The Lessons of Suffering
Terri Schiavo and Holy Week
March 28, 2005
Chuck Colson BreakpointCommentary

It was a strange coincidence that Terri Schiavo's ordeal took place during Holy Week. What she went through, and the nation's reaction to it, taught us a sobering lesson about suffering and redemption.

The things that ordinary, sensible Americans were saying about Terri's case were shocking and upsetting. "Let the poor woman die" was one of them. But Terri was not dying before her food and water were taken away. She simply needed to eat and drink, just like the rest of us.

Then there were the various media polls that asked the public whether Terri should be taken off life support. The only problem was that Terri wasn't on life support.

The facts were all out there, in plain view. Terri's family, her nurses, her family's lawyers, and many others tried to explain them. And yet the public just wasn't willing to listen. Some people even showed a streak of viciousness toward this sick woman, arguing that she should just die and get it over with. Look at the flak that Tom DeLay took for fighting for Terri's life in the House of Representatives—so much flak that I'm about ready to nominate him for a Profile in Courage Award.

It's very much like the time when, just a few years ago, I, as attorney general of Virginia, helped fight for the life of Hugh Finn, another brain-damaged patient. Like Terri, Hugh Finn had his feeding tube removed, despite our best efforts to save him. And former Governor Gilmore and I still receive criticism for trying to save him.

As Peggy Noonan has written, "Why do those who argue for Mrs. Schiavo's death employ language and imagery that is so violent and aggressive? … Why are they so committed to this woman's death?"

Indeed, why do we become so easily confused on matters of life and death? I think one of the biggest reasons is our fear of suffering. Strangely, our society—a society with fewer illnesses and a longer lifespan than any previous generation—has an almost morbid dread of any kind of suffering. Many of us are willing to accept any laws, any court rulings, just or unjust—as long as we believe that one day those laws might keep us from having to suffer. When a pollster asks most average citizens if Terri Schiavo should continue to live on life support, those people picture themselves stuck in a bed one day, no longer enjoying life the way they used to, wanting to die but not being able to. It's for their own sakes that so many people say Terri should die.

But this view of death misses the big picture. It places no inherent value on life; instead, it embraces the culture of death. Choosing death over suffering misses the point: that suffering can be redemptive, like Christ's suffering during Holy Week. Suffering can teach us something, if we're only willing to listen: that life is precious, and that the weakest person has value and is worthy of life. If we refuse to learn that lesson—if we continue to believe the lies of the culture of death—then ironically, in the end, we'll only bring more suffering upon ourselves and everyone else.