Terry Schiavo and Good Friday

As I write this late in the afternoon on Good Friday, the Christian Holy Day commemorating the crucifixion of Jesus, Terry Schiavo is slowly dying. The irony is stunning. I’ll leave it to better theological scholars to draw the parallels.
Did such a personal tragedy have to turn into a political football for the President and Congress? I think not. The only branch of government that can look itself in the face at the end of this debacle is our judiciary. Whether you agreed with their rulings or not, they applied the law to the best of their ability, without bowing to pressure from various interest groups with an eye toward the next election.
As disability attorneys, we must try to protect our clients from this unfortunate situation. Encourage your clients, friends and family to execute a Living Will and Health Care Proxy. If Terry Schiavo had such a document, this would have remained the private family matter it should have been all along.