Is Jeb About to Intervene!?!

AP via Miami Herald ^ | Posted on Wed, Oct. 15, 2003 | MITCH STACY

[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.

[R. Scott]

I guess the doctors and nurses who claimed she is responsive are all conspiring to keep a "dead" (your definition) corpse in suspended animation?

I have seen reports of nurses and other caregivers stating that appears to want to continue as she is. I have not seen any doctors stating that.
I can not understand this pathological fear of Death that many people seem to have. Some want to maintain any semblance of life, no matter how tenuous.
Even some self-professed Christians – who should be looking forward to Heaven and the end of this mortal existence – want to sustain the illusion of life at any cost.
Note: “cost” is not just monetary, but also suffering and/or quality.

[Theodore R.]

Someone mentioned on Wednesday that President Bush could revoke Terri's citizenship and let Canada take her.

This cannot happen in the political context, I would think. G.W. Bush would be ridiculed even more by "world opinion" for being unable to halt "human rights" violations in his own country. Here he is trying to bring "human rights" to Iraq, and he can't even enforce human rights in his brother's own state! The world media would never stop the attacks for hypocrisy. So G.W. Bush is not about to lose face and let Terri be rescued in some extralegal matter. Anything along such lines seems like wishful thinking to me.

Terri's fate is truly that of Joan of Arc without the official stake.

[diamond6]

"They won't. Nothing will happen"

Speak what you want, not what you don't want. We bind God's hands when we pray for something to happen, yet speak the opposite.

"The Tongue - A Creative Force" by Charles Capps
"Hung by the Tongue" by Francis P. Martin.

[Theodore R.]

So, is there anyone holding out any hope for a miracle today? Waiting to Friday will be too late considering how they are dehydrating Terri. The silence on the Terri boards is indicative of the end.

[diamond6]

Like I said before, God often intervenes at the last moment. "Like silver we were tried"

The enemy discourages us and then the prayer stops. We can not give up or stop praying. Thank you for your faith!

[Don Joe]

I am not a Lawyer, I feel very strongly that the truth should be known and that the young lady should be given a chance at rehab. That being said I believe in the laws of this land and accept that they are not all encompasing - that sometimes they are used in ways other than intended. But - I am not to the point where I would break those laws myself. Until I am, I will not expect, nor demand that anyone else do so.

You say you're not a lawyer, and that's sad, because your talents are going to waste. You'd have made a great lawyer -- at Nurenburg.

As to demanding anyone to break any laws? Please, flog your pathetic strawman elsewhere. I am asking Bush to uphold the law, not "break" it.

Your ignorance of this case is... simply staggering.

[Don Joe]

"Nothing I can do at this point would make the slightest difference, the Governor however can do something, but chooses not to."

Bingo.

[Don Joe]

His choice is the same as yours. Break the law or follow it. You can make just about as much diffence as he can.

It's been quite a while since I've seen an agent provocateur on FreeRepublic. Then again, I haven't been here much, lately, so maybe it's more common nowadays.

But I digress. Are you doing a job, or are you freelancing, or "joy-posting"? Recreational Provos make me ill.

[nmh]

I hope they find a way to stop this legalized premediated murder.

[Don Joe]

Why did he wait until execution time to meet with these parents? It's almost like he was trying to avoid this "problem." His amicus curiae brief, while welcomed, contained errors and was ignored by the federal judge. It was another instance of false hope along the way.

I call it "praising them with faint damnation."

There could have been numerous ways for him to have intervened months ago -- with the faulty guardianship, the insurance money scam, the fraudulent use of the hospice, etc. There were many, many ways to have intervened.

Bushes like hand-wringing, and "feeling your pain" -- and ultimately, washing their hands. They do not like "controversy", and they do not like "the weak."

And I do not like them, anymore. At least, not enough to vote for them anymore.

[Pan_Yans Wife]

How can Bush legally intervene in a civil case?

Where in the Constitution of Florida is it written that he is vested with such power?

[Pan_Yans Wife]

However, the Florida Constitution prevents the Governor from acting further. Florida law gives the courts, not the Governor, authority over guardianships. For that reason, despite his great concern for Terri's life, the Governor has no power to intervene further.

Did you read the last paragraph?

[Don Joe]

What I find interesting is that Michael was awarded a $750,000 medical trust for Terri's care ... the award was paid through the Jerger and Centonze insurance agency, now out of business. Some FReepers may want to research Jodi's name, for she's a Centonze. Perhaps there is a large insurance policy on Terri, as well as the medical trust.

According to this article, there is a nice double-indemnity life insurance policy involved.

Excerpt:

Teri Schiavo’s husband has a girlfriend and a great deal to gain (a life insurance policy that doubles in case of accidental death and the reason his wife is in a coma, though not entirely clear, is presumed accidental). ... However, if her husband divorces, he would not be the beneficiary of her insurance.

[Don Joe]

"I am not sure if FL law would permit this or if her GAL is just a loser."

The GAL was fired -- yes, fired -- by the judge, when he said that Michael should not be allowed to choose for her death because of his obvious conflict of interest.

He was not replaced.

This case stinks to high heaven.

[Pan_Yans Wife]

She doesn't have a GAL, Bush was turned down.

[Pegita]

Thanks, Don Joe ... That makes it the medical trust fund of $750,000; a life insurance policy; and his own award for loss of her services ... if I remember correctly, somewhere around a million dollars ...

[Don Joe]

"IS SHE GOING TO BE GIVEN PAIN KILLERS?"

Read this thread. It is positively ghoulish.

Warning: you will feel dirty after you read it.

[Pan_Yans Wife]

I've known about Terri's case for over a year. And somehow, I have never gotten her out of my mind.

The fear that we are at the mercy of judges such as Greer is really a sobering thought.

[Pan_Yans Wife]

I saw with my own eyes the NICU staff at St. Mary's in West Palm Beach emphatically declare that they had no moral obligation to feed a newborn baby boy because he was born with a brain anomaly. The adoptive parents were called "pathetic" because they interferred with the staffs goal of killing the baby. They could not imagine anyone wanting this baby and watched this baby go from 5lbs to 3 lbs something in the 2 weeks before the adoptive family found out about him and got to his side.

Another baby's bassinet was covered with a blanket for at least a day, no feeding, no IV, no mom or dad, no one holding that precious little one. Eventually that baby was wheeled away when he/she died.

How is it that you saw this, and did you end up reporting it to the authorities or the press?

[Dante3]

I agree. This is so horrible.