Who is right?

Uh-oh, political lines are being drawn in the sand again. What could it be this time? Is there someone looking to have an abortion? Are two men holding hands and looking into one another's eyes? Is there outrage about outsourcing of American jobs to Third World countries? \nNo! The fate of a poor unfortunate soul, trapped, in what at least appears to be, a mindless shell is the catalyst that has sparked the newest round of political differentiation. \nTerri Shiavo is a woman who 15 years ago collapsed, and since then has been kept alive only through the continued supervision of health care officials. After eight years in a coma, Shiavo's husband filed a petition to remove the feeding tube that has been the lifeline keeping Shiavo alive, which after seven years of litigation, was removed last Friday. Without the sustenance that this feeding tube provides, Shiavo will die, which is what her husband claims she would desire were she capable of expressing herself.\nThe politicization has two camps. First, there's the conservative "right to life" crowd, which has rallied behind George "The Texacutioner" Bush, who according to www.cnn.com, said, "in extraordinary circumstances like this, it is wise to always err on the side of life." While I see the hypocrisy in Bush calling for clemency, when he signed 152 death sentences during his time as the governor of Texas, I am not sure that I disagree with him. They want the feeding tube reinserted and for Shiavo to remain under medical supervision. \nThe second camp is the liberal one and a harder position to define. It seems like the Democrats are having a hard time either articulating their objection to or support for the conservative position and just making moves of outrage out of habit. \nThis is a very difficult issue and is one of the most watched news items in America. On one hand, as a believer in science and the power of medicine -- not entering into the realm of religious argument -- I am against the removal of the feeding tube. Who knows whether science will produce a cure for her condition in the future? On the other hand, if this is what Shiavo would have truly wanted, what business is it of anyone besides the family?\nThe issue is made murkier by the fact that Congress is getting involved. Nineteen Florida judges looked at the issues of the Shiavo case, and they decided this poor woman should be allowed to die. These are people who became intimately acquainted with the details of the case during an eight-year period of time -- unlike the 535 people in the House and Senate who have found opinions for this case. \nMy fear is that this decision will be based not on precedent, but on whether the public has more sympathy for the parents or for the husband. It is very difficult to look at the faces of Shiavo's parents, who cannot hold back tears as they fight for their daughter's life. It is pretty easy to look at the husband, Michael Shiavo, and find him cold. His demeanor makes it easy to doubt that what he is doing is out of desire to fulfill what he believes would be her wishes.\nThis is a very complicated issue because the decision is to effectively sentence a woman to death. I don't know that I would be able to make the call. However, I don't think that Congress should be involved in the decision-making process. For all of the Republican calls for small government, they seem to have no compunction against micromanaging when it is in line with the party doctrine.