Solomon Revisited - A Modern Parable

There was once a young woman - beautiful, vivacious and full of life. Like many young women, she met a man, fell in love, and married. By all accounts, or perhaps nearly all accounts, this man and this women were happy and in love. But then the young women got sick, and nearly died. In fact, she did die, but by the work of skillful doctors, her heart was able to beat again, her lungs could breath, and all of her bodily functions worked as they did before. Except her brain. Her brain had been starved of oxygen for too long, and was damaged. The young woman could no longer speak. She could not run, or even walk. She could not write or communicate in any meaningful way. At first, everyone hoped that, given time, she would get better. She didn't.
Many years passed, and eventually, there was a dispute as to who should care for the young woman, and what the best care was. Because the young woman could not speak or communicate her own wishes, someone else was going to have to make decisions for her. The young woman's parents had come to believe that they could best love and care for their daughter, while the young woman's husband believed that he was the best to care for her. As so often happens in such disputes, they ended up before the great judge, Solomon. Both sides brought forth witnesses, doctors, nurses and family members. Some said that the parents would give their daugher the best care. Others said that the husband was the best man for the job.
After everyone had said everything there was to be said, Solomon made his ruling. "Remove the tube that feeds her," he said, "and do not allow her to eat or drink anything." Solomon knew that this would result in the young woman's death. Upon hearing the decision, the young woman's husband said, "Yes, there is wisdom in this, remove the tube. Let my wife die." The woman's parents, however, were aghast. "Anything but that!" They cried. "Please, just do not let our daughter die."
Now at this point some of you are waiting for Solomon to proclaim that the parents that wanted their child to live were the true caregivers, but here the story takes an unexpected turn. You see, under the laws of the land, once a judge has made a ruling, that ruling must stand, unless there is "substantial likelihood of success" of their appeal. And so, Solomon's ruling of death to the young woman stood the test of appeal after appeal. Every day the young woman grew weaker. But ultimately, the law is the law, the judge's ruling is the judge's ruling, and one day soon, even if we do find that there really was a "substantial likelihood of success", it won't matter, because the young woman will be dead.
How could this have happened? To be fair, I did skip a part of the story. You see, at first, the young woman's husband said that he did not want his wife to die. In fact, he said that he wanted to love her and care for her, and make sure that she got the best possible care, and that he would make every effort to rehabilitate her. He even went so far as to say that he would go to school and become a nurse so that he could care for her himself and not have to rely on other people to give his wife the care that she needed. And when he made this proclamation of love and commitment to his wife, the court was so moved by it, that they not only said that he would be the best caregiver to his wife, but also gave him over a million dollars, of which $750,000 was specifically to be used on care and rehabilitation for his wife. And so, when this husband said that his wife would have wanted to die, and a judge said "remove the tube", it seems that the husband, having already been declared the rightful caregiver, was given a presumption of having the young woman's best interests at heart. And the ruling, which will certainly result in the death of the young woman, still sands.

In fairness, I did not come up with the idea of comparing the Terri Schiavo case with the story of Solomon decreeing that the baby must be split in two in order to determine who the mother of the child really was. It was actually suggested to me in listening to Mark Taylor sit in on Dennis Prager's syndicated radio show a couple of days ago. A guest on that show mentioned it, and that got me thinking. That thought has been lingering with me ever since, and finally found it's way into this, my first blog. Had Solomon proclaimed "cut the child in two" in the United States today, we would have had a funeral on our hands.
I would like to make it clear that I do not doubt that Michael Schiavo believes that he has his wife's best interests at heart. I also do not doubt that Terri Schiavo's parents also believe that they have her best interests at heart. This is actually one of those rare times in American public life where everyone is acting from the purest of motives. No one is playing politics. No one is consciously trying to obfuscate the truth. Even those of us that are discussing the case around the water cooler are speaking from our deepest core beliefs about what is right and what is wrong - not what is best or expedient for 'our team'.
Before I get a slew of comments that this fact or another is different from the Terri Schiavo case, let me say that I know that. I admittedly have taken some liberties with the narrative in order to get it to more closely fit with the Biblical account of Solomon. This was done in order to better make a comparison between to the two stories, and I stand by that comparison.
This is an amazing moment in America. A time when we are all forced to look into our hearts and decide what we would really want, were we to ever find ourselves in such a state. Terri Schiavo, a woman I will never know, has changed my life and taught me things about myself that I never imagined were true. I suspect that I am not the only one. For that I am grateful, and for that, if she does indeed pass from this world into the next, there is some small good, at least, that has come from her ordeal.
Thank you, Terri, for that.