Free Republic

Contacts: Carrie Giddins/Chris Allen Phone: 515-244-7292 Hopefully They Won’t Take a Close Look at His Record Des Moines – Fred Thompson’s presidential campaign is less than a month old and yet he has already managed to alienate the evangelical conservatives he will need to win the Iowa Caucuses. Thompson started his campaign by forgetting that he had lobbied the White House in favor of abortion rights. His campaign continued to falter after Thompson revealed that he rarely attends church and knew nothing about the well-publicized Terri Schiavo case. Some evangelical leaders have already declared they won’t be supporting his candidacy...

Michael Schiavo, former husband of Terri Schiavo decided to terminate the political action committee (PAC) he created to campaign against lawmakers who sided with Terri’s parents in their efforts to save her life. According to Schiavo, the decision to ‘pull the plug’ on his PAC was not an easy one. “I labored long and hard to bring the ‘Choose Death’ PAC to life,” said a tearful Schiavo. “I thought that once the PAC was born the money would come rolling in and I’d be set for life. But each day was a struggle for survival. It wasn’t the ticket to...

Since the election of Pope Benedict, the Church has been renewed by an abundance of blessings flowing from the Vatican. In case you did not hear, the Pope's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) has just released its answer to the question of providing nutrition and hydration (i.e., food and water) to persons in so-called vegetative states. Even though a child can figure out that it's not right to starve people to death, the Vatican set the issue to rest this week. In its technically-precise language, the CDF vindicated our beloved Terri Schiavo by saying that no one...

THE VILLAGES, Fla. (AP) — Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson said Thursday he doesn't know enough about efforts by President Bush and Congress to keep Terri Schiavo alive to have an opinion on the right-to-die case that stirred national debate. Thompson was asked in an interview for Bay News 9's "Political Connections" program if he thought Congress' intervention to save the life of the brain-dead woman two years ago was appropriate. "I can't pass judgment on it. I know that good people were doing what they thought was best," Thompson said. "That's going back in history. I don't remember the...

» 09/14/2007 13:43 VATICANVatican says no to euthanasia even in the case of “vegetative states”, there is still a personA document from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith: giving water and food is not a therapy, which in some cases can be suspended, but a natural means by which life is preserved. The issue was raised by the US bishops. Vatican City (AsiaNews) – People in a “permanent vegetative state� have the right to food and drink, even via artificial means: those instruments are in fact “ordinary and proportionate means of preserving life and not a therapeutic treatment�,...

I was reading, "Brain-Injured Man Speaks After 6 Years" by Malcolm Ritter, AP Science Writer, (New York - Aug 1, 2007 -AP) and I just knew somewhere in the article, it was going to suggest that this case was unlike Terri Schiavo's. Had to read almost to the end, but as faithful as the sun coming up every morning and going down every evening -- there it was. "He noted that a similar treatment did not help Terri Schiavo, the Florida woman in a vegetative state whose care triggered national controversy before her death in 2005. That's the typical...

Leaders Shouldn't Separate Faith and Politics, Catholic Governor Jeb Bush States By Elizabeth O'BrienATLANTA, Georgia, August 9, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Republican governor of Florida, Jeb Bush, brother of President George Bush, described his "faith journey" to audiences at a Catholic conference this summer, emphasizing that faith and politics should not be separated. The devout Catholic and pro-life politician received a standing ovation from a crowd of families, children, priests and young people before he even began his speech at the 11th Youth and Family Encounter conference at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta. The event was sponsored this July...

Gainesville, FL (LifeNews.com) -- Assisted suicide crusader Jack Kevorkian is headed to the University of Florida for an October 11 speaking engagement -- which will have the college pay him $50,000. But the event isn't going over well with students there, who are upset that state taxpayer dollars will be used to pay the convicted murderer. Ashley Emans, a junior at the university, wrote more about the speaking engagement in an editorial on Town Hall. She said that the student-run speaker's bureau called ACCENT sent Kevorkian the speaking offer shortly after his released from prison, where he served eight years...

