If you're not aware of the situation in Florida regarding a very ill woman with no chance of recovery, you've had your head in the sand too long.  Terri Schiavo, in a persistent vegetative state since 1990, is being tortured by the legislature and governor of Florida for their own political gain.  And I do not use the word torture in a flippant manner.  Despite the law clearly recognizing the husband as the person entrusted with making medical decisions for his wife, the governor and state legislature, at the behest of Terri's sick and twisted family, have passed a law which granted the governor the ability to override the husbands wishes and decisions.  I can't think of a situation that could better be described as reprehensible.

Michael Schiavo, caring for his wife since a chemical imbalance in 1990 caused her heart to stop and forced her into a persistent vegetative state, is now fighting more than a selfish family hell-bent on torturing their own daughter in the hopes that they'll get some satisfaction from watching her be maintained by artificial means.  Once the family had exhausted all of their legal options and found that the law clearly gave the husband the right to make medical decisions for his wife, they turned their attention on the Florida government in the hopes that they could be convinced to act illegally on their behalf.  In response to their failure to stop the husband from allowing his wife to pass on peacefully, the state legislature passed a law circumventing the courts and the existing law by granting the governor the right to override the husband.

It's more than offensive to think that any government body could circumvent the law and courts by creating a new law so specialized as to be practically useless in all other cases.  Hell, they call it Terri's Law for a reason.

Michael says his wife never wanted to be kept alive by artificial means (something we both share in common).  Her parents, in a demonstration of selfishness that makes Hitler look like Santa Clause, decided they knew better and that their wishes should override those of anyone else.

Not so, said the courts.

So the parents continually found themselves on the losing side of the legal battle.

When all appeared lost, the Florida legislature and governor stepped in, passing a new law granting the governor the right to override the husband's decisions (and therefore, by proxy, his wife's decisions).

Medical care in Florida has become fodder for losers who need some way to overcome their political impotence.  They have taken medical decisions away from the individual and those rightfully empowered to make them for others.  They have placed themselves between the patient and doctor and patient and family, clearly stating for the record that we cannot be trusted with such decisions.

There are many reasons why this is wrong, not the least of which is that governments should never get in the way of our medical care — regardless of whether they agree with our decisions or not.

What Junk-Head-Jeb Bush and his cronies in the state capitol have done is to spit in the eye of marriage (I thought Repugnicans wanted to protect marriage, but I guess they meant from us fags and not from themselves).  They have taken the medical decision of a loving husband trying to do what his wife wanted and made it a political tool in the hopes that they can gain votes from this.

Every medical expert on the planet will tell you that there has never been a single case of anyone recovering from a persistent vegetative state after more than three months.  Terri Schiavo has been in one for 13 years.

No matter what their intentions, her family and the Florida government have used her as a pawn for selfish reasons.  They have clearly stated that they don't care what her wishes were or that her husband is trying to enforce her wishes.

I think both her family and the Florida government should be sent to jail for torture, abuse, criminal misconduct, and violating the separation of powers.

But do not be fooled.  Her husband intends to fight this latest twist in a bizarre and horrific example of human malevolence.  And I think he will ultimately prevail.

The governor and legislature have violated the separation of powers in the Constitution.  They have violated the Florida laws which grant a husband the right to be the medical power of attorney for his wife when she becomes unable to make decisions for herself.  They have enacted a law which is so targeted that it clearly violates the Constitutional equal-protection clause.  It also violates the individual's right to refuse medical care.

I hope that, once this is done, Terri can be allowed to die peacefully and painlessly while her torturers (her family and the Florida government) suffer the consequences of their hateful, selfish acts.  Their actions are inhumane and should be treated as such.