Whatever your position on letting people in a permanent vegetative state die, you probably are appalled at the Republican grandstanding in the case of Terri Schiavo. You may, however, encounter people who believe that their moral values require them to support the Republican-backed legal challenge to the removal of Mrs. Schiavo's feeding tube. That's OK. There is no absolute right and wrong here.

However, there are two statistics that reveal the depth of Republican hypocrisy in waging their aggressive partisan battle, quite aside from the substance of the live or die issue. 

• Lack of health insurance causes about 18,000 unnecessary deaths every year in the United States.

• 90,000 Americans die every year from infections they acquire in the hospital.

The Republicans in all the years they have controlled the presidency and the Congress have done absolutely nothing to remedy either of these situations. The same self-righteous ... who have struck moralistic poses and made a federal case out of the life of one human being have done nothing—zilch, zero—to put an end to the UNNECESSARY deaths of 108,000 Americans every year. Both situations could be remedied with sufficient funds and regulatory controls. 

Shove these statistics in the face of any human being you meet wants to claim a moral high ground by striking a hollow, phony pose in support of Terri Schiavo's "right to live." Use them in letters to the editor and to your Senators and Representatives. 

You might even throw in the fact that Bush's current budget proposal contains massive cuts in Medicaid—the only funds many poor people will have if they find themselves or a member of their family in a similar situation. The funding slash that Georgia's two Senators voted in favor of—even as enough members of their own party in the Senate bolted Republican ranks and joined with Democrats to restore.

All this, people—loud posturing to keep Schiavo alive and votes to cut Medicaid funding—in the scope of one week.

The hypocrisy and dishonesty staggers the human mind. We need to pound home this message much louder than we are doing. 

Contact Tom Barksdale