I’ve been hesitant to write about the tragedy of Terri Schiavo’s case. It’s a heart-breaking story of a young woman in Florida who has been in a vegetative state for over a decade, and who has become the focus on an intense political, moral, familial, and judicial dispute.
I don’t want to belabor the details (that’s not the point of this post), but to quickly summarize, Terri Schiavo’s husband, after years of anguish, decided it would be best to remove his wife from the feeding tubes that were keeping her alive. He went to court to gain approval for the step and courts agreed to allow Terri to die naturally, convinced that is what she would want were she capable of expressing her wishes.
Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R), Republicans in the state legislature, and Terri Schiavo’s parents intervened. The legislature, after minimal debate, passed a measure allowing Gov. Bush to undo the court orders, ignore her husband’s wishes, and reinsert the feeding tubes.
I believe this was an appalling mistake and, I suspect, most Americans would agree that the steps taken by Florida Republicans in this matter, no matter how well intentioned, were terribly misguided.
Joe Lieberman, meanwhile, thinks Jeb Bush was right.
I realize that reasonable people can disagree on these controversial end-of-life issues, but I have to admit I was surprised that Lieberman, who at least claims to be a Democratic presidential candidate, supports Jeb Bush’s efforts in the Schiavo case.
In an interview with the AP yesterday, Lieberman backed Bush’s intervention, saying that he believes government must “honor life.”
“I believe that certainly in cases where there is not a living will…I feel very strongly that we ought to honor life and we ought not to create a system where people are being deprived of nutrition or hydration in a way that ends their lives,” Lieberman said.
None of the other presidential candidates have commented on the Schiavo case, as far as I know, but I have to assume that Lieberman is the only Dem candidate who backs Bush on this issue.
If the Lieberman campaign, a year from now, wants to know why their guy didn’t finish in the top three in any primary campaign, they can look to examples like this one for an explanation.