THANKS!
A bunch of FReepers heard Duncan Hunter say that we should “err” on the side of life re: Terri Schiavo, but for some reason, it wasn’t included in this transcript:
http://www.iht.com/bin/print.php?id=5562636
MR. MATTHEWS: Okay.
Let me ask you a question which has grabbed a lot of Americans personally, the Terri Schaivo case. Again, it was a question of whether the United States — the U.S. Congress should have intervened and passed a law to advise the appellate court whether to act or not in this case, the district court it was. Terri Schaivo, should Congress have acted or let the family make the decision, the husband?
MR. ROMNEY: I think we should generally let the family make a decision of this nature. In the case —
MR. MATTHEWS: The husband should have decided?
MR. ROMNEY: Generally we should make that decision.
In the case here, the courts decided that — what they thought was the right thing to do, and then I think Jeb Bush and the Florida legislature did the right thing by saying we’ve got a concern. They looked over the shoulder of the court. But I think the decision of Congress to get involved was a mistake.
MR. MATTHEWS: Okay.
MR. ROMNEY: I think that Congress’s job is to make sure that laws are respecting the sanctity of life. But to actually adjudicate a case like this, better done at the state level by the governor, the legislature and the court.
MR. MATTHEWS: Senator Brownback, should Congress have gotten involved in that personal case?
SEN. BROWNBACK: Yes, it should have, and it gave her the right and the family the right to take that appeal to the court. That’s what the Congress did.
And her life is sacred. Even if it’s in that difficult moment that she’s in at that point in time, that life is sacred. And we should stand for life in all its circumstances.
MR. MATTHEWS: Senator McCain, was Congress right in intervening in that case?
SEN. MCCAIN: It was a very, very difficult issue. All of us were deeply moved by the pictures and the depiction of this terrible, tragic case. In retrospect, we should have taken some more time, looked at it more carefully, and probably reacted to hastily.
MR. MATTHEWS: Mayor Giuliani, was that a good thing for Congress to do, to get involved that weekend?
MR. GIULIANI: The family was in dispute. That’s what we have courts for. And the better place to decide that in a much more — I think in a much fairer and even in a deeper way is in front of a court.