WASHINGTON, D.C. — Judge John Roberts Jr., the man who may lead the nation's highest court for decades, was questioned Wednesday by senators who wanted to know his personal opinions on matters of life and death — and offered plenty of their own.

"Could you state your view as to whether the unborn child is a person or a piece of property?" asked Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) a vocal proponent for the overturning of the landmark abortion case Roe v. Wade.

"I don't think it would be appropriate for me to express views in an area that could come before the court," Roberts said.

On Tuesday, Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) called Roe a "super-duper stare decisis," that is, a firm judicial precedent, when he offered a chart listing 38 Supreme Court cases that had upheld Roe.

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Brownback put up his own chart Wednesday to show that Plessy v. Ferguson — the 1896 ruling that found "separate but equal" facilities for blacks and whites were not unconstitutional — was upheld for 60 years before it was overturned by Brown v. Board of Education in 1954.

"Thank goodness they overruled it," Brownback said, echoing his hopes for Roe and saying that abortions performed since its passing have left Americans with "40 million fewer children in the country to bless us with."

Roberts again said that, while he appreciated the senator's statements, he would refrain from commenting.

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), a doctor who has stated he believes abortion is wrong in all cases except if the woman's life is in danger, offered his medical analysis of abortion.

"In all 50 states, death is recognized and defined as the irreversible cessation of the brain and heart activity," Coburn said, adding that if the absence of brain wave and heartbeat signifies death, "then the presence of them certainly signifies life."

"I won't pressure you on this issue," Coburn said. "But it's important for everybody in the country to know that at 16 days postconception, a heartbeat is present; and that at 41 days, right now, we can assure ourselves that brain activity and brain waves are present."

Roberts listened, but did not offer his own opinions.

"Why this room should be some kind of a cone of silence is beyond me. The door outside this room doesn't say 'Check your views at the door,'" said Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.)

When asked if he would be in the mold of conservative Justices Antonin Scalia or Clarence Thomas, Roberts replied, "I will be my own man on the Supreme Court, period."

"It's as if I asked you, 'What kind of movies do you like? Tell me two or three good movies.' And you say, 'I like movies with good acting. I like movies with good directing,'" Schumer said.

"You won't name one. Then I ask you if you like Casablanca ... You tell me it's widely settled that 'Casablanca' is one of the great movies," Schumer said.

"'Dr. Zhivago' and 'North by Northwest,'" Roberts was quick to respond, generating laughter and some applause from the public gallery.

In nearly 20 hours of questioning from the Senate Judiciary Committee, the U.S. Appeals Court judge has continuously declined to express his personal views on matters he might rule on if confirmed as 17^th chief justice of the United States.

Coburn, the senator from Oklahoma, mentioned with all sincerity that he had other means to discern the nominee's integrity.

"I've tried to use my medical skills of observation of body language to ascertain your uncomfortableness ... with questions and responses. I've honed that over about 23, 24 years," Coburn told Roberts. "And I will tell you that I am very pleased, both in my observational capabilities as a physician to know that your answers have been honest and forthright as I watch the rest of your body respond to the stress that you're under."

'Speak to me as a father'

While Republican senators focused their inquiry Wednesday on the value of potential life, Democratic senators probed the nominee about his views on the death penalty and the right to die.

"We are rolling the dice with you, judge," said a frustrated Sen. Joseph Biden (D-Del.), when Roberts would not offer his philosophy on whether individuals have the liberty to refuse unwanted medical treatment, and ultimately end their own lives.

"Just talk to me as a father. Just philosophically, what do you feel?" Biden asked.

"I'm not going to consider issues like that in the context of a father or a husband or anything else," Roberts demurred.

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) said he was worried about the judge's "almost mechanical" remarks about death-row inmates, when he sat before the panel two years ago as a nominee to the D.C. circuit.

"You said that, on the startling number of innocent men sentenced to death who are later exonerated, you responded somehow that it showed the system worked in exonerating them," Leahy said. "I worry about that statement, I really do."

In 1992, while working in the Department of Justice under the first President Bush, Roberts argued, and the Supreme Court agreed, that federal courts could not consider newly discovered evidence offered by death row inmate Leonel Herrera.

Herrera was convicted of the 1981 killing of two Texas police officers, but later claimed his dead brother was the real killer. He was executed in 1993.

"Does the Constitution permit the execution of an innocent person?" Leahy asked Roberts.

"I would think not," the judge said, explaining that the question before the court was not innocence. "The question is: Do you allow particular claimants to raise different claims, fourth or fifth or sixth time to say at the last minute that somebody who just died was actually the person who committed the murder and let's have a new trial?"

The senators will meet behind closed doors Thursday, after a final round of questions, to examine the FBI background check of the nominee.

Roberts' confirmation hearings will continue live Wednesday afternoon on Court TV and Court TV Extra.

Although Chief Justice William Rehnquist barred cameras from the Supreme Court, Roberts said he had no set views on the matter when asked about it Wednesday by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa).

He had received some advice, however, from Fred Thompson, a former senator from Tennessee, who took a break from his role on "Law & Order" to help shepherd the nominee to his appointments on the Hill.

"My new best friend Sen. Thompson tells me television cameras are nothing to be afraid of," Roberts joked.