mr. speaker , i thank the gentleman for yielding me this time . 
i thank the speaker , as has already been acknowledged . 
it is his leadership that has brought this issue to the floor tonight , and again i commend him for that leadership . 
mr. speaker , there has been much said tonight , much eloquence on both sides , about this issue . 
i fear sometimes that in our effort to try to come to some sort of conclusion that we actually overthink an issue once in a while . 
we think just enough to get in the way of our common sense . 
i hope that is not the case here tonight . 
i believe fairly deeply that life does have a purpose . 
i lost my father 6 months and 6 days ago tonight . 
and in his very final days , he too needed to be fed by a tube . 
he needed help with his basic bodily functions , could not get out of his bed , could not take care of himself . 
but in the 56 years of life i have been granted , mr. speaker , i shared the most intimate , the most profound moment i ever had with my father about 36 hours before he passed away , after he could no longer speak , after he could no longer feed himself or care for himself in almost any manner at all . 
he communicated with his eyes , and he communicated with a hand on my forehead in the most profound way imaginable . 
i would have regretted deeply had i been denied that moment , and i am absolutely convinced , mr. speaker , that my father would have regretted having been denied that moment as well . 
outside this chamber there is a statue of thomas jefferson . 
thomas jefferson was the one , of course , who told us about those inalienable rights , those rights that can not be taken away from us by anyone , those rights that come from our creator . 
those rights , of course , include life , liberty , and the pursuit of happiness . 
i think if we are going to make mistakes , and god knows certainly that we make mistakes , we are human , but if we are going to make mistakes let us err on the side of life , not denying life but granting life and giving every opportunity to that . 
