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From FoxNews Channel Oct 27,2003 - At Large with Geraldo Rivera:

Geraldo: The law in Florida, as both of you gentlemen know, recently changed, to empower Governor Jeb Bush to order the re-insertion of Terri Schiavo's feeding tube against the wishes of her husband. The Governor's actions had the effect therefore, of overruling a court order that went the opposite way... that gave the husband the right to have that feeding tube disconnected.

Geraldo: Professor Dershowitz... Do you represent Mister Schiavo? And you want that woman's feeding tube disconnected to give that woman the right to die? You are challenging the constitutionallity of the Governor's actions...

Geraldo: Chris... You're the state Attorney General in Florida. You are defending the Governor's actions on legal and humanitarian grounds, You've got the, ahhhh, lets see, who has the burden to overruling the courts?... I think Chris, you have the burden; You go first.

Christopher Darden: Well, you know, certainly the state of Florida has an interest in preserving life, and in preserving the health and welfare of its citizens. And in a situation like this, where Terri Schiavo has been in this condition for several years, and her WISHES, ahh, and intent are unclear, in terms of what she would have liked to have happen, had she been aflicted in the manner that she has. Well, certainly the state ought to step in under these circumstances and do what it thinks is right and proper. Now certainly this new law overturned a court ruling, but as Alan knows courts are sometimes wrong. We know that just by looking at the Tommy Chong case.

Geraldo: (laughs) Ok, Professor Dershowitz?

Dershowitz: This is a hard one for me Geraldo. My own personal view is that when there are doubts about what she wanted... when you have a family member who is willing to care for her and wants her to be alive... When you have possible conflicts of interest... GENERALLY doubts ought to be resolved in favor of life. I think the courts were probably, my own view, WRONG in this case. They should have appointed a guardian who would have defended her right to live, rather than her right to die... BUT, having said that, I certainly don't like courts being overruled, by politically motivated legislatures and governors... Nobody should be playing political football with the life of an individual. So I would argue that even if the court decision was wrong, the court decision should prevail over legislation that was designed to specifically overrule a particular court decision.

Geraldo: Chris, how do you defend the seemingly ex-post-facto nature of the legislature's action?

Darden: Well, I don't know that its ex-post-facto. The fact is that this issue is now in front... was in front of the legislature, is now in front of the governor, and, and as Alan just aluded to a moment ago, there are a LOT of uncertainties here. And it is the type of emergency situation I would suggest that that requires some ahh, some intervention.

Dershowitz: If there were any danger that she were in any pain, I would have a very different view. But without ahh, evidence of pain, and with evidence of uncertainty, and with the willingness of parents to take care of her... I'm stepping out of my role as counsel now... I really DO think that doubts generally ought to be resolved in favor of life... You have eternity to be dead; You only have a limited amount of time to live. Even if she has NO chance of recovery, the family has the RIGHT not to have her die, and the state shouldn't be in the business of telling people when to die.

Geraldo: I rule that you're both right. Terri Schiavo is to be continued on the intravenous feeding. Ah, her family should be granted, ah custodial rights over her, and ah, give the right to life some priority in this particular instance.

Geraldo: Thank you both, Thanks for watching,(smooch) see-ya.

The SCOTUS ruled in CALDER v. BULL, 3 U.S. 386 (1798) that this kind of legislation is not an ex post facto law.

Dershowitz on the side of life, hmmm. Even his arguements for her being able to die don't actually pertain to her wishes - they are the wishes of her husband.

Dershowitz and Darden, wish I'd seen it!

Many thanks, FL_engineer.

Thanks for transcribing the segment. I especially like Alan Dershowitz's comment:

"You have eternity to be dead; you only have a limited amount of time to live."

The Geraldo interview was VERY GOOD! I can't believe it!