Edison, NJ (LifeNews.com) -- A brain damaged man who had been in an incapacitated state for about six years has partially recovered from it thanks to an experimental surgery where doctors brought his brain back to life using electrodes. The surgery gives hope to disabled patients like Terri Schiavo who some say can't recover from similar injuries. The unnamed man was in a minimally conscious state was brutally beaten and his skull severely injured after he was robbed six years ago. At the time, his physicians claimed he would be in an incapacitated state the rest of his life. However,...

Brain-Damaged Man "Awakened" After Six Years of Semi-Consciousness By Elizabeth O'Brien NEW YORK, August 2, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A severely brain-damaged man who was in a minimally conscious state for six years has recently regained new levels of awareness and physical capabilities after receiving electrical brain implants. The unnamed 38-year old man had his head repeatedly kicked during a mugging in 1999 and was left unable to talk or move properly. In addition, he was kept alive on a feeding tube.In a study led by Dr. Nicholas Schiff of Weill Cornell Medical College of Cornell University in New York, researchers...

NEW YORK - A brain-damaged man who could communicate only with slight eye or thumb movements for six years can speak again, after stimulating electrodes were placed in his brain, researchers report. The 38-year-old also regained the ability to chew and swallow, which allows him to be spoon-fed, rather than relying on nourishment through a tube in his belly. The man's brain was injured during an assault, he spent six years with only occasional signs of consciousness and no useful movement of his limbs. In an experiment, researchers implanted electrodes in his brain for a procedure called deep brain stimulation,...

Kevorkian speech protested Bobby Schindler, brother of the late Terri Schiavo, has launched a petition drive to persuade the University of Florida (Gainesville) to rescind its invitation to convicted killer Jack Kevorkian to speak on campus Oct. 11. “It is unacceptable for the University of Florida to give a platform to Jack Kevorkian, a man who willfully helped take people’s lives, some of whose only ailment was depression, and pay him $50,000 to spread his violent message of ‘mercy killing’ to the students of the University of Florida,” Schindler’s petition states.Schindler heads a nonprofit group called the Terri Schindler Schiavo...

Tampa, Jul 18, 2007 / 10:25 am (CNA).- Dr. Jack Kevorkian is scheduled to speak at the University of Florida Oct. 11 for a $50,000-speaker fee. "We figure that this will be a great way to engage our student body and entertain," said Steven Blank of ACCENT, the University of Florida student-government funded speaker's bureau. "We do understand that this will spark controversy. And that is something we have done in the past," Blank told LifeSiteNews.com.Kevorkian, who is known to have assisted about 130 people to commit suicide, was released from prison earlier this year on "good behavior" after serving...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- The Federal Election Commission in Washington has fined the political action committee created by Terri Schiavo's former husband. After ordering her painful two-week-long starvation and dehydration death in March 2005, Michael Schiavo created the PAC to target pro-life lawmakers who tried to stop him from killing her. The TerriPAC Michael created with his brother Brian Schiavo has frequently run afoul of the federal agency by failing to file its campaign finance reports on time or include all of the necessary information. Because TerriPAC failed to properly file its October 2006 quarterly report properly, the FEC assessed...

Republican presidential hopeful Sam Brownback is embarking on a campaign trip with the brother of the late Terri Schiavo, whose fate touched off a political firestorm over government intervention and end-of-life issues. The Kansas senator is less well-known than leading GOP candidates for president, but he is a favorite of anti-abortion conservatives who influence Iowa's nominating caucuses. Brownback is calling the tour "Pro-Life, Whole-Life." He is traveling this weekend in Iowa with Bobby Schindler, Schiavo's brother, and Francis Bok, an escaped slave from Sudan.Schiavo, who was in a permanent vegetative state since 1990, died in 2005 after her feeding tube...

