March 23, 2005
Terri Schiavo Disaster
There are millions, perhaps billions of words being written and spoken about the tragic events unfolding in Florida right now. A middle-aged woman, Terri Schiavo, is being starved to death, perhaps against her wishes.
I have been thinking about this for several days and as much as I dislike additional laws, it may be time for one.
Kathleen Parker, a syndicated columnist based in Florida, got close to my thinking in a syndicated column that appeared in my local newspaper the Cincinnati Enquirer this morning. Since I am also a syndicated columnist, perhaps she did hit the mark and the content was cut by the newspaper for space reasons.
Here is what has been bothering me for the past week. Poor Terri Schiavo can't talk! If she could, who do you think would be the person she called after she reamed a new orifice in her husband's backside? I would venture to say the best divorce attorney in Florida.
If you are to believe certain reports, she hasn't talked for years because her therapy was cut off by her husband. If these same reports are accurate, Terri's husband Michael has clearly abandoned her. To add insult to injury, he went so far as to shack up with another woman and father two children with this trollop. I say trollop because if she were a decent woman, she would insist Michael divorce Terri before he slipped under the sheets with her.
If Terri could have divorced her husband years ago, we would possibly not be having this discussion. Maybe she would have executed a vaild, written living will that outlined her wishes to end her suffering. But then again maybe she would have legally transferred her care back to her loving parents. If things keep going the direction they are headed now, we will never know as Terri will die before she gets needed nutrition and therapy. If she dies soon, she silently takes her thoughts, wishes, love and anger to the grave.
So I believe it is time for a new law that defines abandonment or actions of a spouse that clearly allow a person to automatically be granted a divorce. Infidelity sure seems to be the reason for many divorces now, so why couldn't the court grant Terri a divorce based upon the situation? We all know that if she could file a simple divorce action, she would be granted one in all likelihood based upon the facts as we see them.
I am not saying I have this idea perfected, but it may be time for a discussion among experts who do know the law. I'll bet if we think about it long enough we could identify 25 or more direct analogies.
For example, if a radar or laser gun is pointed at my car and it says I am going 55 mph in a 25 mph zone, I get a ticket, pay a fine and it is a done deal. So if a man abandons his wife, sleeps with another woman openly, fathers extra children, etc. he also gets punished. This doesn't seem to be rocket science to me.
Posted by Tim Carter at March 23, 2005 7:16 AM
