Thompson on Schiavo: Take 2

Last time Fred Thompson weighed in on Terri Schiavo in Florida, he suggested he didn't know much about the case. His account changed a bit today: ""As far as Schiavo is concerned obviously I knew about the Schiavo case. I had to face a situation like that in my own personal life with my own daughter. I know it is bandied about as a political issue and people want to … talk about in the public marketplace. 

“I am a little bit uncomfortable because this is an intensely personal thing for me. These things need to be decided by the family. I was at that bedside and I had to make those decisions with the rest of my family, and I will assure you one thing -- no matter which decision you make you’ll never know whether you made exactly the right decision.

---John Frank

“So making this into a political football is something I don't welcome. And this will probably be the last time I ever address it.

"It is something that should be decided by the family. The federal government, and the state government too, except for the court system, ought to stay out of those matters as far as I'm concerned."

The response was unusual. Thompson rarely talks about his daughter on the campaign trail. She died in 2002 at age 38 from an accidental prescription drug overdose.

Comments

Now this is a Republican whom I can respect. He's been there. Jeb had not. Still shame on Jeb.

No Governor or Legislator should ever stick their nose in on these very tough family personal decisions. What the extremeist did, with the aid of most of the Republicans politicians was disgusting. This discussion just serves to remind me of how cheap the political pandering got on that very sad issue. Stay the heck out of peoples lives and tell those religious zealots to do the same.

Too bad! Honesty is not the best policy. This one comment will end this campaign for the primary.

Jeb Bush should make all decisions and overrule any court when he wants to

7:15 Jeb did that. He forgot this was not his kingdom, it is a Republic and it has a system, and it belonged to the people. You know, those little pee ons, those annoying people who wanted answers from their governemnt.

Gov. Bush did the right thing in the Schiavo case.

Anyone aware of the facts or who read the original trial transcripts and the (outrageously) flawed ruling by the Third District Court of Appeals knew that.

This was a domestic violence case gone awry.

In a civilized society you do not starve people to death who are not immanently terminal or dying. It is painful and inhumane.

To this day Gov. Bush is one of the only leaders in the country who has the conviction and guts not to back down from his position that this was wrong to kill by starvation, a defenseless disabled person. One with no advance written directive.

Terri's parents and siblings were the family and had the right to take care of her when Michael found it too inconvenient.

The only thing Michael found convenient were the news photo opts and the money $$$ he inherited on her behalf to provide her rehabilitation but never gave her.

The people were in fact in favor of preserving Terri's innocent and precious life.

9:56, our nation's governors are going to be terribly busy deciding each of these cases. And Congress' work load is about to increase as well. I wish you good health, but I don't think you want your governor making this decision for you. I think many were interested in preserving Terri's life, but the fact is it is not government's decision. It's not Fred Thompson's. It's not Jeb Bush's. If it happened to them, they would be outraged and rightly so. But the Schiavo's weren't people, they were political pawns to be used in a shameful, shameful, shameful attempt to score points with the far right. Jeb Bush singlehandedly launched a criminal investigtaion against a husband. If you want government to have that place in your life, give them your power of attorney and leave us alone.

[tim]

Who really cares? The Federal government has no business messing with a state/local matters.

[VPS]

And the state/local governments have no business messing with personal matters.

It is a state matter when a citizen of the state is being unjustly put to death.

Many lawyers intervene on behalf of convicted killers and rapists on death row who are treated more humanely that Terri was.

You are wrong.

The FL statutes prohibit physical abuse of a disabled person.

[Tim]

Do we have to be reminded Terri Schivo was brain dead ?????!!!!!!!!!
Keeping someone alive artificially is inhumane.. We have more compassion for our pets !!!

[Barbara]

I didn't approve of him before this comment and now I am glad to know this, he won't get my vote. Shame on Jeb for being too cowardly to save Terri.

[ForLaw]

Terry Schaivo was not braindead and she was not a vegetable. She was a human being--someone's daughter, sister, wife. Unfortunately, the court system went awry when it permitted her estranged husband to have the sole right to decide whether she lived or died, even though her heart, lungs and other organs were working perfectly fine. She could not swallow, so she needed a feeding tube. It was debatable whether she could at some minimally conscious level perceive what was happening around her. How is that different from a child who is born with the most severe case of Down's Syndrome? Should we allow such a child to be starved and dehydrated to death?

It is far preferable for the family to make these difficult decisions, but when the courts put the decisions in the hands of a self-interested husband who has started a new life and family and finds having his wife in this state inconvenient, we should err on the side of life and permit her parents to care for her. This is especially true when there was nothing in writing telling us what Terri would have wanted. All we had was her husband's and sister-in-law's word based on an old TV movie!

Our law needs to be changed to prevent this type of abuse.

Bravo 7:38 you are correct

7:38 and 8:27...spoken like a true tyrant. I pray that you never have to deal with a situation like that but you demonstrate quite well that you have no clue about the emotional pain and distress involved in a situation like that. People like you are the reason the Republican party has strayed so far from its principle of limited government.

Regligous Zealots crawl back under your rock. And stay the hell out of peoples personal end of life matters. As usual you are wrong again. Check out the autopsy report.

writ.news.findlaw.com/cassel/20050623.html

TS was a human being whose brain was half gone and she could not live without artificial support.

PERIOD!!

the real tragedy in this is her parents, supposedly "faithful" christians were so afraid of death and especially her death, they decided they knew more about life and death than GOD!

and fattie and tons of similiarly fearful fools followed like the mindless lemmings they are!!!!

9:46 you confuse love and respect of a person's humanity with tyranny?

pathetic

10:03 until you read the trial transcripts you cannot speak with the facts.

But if not having your brain work up to par constitutes starving people to death; by all means let's clear out the nursing homes and shoot them all.

Great line of "reasoning"

The gretest Pope in this century, Pope John Paul II requested a feeding tube for his body when he was immanently dying to show the world people were wrong about starving Terri.

I don't confuse anything. When the government is involved in private matters it is tyranny and you and every one else that agrees with you endorse it. If you want to live your life as a nonfunctioning vegetable being fed through a tube...go ahead. As for me, pull the plug and let me go on to Heaven.

Her brain was not just "not up to par", it was shrunken and discolored beyond any repair. She was totally blind because of the deterioration of her brain (she could not follow the ballons in her room or people.) I can not believe that any one would want to put their family through this, knowing that there was no hope for her. And, to accuse her husband of abuse is outrageous. My mother has Alzheimer’s disease and when the time comes, we will let her go. All of her 5 children met and agreed not to allow a feeding tube. Would that also be challenged by these nut case bible thumpers. They all need to mind their own business and stay out of others.

My condolences to Fred Thompson and his family on his daughters plight. Her drug problems, I'm sure, had caused the family a lot of pain and suffering through those years, and ending with an unfortunate overdose. Again, my condolences to any family suffering with such a problem and in the end, having to make that personal decision. However, he still doesn't get my sympathy support.

Oh God - do we REALLY have to rehash this 3 years later?

The woman was brain-dead. No speech, no sight...involuntary synpses firing kept body parts in motion. That's it.

Now, get over it.

10:15

funny, the parents didn't seem to care too much until Michael Schiavo was awarded the malpractice money, and they realized they weren't going to get a dime.

10:15 right, you obviously do not know the Schindlers