So a federal judge has now adjourned the hearing and postponed making a ruling in the Schiavo case for an undetermined period of time. The affair continues to generate a fairly intense debate with many weighing in, note for instance John Hawkins’ dilemma and others who are wondering how I came to my position. Here are some thoughts that came up over the past twenty-four hours:

Politicizing the Issue
This morning the first thing I heard on the radio news was that Republicans helped by the “religious right” overturned a court ruling in order to get their way. First of all it’s a ridiculous notion (look here to see how many Democrats voted in favor of the bill) but above all it’s sad that a matter so sensitive and so universal is now being used by some to frame this issue as a purely political/religious one that some feel is exclusively near and dear to the social conservatives in our society. Well it isn’t, and it shouldn’t. As I pointed out last week it cuts across all political and religious boundaries and if you still need more evidence of that, check out Liberals for Terri (hat tip: LaShawn).

Insurance
One reader asks if it makes sense to merge health and life insurance into one. She argues that a health insurance provider would have a clear incentive to keep the terminally ill alive in order to avoid hefty pay outs when a patient dies. Well, if anything was accomplished by the Schiavo case it will be that in the future you can actually save on legal costs by keeping the terminally ill on life support for as long as possible.

But, it’s an interesting idea, in practice though I think that it wouldn’t work. What would happen if the cost of continued care outstrips the size of the lump sum life insurance is forced to pay-out in a death event? Two things will happen: (1) there will be a rush to dispatch terminally ill to the afterlife who happened to have taken out a life insurance with a relatively low pay out; (2) insurance companies will want to hedge their position by implementing a ceiling on the amount that can be insured under their life insurance policies. In short, it may get messy and the consumer will not benefit from it at all. The question is, have recent mergers already created a situation where health and life insurance are housed under one roof?

Life
But it is a valid question. People live longer and healthier lives but at the same time that longevity creates a situation where they can and will contract a plethora of illnesses that they otherwise would not have suffered. Healthcare costs will spiral upwards and there will be economic as well as moral pressure to move to a situation where mercy death or euthanasia becomes codified, regulated and well, part of everyday life.

And yes, my ancestral grounds are of course the testing ground for all of this, the Dutch being the first nation in the world to legislate euthanasia. But they're on a slippery slope, it was not too long ago that the Groningen Protocol hit the newswires and caused international outrage. As my loyal readers will know this is Dutch pragmatism, not tolerance.

And you?
That was the other question. Where do I stand if I happen to end up in a state that some may start to contemplate unplugging my life support systems? Answer: I don’t know. Honestly. Although I am not against anyone creating a last will in which he or she instructs direct intervention in nature I can not begin to imagine this for myself. When I unconsciously started to write a last medical will in my head over the past few days, I realized that my document would be stuck in the courts for years as there would be too many exceptions or stipulations open to interpretation. Some homework here for it is a real issue, although I can postpone it and when the situation arises my dependants can refer to my basic argument: when in doubt, choose life.

Further reading:

The Anchoress

The Moderate Voice

James Joyner

And Professor Bainbridge who argues that it is time to look beyond the Schiavo case and address the broader issues underlying this affair. Agreed, and an assessment of where the Dutch have failed and succeeded as the first entrant in the market of life and death would be a good start. Time permitting, I will look into it.