Editorial Roundup for Saturday – March 26, 2005

• Schiavo, bankruptcy, baseball and steroid use

• Minot (N.D.) Daily News, on bankruptcy laws

• Chicago Tribune, on the congressional hearings on steroid use

Schiavo, bankruptcy, baseball and steroid use

The Jackson (Tenn.) Sun, on Terri Schiavo

The tragic case of Terri Schiavo, a brain-dead Florida woman, took another jarring twist on Friday when doctors removed her feeding tube for the third time after another last-minute attempt to save her life. Regardless of how this sad situation turns out, there are plenty of important lessons that we all can, and should, learn.…

So what can we learn from this tragic case? First, and most important, making end-of-life decisions well in advance is a must. Waiting until you’re sick or about to go into surgery isn’t the right time to make these important decisions. Instead, people should discuss their end-of-life wishes with their physicians and with their families while they’re still healthy and able to speak for themselves. That’s also the right time to fill out the appropriate forms. If that had been done in this case, this whole protracted fight could have been avoided.

Another lesson to be learned here is that this is not an issue that should ever have worked its way into Congress. Nor is it the business of the Florida Legislature or any other elected legislative body. The proper place for this to be worked out is in the state — not the federal — courts. Better, this issue should have been decided between Terri, her husband and her family, before it ever saw a court-room.…

Minot (N.D.) Daily News, on bankruptcy laws

The Senate has approved sweeping changes in the nation’s bankruptcy laws, concluding many years of debate about the proper balance between individual responsibility and the notion that people deserve to have a fresh financial start. The Senate measure, which after House approval will be signed into law by President Bush, strikes a better balance in an area of law that has become rife with abuse.…

Opponents, of course, have cast these provisions as unduly harsh. They too easily discount the notion that most people, deep in their hearts, probably want to attempt to repay bad debts. The repayment provisions help individuals to maintain their dignity in the wake of financial devastation. With these changes, bankruptcy court will remain a safe harbor for those individuals and businesses who need a chance for a fresh start or, in the case of businesses, an orderly means to shut down. But it no longer will be an easy escape for those who would casually shirk their financial responsibilities to their fellow citizens. And that’s as it should be.

Chicago Tribune, on the congressional hearings on steroid use

…On Thursday, Sosa and McGwire were back on stage, though a different stage. They appeared at the congressional hearings on steroid use in baseball. Sosa testified under oath that he competed fairly in that season when he hit 66 home runs. Sosa told Congress he has never used performance-enhancing steroids.

And McGwire? He wouldn’t say.… But all the world today reads in his silence an admission that he did, indeed, use steroids that year when he hit 70 home runs and took the title.

And there is the problem staring at baseball. Competition in recent years has been based on a fraud, a fraud that has come to haunt the sport.…

… Thursday’s hearing provided some of baseball’s darkest hours. There was the sight of big-leaguers in suits hauled before Congress, forced to testify under oath. There were baseball executives offering lame excuses about how steroid usage grew on their watch. Rarely have so many bosses seemed so out of touch.…

Congress should not be entertaining the imposition of rules on baseball. This is baseball’s mess, and baseball is best positioned to clean it up. But baseball, after that performance on Thursday, has to recognize that it has suffered real damage and that its incremental steps to rid the game of steroids don’t go far enough.…

• From the Associated Press