I'd write a lot more on the Terri Schiavo case except it's been commented on so well everywhere else, including here and here. So let me but add to the debate.
It's been my experience, in listening to the radio and in talking with people, how few people really understand the case. I was in that group myself until recently.
Terri Schiavo is not brain dead and is not on life support. She breathes on her own. Her heart beats on it's own. She is not suffering from any terminal disease. She has brain damage, but is not brain dead. Her family that is willing to care for her has hope for her future improvement if she receives the care she is currently being denied by her estranged and aldulterous husband (hey, facts are facts). What she currently requires is a feeding tube to feed her. That's all. Yet, the Florida courts are willing to ignore her husband's obvious conflicts of interest and are willing accomplices in his desire to starve his wife to death.
What Congress has done is give Terri Schiavo the same rights of appeal we would give any convicted murderer on death row, a last chance to save her life. Some Democrats and some euthanasia enthusiasts can say it's just politics, it's an overreach of the national legislature into the private affairs between a man and his wife. To which I respond, it sounds as if they have revisiited the Dred Scott decision and decided it wasn't so bad after all. A wife should not be the property of her husband to dispose with as he pleases as if she were some broken toy. That saving a life by providing for the due process of law is so upsetting to them we should question their motives.
What is to be gained for the euthanasiasts and the left wing Democrats?
It's a good thing Stephen Hawking isn't a resident of Florida.
