Posted on 10/17/2003 9:20:22 AM PDT by Tumbleweed_Connection
Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said Thursday that his legal team has been unable to find a basis for him to intervene in the case of Terri Schiavo, who is expected to starve to death as soon as this weekend after her feeding tube was removed at the direction of her husband yesterday. "The legal office has been talking to people trying to find some strategy where my office can intervene in a different fashion that will yield a different result," Bush said Thursday. "So far we have not found that option." Gov. Bush's comments came before Schiavo's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, met with him privately to present a letter from Florida's Thomas More Law Center citing a legal basis for the state to intervene to stop what one attorney described as "the execution of Terri Schiavo." "We're waiting to hear from Gov. Bush" on the Thomas More letter, Mr. Schindler told national talk radio host Sean Hannity Thursday afternoon. Schindler said Gov. Bush's response is "probably is our last hope." By Friday morning, Bush's office gave no hint that he had reached a decision. Thursday night Mr. Schindler told Fox News Channel's "Hannity & Colmes" that his daughter could die as early as this weekend if medical staff begin administering morphine to counter the pain of her starvation. The Republican governor's caution over the legal technicalities of the case stands in marked contrast to the actions of Democrats, who often take a shoot-first-and-ask-questions-later approach when an issue of importance hangs in the balance. In April 2000, for instance, the Clinton administration didn't let the law interfere with its plan to return 6-year-old boat boy Elian Gonzalez to Castro's Cuba. Instead of waiting for Gonzalez's legal case to play out in the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, Attorney General Janet Reno executed White House plans to have the boy kidnapped from the home of his Miami relatives at machine gunpoint. Normally Clinton-friendly legal powerhouse attorneys Alan Dershowitz and Lawrence Tribe were horrified, publicly condemning the raid as unconstitutional. Gov. Bush reaction? He called the action "unconscionable" but showed no interest in pursuing legal sanctions against the White House. When Republicans in Congress called for a congressional investigation into the Clinton administration's abuse of power in the Elian case, top aides to then-presidential candidate George Bush derailed the idea. "A top Republican Party official told The Daily News that Bush campaign manager Joe Allbaugh informed Senate Republicans on Thursday that the candidate wanted the hearings scrapped because the issue is a political loser," reported the New York paper a week after the raid. As it turned out, voter backlash over the Elian raid among Florida's Cuban-American community gave President Bush his razor thin margin of victory in the 2000 election.
Out of the blue?
A person is trapped in a vegetative state of existance for 13 years with no hope of recovery and you call this decision "out of the blue"?
I'm sure there are many good arguments as to why this woman should be kept alive by artificial means, let's try to stick to the rational ones.
Also, Terri's husband is treating his wife like chattel. A slave. America got rid of slavery in 1860 and all men and women are created equal. This is a violation of Terri's civil rights.
But, most of all Governor Bush, you know that this order handed down by a black robed judge to execute Terri through starvation is cruel and inhumane punishment, can be turned over by you, and damn the naysayers.
Just because murder is legal doesn't mean we should just idly accept it.
Just because murder is legal doesn't mean we should just idly accept it.
Murder?
Unless we use every machine and artificial means available.... to extend a person's suffering as long as possible, regardless of the fact they have no hope of recovery, you say we are "murdering" them?
Living wills are written all the time to prevent the sort of misguided heroics some in this thread suggest is our moral obligation.
This is sad.
We're not talking about "every machine and artificial means available" in this case. The feeding tube in question is simply a low-tech pipe inserting water and food into her stomach. There has been no discussion of simplifying that even further by just putting food in her mouth.
Is there "no hope of recovery"? Part of the problem in this case is that the husband tasked with making that decision has at least one (if not several) ulterior motive for just declaring "no hope of recovery" lest she indeed recover and accuse him of violent crimes, not to mention his new girlfriend with a baby on the way.
If you refrain from putting food in a baby's mouth for a few weeks, that's murder - plain and simple. This case is little different, as all Shiavo needs is a simple, low-tech delivery of food - and to deny her that basic need (when that's all she needs) is murder.
Interesting that you equate the simplest of medical care with (to wit) "extraordinary measures", caring for the ill with "extending suffering", and a long-term illness with "no hope of recovery". Let me rephrase your accusation: Using simple & ancient medical techniques.... to care for an ill person as long as possible, in the reasonable hope they may recover, you say we should kill them thru neglect?
Living wills are written all the time
There was no such "living will" in this case. Unless there is one, we MUST assume the patient would choose to live.
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