Protection of Incapacitated Persons Act of 2005

PROTECTION OF INCAPACITATED PERSONS ACT OF 2005 -- (House of Representatives - March 16, 2005)

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Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from New York (Mr. Nadler) for yielding me time.

I stand here as a Member representing the great State of Florida and as someone who served in the Florida Senate when this gut-wrenching issue was debated intensely almost 2 years ago, where we determined that Terri Schaivo would be allowed to have her feeding tube be reinserted by order of the Governor, who had decided that he was going to be able to usurp a court decision. That was ultimately ruled unconstitutional and for very good reason.

There is no doubt that this is a family tragedy. In fact, this is just about the most personal and heart-wrenching of all matters that could arise in any family, but this is a family matter, where there is no room for the Federal Government in this case or in any case that a family has to make the most personal of decisions when dealing with an end-of-life decision.

This case in particular related to Terri Schaivo has been through 10 court decisions, 10 court reviews, and each time the courts have sided with Terri's husband and Terri Schaivo's wishes, where they have ruled that she made it clear that she would not have wished to remain in a persistent vegetative state.

There is no reason on earth why the U.S. government should step in to circumvent the wishes of one dying woman, and the gentleman from Florida, my colleague from the great State of Florida, maintains that Terri is not in a persistent vegetative state. Yet, doctors who have examined her, and I would imagine that my colleague from the State of Florida has not examined Ms. Schaivo, doctors who have examined her have consistently said that she is in a persistent vegetative state. In fact, it is only physicians who the Schindlers have employed who have said she is not, and they have reviewed her via videotape. The doctors that have actually examined Ms. Schaivo have determined that she in a persistent vegetative state.

The courts independently arrived at the decision that they believe that Terri wished to never remain in a persistent vegetative state. They interviewed her husband, her sister-in-law and friends of the family, but the decision that they reached was based on the testimony independently retrieved from her brother, from her sister-in-law and friends. They all testified that Terri had made her intentions clear.

The court and the doctors that examined Ms. Schaivo found that she has no cerebral cortex; that the reactions and responses that we have seen on TV dozens of time, that she seems to respond to her parents when they talk to her, that those are all reflexive, that they are not direct responses to interaction with people.

The doctors have examined her, again have examined her, that have reviewed her records, that have reviewed her MRIs have said that she is in a persistent vegetative state.
This is a horrible case. No matter what the facts are, it is a horrible case, but Terri Schaivo made her wishes clear, and we should not interject this body, the Federal Government, the United States Congress, into a personal family matter.

We are taking one set of facts for one family, which is the tragedy of one family and applying it to tens of thousands of families who have or will have loved ones in nursing homes, in hospice facilities or even those being kept alive by their families in their own homes. We are reaching all the way into very personal family cases in communities all across the country, and we are trying to apply a one-size-fits-all solution to all of them. That is totally inappropriate, and I think if we ask just about any family in America whether they think it would be okay if the United States Congress made an end-of-life decision for their loved ones, they would resoundingly say no.

I find it particularly hypocritical that those that talk about the defense of marriage now want to interject the Federal Government between a husband and his wife on what was a personal family matter. I ask that we think about how we would feel if, God forbid, our own loved one were in a persistent vegetative state and were in the circumstances and faced the circumstances that Terri Schaivo does. Would we want the United States Congress making the decision or would we want to be involved in that decision ourselves solely on our own?

I think that most families would resoundingly say that they want to make that decision. There but for the grace of God go I.

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