Heroic Measures

Posted on April 1, 2005 in Morals & Ethics

The term “heroic measures” is often used to describe what was done to keep Terri Schiavo’s husk alive. I reject that term. Heroism implies doing the right thing at personal risk. It’s when you jump into the line of fire when a bullet is heading your way, when a doctor rejects conventional thinking to attempt a treatment on a dying patient that reverses the condition, when a woman or a man speaks out against oppression. There was nothing heroic about keeping Terri Schiavo’s heart beating. What have been called “heroic measures” were desperate, thoughtless measures founded not on a sudden sense of what had to be done but on unrealistic expectations.

The heroes are those who remembered that we all ultimately die, that the immortality that some attempted to confer on Terri Schiavo was a denial of everyone’s ultimate fate.