Schiavo and the Rule of Law

The newlywed Josh Marshall makes clear an extremely important point about the whole Terry Schiavo situation.

"So, yes, the moral case is cloudy, difficult and painful. But the legal one, as near as I can tell, is not. And that, to me, is the crux of the matter."

As far as I can see, the legal case is as far as the government can properly act. The moral case is one that must be dealt with by the family, and ultimately, by Michael Schiavo himself.

Josh continues: "It is precisely because we cannot come to agreement on the most contentious and profound questions of morality that we have the law -- an agreed-upon-in-advance set of rules -- to find our way to solutions which are at least equitably-arrived-at if not necessarily moral or ones that we ourselves agree with. The alternative is a descent into public violence and lawlessness, which we are already seeing the first hints of in Florida."

The fact that the Florida Department of Law Enforcement had to back off what might have been a shoot-out with local Sheriff’s Deputies who were defending Terry Schiavo from protestors shows how much we need the Rule of Law, even when we don’t like it, and how far from it many of the active participants in this situation are going.