LifeNews.com Note: 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. I was reading ABC News', "Pulling the Plug: Ethicists Debate Ramirez Case," by Dan Childs, ABC News Medical Unit (June 28, 2007) and found it interesting how the defense is still up. No case is ever like Terri Schiavo's. There is always an alleged difference, with similarities downplayed or outright denied. Might that be because people are starting to realize that an innocent woman was wrongly...

Canberra, Australia (LifeNews.com) -- New draft guidelines in Australia put together by a national health committee say that comatose and incapacitated patients like Terri Schiavo should not be denied food and water. The new guidelines are voluntary and are aimed at helping health care workers and families. A committee of the National Health and Medical Research Council published the guidelines which say that medical personnel should presume that a patient wants food and water when their decision is unknown. That was the problem in the Terri Schiavo case -- her family and former husband Michael disagreed about whether she would...

CHANDLER, Arizona, June 28, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Written off by doctors as a hopeless “vegetable”, an Arizona man would not now be on his way to recovery from an accident caused by a marital quarrel if not for his family’s unrelenting struggle for his life. The Arizona Republic reports that on Wednesday, Jesse Ramirez, awoke from his nearly month long persistent vegetative state (PVS) and now “can hug and kiss, nod his head, answer yes and no questions, give a thumbs-up sign and sit in a chair.” If not for the past few weeks’ legal battles that ended Tuesday with...

Phoenix, AZ (LifeNews.com) -- Arizona resident Jesse Ramirez was severely injured in a car crash in a May 30 car accident and a legal battle ensued over the man's life. It pitted his wife and family against each other over whether his life support should be maintained but now Ramirez has awaken from the coma appears to be on the road to recovery. Ramirez, 36, suffered traumatic brain injury in the accident and he had been in a minimally conscious state for just over a week when doctors told his family he may never recover. His wife made the decision...

Springfield, FL (LifeNews.com) -- The family of Terri Schiavo could have called it a day after Terri was starved and dehydrated to death by her former husband over a two week period. They endured constant international news coverage and waged a discouraging battle in the courts that left their daughter and sister with no hope. Instead, Terri's parents Bob and Mary, brother Bobby and sister Suzanne pressed on. Not wanting the same fate to befall other disabled patients, they reworked the foundation they created to help Terri and organized it to assist other incapacitated or minimally conscious patients. Since they...

Rhodes, Greece (LifeNews.com) -- A new international study finds that about forty percent of patients like Terri Schiavo who are supposedly in a persistent vegetative state are misdiagnosed and another fifty percent of them recover from their situation. The study finds the patients in question were in a minimally conscious state and could improve. The studies, conducted by researchers in Belgium, found that the level of misdiagnosis has not decreased in the last 15 years. There were presented at the European Neurological Society Meeting in Greece. Dr. Steven Laureys, from the Coma Science Group at the University of Liиge, stressed...

I suppose I shouldn't be shocked by the decisions made by the judicial establishment in matters related to the case of Terri Schiavo. Yet, it's hard to believe that the judges who sealed her fate continue to receive accoloades: Florida honors judges who advocate killing the disabled, elderly and vulnerable. The alma mater of Michael Schiavo, the estranged husband who battled in the courts for years in order to secure a court order to kill his wife, is honoring retired Circuit Court Judge Susan F. Schaeffer, the judge who assigned Probate Court Judge George W. Greer to be the executioner...

MESA, Ariz. - An incapacitated Chandler man in a hospice must be kept alive and given a special guardian, a judge has ruled. Jesse Ramirez, 36, suffered a broken neck, fractured skull, punctured lung, broken ribs and fractured face in a rollover crash May 30 in Chandler. A neurosurgeon told Ramirez's wife and family on June 8 that doctors had done all they could for Ramirez, who maintains minimal brain activity. Ramirez's wife, Rebecca, reportedly wants him to be denied food and water but his parents and sister want him to be given life-supporting care.

