Disability groups seek legal protection for 'incapacitated' people [View All]

[drdon326]

As legal appeals are exhausted in the case of Terri Schiavo, the long-term issue, say disability groups, is whether guardians should "have carte blanche to starve and dehydrate" people with conditions like hers.

Sen. Tom Harkin 's (D. IA) effort in Congress last week to produce a wider bill was typical of the role he's played for disabled people during his years in Congress.


The Democratic Senator from Iowa, perhaps more than any other member of Congress, has worked diligently for disability rights over the decades, and seems to have no problem understanding that the matter of Terri Schiavo is nothing so much as a disability rights issue.

"The more I looked at the Schiavo case, the more I thought, 'Wait a minute. There are a lot of people in similar situations -- maybe not in her specific situation -- but because of a disability cannot express themselves or cannot in any way make their desires known,'" he told reporters yesterday. "So it seems to me like this would be an appropriate area for us to take a look at."

His understanding is unusual among politicians, and is entirely lost in the save-Terri-Schiavo political free-for-all that this issue has become in recent days, with the likes of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) hopping in front of the cameras at every opportunity to intone about "sanctity of life."

http://www.raggededgemagazine.com/focus/incapacitated032005.html