Subject: [Homestead] Cerebral Cortex gone, so is posturing by bibletthumpers
Date: Wed, 29 Sep 2004 10:02:52 -0700
The New York Times
Jeb Bush and the biblethumpers can't even spell a dead cerebral
cortex---their cortex , all reasoning power and all compassion iare also
dead.
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September 29, 2004
Feeding-Tube Posturing Struck Down
Gov. Jeb Bush and the Florida Legislature were justly rebuked last week
when the Florida Supreme Court declared unconstitutional their ghoulish
efforts to require continued nutritional support for a severely
brain-damaged woman who has been in a persistent vegetative state for
more than a decade. The patient is Theresa Schiavo, who suffered a heart
attack in 1990 that deprived her brain of oxygen. She has been kept
alive with feeding and hydration tubes ever since.
There seems little doubt that Ms. Schiavo's medical prognosis is
hopeless. A trial court found overwhelming evidence that her brain had
deteriorated so severely that much of her cerebral cortex was gone.
The case is complicated because Ms. Schiavo left no written directive
that spelled out her wishes should she be in a vegetative state. Her
husband contends that she had orally expressed a desire not to be kept
alive artificially, and the lower courts, finding clear and convincing
evidence that she would want the life support stopped, had ordered the
feeding tube removed.
But the Legislature, prodded by religious conservatives, quickly passed
a law authorizing the governor to order the feeding resumed, and
Governor Bush ordered that life support be reinstated. Those
grandstanding maneuvers were properly struck down last week when the
Florida Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the law was an
unconstitutional encroachment on the judiciary's power.
Ms. Schiavo's parents cling to the hope that she may someday recover and
plan to continue their legal fight to keep her alive. That is their
right. But we hope that the politicians at least will now keep their
hands off this tragic case.