mr. speaker , i shall not try to influence the opinion of anyone on this issue .  i will simply share with you my opinion , the opinion of a physician of almost 41 years duration .  i am a head and neck surgeon .  i have done cancer surgery almost all of those years .  i have done much maxillofacial trauma all of those years and dealt with situations like this on numerous occasions .  terri schiavo has spontaneous respiratory activities and respontaneous cardiac activity .  she is not on life support , as we routinely define it .  she is not intubated and she is not on a respirator .  and i give the gentleman from the state of washington credit for his knowledge of the physiology of the brain stem .  he is right , it is very robust , and that certainly is one of the things that is driving her now .  but she does have some cognition and some cortical activity .  removing her gastrostomy tube will ultimately cause her demise , a commissive act that will cause the death of a human being .  how many others in this country are now in long-term care facilities with feeding tubes , but able to breathe on their own , their hearts beating strongly ?  should their feeding tubes be removed as well ?  i think not .  i believe it is wrong to remove a feeding tube from an individual whose cardiopulmonary function is stable and who has some remaining cognitive abilities .  it is unfortunate in many ways that this venue is where this issue will be decided , but removal of this feeding tube under these very public circumstances is a slippery slope down which we and the united states should not tread .  this bill deserves our support .  