The Schiavo Case [lead NYT editorial]

New York Times ^ | 3/19/05

[mathprof]

Congressional leaders are playing a dangerous game with their intrusion into the hotly publicized fight in Florida over maintaining life support for a severely brain-damaged woman. With state legislative and court appeals being exhausted, the House and Senate began some grim one-upsmanship to stop the removal of the feeding tube from Terri Schiavo. She is the 41-year-old woman who has been in a persistent vegetative state for the last 15 years, with her parents contesting that sad diagnosis. They also challenged the careful decisions by Florida's trial and appellate courts, based largely on the testimony of her husband that their daughter would have chosen to die rather than live indefinitely in such condition.

Congress seized the issue in the closing hours of its March budget debate. After bungled attempts to grant federal court review of the case, leaders of the two houses blamed each other for Ms. Schiavo's potential demise. They then landed on the ghoulish gimmick of postponing removal of her feeding tube by subpoenaing her to a House hearing and inviting her to a separate hearing in the Senate. The Senate majority leader, Bill Frist, said that criminal law protects witnesses called before Congress "from anyone who may obstruct or impede a witness's attendance or testimony."

After considering the issue yesterday, the state appellate judge presiding over the case ordered the removal of Ms. Schiavo's feeding tube to proceed, finding Congress's intervention created no "emergency" requiring postponement. No doubt this is not the end of this painful drama. Meanwhile we can only lament the Republicans' theatrical effort to expand their so-called pro-life agenda to include intervening in a case already studied and litigated exhaustively under Florida law. Congress's rash assumption of judicial power and trampling on established state and federal constitutional precedents in "right to die" cases is nothing short of breathtaking.

[Randjuke]

I don't care for the New York Times, but I do not want this issue in the federal government and I do not want the federal government given more power. Maybe it will give us a temporary "victory" for Terri, but in the end it will hurt us all more. If I'm ever in this situation, I want my wife to have the final say, not politicians.

[jimbo123]

Terri's husband now has a common law wife and 2 kids with that wife. He squandered Terri's $1.0 million malpractice settlement on everything but medical treatment for his wife. And you think is the person who should be making the decision on whether Terri should be starved to death?

[Racehorse]

Am I the only person who is tired of hearing about Terri Schiavo? . . . This has really just become a nasty fight between Republicans and Democrats.

With all due respect, I think you do not appreciate the worldwide impact starving this woman to death has.  From the Sidney Morning Herald:

Australian euthanasia advocate Philip Nitschke said the decision was "well overdue" and meant Terri Schiavo's stated wishes would be honoured. "I applaud the fact that common sense has finally prevailed. We're talking about a person here who is unconscious, who has expressed a wish to her husband and he has tried to respect her wishes," Dr Nitschke said.

Margaret Tighe from Right To Life Australia condemned the decision. "It's very sad to think she's going to die in this way because she has a selfish husband," Mrs Tighe said. "It's a very sad day for Terri Schiavo. She wasn't doing any harm, she was comfortable, and now she is going to die this horrible death."

Interest is more than simply casual passion.

[Normal4me]

I have said this before, make all participants involved in this decision to remain in the same room with Terri while she dies. No food or water for any of them.

[bitt]

'we can only lament the Republicans' theatrical effort to expand their so-called pro-life agenda to include intervening in a case already studied and litigated exhaustively under Florida law'

'we can only lament GOOD PEOPLE's theatrical effort to prevent the calculated death by starvation of a helpless woman whose case is disruptive to our own agendas'.

There, I fixed it.

[zarf]

It's irrelevant. He's her husband. Keep the Feds out of this damnit.

[jimbo123]

Nicole Simpson and Laci and Conner Peterson would disagree with your not wanting to examine the motives of Terri's husband.

[sergeantdave]

Inside the minds of NYT editors stands a utopian Potemkin village where homosexuals are happily married, murderers on death row are released to run barefoot through the fields and they decide who lives and who dies.

[goldstategop]

Who lives with another woman who he fathered children with and no one asks why he dishonored his marital vows and wants to have his wife killed. Why is he so insistent she die?

(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)

[greasepaint]

I don't like last minute reprieve legislation.
If at all, this should have been done years ago.
I think this is a state matter, btw.

[eccentric]

The NYT basically is saying "the law is the law", even though the law is murky and apparently incomplete in a case such as this. Further, they accept the facts as those reported by the husband, rather than as reported by the parents and suggest that the Republicans' efforts are politically motivated. I think a proper resolution of this case starts with determining what the facts are.

I guess it is a LAW thing. From what I have read, once a court declares something to be a fact and this "fact" is not overturned in any appeal, it is then a 'carved in stone' FACT and NO ONE can say otherwise.

Therefore, since Greer decided two facts:

1. Terri is PVS

2. Michael has no conflict of ineterest

we cannot dispute anything that results from these "facts."

[SoFloFreeper]

This is a perfect reflection as to why the NY Slimes is losing readership, influence and relevance.

[speedy]

I'm all for letting them write the final chapter on liberalism. Many libraries will keep archives of the NYeT-imes, it will be a good example for future generations of how wrong liberalism was.

Absolutely. They will look as pathetically amoral as the back issues of Pravda.

[TBP]

What do you expect from the newspaper of Jayson Blair?

[BigBobber]

If you want that changed...change the law. There is no right of the Legislature to trample on the Judicial branch in this case.

Don't you recall that the Florida Legislature DID change the law to allow executive branch review of this case and similar cases? The Florida Supreme Court (you know, the guys who said Algore should be president because we can change laws after an election) spat on it.

[zarf]

Frankly it's none of our business. It's certainly not the governments business. The State of Florida has played this out. It's over.

Keep the Fed out of this.

I tell you, conservatives have become liberals. Big Time.

[B Knotts]

The New York Times proves, once again, that liberalism is a mental disorder.

[B Knotts]

All the experts say her vegitative state is persistant and she will not recover from it.

BZZZZTTT!!!

Wrong answer.

Why don't you try educating yourself about the case before posting?

[goldstategop]

Its not over. The sacredness of human life is a universal principle and definitely a matter of public interest. I'd like to think you got due process of law if some power-drunk judge ordered you killed. That's all Terri Schiavo ever wanted and it is being denied her. Contrast that with murderers who get repeated stays of execution. Striking don't you think?

(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)

[Randjuke]

Terri's husband now has a common law wife and 2 kids with that wife. He squandered Terri's $1.0 million malpractice settlement on everything but medical treatment for his wife. And you think is the person who should be making the decision on whether Terri should be starved to death?

I think the federal government should butt out, just like they need to butt out on most other issues. But to answer your question, yes I think Terri's husband should be the one to make her decisions. What I would LIKE to see is Michael Schiavo turning over Terri's care to her family and then going away, but that's not going to happen. Passing bad federal laws is not the way to handle this. Some people are so anxious to save Terri they will do so by any means, which is something I can't agree with.