Terri Schiavo

One of the absolute crimes of the Terri Schiavo case is the state’s view of marriage. Don’t get me wrong there are hundreds of things wrong with the Schiavo situation, but the others are getting a lot of attention. The view of marriage propounded by the state of Florida astounds me. The ruling is that Michael Schiavo is Terri’s husband and thus has custody and care. Yet, Michael, for many years now, has lived with another woman and even has a child with another woman. He took vows before God and the State that he would care for her in sickness and in health. Yet, the first major sickness comes along and he is in bed with another woman, playing husband to her. Can the state really not see that Michael Schiavo has abandoned his position as husband, and that perhaps guardianship should be awarded to someone else? At least it should make us question his word. Then add on top of that, the fact that he promised to use the malpractice money to care for her, which probably made the settlement larger than if he had told the jury he wanted to starve her quickly, no one should be taking this man at his word. We all should be questioning exactly how he is acting as her husband when he has already started a family of his own without her, while still married to her. Yet, none of this seems to bother Florida judges. We have a long way to go in this country if we really want to protect marriage. It will take more than simply keeping it defined as between one man and one woman. We are going to need to teach the morality behind marriage as well.