UNITED STATES, May 23, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The three front-runners in the Republican presidential primary repudiated Congress’ intervention to save the life of Terri Schiavo, the Florida brain-injured woman who died of court-ordered dehydration and starvation in 2005 at the behest of her husband who was then living with another woman. Front runners Rudy Giuliani, Sen. John McCain, and former Gov. Mitt Romney were all asked in the debate moderated by MSNBC: “Terri Schiavo: Should Congress have acted or let the family make the decision, the husband?”Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, who is campaigning on his pro-life conversion responded...

LifeNews.com Note: Bobby Schindler is the brother of Terri Schiavo and works with the Terri Schindler Schiavo Foundation to help disabled and other patients like her to receive the lifesaving medical treatment they deserve.I recently returned from Austria and Germany where I had the fortunate opportunity to speak in front of several organizations to give witness to my family's struggle to care for my sister Terri. Along with the circumstances of Terri's life and death, I spoke about how the medical community continues to target the disabled by convincing the American people that if someone's "quality of life" is deemed...

ELLWOOD SHREVE Local News - Wednesday, May 02, 2007 @ 09:00 The drawn-out fight by Terri Schiavo's family to save her life is something that countless millions of people witnessed through the news media. Bobby Schindler, brother of the Florida woman who died March 31, 2005, after her life-sustaining feeding tube was removed by a court order, believes many other people will face a similar fight in the future. Since dealing with this issue, Schindler said new U. S. laws are being created, making it easier to terminate peoples' lives. He shared his message of concern as guest speaker during...

Here are some best media segments people can listen to if they are interested in the Schiavo case. The segments are of people who followed he case closely or were involved in it. 1. http://www.centerforajustsociety.org/uploads/terri012905.mp3 This is an old interview in which Ken Connor talks to John Sipos. 20 Minutes long. Very Good. Many people were confused about what Terri's Law was really about. Ken clears this up and points out some of the legal problems with the Schiavo case. 2. http://theempirejournal.com/extras/siposanderson052905.mp3 Pat Anderson speaks after Terri Schiavo's death. About 30 minutes long. Very Good. 3. http://www.ewtn.com/vondemand/audio/resolve.asp?rafile=wo_02182005.rm David Gibbs and...

Forget abortion rights. The opinions Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani has now expressed on the right-to-die case of Terri Schiavo make him look both unprincipled and out of touch. That's a clumsy combination. Schiavo spent 15 years in a persistent vegetative state before she died two years ago after her feeding tube was removed. Her court case attracted international attention and spurred controversial attempts by Florida's governor and Legislature, and the president and Congress, to intervene. For Giuliani, though, his position seems to be a work in progress. In 2005, on the day after Schiavo died, he told the New...

I purchased this book last year, and found it to be one of the best references for facts in Terri Schiavo's case. Reading this book is like sitting down with Cheryl and Jan, and listening/watching them present the actual evidence and truth about so many things that the mainstream "pro euthanasia" media has refused to tell. You will see the actual hospital documents, police reports, and so much more. I will warn you though, that once you learn about the judicial misconduct, FL laws broken, the details of Michaels malpractice case,(money was paid under the claim that Terri had a...

Just curious about how many Freepers saw the movie 'Fracture' today...don't read further if you haven't seen it!

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- As more information has come in about Rudy Giuliani's comments on the Terri Schiavo dispute, his position seems consistent with previous remarks he's made. However, one pro-life advocate says he's not impressed and not confident that Giuliani is on the same page as the pro-life movement. As LifeNews.com reported last week, the former New York City mayor made a campaign swing through Florida and told people there that he supported the state government's efforts to save Terri Schiavo's life. "I thought it was appropriate to make every effort to give her a chance to stay alive,"...

In my story today, I take a look at Mayor Giuliani's recent comments on the Terri Schiavo controversy, where he states that he supported the congressional intervention — but also makes clear that he was completely unprepared to handle the question, despite the fact that he was not only in Florida, but in the very county from which Schiavo hailed. In the column, I report on Mr. Giuliani's response to a reporter's question and also on the responses of political observers who are puzzled by his lack of preparation. What I didn't have room for in the paper, however, is...

