The Dead, They Linger

Terri Schiavo died quietly in a Florida hospice this morning.

The person who Terri Schiavo had been ceased to exist fifteen years before, according to the testimony of her husband and many who knew her as well as the best determination of credible doctors and scientists.

The memory of Terri Schiavo will make its home in the lives of the people who actually knew her in profoundly meaningful ways for many years to come.

And no doubt the public figure of Terri Schiavo will likewise continue to resonate into the future, condensing into a few flashes of ineradicable imagery what are in fact the endlessly complex and emotionally fraught quandaries of bodies and lives rendered newly questionable in their limits, capacities, and social intelligibility by ongoing and emerging technological developments.