[News from Congressman Chris Smith - 4th New Jersey

S. 686 - FOR THE RELIEF OF THE PARENTS OF THERESA MARIE SCHIAVO

HON. CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH OF NEW JERSEY

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

SUNDAY, MARCH 20, 2005

(Washington, DC) — 

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me this time.

Mr. Speaker, we meet tonight under extraordinary circumstances, and I for one am very grateful to the Speaker and majority leader DELAY for bringing us back because a much-loved disabled woman in Florida has been ordered to die by starvation and dehydration. We meet tonight because Terri Schiavo's family, including her parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, refuse to allow their precious daughter, who is not in a coma nor is she terminally ill nor is she in a persistent vegetative state, to be killed by starving her to death.

Disabled people deserve no less than everyone else deserves, to have their fundamental human rights protected and properly asserted. We meet here tonight because there are serious questions whether Terri Schiavo's estranged husband, Michael, who has abandoned Terri for another woman and has had two kids with the other woman, could be trusted as a legal guardian for a woman for whom he has sought death for many years.

Let us not forget she has been in a hospice for 5 years. My mother was in a hospice. She had terminal brain cancer and was dying. One goes into a hospice when they are in the process of dying. Terri was not dying.

Mention was made earlier by the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Wexler) that everyone agrees that Terri is in a persistent vegetative state. That's not true. Let me remind my colleagues that no less than 14 independent medical professionals, including six neurologists, have said she is not in a persistent vegetative state.

Let me also point out to my colleagues Dr. William Hammesfahr, an M.D., board certified neurologist from Clearwater, Florida has testified, and he has signed an affidavit as recently as March 6 of this year, and he has said Ms. Schiavo is not in a persistent vegetative state. He goes on to point out that she could benefit, and I will include this full statement in the RECORD, from medical interventions that are available right now as we meet, she could be getting therapies, medical and otherwise, that would make her situation all that much better. All of that has been denied to her. She has sat in a hospice to languish denied these basic medical provisions and procedures that could enhance her life.

I would hope that we would vote for this legislation.

 

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For Immediate Release: March 20, 2005
Contact:  David Kush (202) 225-3765