Schiavo and Lunsford

Terri Schiavo's feeding tube was removed yesterday clearing the way for her alleged wish to die rather then be kept alive in a dependent state. Should the federal government and the Republicans really be seeking to use the power of the federal government to override State laws on such issues? Jessica Lunsford's body has been found after a pedophile living across the street admitted killing her. Is it time to bring back the mental hospitals where individuals are, due to mental incapacity, kept indefinitely from harming society again?

The Republican Party has traditionally stood up for state's rights issues holding out limited federal government as a cornerstone of their platform. The Terri Schiavo case however appears to signal a direction shift in the GOP. Republican Congresspersons sought to stay all actions by Florida courts and laws to permit removal of Mrs. Schiavo's feeding and hydration regimen. Terri Schiavo chose her husband with her full mental capacities in place. Does not choosing one's mate and partner in life, also confer upon that individual all legal decision making power in the event of incapacitation of their spouse? Terri's parents, say no. But, Terri did not choose her parents to make decisions with and for her. She did choose her husband to make decisions with and for her.

The United State's prisons have large populations of people who would have resided in psychiatric facilities by court order prior to the 1970's. With the advent of 'miracle drugs' which promised to alleviate inappropriate behavior resulting from schizophrenia, manic depressive illness, and a host of other mental maladies, America essentially emptied its populations of psychiatric patients onto our streets with instructions to take their meds. Today, large numbers of these people now run free in America without the discipline, means, or capacity to take their meds or, they sit in prisons with little, if any, psychiatric treatment, and a great many of them, will be set free to harm society again when their sentence is up. Is it time for the U.S. to reinvest in affordable psychiatric hospitals where serial compulsive killers (character behavior disorders) and the likes of pedophiles can either be successfully treated or retained under lock and key indefinitely?