Still Waiting

Dakota Voice ^ | 1/29/2007 | Carrie K. Hutchens

[8mmMauser]

I don't know about anyone else, but I am still waiting for Michael Schiavo to make a correction on his blog about what "actually" took place in Colorado when he went there (to the debate) to supposedly ask Congresswoman Musgrave one question and she and her staff supposedly tried to have him removed. He called it, "My unreal night in Colorado - with radio link" (Thu Oct 26, 2006 at 08:05:14 PM PST). I'll say (from what I read) that it was his "unreal night".

As I said before in "Standing up and Admitting a Mistake: Not Schiavo's Style?",  if four uniformed officers were around my seat, I would have some idea of what was going on. I certainly wouldn't be sitting in "duh mode" to only be told later of what took place right there around me, as Michael suggests he was. If Michael's account is realistic -- his response and reaction is not. Nor is his response appropriate now that he has "learned" what he was "allegedly told" is not what took place. One would think if he can't get the words out that he was mistaken, he could at least have removed the inaccurate entry from his blog.

He has done neither.

I'm also still waiting to read about, "Also, maybe tomorrow I'll post about my election-eve rally with Bill Clinton in Florida." (A real election impact by Michael Schiavo, Thu Nov 09, 2006 at 10:40:34 AM PST).  Indeed, I would love to read that story by Michael, since I read it was not possible. Not if he was implying it was the Bill Clinton that is the former President of the United States. Will be interesting to see what he says about that if he ever does.

If Michael couldn't get it straight what happened at the Musgrave debate or even if he spent election-eve with former President Bill Clinton -- do you suppose he might have gotten Terri Schiavo's wishes mixed-up as well? (He does claim to have a bad memory from what I read.) Makes one wonder. At least makes me wonder. Whatever...

I'm still waiting for the corrections if not the explanations!

 

Carrie Hutchens is a former law enforcement officer and a freelance writer who is active in fighting against the death culture movement and the injustices within the judicial and law enforcement systems.

[Dante3]

I just saw on another thread that Rudy Giuliani now claims that he supported Terri and her family. I don’t recall this.

[8mmMauser]

I noticed too Rudy said he would have supported Terri, an action out of synch with his package on life issues. But I don't think I actually saw where he proactively cried out to save Terri. Maybe he did and I didn't see it.

[8mmMauser]

Emilio Gonzales's Fight

Baby Emilio faces the executioner today unless something happens!

The State of Texas Futile Care Law has made it possible to decree he die today. Important to note, this story as I show here in excerpt is being carried extensively in the news today.

...............................

AUSTIN, Texas - As 17-month-old Emilio Gonzales lies in a hospital, hooked up to tubes to help him breathe and eat, his mother holds him close and cherishes every movement.

Catarina Gonzales knows her baby is terminally ill and that one day she'll have to let go. But it's not yet time, she and her attorneys contend in their legal clash with hospital officials who say it's best to stop Emilio's life-sustaining treatment.

A Texas law lets the hospital make that life-or-death call. The latest legal dispute over the law _ Emilio's case _ goes to court again Tuesday, the day his life support is set to end.

"The family has made a unified decision" to keep Emilio living through artificial means, said Joshua Carden, an attorney for the family. "The hospital is making quality of life value judgments. That's a huge source of concern."Texas is one of the few states with a timetable allowing hospitals to decide when to end life-sustaining treatment, according to studies cited by activist groups. Other states allow hospitals to cut off treatment but do not specify a time frame.

Emilio's situation differs from the case of Terri Schiavo in Florida, who was in a persistent vegetative state and at the center of a legal dispute within her family over whether to remove her feeding tube. Schiavo died after her tube was removed in 2005.

In Emilio's case, the family is united in wanting to keep the boy alive.

~Snip~

If the hospital is allowed to go forward, the life support equipment would likely be turned off during the day Wednesday when the family can be present and have the aid of social workers and chaplains, he said.

~Snip~

Carden argues that Emilio's death by asphyxiation would be painful. He said the law prevents hospital workers from even giving the boy the drugs death row inmates receive to help them as they are executed by lethal injection.

"It's not like he'll just drift quietly off," he said.

Baby's Life Hangs on Texas Law

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[8mmMauser]

This article quotes Terri's sister over the horrible fate of little Emilio...

