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It is not usually Jay Wolfson's job to play Solomon. He is a professor of public health and medicine at USF as well as a lawyer who teaches at Stetson University College of Law.
But a judge called on him to take a look at the miserable, bitter saga of Terri Schiavo.
That's where the Solomon part comes in. Wolfson delivered a report Tuesday, the day before Schiavo's 40th birthday, that awarded some victories to both sides.
Wolfson sided with Michael Schiavo when he said that Schiavo had knocked himself out caring for his wife.
Wolfson said there was no evidence that Schiavo had either beaten her and caused her condition or that he had misused the money they won in a court case - claims Terri Schiavo's parents, the Schindlers, or their supporters had long made.
When it came to the Schindlers, Wolfson gave them a chance at what courts have denied them for years: new tests to determine whether their daughter can swallow on her own.
Wolfson said this even though he believes Terri Schiavo has no cognitive ability and that she will not get better. He said this even though he believes the medical evidence supports the conclusion that she cannot eat.
"This is not enough," Wolfson wrote. "The evidence is compromised by the circumstances and the enmity between the parties."
So he concluded that swallowing tests should be given, and if they show she can eat, Terri Schiavo should be given the chance to live.
There is, however, a hook in Wolfson's report.
He said there's no point to conducting the swallowing tests if the two sides can't agree ahead of time what to do with the results.
Would Michael Schiavo give up his fight to pull his wife's feeding tube if she could swallow? Would her parents surrender if the tests showed she can't?
It isn't hard to guess why Wolfson wants this agreement ahead of time. Whoever didn't get the results they liked would go running back to court to object, just as they have over and over again.
After reading Wolfson's report and talking to him, I called the lawyers for Michael Schiavo and the Schindlers.
Talking to Michael Schiavo's lawyer, George Felos, produced the first possibility I'd heard that there could be some resolution reached to this sorry tale.
If the other side called, Felos told me, and said, " "If (swallowing tests) show Terri can't swallow, we agree to have life support removed, and if the tests show she can swallow, you'd agree to have her fed,' we'd consider that very seriously."
But when I put the question to the Schindlers' lawyer, Pat Anderson, and asked if she would be bound by the results of the swallowing tests, she said she wasn't prepared to answer.
That should tell you something. It looks likely that what's good enough for one side is not good enough for the other.
It's not clear what will happen to Wolfson's report. The two sides can ignore it. The various judges in the case can also. Gov. Jeb Bush is looking at it for guidance.
They all ought to follow Wolfson's report like a map over very rough terrain. He tried hard to restore some balance to this debate, even though it might not be warranted by the facts: The Schindlers have lost consistently in court. Nevertheless, he paid great respect to their point of view. The process matters, Wolfson seemed to say, as much as the end result.
He recommended the swallowing tests because the issue has never been finally settled. He recommended them because he wanted advocates for the disabled, who also have sided with the Schindlers, to be heard.
Wolfson's report amounts to a sane speech on a noisy street corner, where the argument has long been so tiresome that you can be forgiven for not caring anymore.
Mostly, though, the report is a subtly worded nudge to the Schindlers. They cannot have the swallowing tests they so want for their daughter without being willing to accept the consequences, awful and painful though they may be.
- You can reach Mary Jo Melone at mjmelone@sptimes.com or 813 226-3402.