LAW: Helping Hands
 
(Note: Thoughtful, thought-provoking and well-written; one of the best published editorials about Terri ever.)
 
May 12, 2004
 
Opinion
 
The Florida Times-Union
 
P.O. Box 1949
 
Jacksonville, Florida 32231
 
904-359-4307
 
 
To submit a Letter to the Editor: letters2editor@jacksonville.com

Kudos to Governor Jeb Bush for continuing to act on behalf of Terri Schiavo.

Schiavo has been kept alive by a feeding tube for 14 years. Her husband wants her to die. Her parents do not.

The Florida Legislature enacted a law that would have continued her medical care, but a judge now has declared that law unconstitutional, citing the right to privacy.

There is too much about this that makes the case for the woman's death unconvincing. Bush should make certain she has every chance to live.

Ken Conner, the lawyer representing Bush, said, "The effect of all this, of course, is Michael Schiavo effectively gets to kill his wife through starvation and dehydration, if in fact this order is upheld."

Court rulings also suggest that judges may not approve of the Legislature intruding in what they consider their domain. The judge issuing the most recent ruling had telegraphed the decision almost from the start by calling the law "presumptively unconstitutional."

But the Legislature represents the people, and enacts the law, which judges are sworn to uphold.

Also, the liberal media seems a little too eager to get rid of Terri Schiavo, and more concerned about her husband's rights than hers.

If the woman had left a living will, or if her parents were in agreement with the husband, it would be an easy call. But it is not.

More than 14 doctors have reviewed Terri's case and submitted sworn testimony that she is not in a persistent vegetative state, Schiavo advocates say. Yet, the court accepted the testimony of others that she is vegetative.

Pope John Paul II spoke on this point, calling "vegetative state" an imprecise medical term. "Actually, there is no different diagnosis that corresponds to such a definition, but only a conventional prognostic judgment, relative to the fact that the recovery of patients, statistically speaking, is ever more difficult as the condition of vegetative state is prolonged in time," he said.

There are well-documented cases of at least partial recovery, even after many years; of some in that state, he said.

The pontiff also spoke on the practice of calling a person a "vegetable."

"I feel the duty to reaffirm strongly that the intrinsic value and personal dignity of every human being do not change, no matter what the concrete circumstances of his or her life. A man, even if seriously ill or disabled in the exercise of his highest functions, is and always will be a man, and he will never become a "vegetable" or an "animal."

Specifically, he said the administration of water and food, even when provided by artificial means, always represents a natural means of preserving life, not a medical act. "Its use, furthermore, should be considered, in principle, ordinary and proportionate, and as such morally obligatory, insofar as and until it is seen to have attained its proper finality ..."

Too many are arrayed against her. Schiavo needs a champion. The pope's words and governor's deeds do much to fill that need.