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The world has cinched its metaphorical feeding tube while waiting for some of Hollywood's biggest sitcom stars to weigh in on the Terri Schiavo debate. Finally, Everybody Loves Raymond star Patricia Heaton has broken her silence on the issue, as she's issued a statement on the Feminists For Life website:

Two-time Emmy winner and New York Times best-selling author Patricia Heaton pled for the life of Terri Schiavo today as Terri's life-sustaining feeding tube was removed. Heaton serves as Honorary Chair of Feminists for Life of America.

"We must not let Terri Schiavo be starved to death," said Heaton. "This deliberate and painful destruction of a woman's life cannot be justified or tolerated. Terri deserves better."

Granted, Heaton does bring the added perspective of having participated in an eerily prescient, recent episode of Raymond in which her chipper sitcom wife character fell into a vegetative state, only to have hubby Ray Romano take the insurance money earmarked for her care to start a new family on Still Standing.

Bonus: This message board on an unofficial Heaton fan site addresses her addressing of the Schiavo situation in highly amusing fashion.