well put.
This columnist says it better than I could ever hope to.
From Bloomberg.com, 3/24/2005:
"A Letter to My Family in Light of Terri's Law" -- by Ann Woolner
Dear Loved Ones (and your lawyers):
If I should wind up in a persistent vegetative state with no reasonable chance of recovery, please let me die in peace.
Specifically:
1. Do not involve Congress in my condition. To resolve any disagreement among you, litigate if you must, but keep Congress out of it. Congress's job is to enact laws of general interest, not to settle family disputes or to give the losing side in a lawsuit more chances than anyone else gets.
2. Tell the president and the governor to stay out of it, too. Like members of Congress, they are more focused on their own interests than mine. My condition and my wishes are best determined at trial, where evidence is weighed, not by politicians giving vent to public emotion.
3. Do not involve the state legislature in my condition, either.
See Numbers 1 and 2.
4. If so-called pro-life or other advocacy groups claim to speak for me, please make it clear that they do not. I abhor the idea that people might use my diminished state as fodder for their cause.
5. Do not allow cameras to capture my likeness after my brain has essentially stopped working, not even for litigation purposes.
Compared to brain scans, video of what's left of me is all but useless in deciding what my brain is doing, and selective airing of excerpts would distort the truth. Besides, I don't want millions of strangers watching me in such a condition.
A Sad Case
That such instructions might be necessary is a sad commentary on the very sad case of Terri Schiavo.
The truth of her case has been lost while interest groups and politicians have been using her poor body to push their own agendas.
More frightening is the loss of any sense of the constitutional roles of the three branches of government, or the constitutional differentiation between state and federal roles.
"This Congress is on the verge of telling states, courts, judges and juries that their decisions do not matter," U.S. Representative Jim Davis, a Florida Democrat, said as he urged his colleagues not to grant Schiavo's parents an extraordinary round in federal court because they couldn't get what they wanted out of state courts.
The House passed it anyway, by a stunning vote of 203 to 58.
Constitutional Responsibility
"I believe it unwise for the Congress to take from the state of Florida its constitutional responsibility to resolve the issues in this case," said Senator John Warner, a Virginia Republican. The Senate approved the measure on voice vote.
House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, a Republican from Texas, would have us believe that Congress was acting to protect Schiavo's constitutional right to life.
Wrong.
The 14th Amendment prohibits the government from taking life without due process of law. No one can say with a straight face and uncrossed fingers that Schiavo's parents have not had due process as they have tried to prolong her life.
"Ten courts and 19 judges all have reached the same conclusion,"
Representative James P. Moran Jr., a Virginia Democrat, said on the floor of the House in the late Sunday night and early Monday morning session.
Seven Years of Litigation
Add to Moran's count one U.S. District Court judge and 10 federal appeals court judges who this week said the chance of the Schindlers's prevailing is so slim that feeding and hydration tubes should not be re-inserted, not even temporarily to provide time to hear the full merits of the case.
The very fact that after seven years of litigation, Robert and Mary Schindler called on state and federal lawmakers, a governor and a president to intervene shows how little evidence they have on their side.
Their desperate actions are understandable, given that Terri is, after all, their daughter. What's unforgivable is that elected officials have been going along with them instead of insisting that the law rules.
Every court that has looked at the merits has said that Terri Schiavo's husband is rightly her legal guardian, that the evidence is clear and convincing that she would not want to live in her condition, and that she has no chance at recovery.
"The evidence is overwhelming that Theresa is in a permanent or persistent vegetative state," the Florida Second District Court of Appeal said in 2001. Her state is not "simply a coma," from which some people emerge.
Err on the Side of the Law
Her cerebral cortex has liquefied, the judges have found, based on brain scans and other medical evaluations. For her to regain functions, someone would have to invent a way to recreate this essential part of the brain.
Allegations of abuse, claims of new treatments, and accusations that Michael Schiavo denied his wife therapy have all been tested in court and found not true. Courts have given the Schindlers far more leeway in pressing their claims than the rules required.
None of that seems to matter to Congress, the Florida legislature, to President George W. Bush or his brother, Florida Governor Jeb Bush, all of whom have intervened in the Schiavo case. At least the Florida legislature, which gave in to the Schindlers before, has rebuffed another attempt. The U.S. Supreme Court also refused to order reinsertion of the feeding tube.
When President Bush signed the law Congress passed in the middle of the night, he said, "In extraordinary circumstances like this, it is wisest to always err on the side of life."
What Terri Schiavo has is not life in any way that she would want to experience it, the courts have repeatedly ruled.
And here's point 6:
Even if I were in Terri Schiavo's place, I would want what I want now, a president who errs on the side of the law."
---
Surprisingly, even today's New York Post, ordinarily an almost-reactionary tabloid, asks to let Terri go in peace.