Texas.,April 9, 2007--/mna press/ -- Once again a fragile and infinitely precious innocent life hangs in the balance, as a mother is pitted against the medical establishment in a battle for the life of her little boy.

~Snip~

"This is so sad," says Suzanne Vitadamo, sister of Terri Schindler Schiavo. "That a hospital 'ethics' committee would vote to end the life of a child against his mother's wishes is unbelievable, especially since Emilio's condition has actually shown some improvement over the past several weeks."

Vitadamo spoke recently with a mother from Madison, Wisconsin, whose seven-year-old daughter has a mitochondrial disease similar to the one Emilio is suspected of having. "This little girl was diagnosed as being in a so-called persistent vegetative state for the first three years of her life," Vitadamo says. "Her mother researched the disease and learned that hyperbaric oxygen treatment had shown some success in treating the condition. Today the once fragile little girl now attends school, against all odds and much to the amazement of doctors who said she would not even live past the age of three."

Although there is no guarantee that similar treatment would produce such results in Emilio's case, there is hope. "We are hoping that the hospital will grant an additional extension in Emilio's case," Vitadamo says, "we encourage them to continue treating this little boy, making every effort to sustain his life for as long as is needed, while we pursue a facility for transfer and possibly even treatment that could save him. It is time for Texas hospitals to start erring on the side of LIFE."

TEXAS HOSPITAL'S ETHICS COMMITTEE HAS DECLARED 17 MONTH-OLD BABY BOY IS READY FOR (EUTHANASIA) CLAIMING BOY'S LIFE IS "FUTILE" by MONTANA NEWS ASSOCIATION

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[8mmMauser]

I picked this up from Life News. Sounds to me he wants to sound like he would have supported Terri, in contrast to Romney who said he wouldn't have. I guess this shows how Terri's Legacy influences the positions politicians take.

Giuliani told reporters he supported those attempts to prevent the painful 13-day starvation and dehydration death that ultimately killed Terri.

"I thought it was appropriate to make every effort to give her a chance to stay alive," he said at the campaign stop.

Rudy Giuliani Says He Backed Govt Efforts to Help Terri Schiavo's Family

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[8mmMauser]

Wagglebee has a thread on Terri's sister and Emilio.

Austin, TX (LifeNews.com) -- The sister of Terri Schiavo is weighing in on the case of Emilio Gonzales, a baby plagued by Leigh's disease who has been the center of a battle in Texas over a futile care law. The law allows hospitals that no longer want to care for a patient to only give their families 10 days to find another facility that will.

Terri Schiavo's Sister Says Hospital Wrong to Deny Emilio Gonzales Care

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[Dante3]

I have read in several places that Texas law gives the hospitals the right to make life-and-death decisions in these cases and that the then governor Bush signed it into law. A few other states have it also. In Florida I guess a judge can make any decisions he feels like. I tried to find the law in Virginia but got confusing results.

[8mmMauser]

Emilio Update

..................................

Austin, TX (LifeNews.com) -- A judge on Tuesday approved a request from the family of Emilio Gonzales requiring a hospital to continue treating the disabled boy. Officials at Brackenridge Children's Hospital had decided to remove him from life support under a law that gives families just 10 days to find another medial facility that will provide care.

Gonzales is plagued by Leigh's disease, an incurable disorder that causes the breakdown of the central nervous system. Without appropriate medical care, he could die within hours.

Children's Hospital agreed to care for the 17-month old boy until April 10 and would then remove life support and stop treating him.

But Travis County Probate Court Judge Guy Herman delayed that action and set up an April 19 hearing for both sides to argue their case in court.

Jerri Ward, an attorney for the Gonzales family, told the Associated Press she was "very relieved because we have more time" to try to save the baby's life..........................................

Judge Extends Treatment for Disabled Baby Emilio Gonzales Until Court Hearing

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[BykrBayb]

I hope Judge Herman is a reasonable man. They’re getting harder and harder to find in the legal profession.

[8mmMauser]

From Hot Air...

...............................

JPod warned him this morning about tripping over hot buttons. Too late, alas.

During the high profile legal battle, the Florida state legislature approved a bill to allow then-Gov. Jeb Bush to prevent Terri’s former husband Michael from taking her life.

