Congress, Bush act, but Schiavo’s life in balance
- Mar 15, 2005 - comment
Congress passed and President Bush signed into law expedited legislation seeking to extend the life of Terri Schiavo, but a federal judge and appeals court have rejected efforts to have her feeding tube reconnected.
Federal judge James Whittemore of Tampa, Fla., refused March 22 to issue an order to reinsert the brain-damaged Florida woman’s feeding tube that was removed March 18. His decision was appealed to the 11^th^ Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta, Ga., but a three-judge panel of the court voted 2-1 the next day to uphold Whittemore’s ruling.
The court actions followed highly unusual proceedings in Congress. After approving different bills March 16 and 17, the House of Representatives and Senate, respectively, returned to the Capitol March 20 to approve agreed-upon legislation and send it to the President. The bill enables a federal court to review the case and determine if Schiavo’s due process rights have been violated by the state’s actions.
The Senate passed the bill by voice vote March 20, and the House of Representatives voted 203-58 for it shortly after midnight. Bush signed it about 30 minutes later.
Schiavo, 41, suffered brain damage in 1990 after her heart stopped. For years, her parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, have been in a legal struggle with her husband, Michael, over whether she should live. Michael Schiavo says Terri told him in advance she would not want to live in an incapacitated condition, but no written request exists. Schiavo has received food and water through the tube but is not connected to a ventilator or other life-support machines.
Richard Land, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, said he was “delighted that Congress took the extraordinary step to come back into session from their Easter recess” to pass the bill. He decried Whittemore’s decision, however.
Whittemore “determined to see only trees and no forest,” Land said. “He focused narrowly on the issue of whether the Schindlers were likely to win an appeal based on legal precedent, totally ignoring the substantive issues of whether Terri Schiavo has received equal protection of the law and due process. Perhaps more importantly, he completely ignored the elephant in the room, which is: Is it morally right to allow a non-terminally ill woman to be starved to death in the United States of America? Terri Schiavo is tragically becoming the symbol of just how far the culture of death has permeated our legal system and American society, blinding our judicial system to the foundation of our entire civilization, namely that all men are created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, including life. Healthy or unhealthy, mentally challenged and physically challenged or not, human life is divinely given and thus sacred.”
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