In many ways, the case of Terri Schiavo is quintessentially American, according to Stephen Newman, a political science professor in York’s Faculty of Arts, reported The Globe and Mail March 22. He said the opposition to Michael Schiavo’s efforts to stop feeding his wife, who’s been in a coma for 15 years, are being fuelled by the US religious right, which forms a key support base for Republican politicians who are facing re-election. “It’s such a core issue to them and because they are so important to the Republican Party, I think that’s why you see Congress getting involved,” Newman said in a telephone interview. “I think they’re scoring cheap political points in anticipation of the next election.”
- Joan Gilmour, professor at York’s Osgoode Hall Law School, also discussed the Terri Schiavo case and how Ontarians could avoid this type of family dispute, in an interview aired March 21 on the “John Moore Show” and “Six O`Clock News Hour” on CFRB-AM in Toronto. Gilmour also talked about the value of a living will on CBC Newsworld’s “Newsworld Today” the same day.