Congress also approved, and President Bush signed, a measure allowing federal courts to review the Schindler family’s lawsuit to prevent her euthanasia death…

Giuliani told reporters he supported those attempts to prevent the painful 13-day starvation and dehydration death that ultimately killed Terri.

“I thought it was appropriate to make every effort to give her a chance to stay alive,” he said at the campaign stop.

He’s pandering to social cons, although in fairness his position here isn’t necessarily inconsistent with being pro-choice. A case can be made that Terri Schiavo’s parents were more reliable proxies for her than her husband had come to be notwithstanding the statute that gave him authority over her, and therefore legislative action to override it and assert her autonomy-by-proxy was warranted. Of course, once you play that game you open things up for pro-lifers to argue the same thing for “fetal autonomy” or what have you, which is why Rudy is always quick to remind us that abortion is a constitutional right — not only semi-sacrosanct but also invulnerable to legislative override, and thus, he always seems to imply, not even worth arguing about.

This won’t win him any fans among federalists or libertarians, but they’re not his problem right now. So as panders go, it’s a pretty sweet one.

Good news: Rudy wades into the Terri Schiavo debate

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[BykrBayb]

In the legal profession, and elsewhere.

[BykrBayb]

The “pro-choice” crowd frames disability and end-of-life issues around the presumption that someone must decide to kill the individual. For them, it’s just a matter of who should make that decision. They refuse to acknowledge the fact that no one has the right to make that decision.

[8mmMauser]

Ping to wagglebee thread by Carrie K. Hutchens on the impending execution of Emilio, now temporarily on hold.

My Fox Austin carried an interesting and informative article "Family Still Fighting to Keep Terminally-Ill Toddler Alive" by Kelley Shannon, Associated Press Writer (April 9, 2007). An article that reminds us that Tuesday, April 10th, at 5 P.M. Emilio's fate once again rests in the hands of Children's Hospital of Austin, unless a judge intercedes or a miracle takes place. Maybe the governor will demand a stay of execution? Or perhaps the hospital will voluntarily agree to extend the deadline even further? If not... the toddler will be executed in a matter of hours.

There is a reason why this is an execution, rather than making a respected medical decision for a patient.

Texas Execution of Toddler Only Hours Away!

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[8mmMauser]

That’s a solid trait of liberals, to ignore the core of the issue and focus on the details. Ants and bees are like that too.

[8mmMauser]

Here is another thread on Emilio by wagglebee. Terri's sister weighs in...

Austin, TX (LifeNews.com) -- The sister of Terri Schiavo is weighing in on the case of Emilio Gonzales, a baby plagued by Leigh's disease who has been the center of a battle in Texas over a futile care law. The law allows hospitals that no longer want to care for a patient to only give their families 10 days to find another facility that will.

Terri Schiavo's Sister Says Hospital Wrong to Deny Emilio Gonzales Care

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[8mmMauser]

Wagglebee thread on embryonic stem cell push.

CMA CEO Dr. David Stevens urged senators to vote against the bill, saying, "By exploiting the relatively few stored human embryos currently considered eligible for research, this bill would result in just a tiny fraction of the stem cell lines from embryos that researchers demand. It's clear that the ultimate utility of the bill is to further erode respect and protections for human embryos and thus pave the way for creating embryos purely for experiments--including through sperm and egg donation and human cloning.

"Creating human embryos and harvesting their stem cells, ostensibly for disease treatments, is a highly speculative, impractical and unethical proposition. Human cloning and egg donation would exploit poor and vulnerable women and subject them to potential harm through the superovulation and egg harvesting process. "So while reducing human embryos to a commodity now, embryonic stem cell research would eventually exploit women as a commodity as well.

Christian Medical Assn: Stem Cell Bill Will Make Women, Embryos a Commodity

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[T'wit]

Here is an information page on Leigh's Disease. I'd never heard of it; others may be in the same boat. I am astonished to learn that the main treatment is Vitamin B1! But Emilio's prognosis is obviously not good at all. I don't even see any clinical trials* that are recruiting patients with his diagnosis.

NINDS Leigh's Disease Information Page

*We should keep this tool at hand for future cases: ClinicalTrials.gov -- a search engine for matching patients to medical research.

[T'wit]

Anything that treats women and embryos as commodities will be hugely popular on the Left.

