Pro

“Cases like Schiavo’s touch on basic constitutional rights, such as the right to live and the right to due process, and consequently there could very well be a legitimate role for the federal government to play. There’s a precedent–as a result of the highly publicized deaths of infants with disabilities in the 1980s, the federal government enacted ‘Baby Doe Legislation,’ which would withhold federal funds from hospitals that withhold lifesaving treatment from newborns based on the expectation of disability. The medical community has to have restrictions on what it may do to people with disabilities–we’ve already seen what some members of that community are willing to do when no restrictions are in place.”

Nov. 22, 2003