Of course Congress only intervened in the first place to placate the uber-conservative portion of their constituency and most of them really didn't have their heart in it. Nevertheless...New York Times wrote: Debate Over Legislative Actions Is Renewed
By ANNE E. KORNBLUT
Published: June 16, 2005
WASHINGTON, June 15 - The autopsy of Terri Schiavo - particularly the findings that she had irreversible brain damage and was blind - left Republicans who had pushed so aggressively for federal intervention struggling on Wednesday to defend their argument that she should have been kept alive.
Senator Mel Martinez, the Florida Republican who pressed the case most, said he has since had second thoughts about Congress's involvement.
"I really probably come to the view this has to be more resolved at the state level, seems like the kind of issue the state courts deal with," Mr. Martinez said.
Representative Mike Pence, Republican of Indiana, said that in his five years in office, he saw Congress do its "worst job communicating" during the Schiavo episode.
The case has reverberated politically for months, contributing to a sharp drop in approval ratings for the Republican-controlled Congress, whose leaders convened an extraordinary emergency session in March to pass legislation protecting Ms. Schiavo, a dying Florida woman.
With the autopsy concluding that no treatment could have improved her condition and that she was unaware of her surroundings when her feeding tube was removed, lawmakers backed away from their earlier comments and said they had simply wanted to give her family proper access to the courts.
The case has also given Democrats ammunition to use against the Senate majority leader, Bill Frist, a transplant surgeon who, on the Senate floor, voiced his opinion about Ms. Schiavo's condition based on videotapes in which she appears reactive to some stimuli.
Aides to Dr. Frist, a likely presidential candidate in 2008, angrily said he had never made a formal diagnosis and thus had nothing to retract.
Democrats cited the autopsy results as proof that Ms. Schiavo's husband - and critics of federal intervention - had been vindicated.
"I think it will be seen at some point as a turning point in America about what's going on with the Republican Party - namely that you have this fanatical party willing to impose its own views on people, and frankly, powerful enough to do it," said Representative Barney Frank, Democrat of Massachusetts, who was among the most vocal critics of the Schiavo bill. "This is particularly a problem for Dr. Frist. This is a direct refutation of his TV diagnosis."
Dr. Frist did not respond to questions about the autopsy findings, saying he had not had time to review them. His spokeswoman, Amy Call, sought out reporters who asked about the case to assert that Dr. Frist "never made a diagnosis."
Throughout the floor debates on Ms. Schiavo's fate, Republicans asserted that she was responsive to external stimuli and that the removal of her feeding and hydration tubes would lead to the murder of a conscious woman. Emotional speeches on the floors of both chambers took her mental state into account, portraying her as alert and lively.
Dr. Frist, in his floor statement on March 17, said that after viewing videotape of Ms. Schiavo, it was clear she was responsive. "To be able to make a diagnosis of persistent vegetative state - which is not brain dead; it is not coma; it is a specific diagnosis and typically takes multiple examinations over a period of time because you are looking for responsiveness - I have looked at the video footage," Dr. Frist said. "Based on the footage provided to me, which was part of the facts of the case, she does respond."
Bob Stevenson, a spokesman for Dr. Frist, said: "The autopsy results remind us of the terrible toll that this tragedy has taken on all those close to Terri Schiavo. Having seen the news reports today, it's clear that the autopsy provides additional medical information on her condition at the time her feeding tube was removed."
After a seven-year legal struggle, Ms. Schiavo's feeding tube was removed for the last time on March 18. Three days later, in a bid to bring her case into federal court, Congress held its emergency session and passed the Terri Schiavo bill, which allowed her case to be considered by a federal judge. President Bush flew back from his ranch Texas on Palm Sunday to sign it into law.
Representative Tom DeLay, the House majority leader who broke a long silence during ethical troubles to speak out for Ms. Schiavo, called it the "Palm Sunday compromise."
"Ms. Schiavo's condition, I believe, has been misrepresented by the media," Mr. DeLay said on March 20. "Terri Schiavo is not brain dead; she talks and she laughs, and she expresses happiness and discomfort. Terri Schiavo is not on life support."
On Wednesday, a spokesman for Mr. DeLay declined to answer any questions about the autopsy, except to say that his "thoughts and prayers remain with the family and friends of Terri Schiavo."
A similarly muted message came from the White House. "It doesn't change the position that the president took," said its spokesman, Scott McClellan. "The president believes we should stand on the side of defending and protecting life."
And in this thread: phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=6152&highlight=schiavo we can see who deserves to be pointed at and laughed at. Actually there were only two or three dunces in that thread and most of the DBB'ers maintained level-headedness.
I had to point this out, since about 99% of the topics we discuss on this board never have any type of resolution. And yes, you can slam me for quoting the NYTimes, but these results and this issue are so black and white now that any spin attempted by a conservative source would just be embarassing.
It would be nice to expect a future time when someone doesn't have to be killed to prove they're not alive. 
