Jeb keeps the Shiavo case alive, though Terri is dead

Governor Jeb Bush has asked a local investigator to start looking into some of the unanswered questions surrounding Terri Shiavo's original collapse some fifteen years ago.

I doubt anything will come of it. But if Florida authorities have any probable cause to pursue an investigation previously neglected, then by all means they should do it.

Such an investigation may have been short circuited earlier by the heavy handed judicial procedures which sent Terri to her undeserved, premature death by starvation and dehydration.

But I sure have to emphasize probable cause. This investigation should only take place if authorities have some evidence in their hands showing there should be an investigation or if they know for a fact that such an investigation was neglected earlier. If Jeb Bush is merely digging for dirt on Michael Shiavo because he's ticked over the autopsy results, then he is making a big mistake, because that would amount to government persecution. And even if Michael Shiavo is the heartless bum I sometimes suspect he is, that would still be a violation of his well-established rights.

Jeb Bush takes a risk here. Because even if there is probable cause to look into the case again, the governor will catch a world of grief if the investigation comes up empty.

I've vebalized my thoughts on the autopsy at my other site previously, here, here and here.