U.S. Rep. Chris Smith, who is participating in a United Nations Human Rights conference in Geneva, made the following comments upon hearing the news of Terri Schiavo’s death today as a result of deliberate dehydration and starvation: 

    “I offer my deepest condolence to the Schindler family, Terri Schiavo’s parents and her siblings, Suzanne and Bobby. Having spent much time with Bobby when he was in Washington seeking support for his sister in Congress, I cannot imagine the depth of their anguish and sorrow at the loss and killing of their beloved Terri.

    “The deliberate dehydration, starvation and killing of Terri Schiavo, a healthy but disabled woman, exposes an extremely cruel, merciless and dysfunctional element within the American judicial system. A just and civil society does not use water as a weapon and does not seek to justify the killing of an innocent disabled woman who had no voice and no one to objectively represent her. 

    “Despite the pleas of her parents, siblings and friends, as well as new information provided by medical experts, state and federal courts only considered the information provided by people who had obvious conflicts of interest –her estranged husband and his attorney who once sat on the board of the hospice where Terri was warehoused to die.

    “The fundamental human rights of disabled people have suffered a tremendous blow as Terri Schiavo was sentenced to die and then denied her own representation and a new and full review by federal courts. Evidence of possible misdiagnosis of her condition, as well as evidence from a friend that Terri did not agree with Karen Ann Quinlan’s parents’ decision to pull her off life support, was never considered by the courts. This prompted Congress to require the federal district court to determine de novo any claim of a violation of any of Terri’s rights notwithstanding any prior State court determination (Public Law 109-3). 

    “Congress has always had the responsibility to protect the weak and vulnerable among us. We must now move swiftly, institute a full inquiry into this case, and identify legislative reforms that will better protect the rights of those who are not near death, are not suffering a terminal illness, and whose so-called wishes “to die” have been credibly contested by family and friends.”