For the last few days you hear about the case of Terri Schiavo. The woman who was brain-damaged and living in this "vegetative" state had apaird to be in central figure in the U.S. Congress. Senators passed the Terri Schiavo bill by a voice voice amid growing political pressure to save the woman's life.
"The president believes that this is a case where serious questions and significant doubts have been raised," White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters aboard Air Force One carrying George W. Bush back to Washington, where he will sign the bill when it is ready.
"That's why he believes we ought to have a presumption in favor of life," the spokesman added.
Forty-one-year-old Terri Schiavo has been in a persistent vegetative state for the past 15 years following a cardiac arrest that damaged her brain.
Her feeding tube was removed Friday, after a protracted legal battle that pits the woman's husband, Michael Schiavo, against her parents, Bob and Mary Schindler.
Michael Schiavo insists Terri should be allowed to die because that was her wish communicated to him when she was well. The Schindlers argue their daughter should be kept alive and have questioned Michael's fitness to serve as his wife's guardian.
A Florida state judge, believing Michael Schiavo's testimony about his wife's wishes, had ordered her caregivers to stop feeding her.
Under the bill passed by the Senate, a federal district judge will receive jurisdiction over the case, thus setting the stage for a new protracted round of litigation.
The House of Representatives, meeting in a special session Sunday, was expected to convene at 9:00 pm (0200 GMT Monday) to hold a three-hour debate before voting on the measure, which will then be sent to Bush for his signature.
"The bill has overwhelming bipartisan support in the House," House Republican Majority Leader Tom DeLay told reporters, adding that he had no doubt it will pass easily.
But House Republicans failed to move the measure as fast as they had hoped because Democrats objected to rushing it through without debate. That forced the House leadership to spend time ensuring a quorum by bringing members, who had already left for their districts for Easter holidays, back to Washington.
Bush returned from a weekend in Texas to sign the bill.
Congress approved emergency legislation early Monday to let Terri Schiavo's parents ask a federal judge to prolong their daughter's life, capping days of emotional debate over who should decide life and death.
President Bush waited at the White House to sign the measure permitting a federal review of the case, which could trigger the reinsertion of feeding tubes needed to keep the brain-damaged Florida woman alive.
The House passed the bill on a 203-58 vote after calling lawmakers back for an emergency Sunday session for debate that stretched past midnight.
The Senate approved the bill Sunday by voice vote.
Republican supporters said the "Palm Sunday Compromise" seeks to protect the constitutional rights of a disabled person and rejected suggestions that political motives lay behind the last-minute maneuver.
"When a person's intentions regarding whether to receive lifesaving treatment are unclear, the responsibility of a compassionate nation is to affirm that person's right to life," said House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis. "In our deeds and public actions, we must build a culture of life that welcomes and defends all human life."
Many Democrats who opposed the bill said the congressional vote placed lawmakers in the middle of issues best left to state courts and family members.
"Today, congressional leaders are trying to appoint Congress as a judge and jury," said Rep. Jim Davis, D-Fla. "If we do not draw the line in the sand today, there is no limit to what democratic principles this Congress will ignore or what liberties they may trample on next."
House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill. and others rejected the description of the brain-damaged woman as persisting in a "vegetative" state.
"She laughs, she cries and she smiles with those around her. She is aware of her surroundings and is responsive to them," he said. "This is a woman who deserves a chance at life and not a death sentence of starvation and dehydration."
Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., rejected the notion that elected lawmakers could accurately diagnose her condition.
"The caption tonight ought to be: We're not doctors, we just play them on C-SPAN," he said.
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