From Bloomberg.com, 3/24/2005:
"A Letter to My Family in Light of Terri's Law" -- by Ann Woolner
Dear Loved Ones (and your lawyers):
If I should wind up in a persistent vegetative state with no reasonable chance of recovery, please let me die in peace.
Specifically:
1. Do not involve Congress in my condition. To resolve any disagreement among you, litigate if you must, but keep Congress out of it. Congress's job is to enact laws of general interest, not to settle family disputes or to give the losing side in a lawsuit more chances than anyone else gets.
2. Tell the president and the governor to stay out of it, too. Like members of Congress, they are more focused on their own interests than mine. My condition and my wishes are best determined at trial, where evidence is weighed, not by politicians giving vent to public emotion.
3. Do not involve the state legislature in my condition, either.
See Numbers 1 and 2.
4. If so-called pro-life or other advocacy groups claim to speak for me, please make it clear that they do not. I abhor the idea that people might use my diminished state as fodder for their cause.
5. Do not allow cameras to capture my likeness after my brain has essentially stopped working, not even for litigation purposes.
Compared to brain scans, video of what's left of me is all but useless in deciding what my brain is doing, and selective airing of excerpts would distort the truth. Besides, I don't want millions of strangers watching me in such a condition.
A Sad Case
That such instructions might be necessary is a sad commentary on the very sad case of Terri Schiavo.
The truth of her case has been lost while interest groups and politicians have been using her poor body to push their own agendas.
More frightening is the loss of any sense of the constitutional roles of the three branches of government, or the constitutional differentiation between state and federal roles.
"This Congress is on the verge of telling states, courts, judges and juries that their decisions do not matter," U.S. Representative Jim Davis, a Florida Democrat, said as he urged his colleagues not to grant Schiavo's parents an extraordinary round in federal court because they couldn't get what they wanted out of state courts.
The House passed it anyway, by a stunning vote of 203 to 58.
Constitutional Responsibility
"I believe it unwise for the Congress to take from the state of Florida its constitutional responsibility to resolve the issues in this case," said Senator John Warner, a Virginia Republican. The Senate approved the measure on voice vote.
House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, a Republican from Texas, would have us believe that Congress was acting to protect Schiavo's constitutional right to life.
Wrong.
The 14th Amendment prohibits the government from taking life without due process of law. No one can say with a straight face and uncrossed fingers that Schiavo's parents have not had due process as they have tried to prolong her life.
"Ten courts and 19 judges all have reached the same conclusion,"
Representative James P. Moran Jr., a Virginia Democrat, said on the floor of the House in the late Sunday night and early Monday morning session.
Seven Years of Litigation
Add to Moran's count one U.S. District Court judge and 10 federal appeals court judges who this week said the chance of the Schindlers's prevailing is so slim that feeding and hydration tubes should not be re-inserted, not even temporarily to provide time to hear the full merits of the case.
The very fact that after seven years of litigation, Robert and Mary Schindler called on state and federal lawmakers, a governor and a president to intervene shows how little evidence they have on their side.
Their desperate actions are understandable, given that Terri is, after all, their daughter. What's unforgivable is that elected officials have been going along with them instead of insisting that the law rules.
Every court that has looked at the merits has said that Terri Schiavo's husband is rightly her legal guardian, that the evidence is clear and convincing that she would not want to live in her condition, and that she has no chance at recovery.
"The evidence is overwhelming that Theresa is in a permanent or persistent vegetative state," the Florida Second District Court of Appeal said in 2001. Her state is not "simply a coma," from which some people emerge.
Err on the Side of the Law
Her cerebral cortex has liquefied, the judges have found, based on brain scans and other medical evaluations. For her to regain functions, someone would have to invent a way to recreate this essential part of the brain.
Allegations of abuse, claims of new treatments, and accusations that Michael Schiavo denied his wife therapy have all been tested in court and found not true. Courts have given the Schindlers far more leeway in pressing their claims than the rules required.
None of that seems to matter to Congress, the Florida legislature, to President George W. Bush or his brother, Florida Governor Jeb Bush, all of whom have intervened in the Schiavo case. At least the Florida legislature, which gave in to the Schindlers before, has rebuffed another attempt. The U.S. Supreme Court also refused to order reinsertion of the feeding tube.
When President Bush signed the law Congress passed in the middle of the night, he said, "In extraordinary circumstances like this, it is wisest to always err on the side of life."
What Terri Schiavo has is not life in any way that she would want to experience it, the courts have repeatedly ruled.
And here's point 6:
Even if I were in Terri Schiavo's place, I would want what I want now, a president who errs on the side of the law."
---
Surprisingly, even today's New York Post, ordinarily an almost-reactionary tabloid, asks to let Terri go in peace.
posted by grobes at 4:34 PM
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