Posted on 10/31/2003 8:16:51 PM PST by Future Useless Eater
Saturday November 1, 2003 1:01 AM
By VICKIE CHACHERE
Associated Press Writer
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) - A judge appointed a University of South Florida professor on Friday to independently investigate the case of a severely brain-damaged woman at the center of a right-to-die battle.
Jay Wolfson, an expert on health care financing, will report to Gov. Jeb Bush and recommend whether the stay the governor enacted to keep Terri Schiavo alive should be allowed to remain.
Schiavo suffered severe brain damage when her heart stopped due to a chemical imbalance and has been in a persistent vegetative state for more than a decade. Doctors have said there is no hope for her recovery.
Her husband, Michael Schiavo, has fought to have her feeding tube removed, saying his wife did not want to be kept alive artificially.
Terri Schiavo's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, dispute that claim and have fought to keep their daughter alive, saying they believe she could be rehabilitated.
Terri Schiavo's feeding tube was removed for six days in October before the Florida Legislature and Gov. Jeb Bush enacted a special law to have it reinserted. The law also required a guardian to be appointed.
George Felos, the attorney for Michael Schiavo, and the American Civil Liberties Union filed briefs this week challenging the constitutionality of the governor's action. The state is expected to respond on Monday.
The judge said that if the law is found to be unconstitutional, Wolfson is to cease his work.
The Schindlers had objected to Wolfson's appointment, claiming comments he made to a television station indicated he was biased against the newly enacted law. The judge said he found no evidence of bias.
Wolfson did not return calls seeking comment.
The judge ordered Wolfson to report to the governor in 30 days, but said the deadline could be extended if needed.
No. I won't. Judge Greer has refused to hear the Schindler's doctors and that is troubling. One doctor not showing up doesn't expain that away.
No. I won't. Judge Greer has refused to hear the Schindler's doctors and that is troubling. One doctor not showing up doesn't expain that away.
This goes beyond disengenuous- that is just plain false. Dr. William Maxfield and Dr. William Hammesfahr both testified before Judge Greer in open court. Where on Earth did you find that Judge Greer has refused to hear competent testimony from the Schlinder's doctor's?? Please provide a cite.
Two doctors - one unfamiliar with Terri's condition and the other an advocate for initiating dehydration testified that Terri is in a "persistent vegetative state." Ten doctors testified that Terry is not unconscious. One medical expert, a Nobel Prize nominee and authority on patients with conditions similar to Terri's, testified she is not in a permanent vegetative state. Judge Greer made his determination based upon the two testimonies, ignoring the evidence provided by all the other doctors.
He chose to ignore ten doctors the Schindlers brought forward and listen to two that Michael Schiavo and Felos brought in. Greer is no medical expert so it is still highly questionable.
If this is not true, then show it.
The posts on this and other threads have gone well beyond advocacy. They have become hysterical ravings. Innocent and non-involved people have been the subject of slander and innuendo. For crying-out-loud, one woman has been deeemed to be a strawman or alter ego for Michael Schiavo in some clandestine, nefarious illegal conspiracy the scheme of which is to somehow assist Michael Schiavo in disposing of Terri. Not one of you super sleuths have bothered to check the public record for your declared "doesn't exist" victim. She does indeed exist. She in a resident of Sarasota Florida and has been so for at least twenty-five years. She is a property owner and pays taxes. She is also a registered voter.
There have been many other posts that question innocent real estate transactions that are both totally irrelevant to the Terri Schiavo case and don't involve any of the parties to it. But nonetheless the hysterical posters as "sure" that there is some conspiracy in this case involving all the witnesses, all the judges and all the doctors to coverup a multitude of imagined crimes against Terri.
There was a time on Free Republic, that these baseless accusations would not have been tolerated.
I was referring to the 'baseless accusations' there.
JUDICIAL OUTRAGE PING.
If you want on or off this list, let me know.
The Schlindler's requested that Dr.'s Maxfield and Hammesfahr testify in this matter. Neither was "unfamiliar with Terri's condition" and Hemmesfahr was the "Nobel Prize nominee". It should be noted that Hammesfahr was not nominated by his peers or anyone involved in medicine, but by Mike Billerakis(sp.) his congressman- (no doubt in return for a handsome campaign contribution). Both of these Schindler witnesses agreed with the other three doctors that the cerebral cortex tissue was dead. Further, Hammesfahr made no claims, contrary to what has been posted on the FR threads, that any "specific function would improve" with his therapy, nor could he restore her cognitive functions.
Looks like you can't.
Also noticed you didn't answer my question: What is the ethical reason for forbidding her parents to even try [rehabilitative therapy for Terri]?
The Florida Judges have an agenda. They want to tip the balance of power. They've been doing pretty good at it until Terrisfight.org. FV
It is just appalling that they can talk so casually about ending a person's life when it seems that most of them see that she isn't really in a vegetative state. Maybe I'm an idiot and am missing some incredibly lofty nuance of the Constitution, but I fail to see how doing whatever is necessary to defend the life of a citizen, ,making a law in this case, can possibly be construed as unconstitutional. They are lawmakers. It is what they do. What is it that the screaming meanies THINK they're supposed to do?
This.
To your question:
From an ethical standpoint all the evidence, and the findings of inumerable hearings and court decisions, rehabilitive therapy will not restore Terri's cognitive functions. Attempts at rehabilitive threrapy have indeed been attempted with no change in Terri's condition and further, the Schindler's have failed to provide the necessary evidence that additional therapy will be of any benefit whatsoever. To allow this situation to continue reduces what is left of Terri Schiavo to a legal sideshow. A freak of nature with no right to privacy and a tool of every opportunistic radical group that comes along.
You've revealed yourself by calling Terri a "freak of nature."
You also carefully dodge one of the reasons there is so much doubt here. You state:
"Attempts at rehabilitive threrapy have indeed been attempted with no change in Terri's condition"
A more accurate version of this sentence would run:
"Schiavo's purported attempts at rehabilitive therapy were attempted over ten years ago, and, Schiavo purports, with no change in Terri's condition."
Since Schiavo has permitted no therapy in over ten years, it is not known if newer or different kinds of therapy might have had a beneficial effect on Terri.
This assertion of yours is also disingenuous, also:
"the Schindler's have failed to provide the necessary evidence that additional therapy will be of any benefit whatsoever...
It should more accurately read:
"The Schindlers have been denied access to Terri's medical records, and denied the opportunity to test Terri, so they have been unable to provide the necessary evidence that additional therapy will be of any benefit whatsoever..."
As for the article I posted at reply 258: Yes, it does speak for itself. And what it says doesn't speak well for you, or for anyone else who wishes death rather than therapy upon Terri.
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