Congress Acts to Save Terri Schiavo's Life
SUMMARY: Disabled Florida woman's feeding tube could be reinserted today.
Terri Schiavo, the brain-injured Florida woman who has been at the center of a right-to-live battle for more than a decade, could have her feeding tube reinserted as early as today after the U.S. Congress passed unprecedented emergency legislation at 12:45 EST this morning.
Though congressmen ordinarily would have broken for their spring vacation at the close of business Friday -- the day Schiavo's tube was removed to allow her to die of starvation and dehydration -- they reconvened on Palm Sunday specifically to pass the law that gives federal courts jurisdiction over Schiavo's case.
The Senate passed the bill unanimously early Sunday afternoon; President Bush returned to the White House, cutting short a vacation at his Crawford, Texas, ranch, ready to sign the bill as soon as the House gave him the green light. The House began floor debate at 9 p.m. EST, and passed it, 203-58.
The measure, titled "For the Relief of the Parents of Theresa Marie Schiavo," could lead to the case being reviewed quickly by federal courts, and Schiavo's feeding tube may be reinserted during that process. Schiavo's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, say their daughter's fundamental constitutional rights were violated with the tube's removal; Schiavo, who has been incapacitated and unable to speak since her heart stopped beating momentarily in 1990, left no clear advance directions about her wishes for care or guardianship.
"Today, we have witnessed the extraordinary will of Congress to ensure that Terri Schiavo's right to life -- the first right set out in our founding document, the Declaration of Independence -- is protected," said Dr.
James Dobson, founder and chairman of Focus on the Family.
"Congress and President Bush have given life the benefit of the doubt -- and paved the way for a federal court to review whether her other constitutional rights have been violated.
"This bill represents a congressional act of mercy -- and Americans can be proud of the representatives they sent to Washington, D.C., who have voted to save Terri's life."
Attorney David Gibbs III, who represents the Schindler family, said while the House was debating that he expected the tube to be reinserted early this morning, after motions are filed in U.S. District Court in Florida and the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta.
Schiavo's tube has been removed on two other occasions before judicial or legislative proceedings prompted its replacement -- for two days in 2001, and for six days in 2003.
Bob Schindler told media gathered outside Woodside Hospice in Pinellas Park, Fla., on Sunday that his daughter appeared to be fading faster this time. Though state court-appointed doctors have said Schiavo is in a "persistent vegetative state" from which there is no hope of recovery, the Schindlers and more than two dozen neurologists who have seen Schiavo on video say she has some awareness and is responsive to them.
"The measure of a nation's commitment to the sanctity of life is reflected in its laws to the extent those laws honor and defend its most vulnerable citizens," said House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., one of the bill's authors. "When a person's intentions regarding whether to receive life-saving treatment are unclear, the responsibility of a compassionate nation is to affirm that person's right to life. In our deeds and public actions, we must build a culture of life that welcomes and defends all human life. The compassionate traditions and highest values of our country command us to action.
"As millions of Americans observe the beginning of Holy Week this Palm Sunday, we are reminded that every life has purpose, and none is without meaning."
Barbara Weller, one of the Schindlers' other attorneys, reported that on Friday, she was with Schiavo just before the tube was pulled.
"I stood up and leaned over Terri. I took her arms in both of my hands," Weller said. "I said to her, 'Terri, if you could only say, "I want to live," this whole thing could be over today.' I begged her to try very hard to say, 'I want to live.'
"To my enormous shock and surprise, Terri's eyes opened wide, she looked me square in the face, and with a look of great concentration, she said, 'Ahhhhhh.' Then, seeming to summon up all the strength she had, she virtually screamed, 'Waaaaaa.' She yelled so loudly that (her
brother-in-law) and the female police officer who were then standing together outside Terri's door clearly heard her. At that point, Terri had a look of anguish on her face that I had never seen before and she seemed to be struggling hard, but was unable to complete the sentence.
She became very frustrated and began to cry."
Though the Senate passed the bill by a voice vote with just a few members on hand, Democrats demanded a recorded vote in the House -- meaning a quorum of 218 members had to be physically present. Congressmen already home in their districts on Easter break scrambled back to Washington to pass the bill.
"I have been here 13 years," Rep. Donald Manzullo, R-Ill., told The New York Times, "and I have never seen anything like this before."
Wesley J. Smith, a consumer advocate and senior fellow at the Discovery Institute, said the unprecedented congressional action was an encouraging sign.
"This demonstrates that democracy works -- that when people are not apathetic and do get involved, their legislators listen," he told CitizenLink this morning.
"People who believe in the sanctity of human life should be heartened and redouble their efforts to be citizen advocates and change this country. It can be done. Even if Terri dies, none of this is in vain, because people are now aware of the utilitarian view of life that is threatening this country."
Since the Schindler family began their legal battle over Terri's custody with her husband, Michael Schiavo, 12 years ago, Florida's courts have consistently sided with Schiavo, who says his wife said she wouldn't want to be kept alive "artificially." But food support is not the same as life support, said Sanda Allyson, a communications specialist for Joni & Friends, a California-based evangelical organization for the disabled.
"If you as an individual choose not to be kept alive by artificial means, it's still a very different thing than being a healthy person who needs to rely on a feeding tube," Allyson told CitizenLink. "I don't think anyone who knows the horror of starving to death would choose it, regardless of the circumstances. There was no clear and convincing evidence that that's what she would want, and no corroborating testimony. I think if this case is reviewed in court on a federal level, they'll find multiple things that need to be looked at more closely."
Michael Schiavo won a $1.5 million malpractice suit against his wife's doctors in 1993, pledging to use the money to pay for her rehabilitation. But according to sworn testimony from Terri's nurses, shortly afterward, he ordered them not to give her therapy or treat her for potentially fatal infections; he also repeatedly demanded to know "why she wasn't dead yet."
In 2000, Schiavo placed his wife in a hospice for the terminally ill, though she is physically healthy; according to the Schindler family's Web site, terrisfight.org, in 2004, she had to have five teeth removed because he has not allowed her to have dental care. For the last 10 years, Michael Schiavo has lived with another woman, with whom he has two children; he stands to inherit what remains of the malpractice settlement upon Terri's death.
"(Schiavo) had to take an oath in open court when he received the medical malpractice money that he was going to take care of his wife, and that was not done," Allyson said. "We're concerned that in Florida, guardians have to return to court every year to account for how the money has been spent, and as far as we know, that has not been done one time."
Analysts were predicting early this morning that Terri's condition could be reevaluated once the case is presented to the U.S. District Court in Florida. More than a dozen neurologists filed affidavits in Schiavo's case in February, stating that based on her videos they do not believe she is in a persistent vegetative state. New diagnostic tools developed over the last decade could help make that determination accurately, but Schiavo's husband and the state courts have refused to allow them to be used so far.
"We hope and trust that the federal judiciary will give Terri's case the same serious consideration that is given to convicted murderers pending state execution," said Carrie Gordon Earll, Focus on the Family's senior analyst for bioethics. "Surely the life of a vulnerable, disabled and innocent woman deserves just as much."
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