Schiavo and You

Knight Ridder posted an interesting story about the effect of the Schiavo battle, which is at a fever pitch right now, in case you live in a cave. Is Ms. Schiavo a "symbol"?

In fact, she has become many symbols. A symbol for the right-to-life movement. "It's whether or not you see a value in a human life," said Richard Bingham, a Tampa, Fla., resident who has written about Schiavo on his blog. A symbol for the right-to-die movement. Or "a tragic example of what can happen when our loved ones don't know what we would want or can't agree on what we would want," said Barbara Coombs Lee, head of Compassion and Choices. And a symbol of wrenching proximity for the disability community, many of whom are more keenly aware than most that "any one of us is one car wreck or one stroke away from being in Terri's situation," Reynolds said. Perhaps more than anything, "she's a symbol of dissent," said Arthur Caplan, director of the University of Pennsylvania's Center for Bioethics. "All of those groups have seized on Terri Schiavo as their representative. She may not be able to do much physically, but she's certainly doing a lot socially and ethically in terms of the public debate."