Posted on 10/15/2003 9:59:46 AM PDT by oneday
Posted on Wed, Oct. 15, 2003
Removal of brain-damaged woman's feeding tube to proceed MITCH STACY Associated Press
DOVER, Fla. - Gov. Jeb Bush said Wednesday he has ordered his legal team to try to find a way to intervene in the case of severely disabled woman who is scheduled to have the feeding tube keeping her alive removed.
Bush's comments came after a 20-minute meeting with the family of Terri Schiavo, who faces a 2 p.m. Wednesday deadline in the removal of the tube. Her husband, Michael Schiavo, has been granted permission to remove the tube in a six-year legal battle against her parents, Bob and Mary Schindler.
Bush said his attorneys are looking for legal alternatives to somehow block the removal of the tube, but did not know yet what they might be.
"We are going to seek whatever legal alternatives are available and seek the best minds to find another avenue to submit to the courts to see if there can be a change in this ruling," Bush said at an appearance in Dover dedicating new housing for migrant workers.
"I am not a doctor, I am not a lawyer, But I know that if a person can be able to sustain life without life support, that should be tried," the governor said, adding the "ultimate decision of this is in the courts."
Bob Schindler Jr., Terri Schiavo's brother, said the family was heartened by the governor's last-minute effort. The Schindlers have pleaded with Bush - who in previous legal findings have supported their efforts to obtain therapy for their daughter - to intervene.
"The family has not given up hope on Terri," Bob Schindler Jr. said following the meeting with Bush. "We have spoken to the governor, and he hasn't given up hope either."
Terri Schiavo, 39, is expected to die within two weeks after the tube's removal. She's been in a vegetative state since suffering a heart attack in 1990. Her parents believe she is capable of learning how to eat and drink on her own.
A state appeals court in Lakeland rejected motions by an attorney for the Schindlers and their legal remedies have been exhausted, their lawyer said Tuesday.
Michael Schiavo says he is carrying out his wife's wishes that she not be kept alive artificially. The parents say their daughter has shown signs of trying to communicate and could be rehabilitated.
"In our eyes, it's murder," Bob Schindler said Wednesday on CBS' "Early Show."
George Felos, attorney for Michael Schiavo, said that the Schindlers were "still in denial" over Terri Schiavo's wishes not to be kept alive.
Doctors have testified that the noises and facial expressions Terri Schiavo makes are reflexes and do not indicate that she has enough mental capabilities to communicate with others.
Jeb talked to the Schindlers today and said his legal team was working on it, but I there are few avenues left. I do hope they come up with something, but I'm not optimistic.
This is not a call to action along the lines of those taken by abortion-clinic bombers. Those ”heroes” refused to step up to the bar of justice and allow the righteousness of their actions to be judged according to the due process of law; instead, they chose to hide out in the woods like the cowards they are. It is true that when the State will not provide justice, it regretfully sometimes falls to individuals to enforce the natural law — and to accept whatever consequences stem from that enforcement.
God help this poor woman, her family, and our country. This is a dark day.
One of the real problems in this issue and most other social decay issues, as well as obtrusive government issues, is the COURTS. The judges - often hand picked for life - have God-like decision-making power. Many of them have been picked by Clinton or other liberal/leftist Democrats. These judges have a world view that is destructive and since we now seem to have a country ruled by judicial decisions, we are going to have to fight this ruling by judges or get completely ruined as a country.
It may already be too late.
Another issue is the unelected beaurocracies and agencies, who essentially rule our lives. No one elects them, they are state, county or federal employees, and someone invents the millions of pages of rules, regulations and so on that we citizens must follow or we lose our property, our businesses, or our children.
sw
Grant the greatest wisdom to those who search the legal words ... provide them the escape that is needed. You are the author of truth and justice, and I pray that You will bring forth the truth behind this brutality, and that You would render justice. This I ask for Terri, and pray in the name of Jesus, Amen ...
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