NAT HENTOFF ON THE TERRI "RIGHT-TO-DIE" CASE:
Establishment Media Engaging in "Journalistic Malpractice"

Nationally syndicated Village Voice columnist and long-time pro-life libertarian Nat Hentoff had some choice things to say today about the major media's "reporting" of the court fight in Florida to save brain-damaged Terri Schindler-Schiavo from a court-ordered death via starvation and dehydration:

I have covered highly visible, dramatic "right to die" cases—including those of Karen Ann Quinlan and Nancy Cruzan—for more than 25 years. Each time, most of the media, mirroring one another, have been shoddy and inaccurate.

The reporting on the fierce battle for the life of 39-year-old Terri Schiavo has been the worst case of this kind of journalistic malpractice I've seen.....

The media continually report that Terri is in a persistent vegetative state, and a number of neurologists and bioethicists have more than implied to the press that "persistent" is actually synonymous with "permanent." This is not true, as I shall factually demonstrate in upcoming columns. I will also provide statements from neurologists who say that if Terri were given the proper therapy —denied to her by her husband and guardian after he decided therapy was becoming too expensive despite $750,000 from a malpractice suit— she could learn to eat by herself and become more responsive....

...In all the stories on Terri Schiavo and her parents' determined efforts to save her life, the media continually report that the Florida legislature intervened because of many thousands of calls, letters, and e-mails from the Christian Right and pro-lifers. Those groups and individuals are indeed a major factor in rousing support to prevent Terri from being starved to death. But among the many others who sent urgent messages are disabled Americans and their organizations....

...[Yet] I have seen hardly any mention in the press of the deeply concerned voices of the disabled, many of whom, in their own lives, have survived being terminated by bioethicists and other physicians who strongly believe that certain lives are not worth living....

[Many thanks to Amy Wellborn for making us aware of Hentoff's very timely column.]