The Wall Street Journal’s Brendan Miniter provides some excellent context for the Terry Schiavo case:

From stem cells to abortion, Americans are confronting
questions about life–when it begins and when it ceases to be valuable–more
than at any time in our history. Partly we have science to blame for this
debate, since medicine can sustain life long past the body’s ability to
function on its own. But the debate is so intense because it is about the
direction in which we’d like our culture to move.

Perhaps it is fitting then that this debate should reach a
crescendo in the run-up to Easter, a celebration ultimately about the
resurrection of life. Several high-profile events have made Americans think
about life in ways they might have otherwise been able to avoid. Ashley Smith
helped bring in alleged murderer Brian Nichols by convincing him that his life
still had meaning, even if he should spend the rest of it behind bars. One way
she did this was by reading to him from the best-selling book "A Purpose-Driven
Life." Scott Peterson was sentenced to death recently for the murder of
his pregnant wife and their unborn son, Conner, who in different circumstances
would have been considered a clump of cells. And Pope John Paul II’s health has
made many Catholics confront the realities of growing old and frail. He has
persisted in carrying out his duties, even as Parkinson’s disease is robbing
him of his abilities, demonstrating that even a life much reduced has
tremendous meaning.

This is the backdrop of the national stage upon which Terri
Schiavo has been thrust. Her husband, Michael Schiavo, insists her life no
longer has meaning and that it was her wish not to live on under such
circumstances.

Don Johnson Evangelistic Ministries