[T'wit]

>> the presumption that someone must decide to kill the individual.

It is the most primal feeling of power to say to another, "You die because I say so." The single most frightening photograph I ever saw was of an African man machine-gunning a helpless foe who squirmed under his foot. The man had a blood-curdling grin on his face and a look of wild exuberance in his eye as he slew his human brother. To look at him was to know in an instant that we have that Beast within us.

The Beast runs loose wherever death is being marketed. God knows we see enough of that right here in Free Republic.

[Lesforlife]

Save the Children From Children’s Hospital

Cannily burying their intentions amidst the pain of a family’s confusion, doctors in Texas now have a opportunist system for killing people while simultaneously diverting blame. It is a wicked partnership of bureaucracy and law which facilitates the self-congratulation of bloodlust these days in Texas. The reader will be fascinated at how the racket operates.

A couple doctors decide they have a hard case where a patient could die or might present a credible probability of misdiagnosis. Behind closed doors the committee decides the patient should die – treatment is to be removed. Suppose, for example, they think the patient has Leigh’s disease but they aren’t sure. The patient, looking like they will probably die if treatment is withdrawn, neatly solves the doctor’s problem. If the doctors can declare the patient to be near dead, killable, then all the potentially messy malpractice over misdiagnosis can be persuaded to vanish in a fortnight. A crime of convenience.

Think of this power. Any patient who would die on their own but who presents a substantial risk to a million dollar lifestyle can be persuaded, via a cabal of, you guessed it, doctors, to be offed in the night by withdrawing treatment. We are already seeing in Texas that prophecies, even by physicians, sometimes need to be self-fulfilling: they often withdraw treatment to hasten death before any committee has reviewed the case. By the time the committee looks at the patient all professionals agree, “Oh yes. Nearly gone, nearly done.”

Today, baby Emilio Gonzales and his family fight for his life against the sneering arrogance of Brackenridge Children’s Hospital (512-324-8000). This toddler has a condition, they think, which cuts short children’s lives and often allows them to live only until the age of seven or so. But why spend the money when you can kill him now? Why risk letting him live? Or why risk the malpractice of wrong diagnosis? That’s the callousness of Brackenridge: ‘Yes, we may have misdiagnosed, yes he may live for years, but we think it best he die. April 10th we pull the plug. Sorry. We’re doctors you know.’

But this is the time when families and the individual are most vulnerable in life and least capable of fighting back. One pits the most powerful professionals (doctors, lawyers), the most powerful institutions (say, state university teaching hospitals with billion dollar endowments) and the state government against the non-professional, vulnerable, emotionally distressed family members and their sick, possibly near death, relative. The bureaucrats then benevolently offer that if the family can successfully fight the bureaucrats, the bureaucracy might allow you to transfer your loved one out of state so that the state will not murder your loved one. Whatever you do, don’t make the mistake of trying to transfer your loved one in the state of Texas – they have all agreed ahead of time your loved one is to die no matter what hospital you go to in-state. Gallows humor from their arguments against moving your loved one are little comfort: she might die in transit on the flight! Better leave her here where we can kill her definitely!

That’s the George W. Bush signature law in the state of Texas today. It is called the Futile Care law and it is designed to make survival futile no matter how much you care. In the vernacular, it’s evil. In tangible terms it is trying to take 7 years from a handicapped toddler today, right now.

Continuing their never ending benevolence, the bureaucracy and power cabal now want to ‘help’ ‘revise’ the statute. But let’s get this straight: any statute that gives doctors the power to kill, especially over and above the objections of the patient or any family member, is evil itself. Don’t misunderstand: a committee of doctors in Texas can decide today, legally, to kill you over your own vocal, conscious, objections. They have done it. This is no game, it is no rhetorical exaggeration.

The united, committed, position of a nation that regards the unalienable right to life as a God given basic right must be: all euthanasia laws like this, all power given to doctors to kill, shall be completely destroyed. These are evil laws and they sow the seeds of civil war, of class hatred, and of the destruction of our otherwise amazing medical science. Doctors are designed to save life – not sit in arrogant judgment over its worth. They are there to serve patients and families, not to have patients and families worship them as despots.

In Texas – End the futile care law. You cannot mend evil enough to morph it into good.

Andrew Longman is a Christian and an applied scientist