Posted on 01/29/2006 10:06:22 AM PST by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON - Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, who took a leading role in the Terry Schiavo case, said Sunday it taught him that Americans do not want the government involved in such end-of-life decisions.
Frist, considered a presidential hopeful for 2008, defended his call for further examinations of the brain-damaged Florida woman during the last days of a bitter family feud over her treatment. Schiavo was in a persistent vegetative state.
The case became a rallying point for right-to-life advocates, an important segment of the Republican Party. It also drew interest from those supporting the right to refuse life-sustaining medical treatment and led to charges that the GOP was using a family tragedy for political gain.
Asked on NBC's "Meet the Press" if he had any regrets regarding the Schiavo case, Frist said: "Well, I'll tell you what I learned from it, which is obvious. The American people don't want you involved in these decisions."
Schiavo, 41, died March 31, nearly two weeks after her feeding tube was removed and 15 years after her initial collapse and hospitalization. Courts in Florida had supported her husband's contention that she would not want to live in such a state. Her parents and siblings disagreed and for years fought efforts to remove her feeding tube.
An autopsy later showed that Schiavo had suffered severe, irreversible brain damage and was blind.
Frist, R-Tenn., said in the full Senate that he supported what he called "an opportunity to save Mrs. Schiavo's life." A heart surgeon, Frist had viewed video ordered by a court and taken by a board-certified neurologist who had concluded she was not in a persistent vegetative state.
Congress passed a bill to allow a federal court to review the case, and President Bush quickly returned from his Texas ranch to sign the bill into law. But a federal judge refused to order the tube reinserted, a decision upheld by a federal appeals court and the Supreme Court.
Frist was later mocked as having made a diagnosis from his office using a video screen. "I didn't make the diagnosis," Frist said Sunday. "I raised the question of whether or not she was in a persistent vegetative state."
Looking back, Frist said, "When you're taking innocent life, with parents who want that life preserved, you've got to make sure, and therefore stepping in to say, let's take one more review, that's what we did."
He added: "I accept the outcome. I don't agree with the moral sense of it."
Frist plans to leave the Senate when his second term expires in January 2007. He said Sunday he will return to his home in Tennessee and decide whether to seek the Republican nomination for president.
Then please explain.
I like a smart man. We do not want the government involved in these decisions.>>
There were many smart Nazis, and many smart cowards that let them run amok.
Give me a man who is foolish but just any day of the week over the smart and evil. Or smart and weak.
We will ALL die.>>>
But not violently at the hands of our neighbors, heirs, and insurance companies. Unless we act like woosies in the face of murderous greed.
How many times did I talk about our representatives in government?
Oh really... must you play the Nazi card so soon?
And just how does simple majority mandates figure into your Republic scenario? I'm trying to follow your logic here.
And when did I talk about simple majority mandates?
If this is how you see family decision making without the hand of government to protect us from our own... then I pity you.
Inspite of the wishes of the PC crowd the Nazi example is the most detailed and widely acknowledged example of the contemporary death cult in our lifetimes.
So in fact the question is not really "should the government be involved in such cases" -- but "how in the world do you get the government from having total control"?
.
There is no death cult.
There does seem to be a wacky cult on this forum, who would deny that for most of us, the life and death of our family members is not a vast conspiracy to kill off the inconvenient, but personal, heart wrenching, and very rightly, private.
Which takes you full circle to your post #8.
Which has nothing to do with a simple majority -- as you maintained.
Always blame the posters when the argument goes against you.
Excuse me? Who started with the name calling?
Oh really... must you play the Nazi card so soon?>>
Yes. 1=1.
If this is how you see family decision making without the hand of government to protect us from our own... then I pity you.
>>>
Think again when your greedy nephew or your insurance carrier yanks the plug from the wall.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.