[mburbank]

Her condition, the motives of the parents and the spouse, the nature of conciousness, what constitutes suffering... all of these things are fascinating and highly emotional issues, all worthy of much thought and soul searching.

As such they are perfect cover for a flagrant regard of separation of powers that damages our consititution and is a step toward totalitariansim. They are fully in keeping with the current Republican parties quest for power, a maneuver so bald they are not even slightly ashamed of dumping their long held belief in states rights, which this bunch only believes in should they not control the legislative and executive branch. Don't they make kids take civics in school anymore? I was taught that the main thing that makes America a Great Nation is that our founders feared totalitarianism and corruption and so created a system of seperation of powers and checks and blances between the three branches of government to guard against it.

Sincere or not, impassioned or not, for members of congress to see the life of a single individual, the status of which is debatable by people of good will, as grounds for circumventing a court decision they do not like is a HUGE abbregation of responsability. Assuming these elected men and women know at least as much basic civics as I it is also cynical and alarming.

Kevin, the Flordia legislture is a perfect place to argue for law affecting these sorts of cases and the legal courses they take. The congress would be a fine place to craft a bill regarding these sorts of cases and the legal course they take. A special 11'th hour session of congress to craft a law to alter the already rendered deciion of a court that follows the law as it currently stands for a single, speciffic individual is an abuse of powers. This abuse of powers is cloaked by the passions arouzsed by the case, and in my opinion, these passions, even if sincerely felt by our representatives , are being manipulated for cunical, political gain. Shame on the Republicans for having so little respect for our constitution. Shame on the Democrats for chosing fear of looking bad and loosing future votes over standing up for our constitution. Shame on a President who did not find a Tsunami that took tens of thousands of lives and left thousands more hanging in to cut short his vacation but did so for at best a single person and at worst cynical loathsome political gain. And W. is less culpable than most of congress, because I believe he does not understand basic civics.
And shame on people who confuse two issues; Terry Schiavo's tragedy and the way our system of government functions.