Giving food and water is not so much an option as a duty

AS I write, Terri Schiavo is not yet dead. But she is surrounded by death.

The death of common sense in a court system which rules that food and water constitute extraordinary medical treatment which can be withdrawn; the death of love in a husband who not only allows, but demands, that a cruel end be visited on her. And there is the death of humanity in a society which regards all this as normal.

There is irony, too, in the unfortunate woman’s name. ‘Schiavo’ is the Italian word for slave. Isn’t there something of the ancient world’s treatment of its slaves in the callous disregard being shown for Mrs Schiavo’s life? Hasn’t she been condemned to the status of non-person?