was talking about?

Right-to-life politicians have done terrible damage to a serious cause. They claimed to know what they did not, and could not, know. They were willing to imply, without proof, terrible things about a husband who was getting in their way. Instead of making the hard and morally challenging case for keeping Terri Schiavo on life support, they spun an emotional narrative that they thought would play well on cable TV and talk radio.

No, we should not move on. We should remember that some politicians will say whatever is necessary to advance their immediate purposes. Apologies, anyone?

I wonder: Will Dionne acknowledge that he honestly doesn't know what he's talking about?

Dionne claims to know what he does not. Moreover, he's assuming that the autopsy results show that Michael Schiavo is innocent of wrong-doing in his wife's collapse. That is absurd. Dionne is making an illogical leap. The autopsy report does not prove Schiavo had nothing to do with what caused Terri's heart to stop fifteen years ago. The autopsy does prove that Michael Schiavo, by successfully fighting to have Terri's feeding tube removed, caused Terri's heart to stop on March 31, 2005.

We should remember that Dionne will say anything to advance his immediate purposes, which is to promote the right to kill a disabled person.

If anyone should apologize, it's the people who murdered Terri Schiavo and those supporting the action.

Barbara Lyons, Executive Director for Wisconsin Right to Life, said, "This debate was never about whether Terri was abused by her husband or what the size of her brain was. It was about whether our society believes that individuals with disabilities should be treated with care and compassion or whether they should be tossed aside and even killed."

Apologies, Mr. Dionne?