At the top of page one The Wall Street Journal Online (subscription required) carries the story that the U.S. federal appeals court in Atlanta has refused to order Terri Schiavo's feeding tube reinserted. I find this a remarkable decision that follows in the tradition of Roe v. Wade. In that decision justices offered that there was some doubt about when human life could be said to begin, then went on to deem it a constitutional right for that life to be terminated.
In this case the appeals court refused to overturn the ruling of Judge James Whitemore of Tampa who in an exercise of Orwellian doublespeak found that her "life and liberty interests were adequately protected by the extensive process provided in the state courts." I'd like to know how you arrive at the conclusion that her life is "adequately protected" when you're ruling to end it.
Yes, I know about the concept of the living will. The question is, when she was able to say it, did she say she wouldn't want to be kept alive in the kind of a state she now is in. Apparently, hearsay evidence, the word of her husband, is sufficient for the courts to rule that she did. What seems not to be a question is if she might have changed her mind at any time. How can anybody know? In the absence of the written living will, I would think that the benefit of the doubt should go to life for Terri.
Apparently, reasonable doubt seems not to apply, or if it does the benefit of it goes to the husband who, were it not for the fact of Terri Schiavo's continuing life, would be considered to be in a common law marriage with another woman with whom he has children. Couldn't they rule that Terri is entitled to a common law divorce and let someone else speak for her?
No. In spite of all arguments from her parents who want to take care of her, and after she has been fed through a tube for 15 years, the courts seek to protect her "life and liberty interests" by removing the tube and letting her starve. In fact, they will go further. There can be no question that they will actively prevent her parents from feeding her. Remarkable.
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