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April 21, 2005
House Committee Holds Hearing on Terri Schiavo, Protecting Disabled
Topics: Life IssuesWashington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- A House committee held a hearing on the debate surrounding the death of Terri Schiavo, the disabled woman who was starved during a painful thirteen day long process.
The hearing was supposed to include Terri and her estranged husband Michael, but judges ignored Congressional subpoenas asking them to appear and allowed her death.
Dave Weldon, a Florida Republican congressman who is also a doctor by profession, testified in front of members of the House Committee on Government Reform.
He told them that feeding tubes should not be removed from incapacitated people whose medical costs are paid in part by the federal government unless the patient has previously given explicit instructions to withdraw food and water.
Weldon told members of the committee he is writing legislation to require Medicare and Medicaid to have a national standard that requires providing all patients with food and water when necessary unless patient's say otherwise beforehand.
"You're going to see more and more people who are less and less disabled being denied care if we do not at least establish some kind of floor or basement or fundamental standard," Weldon said.
Weldon said the federal government system should have a "biased toward life," according to a Ft. Wayne Journal newspaper report.
Indiana Rep. Mark Souder, also a Republican, chaired the meeting.
He agreed with Weldon and said the federal government "should protect patients rather than pave the way to hasten their death."
Related - Terri Schiavo Case Reveals How We Treated Disabled Americans
Cross posted at BlogsForTerri
Posted by Hyscience at April 21, 2005 5:15 PM
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