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For the Relief of the Parents of Theresa Marie Schiavo

Date: March 20, 2005
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Civil Liberties and Civil Rights Health and Health Care Legal


FOR THE RELIEF OF THE PARENTS OF THERESA MARIE SCHIAVO -- (House of Representatives - March 20, 2005)

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Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me this time. I want to speak from love and compassion, not just the law, and embrace the strongest pro-family position as we move in this debate.

The Schiavo and Schindler families need our prayers to do for Terry what not a single one of us wishes to imagine, to make a decision on the life of a beloved as they traverse the jagged edge of being.

Terri's family, all of them, love her. She is not alone. But her being belongs not to us but to God and to them. All of us are mere bystanders, the Speaker, ABC News, Jeb Bush, and every single one of us. Only Terri's family has walked the profound journey of accompaniment with her for the last 15 years, and it has been a long suffering one.

Of one thing I am certain. This decision on Terri does not belong in this Congress. In fact, it does not even belong in the courts. It lies with the family, those closest to her, even when that family is divided, bitter, exhausted, and unable to reconcile.

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