One has to question if presidential contender Ben Carson was paying attention when the Terry Schiavo case hit the press several years ago. One might even be inclined to think that he was baited by the savvy reporter who asked him what he thought about her case during the Republican convention.
Carson's total response to that question was, "We face those kinds of issues all the time, and while I don't believe in euthanasia, you have to recognize that people that are in that condition do have a series of medical problems that occur that will take them out. Your job [as a doctor] is to keep them comfortable throughout that process and not to treat everything that comes up."
When pressed further and asked about his thoughts on Congress' intervention, he replied, "I don't think it needed to get to that level. I think it was much ado about nothing."
There were quite a few complications in connection with Terry's case, so Carson's flipped response suggests that at best, he wasn't watching too closely back in 2005 when the firestorm of emotion and the media frenzy exploded. Nearly every Christian saw this case as being directly connected to the sanctity of life.
One of the complications, though, is that Terry didn't have a living will and was unable to indicate clearly for herself whether or not she wanted to continue medical intervention or not. Her husband said that she had told him in the past that she didn't want to be kept alive by artificial means, but those words were never put in writing. Terry also reportedly had an eating disorder.
There was quite a battle between Terry's husband and her relatives in connection to whether to keep her alive in her disabled condition. The family reported that Terry was alert and responding to them while her husband argued that she was simply in a vegetative state, and his argument had been backed by several medical professionals. Terry was unable to feed herself or drink fluids on her own to name just a couple of her medical issues.
Even so, most Christians felt it was better to side with life in such a case rather than death. A typical Christian believes that God is the giver of life and that He should ultimately decide when a person's time in this life has been fulfilled.
Carson is likely kicking himself right about now for not realizing that the question was a cleverly disguised way of asking him where he truly stands on the issue of pro-life versus abortion. This particular lack of insight on his part will likely give a boost to presidential contender Jeb Bush, who was the Governor of Florida at the time Terry's case went viral in the media. Bush was heavily involved in what was going on because the case was taking place in Florida, and he even attempted to intervene and take control of the situation so that Terry's life could be saved.
