Interfering in family affairs

Last week, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush ordered the feeding tube of Terri Schiavo, a brain-damaged Florida woman, reinserted after a bill passed through the state's legislature.\nThe Schiavo case has been the center of a decade-long court battle of whether to keep the woman alive, who has been in a vegetative state for 13 years, or to let her die. \nHer husband would rather let her die. Her parents want her to live. So does the governor.\nGov. Bush thrust himself and the state of Florida into the case. No longer was it a matter of what the family wishes or what the court systems decide. In fact, the courts seem irrelevant to the case.\nFlorida Republicans said that where judges might be wrong, in a case like Schiavo's, such legislation is desperately needed (The Associated Press, Oct. 21).\nWhere the judges might be wrong? Who is to say what is right or wrong? Bush? The state? No. The judges are appointed, by lawmakers, to decide what is right or wrong. That is the job of a judge. It is not the jurisdiction of politicians to step in to say, "Well, we appointed the judges, but I just don't agree with them this time."\nFlorida Rep. Sandy Murman said, "The Constitution is supposed to protect the people of this state. Who is protecting this girl?" (The Associated Press, Oct. 21). That's not Rep. Murman's problem.\nBut, some might say, the legislation passed to save Schiavo's life will help others in the future when there is a similar case. This will be true only if the case involves a person that has left no living will, is in a persistent vegetative state, has had nutrition and hydration tubes removed and where a family member has challenged the removal (The Associated Press, Oct. 20). In other words, cases that are completely identical to Schiavo's. The legislation is so specific that it will only apply in this case and will most likely never be used again.\nThe husband, Michael Schiavo, said his wife told him she would not want to be kept alive artificially, which is why he is pushing to let her die. The state is intervening between a husband and wife. In most states, laws and courts grant the spouse the first right to make life-or-death situations, followed by the children and then the parents (The New York Times, Sunday). Nowhere here does it say governor.\nThe husband says he is trying to uphold her last wish to die naturally, and now he can't. The governor has decided to become a third party and to help make the decision.\nThe point is that the matter should be left up to the family and the courts, not Gov. Bush and the state of Florida. Pushing through 11th-hour legislation that will only apply to the Schiavo case is not the answer and only complicates an already complicated issue.