The Schindler family is in the midst of a court case against their son-in-law, their daughter's husband, Michael Schiavo. You may have heard of this. The case may be heard next by the U.S. Supreme Court. President Bush, earlier this week, signed a bill into law forcing the federal judicial system to get involved. Appropriately, both the federal judge and the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals have rejected the Schindler's pleas. Bush was woken in the middle of the night, leaving his vacation early, and flying into D.C. to dramatically sign the bill into law. Interestingly...

Rather than incurring the cost of flying back to Washington on Air Force One -- pegged in 1999 at $34,000 an hour -- Bush could have signed the bill in Texas a few hours later without significantly endangering Schiavo's life, critics said. Not only had doctors estimated that she could live for up to two weeks without the feeding tube, but a federal judge was not expected to hear the case until today.

"Obviously, Bush could have signed the bill in Texas," said Dan Bartlett, a senior counselor to Bush. But, he added, despite the estimates of how long Schiavo could live without her feeding tube, "it would be very hard for anyone to live with themselves" if Schiavo died because of a delay in the signing of the bill into law.

Source: Washington Post

Even more interesting, had this case been in Texas, the feeding tube would have been removed long ago. In fact, not only would the husband have sole discretion, the hospital would trump the husband if need be.

President Bush, now championing the right of Terri Schiavo's parents to decide whether her feeding tube should be reinserted, signed a Texas law in 1999 giving spouses top priority in making such decisions.

By siding with Schiavo's parents... Bush ran counter to the Texas measure. The state law says that in cases in which a patient has not signed a directive about life-prolonging care, the patient's spouse -- unless there is a court-appointed guardian -- makes the call. The patient's parents are third, behind "reasonably available adult children" and ahead of the "the patient's nearest living relative."

Source: Cox News Service

The Texas law allows a patient's surrogate, like Ms. Schiavo's husband, the right to make end-of-life decisions. But it ultimately gives hospitals the right to withdraw life support if there is no hope of revival, regardless of family wishes. Under the law, a critically ill 5-month-old was taken off life support and allowed to die last week in Texas, even though his mother objected.

Source: New York Times

Well, I'll be; Bush is changing his position for near-sighted political gain. Will the Supreme Court get involved? Alan Dershowitz, of Harvard and OJ Simpson fame, believes they may, and he cites, get ready, Bush v. Gore as the impetus for them doing so.

Labels: bush