regulation vs. de-regulation

Results of an autopsy performed on Terri Schiavo support her husband's insistence that she had severe brain damage and had no chance of recovery. The procedure also showed that she was blind

The damage was irreversible, and no amount of therapy or treatment would have regenerated the massive loss of neurons," Pinellas-Pasco County Medical Examiner Jon Thogmartin said Wednesday in Largo, Fla.


The findings contradict contentions by Schiavo's parents and members of Congress, including Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., that she had not been in a vegetative state and could have improved
The Democrats said the medical findings confirmed that Congress and Bush should never have tried to get the federal judiciary to overrule state court rulings.

"It's rare that you get such a total repudiation of one side," said Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass. He said it underlined that "all these politicians pretending to practice medicine, including one doctor pretending to practice medicine" — a reference to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist — were driven by "ideology and partisanship."

Frist, a surgeon, had questioned a court ruling that Schiavo was in a persistent vegetative state. He said he based his assessment on watching "an hour or so" of video in which the woman appeared to respond to stimulus. Frist did not respond to reporters.

The autopsy results "only confirm the discontent of a lot of people with Congress and the president getting involved," said Andrew Kohut of the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press.
The autopsy "reaffirms that these kinds of heart-wrenching, end-of-life decisions should not be made in an emotionally charged political body like" Congress, said Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, D-Fla. DeLay who pushed Congress's intervention was mum. That's how they think. Federal regulation in your bedroom and hospital bed, but de-regulation for prices, environment and big business.