Terry Schiavo - The Window Closes

I heard someone on a talk radio show comment that if Terry Schiavo was a baby, she wouldn't be allowed to be starved to death. Well, that's not exactly true. About 20 years ago, a musician named Steve Taylor wrote the following song lyrics in response to actual events in Indiana. If you want to understand the title of this post, read Mr. Taylor's comments from 1994 which follow the lyrics.

Baby Doe

Unfolding today
A miracle play
This Indiana morn
The father - he sighs
She opens her eyes
Their baby boy is born
"We don't understand
He's not like we planned"
The doctor shakes his head
"Abnormal" they cry
And so they decide
This child is better dead

I bear the blame
Believers are few
And what am I to do?
I share the shame
The cradle's below
And where is Baby Doe?

A hearing is sought
The lawyers are bought
The court won't let him eat
The papers applaud
When judges play God
This child is getting weak
They're drawing a bead
Reciting their creed
"Respect a woman's choice "
I've heard that before
How can you ignore?
This baby has a voice

I bear the blame
Believers are few
And what am I to do?
I share the shame
The cradle's below
And where is Baby Doe?
Where will it end?
Oh, no...no

It's over and done
The presses have run
Some call the parents brave
Behind your disguise
Your rhetoric lies
You watched a baby starve

I bear the blame
Believers are few
And what am I to do?
I share the shame
The cradle's below
And where is Baby...?

Written by Steve Taylor © 1984 Birdwing Music/Cherry Lane Music Publishing Co., Inc./C.A. Music (ASCAP)

Steve Taylor's comments from liner notes to the 1994 two-disc retrospective of his music "Now The Truth Can Be Told":

"I must credit both the Christian philosopher Francis Shaeffer and Village Voice columnist Nat Hentoff for their influence and inspiration in helping me to develop a foundational belief in the sanctity of human life. Ten years after the events described in this song occurred, the alarm they and others sounded rings prophetically true. But it continues to be drowned out by the rhetoric of 'freedom of choice' and 'quality of life'. A baby was born in Bloomington, Indiana with down's syndrome, and despite numerous outside pleas for adoption, the parents, doctors, and ultimately the courts agreed to allow Baby Doe to starve to death, right there in the hospital. I began writing this song with the sense of outrage that fingers those responsible and demands justice. But the more I thought about what had happened, the more I realized that I shared in the blame -- that my silence had helped clear the way for Baby Does' suffering and death. Hearing this song again leaves me feeling empty and a little numb. In our democratic society, the battle for the sanctity of human life is being lost. And when that window closes, nothing will be sacred."