Schiavo

Our Congress:

• does nothing to interfere when people are executed, but fights to keep someone in a persistent vegetative state alive;
• closes avenues for death row inmates to appeal their sentences in federal court, saying that the states' decisions should be respected, but has no problem trying to override state court decisions in this instance; and
• spends all this time "protecting" the "life" of someone against her wishes while ignoring the deaths that keep mounting in Iraq, as well as countless other issues of national significance.
  

Then again, can I really expect better from an august body that yesterday also conducted hearings on steroids in baseball for the simple purpose of grandstanding?

Terri Schiavo essentially has no brain left, there is no hope that she will ever regain consciousness, and Congress is fighting to keep her alive. Senator Frist, one of the proponents and a physician to boot, characterizes Schiavo as a "living person who has a level of consciousness but cannot feed herself." Frist hasn't actually examined Schiavo but has seen video. Is he serious?! I have to wonder what his malpractice rate was when he practiced, if he made diagnoses based on video.

This whole spectacle is disgusting, particularly that it has to be carried out in such a public forum. I feel for Schiavo's parents and the agony of losing a daughter. But let's face it -- they lost her a long time ago, and they're acting irrationally and out of desperation, even if it is understandable that they would do so.

I hope this all comes to an end very soon.