St. Petersburg, FL (LifeNews.com) -- Rudy Giuliani came under fire last week for saying he supported taxpayer funding of abortion and then backing off the remarks a day later. But the former New York City mayor made a campaign swing through Florida and told people there that he supported the state government's efforts to save Terri Schiavo's life. 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...

A priest who was with Terri Schiavo during her final hours in this life says society has it all wrong – because it does not understand the difference between a futile treatment and a futile life. Today is the second anniversary of the death of the disabled 41-year-old Florida woman, and Father Frank Pavone, of Priests for Life, shared some thoughts with WND to mark the second year since Terri died. "As you know, I was deeply involved in the Terri Schiavo case and with her in her final hours and moments. What was clear in this case was that...

St. Petersburg, FL (LifeNews.com) -- Terri Schiavo's family will never forget the next to last day of her life two years ago. It started with a Supreme Court ruling and a judgment by a federal appeals court, and ended with the knowledge that their daughter wanted to live.The U.S. Supreme Court, on that Wednesday, issued a decision allowing Terri Schiavo's painful starvation death. It wound up being the last legal decision in the long battle between Bob and Mary Schindler and Terri's former husband Michael.The once-sentence ruling was issued just hours after the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals...

On the night of Terri's funeral, I posted a few observations and a lot of pictures of what I had seen in the days of Lent, the Triduum, and the First Sunday of Easter. They are here: http://www.endlesswonder.com/terrischiavo.html Many times I have wanted to go in and update or even expand upon what was there, but I decided to just leave it as a memory frozen in time of one of the most disgraceful moments in our history when just about everyone let us down, and worst of all, Terri's death There was once a day when I would think...

Presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney recently stated, "My view was a case like this would normally be left in the hands of a court." Romney was referring to the attempt by Congress to help save the life of my sister, Terri Schiavo. He mistakenly assumed passing the buck on this issue would gain him political capital. He could not be more wrong, morally or politically. Thomas Jefferson said, "The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government." Sadly, many of our politicians have abandoned this basic...

Her blue eyes sparkled, and a soft smile spread across Sarah Scantlin's face. Sarah belted out a series of scales and sounds after Golden Plains Health Care Center staff member Jennifer Trammell asked if she would like to practice her sounds. "La, la, la; da, da, da; so, so, so," she said. At Trammell's suggestion, she repeated the series. Hutchinson News Photo Sarah Scantlin smiles for the video camera during an interview Tuesday. Photo by Sandra J. Milburn "Why are we doing this, Sarah?" Trammell asked, then answered the question herself: "This helps you form words and strengthens your vocal...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Since Terri Schiavo was killed by her former husband via a painful euthanasia death two years ago, her family has largely avoided the political scene and preferred to build their foundation to help other disabled patients like her. But a presidential race could have a significant effect on how patients like Terri are teated and her brother Bobby Schindler endorsed Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback's bid for the GOP nomination for president on Tuesday. In a statement he sent to LifeNews.com, Bobby Schindler said “My family will never forget Sam Brownback’s valiant efforts to save my sister’s...

TAMPA -- He's campaigning hard for support from Republican social conservatives, but presidential candidate Mitt Romney said Saturday he disagreed with the government's intervention in the Terri Schiavo case. "I think it's probably best to leave these kinds of matters in the hands of the courts," Romney said in a television interview airing today.

A woman who has been in a coma-like state for more than six years awoke for three days this week to talk with family members and eat her favorite foods before relapsing. “She was smiling and grinning and told my staff she wanted to go to a club, even doing a little chair dance in her wheelchair,” said one of her doctors, Randall Bjork. The woman, Christa Lilly, 49, suffered a cardiac arrest in November 2000. Since then, her mother, Minnie Smith, has been caring for her at home. Ms. Smith said Ms. Lilly had awakened five times, sometimes for...

