Time for another update from Harold, as he reviews his reality show predictions and discusses one of the top stories in the news.

Another Wednesday, another round of Reality Show Predictions for you to entertain yourself with.

This week, I wanted to comment on the Terri Schiavo case. As an attorney who does estate planning, obviously this case allows me to emphasize the importance of executing an Advance Health Care Directive (and with the way this case has gone thus far, you should at least fill out a form version if you don’t want to see an attorney about drafting one). However, the bigger issue here–that of life–troubles me deeply.

For those of you who haven’t heard of Terri Schiavo, she is a woman in Florida who had been left in a persistent vegetative state after mysteriously collapsing in her home and falling into a coma. Her husband insists that she would have wanted to have life support removed in this situation while her parents adamantly disagree.

Political motivation or not, I don’t see how anyone can fault the Republicans for taking a stand on this case. Under the U.S. Constitution, “no person shall be…deprived of life…without due process of law.” I’m far from being any sort of expert on Constitutional law, and I certainly do not know all the facts behind the case. However, by my understanding, they have not fully heard the issues in a trial. The fact that, without intervention by Congress, a woman was about to be deprived of her life without having a full trial should send chills down the spines of every American. The 11th Circuit’s denial of a temporary restraining order to replace the feeding tube seems tantamount to a summary judgment death penalty. Even murder suspects get a full trial before getting the death penalty. And when they finally do conduct the execution, they conduct it such that the convicted murdered can die as quickly and painlessly as possible. Meanwhile, Ms. Schiavo, whose only mistake here seems to be not executing a so-called “living will”, gets to die a slow death of dehydration and starvation without getting a full trial wherein someone can defend this woman’s right to live and fully explore all the facts surrounding her situation. It would not surprise me if the US Supreme Court stepped in to invoke a ruling based on due process. And shame on the Democrats. By staying home instead of voting alongside the Republicans, they have managed to politicize the issue. If the Republicans erred, then Ms. Schiavo simply dies at a later date, but after having her day in court. If the Florida courts hasten her death before that, they can’t exactly fix things if it turns out that they made a mistake.

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