Congress Grandstands During Schiavo Deathwatch

Terri Schiavo has been in a "persistent vegetative state" since 1990 when she suffered heart failure brought on by a potassium imbalance that caused an interruption of oxygen to her brain for an estimated 5 minutes. Her husband Michael says she had told him that she wouldn't want to live like that, and he's been trying to get her feeding tube removed for years. Her parents maintain that there's still hope and have fought Michael Schiavo in court for years, and they kept losing. Over the week-end, Congress proved itself in a vegetative state of a sort by passing legislation that gave Mrs. Schiavo's case to the federal courts. It seems the GOP doesn't like the way Florida's courts manage Florida's laws, and this case doesn't even involve counting votes.

About a year and a half ago, this journal weighed in on the Schiavo case and suggested that a federal law was in order to deal with end-of-life issues. After this week-end's events, the need for such legislation is clear. What is also clear is the current Congress lacks the intellectual wherewithal to get the job done right. The ideal law would either explicitly leave it to the states to decide what happens when a person enters such a condition without a living will, or create a federal procedure that outlines what steps are needed to determine the patient's fate. As an added bonus, the law should also require living wills to be obeyed -- usually, they are ignored.

What the world saw over the week-end was far from an ideal law passed in three-ring media circus circumstances. First of all, Mrs. Schiavo's feeding tube was removed at the request of her legal guardian, her husband, after her parents exhausted all remedies that existed under Florida law. Absent federal legislation giving the central government jurisdiction, that was the end of the situation. But the right-to-life crowd decided they didn't like the courts' decisions, and badgered Congress into a week-end sitting and a Sunday night vote. The president cut short his stay in Crawford, Texas (where he really lives, not in Washington) and flew back to sign the bill as soon at it was passed so the federal courts could act -- remarkably, he signed a right-to-die bill as govenror of Texas in 1999 that stands 180 degrees opposite of his early Monday view. Reports even had it that federal court clerks were on duty Sunday night to accept legal papers from the lawyers for Mrs. Schiavo's mom and dad.

During the debate, Senator Frist (R-TN) began the shredding of his public integrity. Formerly a gifted heart surgeon and well-respected at this journal, he has started morphing into a political hack. "Speaking more a physician than as a US Senator," he lied, "there seems to be insufficient information to conclude that Terri Schiavo is in a persistent vegetative state." To reach this political conclusion, he relied on a video tape of Mrs. Schiavo and a discussion with a neurologist who had seen her. One wonders if he would sign a prescription for morphine if he saw a video tape of a person in pain. But this breach of medical ethics (commenting on a patient without the benefit of an actually examination) looked like good politics for a man who wants to run for president in 2008 and needs some social conservative support.

Congressman James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) tried to inject a certain degree of reasonableness by suggesting the law under consideration apply to all Americans, not just Mrs. Schiavo. This would mean that the equal protection clause would apply, and the law might just be constitutional. However, this suggestion ran the risk of proving that the legislation was drafted and passed in an almighty hurry, lacking appropriate hearings and research into the ramifications of an over-night policy.

All of this paled in comparison to the effort by the House to have Mrs. Schiavo appear before a House committee. The "thinking" behind the idea was that a subpoenaed witness couldn't be allowed to die by withdrawal of the feeding tube. The Florida court tried hard not to laugh at this unconstitutional power grab while rejecting the claim.

The case will continue up the federal line, just as it did up the Florida judicial system. US District Judge James Whittemore handed down his ruling yesterday, saying the state courts' decisions adequate protected Mrs. Schiavo's rights. The appeal in Atlanta's 11th Circuit Court was filed in a matter of an hour or so. When all of this is over, whether Mrs. Schiavo's feeding tube is replaced or not, America will have made absolutely no progress in dealing with the issue. Much heat has been generated, but no light at all. Shame on the politicians who could have acted long ago before passions grew. And may the outcome truly be in accordance with Mrs. Schiavo's wishes.


© Copyright 2005 by The Kensington Review, J. Myhre, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent.
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