The battle over Terri Schiavo, the brain damaged Florida woman who has been on a life support machine since a cardiac arrest 15 years ago, took a new turn this week when Congress intervened to invalidate the ruling of a state judge to permit removal of her feeding tube.
A bipartisan bill was passed by members of the Senate and House of Representatives on Sunday to force the Schiavo case into a federal court for the review of Mrs Schiavo's constitutional rights and the possible reinstatement of her feeding tube. President Bush returned early from a weekend in Texas to sign the bill.
Figure 1.
President Bush said that in cases like that of Terri Schiavo (above) “our courts should have a presumption in favour of life”
Credit: GETTY IMAGES
The majority leader of the Senate, Bill Frist, stepped into an almost empty chamber on Saturday and said that Congress “had been working non-stop over the last three days to do its part to uphold human dignity and affirm a culture of life.”
Dr Frist disagrees with the view of most doctors who have looked after Mrs Schiavo that she is in a persistent vegetative state. After viewing a Schiavo family videotape, but not examining her directly, he claimed that she was able to respond to visual stimuli.
The case has pitted Ms Schiavo's husband, Michael Schiavo, against her parents, Bob and Mary Schindler. Mr Schiavo said his wife stated that she would not wish to be kept alive by artificial means, but her parents insist that she is responsive and can be rehabilitated.
Earlier, in an unsuccessful move to try to prevent the feeding tube being removed, Congressional committees issued subpoenas for Ms Schiavo and her husband to appear at hearings scheduled in Washington for 28 March. It is a federal crime to harm a person called to testify before Congress, and thus the subpoena would have delayed the removal of the feeding tube.
While the wrangling in Washington continued, President Bush said, “The case of Terri Schiavo raises complex issues. Yet in instances like this one, where there are serious questions and substantial doubts, our society, our laws, and our courts should have a presumption in favour of life.”
Arthur Caplan, director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania, said the Schiavo case had already received ample scrutiny. Over the years it has come before 19 judges and six courts.
“It has to be the most extensively litigated right to die case in the history of the United States,” Professor Caplan said.
After Judge George Greer's ruling to remove the feeding tube, crowds of pro-life protesters prayed and demonstrated outside the Woodside Hospice, where Ms Schiavo has lived for five years.