Better Than I Could Have Said It

In the comments section of my previous post, reader Marie writes:

I had a grandfather who was on a feeding tube (no other support) for six years before he died of natural causes. He was in a coma, we were told, but his eyes followed us around the room. He was unable to speak after part of his brain was shot out in a tragic accident. He received the best loving care available.

I have a nephew who has been on a feeding tube all of his 12 years, and is blind and profoundly retarded. His parents are right now with him at a Florida hospital, helping the doctors fight another bout of pneunomia. His only means of food and fluids is a feeding tube.

I have a son who needed surgery as a newborn and was on a feeding tube for two weeks. There are thousands around the country whose only method of food and fluids is a feeding tube. This is a horrible thing that Terri and her family are going through. I am beside myself with anger and frustration over her "husband" who won't let her parents care for her at home. It seems her death now is unavoidable, and I am praying it comes quickly now. Now that the courts have shown how little life is valued (as if we didn't already know), when will they come for my nephew and all the other disabled people, I wonder?

That's what this case is ultimately all about. As I write this, the expected news has come that the United States Supreme Court will not reinstate Terri's feeding tube. Of course, the haggling in the courts has been beside the point for months now. The real issue is whether we will be ruled by judicial fiat, or whether the other branches of government will step up to reassert their power. The Florida Legislature declined to stand up yesterday. Now the only question is whether Governor Jeb Bush, who is the one remaining obsticle between Terri Schiavo and death, will stand or lie down.