Visiting Hours are for Friends and Family, not Congress

On the front page of CNN.com at 9:28am PT, Tuesday, March 22, 2005:

It's the family of Terri Schiavo, who are in denial of the fact that while medicine allows her body to survive mechanically, Terri herself is no longer with them. From this CNN.com article yesterday:

"I asked her if she was ready to take a little ride, and I told her that we were going to take her for a little trip and take her outside and get her some breakfast, and that got a big smile out of her face, so help me God," Schindler [Terri's father] said.

Despite everything that the doctors have told him, this man truly believes that his daughter responds, thinks, and loves. She doesn't. Let her rest in peace.

What Americans hate even more than change, is watching the government involve itself in intensely personal family issues. "Gay Marriage" and "Abortion" are less personal stories involving one or two people and more blanket issues that have been adopted by the parties as platform points in swaying public opinion. They are buzz phrases, personal experience removed. But the Schiavo case is particularly dangerous for the republicans because it is not some buzz issue whose basis in reality has been diluted by its incorporation into political platforms. It is one family, one woman, and one very personal case. It's as if Congress has now stepped into the rooms of our hospitals, into an intensely personal situation that strikes an emotional chord for Americans like no other event since possibly September 11th. Except this time, most Americans seem certain that this is not an issue in which the government should involve itself. This does not concern them. Their "intervention" is merely political grandstanding and too many people for the GOP's good see it as such.

The only benefits i can see them drawing from this endeavor are: 1) increased fervor from the pro-life side; 2) another charge of "judicial activism" to levy against the judicial branch; and 3) applause from the zealout Christians who would see this "stopping of life" as "playing God" (nevermind the fact that having her life prolonged by feeding tubes and machines could, to the purist, be construed as "playing God" in the first place).

A right-wing conservative group has been lobbying for this intervention for a long time. THIS woman's death should NOT become a political debate.

I'd also like to note that this is just one more example of why we choose our mates but not our family... her husband wants to respect her choice. Her family sits in denial, involving government in a life that no longer exists. It's disgusting. Hopefully it will be stalled in the courts long enough that her body dies before the family has the chance to find one judge who rules to put the tube back in.