We all know about "limosine liberals" and "San Francisco liberals" and "east coast liberals" and "Hollywood liberals" and we all say we are against them. So, why is it that we seem to have a new breed of liberalism that is festering on a conservative forum? By my calculations it is a small number (only about 15%) of FReepers that seem to be supporting a pro-abortion, pro-homosexual marriage, thrice-married (once to his cousing) gun-grabber for the office of President of the United States of America. And I'll be the first to admit that many of them are supporting Giuliani because...

Cronkite opposes religious influence Venerable news anchor appears at event urging greater separation of church and state By Kim Vo, MEDIANEWS STAFF Article Last Updated: 02/24/2007 02:54:02 AM PST Faith-based initiatives. Intelligent Design. Gay marriage. Terri Schiavo. Alarmed by what they see as religious groups' growing influence on government policy, a consortium has launched a public awareness campaign to defend the First Amendment's vow that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." "That cherished freedom is under severe attack," the Rev. Welton Gaddy said before an audience of about 700 people...

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...

Remember Jack Kevorkian? He's the American euthanasia doctor behind bars for second-degree murder. He's also the one who wanted to look into the eyes of those in the process of dying for his "obitiatric research". Despite his ghoulishness, Kevorkian is revered by those such as Derek Humphry, co-founder of the pro-euthanasia group the Hemlock Society, who described Kevorkian's incarceration as "a tragedy for an honourable man". Kevorkian assisted or lethally injected at least 130 people, mostly middle-aged women. More than 70 per cent were not terminally ill. Most were disabled or depressed. Recently, the Swiss group Dignitas, which has assisted...

This week on Proclaim!, Attorney David Gibbs joins us to talk about the sanctity of life. We’ll hear of the battle he fought in an effort to save the life of Terri Schiavo. Don’t miss this important story today on Proclaim! with Dr. Michael Easley.

Dallas, TX (LifeNews.com) -- Judge George Greer continues to travel the lecture circuit despite his controversial ruling allowing Terri Schiavo's former husband to kill her via euthanasia. Greer is slated to speak at a national summit concerning jury trials, even though he unilaterally allowed the taking of Terri's life without a jury deliberation. Greer will be one of the speakers at next month's National Jury Summit hosted by the American Board of Trial Advocates. The conference is an opportunity for legal experts to discuss the threats to the jury system. The presentations will deal with the civil jury system, factors...

Frozen in time: the disabled nine-year-old girl who will remain a child all her life · Parents fiercely criticised over 'offensive' surgery · Disability groups say case raises troubling issues Ashley's parents call her their Pillow Angel, a moniker that is a reference to the love and joy they feel for their nine-year-old daughter and the severe disabilities she has suffered from birth. She cannot sit up, walk or talk, is fed by tube, and, as her parents put it, "stays right where we place her - usually on a pillow". Ashley won't know this, as she is brain-damaged and...

Theresa Marie Schindler was born to Robert and Mary Schindler on December 3, 1963. She was the first of three children the Schindlers would have. Terri was a shy, but comical, child who had an affinity for music, animals and the arts. She kept a small circle of friends and was dear to schoolmates, neighboring families and her own extended family. Following high school, Terri came into her own. She developed a knack for sketching and doodling. She enjoyed outings with her friends. She was an adoptive mother to the family’s dog, Bucky. Terri attended Catholic School while growing up...

Springfield, FL (LifeNews.com) -- After he successfully won a court order to kill Terri Schiavo via euthanasia, the disabled woman's former husband Michael pledged to take on pro-life advocates and formed a political action committee to defeat them. However, the candidates Michael campaigned for during the 2006 mid-term elections didn't fare very well. In fact, every candidate Michael personally campaigned for during the election cycle went down to defeat. Michael traveled to Colorado twice to campaign against pro-life Rep. Marilyn Musgrave, a Colorado congresswoman. He even attended a late October debate between Musgrave and her opponent and shouted at her...