Dear _________:
Thank you for contacting me to express your opposition to the removal of Terri Schiavo's feeding tube.
As you know, Terri passed away on March 31, 13 days after her feeding tube was disconnected. My thoughts and prayers are with her family as they grieve over her loss.
What made this situation difficult are the many unresolved questions.
For instance, what were Terri's wishes? She never prepared a living will to express definitively what her wishes were. So we are left with conflicting accounts of what course of action she would have wanted.
Some say this should be a family issue. However, we have a family that disagreed on the fate of Terri Schiavo's life. While her husband wanted to remove her feeding tube, her parents were willing to do everything it took medically, emotionally and financially to save the live of their child.
We have some doctors saying that she would not have recovered. Yet we also have other Neurologists saying that with the proper medical care, there is a chance that she could have improved considerably.
Let us be clear. Terri was not on life support, she was not brain-dead, and no heroic measures were needed to keep her alive; she simply had the assistance of a feeding tube for food and water.
Since these crucial questions remain disputed, I believe the responsible course is to err on the side of life.
After state court appeals were exhausted, a congressional effort was made to provide a final opportunity for her parents' concerns to be heard. On March 21, Congress passed a bill that established narrow Federal jurisdiction for this particular case. The law allowed Terri's parents to file a lawsuit in Federal court on behalf of their daughter for a violation of any right under the U.S. Constitution or laws relating to "the withholding of food, fluids or medical treatment necessary to sustain her life."
I voted for this legislation.
One of the primary duties of the Federal government and members of Congress is to uphold and defend the Constitution and the individual rights it sets forth. Congress acted to allow that every possible legal process has been exhausted to ensure that Terri Schiavo's Federal rights have been properly defended. One of those rights is the right to life. The Fourteenth Amendment establishes that "no State shall deprive any person of life, liberty, and property, without due process of law." Every day, in cases where the action of the state will result in the death of an individual, that individual is provided the opportunity to have their case heard in both the state and Federal court systems.[Here he speaks of deathrow inmates' right to Habeas Corpus]
I and many of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle believed Terri Schiavo should have been afforded this same opportunity.
Although Terri's parents were able to appeal to the Federal courts, they were not able to win an injunction to have the feeding tube reinserted. She ultimately starved to death.
I want you to know that I am very concerned about the road we are traveling down when it come to issues of life, and the Schiavo case highlights those concerns. That is why I will continue to work in Congress to ensure that even the most vulnerable in our society are afforded the most basic constitutional protection - the right to life.
Sincerely,
Randy Neugebauer
19th District, Texas
Randy is one of the good guys.
I was real happy when he won the new seat.
It is truly pro-life conservative Congressmen like him that keep my hopes alive.
As far as the TS case is concerned, I don't believe anybody. At best, the various actors don't have a complete picture of what is happening, and that includes our elected leaders.
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The only two doctors who ever said she had a chance of recovery who actually examined Terri, vs. internet doctors, were alternative medicine doctors who were thoroughly discredited at trial.
Had her parents chosen two mainstream doctors who said they believed she could get better with care, the entire matter would have been handled differently, imo. But it's probable they couldn't find any two doctors who would say such a thing under oath.
Great man - hope you thanked him. I agree totally with his comments. Guess that makes me a radical wacko pro-life embarrassment.
So be it - this is something well worth being an embarrassment for.