Has the Schiavo case Become a Political Football?

Re: Sozobe


not to be heartless and inhumane but how ironic.

The supreme court has refused to intervene in Terri Shiavo's case.

I knew they would.

March 24, 2005
New York Times OP-ED COLUMNIST
DeLay, Deny and Demagogue
By MAUREEN DOWD

Oh my God, we really are in a theocracy.

Are the Republicans so obsessed with maintaining control over all branches of government, and are the Democrats so emasculated about not having any power, that they are willing to turn the nation into a wholly owned subsidiary of the church?

The more dogma-driven activists, self-perpetuating pols and ratings-crazed broadcast media prattle about "faith," the less we honor the credo that a person's relationship with God should remain a private matter.

As the Bush White House desperately maneuvers in Iraq to prevent the new government from being run according to the dictates of religious fundamentalists, it desperately maneuvers here to pander to religious fundamentalists who want to dictate how the government should be run.

Maybe President Bush should spend less time preaching about spreading democracy around the world and more time worrying about our deteriorating democracy.

Even some Republicans seemed appalled at this latest illustration of Nietzsche's observation that "morality is the best of all devices for leading mankind by the nose."

As Christopher Shays, one of five House Republicans who voted against the bill to allow the Terri Schiavo case to be snatched from Florida state jurisdiction and moved to federal court, put it: "This Republican Party of Lincoln has become a party of theocracy. There are going to be repercussions from this vote."

A CBS News poll yesterday found that 82 percent of the public was opposed to Congress and the president intervening in this case; 74 percent thought it was all about politics.

The president, who couldn't be dragged outdoors to talk about the more than a hundred thousand people who died in the horrific tsunami, was willing to be dragged out of bed to sign a bill about one woman his base had fixated on. But with the new polls, the White House seemed to shrink back a bit.

The scene on Capitol Hill this past week has been almost as absurdly macabre as the movie "Weekend at Bernie's," with Tom DeLay and Bill Frist propping up between them this poor woman in a vegetative state to indulge their own political agendas. Mr. DeLay, the poster child for ethical abuse, wanted to show that he is still a favorite of conservatives. Dr. Frist thinks he can ace out Jeb Bush to be 44, even though he has become a laughingstock by trying to rediagnose Ms. Schiavo's condition by video.

As one disgusted Times reader suggested in an e-mail: "Americans ought to send Bill Frist their requests: 'Dear Dr. Frist: Please watch the enclosed video and tell us if that mole on my mother's cheek is cancer. Does she need surgery?'"

Jeb, keeping up with the '08 competition, vainly tried to get Florida to declare Ms. Schiavo a ward of the state.

Republicans easily abandon their cherished principles of individual privacy and states rights when their personal ambitions come into play. The first time they snatched a case out of a Florida state court to give to a federal court, it was Bush v. Gore. This time, it's Bush v. Constitution.

While Senate Democrats like Hillary Clinton, who are trying to curry favor with red staters, meekly allowed the shameful legislation to be enacted, at least some Floridian House members decided to put up a fight, though they knew they couldn't win.

The president and his ideological partners don't believe in separation of powers. They just believe in their own power. First they tried to circumvent the Florida courts; now they're trying to pack the federal bench with conservatives and even blow up the filibuster rule. But they may yet learn a lesson on checks and balances, as the federal courts rebuffed them in the Schiavo case.

Mr. DeLay moved yesterday to file a friend of the court brief with the Supreme Court asking that Ms. Schiavo's feeding tube be restored while the federal court is deciding what to do. But as he exploits this one sad case, Mr. DeLay has voted to slash Medicaid by $15 billion, denying money to care for poor people in nursing homes, some on feeding tubes.

Mr. DeLay made his personal stake clear at a conference last Friday organized by the Family Research Council, a conservative Christian group. He said that God had brought Terri Schiavo's struggle to the forefront "to help elevate the visibility of what's going on in America." He defined that as "attacks against the conservative movement, against me and against many others."

So it's not about her crisis at all. It's about his crisis.

Well, that's because an animal can feel what you are doing to it. The body of Terri Schiavo cannot feel anything. Therefore, it isn't cruel in the slightest.

Though I do agree with those who say, if you're gonna end it, why not end it right? Give her a big dose of morphine and just let her float off....

It's what I would want...

This whole issue is sad. I can't believe the lady's been in this state since 1990.

Cycloptichorn

Terri's doctor's are pretty consistent that she is.... Or do you think they're in cahoots with Michael?

I've heard a lot of doctors who have opinions who haven't actually examined the poor woman. How can they have a medical opinion?


Again, this is an error of fact. It is not evidence from just one person.

DrewDad's quote, "Removing the feeding tube is ending medical intervention.

Applying a flamethrower (or lethal injection, or smothering, etc.) is euthanasia.

Quite a difference."

Thank you, DrewDad for seeing the DIFFERENCE. It seems some people's arguments are just stupid ones, because they are so hell bent to prove something that is not remotely a comparison.

Edit: One thing I must correct is the fact that I thought I heard it was Terri's siblings that said Terri would not wish to be kept on any life support, but Bobbie Schindler is Terri's brother, and he agrees with his parents to keep the feeding tube on his sister. I apologize for this mistake. I also stayed up last night to listen to many Constitutional lawyers, and most said that it was most likely improbable that the Supreme Court would overturn the state court decisions for a case that only benefits one patient.

I heard something shocking last night from the mouth of Pat Buchanan, He said president Bush should forcefully take Terri with the US Army, and give Terri food and water. I think the religious zealots have all gone bonkers. He claims that the court system has failed, and as the president, Bush has the right as the commander in chief. Now, I am scared.

Many doctors are now coming out of the woodworks to claim that Terri's diagnosis of PVS is not correct, and that Terri should be given the opportunity to improve. Interesting isn't it? Most, if not all, didn't even examine Terri.

There is far too many emotional objections to this highly publicized case and what seems like rejections to any appeals to medical facts and evidence.

Hey, Does anyone know if the war in Iraq is still raging? Are our service people still getting killed and wounded? It doesn't take a hell of a lot to distract the American people and media does it?

I also add that I'm appalled that many people surrounding this case area acting like this is the very first incident of this kind?
...or that people are euthanized throughout the civilized world in this and similar fashions every day.

My father is an upper level administrator the cardiology, respiratory, and neurology departments in a hospital and he says that cutting life support is an everyday occurance.

Shiavo is no different except politics and this need for people to fight for something in order to affirm their beliefs.
It has nothing to do with Terry, IMO.

I wonder how many of the people who are fighting to keep Terri "alive"have or are now going to make out living will to assure that they or their loved one are never put in that position. I particularly ask those who claim it is Euthanasia or murder. Does it become less so if it is self sanctioned?

All I know is with this Terri Schiavo thing finally out of the way we can get back to focusing on the Michael Jackson trial. Priorities.

Iraq? Ain't that that place that bombed us a long time ago?

No, steroids and vegetables are now what the government deals with.

tsk, bin Laden and Iraq are soooo last year. :wink:

Congress. " The poor little sheep who have lost their way" Ba Ba Ba. What a terrible waste of money.

The NEO-THEOCRATS ..... coming to an administration near you .....

Which kind of steroids? The insidious dangerous pollutants of our American youth, values and principles of sports or the perfectly acceptable enhancement tools used to propel immigrants to movie star and governor status? There's two different kinds you know.

Not sure I follow the latter of the two.