mr. speaker , i thank the gentleman for yielding me this time . 
mr. speaker , this bill is a dangerously reckless way to deal with one of the most serious issues we will ever confront . 
there is no way to make these judgments easy , even when the express desires of the patients are clear and unambiguous . 
where there is disagreement on the medical facts or on the wishes of the patient , these cases can be heartrending and sometimes bitter , beyond the comprehension of those who have been fortunate not to have to make these decisions . 
so what does this bill do ? 
this bill would place a federal judge in the middle of this case after the state courts have adjudicated it , after doctors and family members and counsel and clergy and the courts in florida have struggled with it for years . 
after everything is over , after all the facts have been established to the satisfaction of the courts , all the appeals exhausted , the writ of certiary denied by the supreme court of the united states , now we start all over again . 
my colleagues wish to put one of those unelected federal judges they always denounce right in the middle of this and say the trial starts de novo . 
ignore everything the florida courts have done . 
this expresses contempt for the florida courts , contempt for the florida legislature . 
nothing is to be considered res judicata . 
no facts are to be considered established . 
this is not establishing a federal appeal from the florida courts on the grounds that the florida courts have violated some constitutional rights we are familiar with ; those kinds of procedures . 
no , this does not do that . 
this simply says the florida courts are incompetent . 
the florida legislature is incompetent . 
the florida people are not to be trusted in electing their judges and their legislators . 
instead , we are going to put this case , and only this case , in the federal courts from the very beginning and we instruct the federal courts to ignore the evidence in the florida courts ; to ignore the procedures in the florida courts ; to ignore the testimony in the florida courts and to start all over , because we have contempt , because we do not like the judgments of the florida courts . 
we have never , ever done such a thing in the history of this country , and we should not start now . 
the constitution of the united states says there should be no ex poste facto law because it is fundamentally unfair . 
this is not ex poste facto , it is not a criminal court , but it is the same kind of legislation . 
it is a bill of attainder , in effect . 
there is a reason why the constitution prohibits bills of attainder and ex post fact laws , and although this is not technically an ex poste facto law or a bill of attainder , it violates all those reasons , and we should respect the spirit of the constitution of the united states . 
mr. speaker , it is an uncontradicted fact , uncontradicted except for the speculations of some orators in this chamber , that terri schiavo told her husband , told her sister-in-law , told her brother-in-law , told various of her friends when attending funerals of close family members who had been on life support , that she would `` not want to live like that. '' the florida court found that to be the case , to be the fact . 
the guardian ad litem appointed by the court , in his report to the court , found that . 
this is not the case of a perhaps self-interested , conflict of interested husband testifying to that . 
it is the case of the husband saying that she told him that , the friends , the brothers-in-law , the sisters-in-law . 
they all said the same thing . 
and the court found that , as a matter of fact , that is what terri schiavo said that was her wish . 
the doctors ' testimony . 
the doctors testified , doctors who examined her , not doctors standing up on the floor here who say , well , from the video tape we can infer . 
doctors can be deprived of their license for making diagnoses from afar . 
but doctors who have actually examined this patient have testified her cerebral cortex is liquefied ; that it is destroyed . 
without a cerebral cortex there is no sensations , there is no consciousness , there is no feeling , there is no pain , there is no possibility of recovery . 
that is what a persistent vegetative state is . 
there is no possibility of recovery , despite the wishes , despite the fervent hopes , despite the illusions of desperate relatives . 
we should not feed those illusions . 
and what has happened to family values that we talk about here ? 
this bill would invade the sanctity of the family , would invade the decision of the husband . 
george will , a noted conservative comentator and philosopher , conservative enough so that he famously helped coach ronald reagan for his debates in the presidential debates in 1980 , said on television this morning , and i quote , `` unless we are prepared to overturn centuries of common law and more than two centuries of constitutional law that says that husband and wife are one , therefore clearly this is a decision to be made by the husband. '' now , this is not just a decision made by the husband . 
this is a decision made by terri schiavo , according to the testimony of the husband and the brothers-in-law and the sisters-in-law . 
this is a decision made by the husband and terri schiavo , according to all the testimony . 
so we have no respect for the carefully established procedures our states have set up to wrestle with these difficult cases ; no respect for the elected representatives of the florida state legislature or their judges . 
who are we to say they are wrong ? 
who are we to say terri schiavo and her husband are wrong ? 
who are we to say that terri schiavo 's husband is self-interested ? 
and who are we to say this is any different from the thousands of cases of do-not-resuscitate orders that are given effect in our courts and in our hospitals every day , other than the fact that this case has gotten a lot of publicity and a lot of public official intervention ? 
this is hypocrisy at its greatest , and we ought not to pass this bill . 
