A letter in our mailbag supports Terri Schiavo's right to life. As widely reported, Terri has been in a vegetative state and kept alive by a feeding tube, now removed at her husband's insistence, backed by a court order. Terri's parents consider this murder by starvation, and Congress has stepped in.
Gay couples have often been in a situation where, after a
terrible accident or illness leaves one partner incapacitated, the
healthy partner and the victim's parents disagree about care. But
this, it seems to me, is different - a husband wants to terminate
the life of his spouse when there is no clear indication that this
is what Terri Schiavo herself would have wanted. In such a
situation, I'm not opposed to the state stepping in to protect the
life of someone who can't speak for herself.