I'm so happy you took the call from Mike(?), who thought Terri Schiavo had a right to life. Hurray for him! That was the ONE time I cheered this Congress. I'm so far left, I might be right in some cases, beyond Democrat or Republican, into green/libertarian territory. My fiber tells me that all life is sacred. In Terri's case, my reasoning that followed was that there was doubt whether it was her own personal wish to die. So the court had to decide between her family's wishes and her husband's wish. Her husband had moved on, had another lady and children, even if they weren't married. If he were single, in a few years theirs would be considered a common law marriage. Seems to me that a common law divorce should be equally recognizable. A spouse can be divorced, but the parent-child bond is not so disposable. The courts couldn't recognize degrees of marriage, and in their framework they pretty much had to decide the way they did. So I cheered any way to step outside that box -- Congress, a jury, a governor -- !

Before we had all our laws, we broke the old ones and said they don't work -- and we started fresh, saying we hold these truths to be self-evident, among them the right to LIFE, as well as liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Terri had a self-evident right to life, and her family had a self-evident right to the liberty to protect her life and pursue their idea of happiness. Michael Schiavo could have let go and moved on without being harmed.

THANK YOU for the chance to say that! Everytime I hear the Dems ridicule Terri's life, I cringe. Talk about hubris! And I also cringe that the Republican congresspeople were so cynical and political. They used Terri Schiavo. Regardless of your party, weren't you sickened by the death watch as day after day went by and she hung onto life and no one would or could feed her?

Also, I want to thank you for having Michael Schiavo on. To put her family's side up, in my mind I was putting him down. Which I don't like. I'm so pleased he took it to Congress. I'm pleased he showed that representative up for being chicken. Chickenshit congresspeople should be exposed to voters.

Last comment: I disagree with Michael Schiavo that Congress had more important things to do than pay attention to this one vegetable. I've heard it variously said that you can judge a society by how it treats its children and animals. "Whatsoever you do to the least of these, you do unto me." If we could have recognized the value of Terri's life, we would have been greater and humbler and wiser. The life we saved might have been our own. I feel the same thing for the habeus corpus shame. When we destroy our regard for due process for anyone, we destroy ourselves. This Congress killed what Osama bin Laden could not. It's a crying shame. Nothing is more important than what we do to the least among us. We have become what we say we despise.

I have to admit I agree with you 100%. I didn't feel it was right for the courts to order Terri's death, especially when there was so much controversy over her physical state, her treatment, and ESPECIALLY since there were family members who only wanted to love and care for her. We treat our PETS better than she was treated by the "right to die" crowd, who had ABSOLUTELY NO PROOF THAT SHE WANTED TO DIE A SLOW, PAINFUL DEATH RATHER THAN BE LOVED AND CARED FOR BY HER PARENTS. And we never knew for CERTAIN -- before she was allowed to dehydrate and perish before our eyes -- whether she was TOTALLY brain-dead. I'm not sure I believe the autopsy results anyway -- nor am convinced that her brain didn't deteriorate from neglect and repeated aborted death sentences.

I too am a strong liberal, as most here can attest to. But this issue broke my heart. And like you, I felt the righties were right (for a change)....

So how did you feel when the autospy report came out? Still felt that way?

Well then I hope congress gets into your personal life one day, and makes a grievous situation even worse... What they did was not for Terri Schiavo, what they did was another of their wedge divisive actions purely to anger their religious base.... Much like the young boy in Florida who's mother drowned trying to come to the U.S.

And I have not read a word of the results of the Autopsy in your piece.... It was shown that there was not a hope in the world of her ever being anything but a vegetable.... I think the main issue was control of any monies left due to the legal settlement.... I think her Husband knew her best, her parents only knew the child they raised, and wished for her to return to them... Delay and Frist are the evil players here, and those religious zealots that led the Dog and Pony show surrounding this sad tale....

I too mourned the court ordered death of Terri Schiavo. In the state of NC, letting a pet intentionally die of dehydration would result in an arrest warrant. I personally grieved during her ordeal because I have suffered from dehydration and it is a misery worse than death. I was only in that condition for a few hours, but she was that way for almost 2 weeks. We define torture to include things like cold rooms, and loud music. Terri's slow death was unimaginably cruel. I was wishing ever day that the court would allow a pain medicine to put her out of the misery. I am not making any political statement except we should all cring when we realize that a government court can order such barbaric death sentence based solely on hearsay of her estranged husband. I have made my wishes known in writing should a simialr situation happen to me. I hope all of you have done the same.

As I understand the autopsy results she was not capable of feeling pain. The law gave the decision to the husband - I think it's in the Bible that the husband wife relationship trumps the parent child one-"For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. -- Ephesians 5:31"

Thanks for the nice wishes, miguel -- I certainly don't wish THAT hell on ANYBODY. I don't approve of Congress messing in personal lives any more than you do. But neither do I approve of courts messing in our personal lives either -- ordering disabled people put to death on the word of a husband who is living with his new family. This was something that should have NEVER gotten as far as it did. Terri's husband should have long ago said goodbye to his severely damaged wife and handed her over to her parents to care for and love until she died a natural death. THAT'S the private, sensitive, optimistic and loving thing to do.

You can't do an autopsy on a LIVING PERSON. They had to KILL her first. Who KNOWS when and how that permanent severe damage was done. Could it have been caused by the severe neglect during her "therapy"? Could it have been hurried along by the several aborted attempts to end her life? We will never know. But we would never have known how badly damaged her brain was without KILLING HER FIRST. I don't know about you, but I find THAT method unacceptable.

So well said. Thank you.

Thank you! And I'd add that we don't know what Terri's life was to her, what the damage meant, what the undamaged meant, what she would have chosen. My house is built on top of an old oak tree that "should" have been killed by the construction damage, and before that by the lightning and fire that completely hollowed it, and probably by simple extreme age as well. Guess what, it's still alive, and it has better looking leaves than the other tree behind it that apparently took less construction damage. (These are legally "protected trees" with a "25-foot buffer" in the EIR, major use permit and buyer's disclosures, by the way--ha!) My point is, we don't know the how and where and why and what about life. We can't restore it if we take it away. We are not God.

Also, legally speaking, apparently the lawn in front of the "protected" oak tree has more protection now (HOA) than the tree, even though lawns can be fatal to oaks. Legal does not mean right.

A sad and sour note: