Robert George

Robert George, the Princeton professor of jurisprudence, makes the necessary point about the Terri Schiavo case in National Review Online:

What we must avoid, always and everywhere, is yielding to the temptation to regard some human lives, or the lives of human beings in certain conditions, as lebensunwerten Lebens, lives unworthy of life. Since the life of every human being has inherent worth and dignity, there is no valid category of lebensunwerten Lebens. Any society that supposes that there is such a category has deeply morally compromised itself..... it is clear that the only reason for Michael Schiavo's decision is that he considers Terri's quality of life to be so poor that he wants her to be dead. He claims that she would want that too, which I don't grant, but even if he's right about that, we should treat her like anyone else who wants to commit suicide. We rescue, we care. We affirm the inherent value of the life of every human being. Our governing principle should be always to care, never to kill.

Life is worth living, period. All of it. In this week celebrating the redemptive power of suffering, it is reassuring that at least some members of our Congress (and at least one Princeton professor, God bless him) understand this basic and non-negotiable point.