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Kudos to our President and the Congress!

by John F. Tamburo, Editor in Chief, Publisher
Originally Posted: 3/21/2005 10:45:38 AM

Conservativity warmly congratulates the U.S. Congress and the President of the United States.  It is heartwarming to see 536 powerful people stop their lives and concentrate on justice for one person.  Republicans and Democrats alike joined together to give Terri Schiavo one more chance to escape the court-ordered sentence of death by starvation.  The feeding tube is out as I write this column, but the law that the Congress has passed has taken the death-happy Florida judge out of the equation.  Some, especially, Michael Schiavo, Terri’s "husband," have objected loudly to this law.  However, four fifths of the Congress and our President have acted to extend due process of law to Terri.

"With all due respect to those persons who disagree, no person should ever be deprived food or water except on his or her express advance written instructions."

Why did the government do this?  Many people think that this is an unwarranted governmental intrusion into a private matter.  With all due respect to those persons who disagree, no person should ever be deprived food or water except on his or her express advance written instructions.  That reasonable principle is one reason why Congress acted.  Remember that Michael Schiavo’s hearsay testimony is the sole reason that the Florida courts are ordering her starvation.  Another reason is the fact that videotaped evidence appears to soundly thrash the notion that Terri is in a vegetative state.  She is not in a coma.  She appears to be more than minimally conscious.  She is reactive to her parents and others.  Yet, her husband and the Florida courts refuse to allow such a simple test as a PET scan.  That one test alone could decide this matter, with technology unavailable at the time of the original court rulings to stareve her to death.

Another reason to keep Terri alive is that she only requires a feeding tube.  She is not hooked to a respirator or other draconian life preserving technology.  No swallowing therapy has been attempted to see if Terri could be weaned off the feeding tube!  Several doctors believe that such therapy will be successful.  What if that therapy worked?  Then Terri would be self-sufficient.  I agree with our beloved President that any decision to withhold food or water should made after overcoming a presumption in favor of life.  An infant requires assistance to eat and live, yet if one were to starve that infant to death in Florida, that would be murder with a special circumstance and would bring the death penalty into play.  Yet the courts have no problem whatsoever with ignoring the evidence and pushing to starve and dehydrate Terri to death.

Now the matter is in the hands of a Federal district judge in Tampa.  The petition to get an emergency injunction is filed and Terri’s family’s attorneys are in court now arguing for the order.  Whether or not this court acts on this issue is yet to be seen.  Let’s hope and pray.