mr. speaker , i thank the gentleman for yielding me time , and i commend him for the work he has put in over the last 4 days to try to bring this bill to the floor . 
this is not the original version of the bill that i introduced about 2 weeks ago , but i think it will have the intended result . 
for many people listening and watching , you may get the impression this is a dispute between the democrats and the republicans ; but there were 30 , approximately 30 democrats on the bill and i know that many democrats do support this . 
i practiced medicine for 15 years , internal medicine , before i came to the house of representatives . 
i took care of a lot of these kinds of cases . 
and there were basically three features of this case that compelled me to feel that a federal review of the case was warranted . 
and by the way , i think it has been pointed out by some of the people that preceded me , scott peterson 's case is going to get a federal review , john couey , the man who confessed to killing that young girl in florida not far from where terri schiavo lives , he will get a federal review ; but there were several features of it . 
number one , by my medical definition she was not in a vegetative state based on my review of the videos , my talking to the family , and my discussing the case with one of the neurologists who examined her . 
and , yes , i asked to get into the room and was unable to do so . 
the other thing was this very lengthy pause , and that has also been pointed out by some of the people who have spoken , of 7 years between her original injury and when it was stated that she had prior voiced sentiments of not wanting heroic life-sustaining measures . 
my clinical experience has always been that immediately family brings that up . 
they do not wait 7 years . 
there were other features of this case that i thought were highly unusual that warranted a federal review . 
i think this is a good bill . 
i encourage all of my colleagues to vote in support of it . 
