Sprung!

These folks are coming totally unhinged. Now they want Gov. Bush order police action to have Terri Schiavo's feeding tube reinserted. As disheartened as I am that this woman will be starved and dehydrated to death, currently our laws say that her husband has the last say on her fate. That's that! If that isn't that, there are thousands of other patients who will need saving too! What about them?

The "auxiliary precautions" of Florida government in this case the Florida supreme court have failed Terri Schiavo. It is time, therefore, for Governor Bush to execute the law and protect her rights, and, in turn, he should take responsibility for his actions. Using the state police powers, Governor Bush can order the feeding tube reinserted. His defense will be that he and a majority of the Florida legislature believe the Florida Constitution requires nothing less. Some will argue that Governor Bush will be violating the law. We think he will not be violating the law, but if he is judged to have done so, it will be in the tradition of Martin Luther King, Jr., who answered to a higher law than a judge's opinion. In so doing, King showed respect for the man-made law by willingly going to jail (on a Good Friday); Governor Bush may have to face impeachment because of his decision.

In taking these extraordinary steps to save an innocent life, Governor Bush should be judged not by the opinion of the Florida supreme court, a co-equal branch of the Florida government, but by the opinions of his political superiors, the people of Florida. If they disagree with their governor, they are indeed free to act through their elected representatives and impeach him. Or they can vindicate him if they think he is right. But he should not be cowed into inaction he should not allow an innocent woman to be starved to death because of an opinion of a court he believes to be wrong and unconstitutional.

... And leave Dr. King out of this! He, for one, would be battling for a decent Medicaid budget and for the indigents that Bush wants to die - at the hospital's discretion - if they cannot pay for care.