Dear Mr. Luse brings us Wesley J. Smith’s article from the October First Things:
…according to the California Supreme Court, Robert Wendland enjoyed full constitutional rights when he was an auto-parts salesman. But he lost at least some of these protections during the sixteen months of his unconsciousness—only to regain them when he awakened. Or to put it another way, the court declared that unconscious people have lesser rights and their lives are entitled to fewer legal protections than conscious people—a radical decision that may mark the beginning of a personhood theory of constitutional jurisprudence in the United States…
…human non-persons with cognitive disabilities are beginning to be looked upon by some as a natural resource to be plundered for their body parts. There is even an effort underway by some in bioethics and transplant medicine to redefine death itself to include a diagnosis of permanent unconsciousness toward the end of gaining access to the organs of unconscious people for the purposes of transplantation….
I once knew a nurse who, as a conscientious objector, did not care for the heart-transplant patients we sometimes cared for on our floor. I am appreciating her position more and more.
Something always disturbed me about our high school religion class which was aimed at teaching us how to “become a person.” It had a mini-MBTI and a femininity/masculinity test and stuff about Abraham Maslow and self-actualization. It just seemed wrong that personhood was not equated with existence as a human, even if it is true that we need to “become what we are.”
When I first heard his story I had to admire Terry Wallis’s wife for acting like a wife all those years. They were so young when this happened, you’d think she’d be a prime candidate for reclaiming her “life” and “moving on.”