OPERATIONS (( why we need the republican party healthy -intact )) !
Posted on 10/22/2003 2:55:03 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Removal of feeding tube called 'state-sponsored euthanasia'
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted: October 22, 2003
4:24 p.m. Eastern
A physicians' group has added its voice to the din of reaction to Florida Gov. Jeb Bush's intervention in the case of Terri Schindler-Schiavo, the brain-disabled woman whose life-sustaining feeding tube was removed last week at the request of Terri's husband and guardian, Michael Schiavo.
Schiavo, who maintains his wife is in a persistent vegetative state and would want to be allowed to die with dignity, has been locked in a 13-year legal battle with Terri's parents and siblings who argue Terri is alert, wants to live and, given appropriate therapy, can be rehabilitated. Terri left no written directive.
Within hours of the state legislature's historic passage of a measure, known as Terri's Bill, which empowered the governor to take executive action in the matter, Bush ordered the feeding tube reinserted last night.
While hailed as a "miracle" by Terri's sister and other supporters, the surprise development – coming on Day 7 of Terri's judge-ordered starvation – angered right-to-die attorney George Felos, who represents Michael Schiavo.
Felos called the eleventh-hour law and Bush's subsequent intervention "absurdly unconstitutional" and maintains Terri has a right under the Florida Constitution to not be kept alive artificially.
"The governor of the state of Florida does not have the right to trump a patient's personal choice," he said at a press conference. "The citizens of Florida should be alarmed by what is happening. What is happening here is a gross and illegal intrusion into the private liberty of citizens. ... This is not the former Soviet Bloc where you don't have the liberty to control your own body."
Following two unsuccessful attempts by Felos to get circuit judges to block the reinsertion of the feeding tube, Terri was transferred from the hospice where she has been a patient for three years to a local hospital and rehydration efforts were reportedly launched.
"She was literally absconded from her death bed in the middle of her dying process," Felos told ABC's "Good Morning America" this morning, calling the rehydration efforts "cruel."
But Dr. Jane Orient with the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, or AAPS, claims the opposite is true: "Dehydration is a cruel, painful death."
"It is unconscionable that the state ordered removal of her feeding tube in the first place – it's nothing less than state-sponsored euthanasia," maintains Orient. "She is not dependent on advanced medical interventions. Nothing is mechanically pumping her blood, or forcing oxygen into her lungs. She is simply being fed through a gastrostomy tube."
Last week the General Assembly of the Catholic Medical Association passed a resolution that concurred with Orient's view. It declared removal of Terri's feeding tube "without first undertaking rehabilitation therapy to ascertain her ability to swallow and digest nourishment" constitutes "depriving her of life without due process of law," according to Florida Statutes Section 744, 3211.
Would we allow a retarded child to be starved to death?" queries Orient. "Where are the 'compassionate end-of-life' groups such as the Robert Wood Johnson 'Last Acts' initiative, and why aren't they weighing in on this?"
Multiple physicians solicited by the Schindlers believe Terri, who vocalizes, laughs and appears to respond to her parents, could be rehabilitated to some extent. Some have even offered pro bono treatment, even though Michael Schiavo was awarded nearly $1.5 million dollars in malpractice suits to pay for Terri's rehabilitation and nursing expenses shortly after her mysterious collapse at home in 1990 during which oxygen was cut off to her brain for several minutes.
WorldNetDaily has reported that during court testimony last year, Victor Gambone, Terri's attending physician hired by Michael Schiavo in 1998, testified he was unsure whether his patient had even had her teeth cleaned in recent years and said she hadn't received therapy. He said he accepted Michael Schiavo's word that therapy had been deemed unnecessary.
"Although severely disabled, some believe that she does have the capacity to communicate a desire to live. The husband has obstructed efforts at rehabilitation or independent assessments of his wife's true state," continues Orient.
WorldNetDaily reports the family has been blocked by Michael Schiavo from visiting Terri at Morton Plant Hospital in Clearwater, Fla., where she was transferred. Their inability to verify she is being rehydrated per Bush's order concerns them. As of yesterday morning, they reported she was awake and appeared alert, although shrunken.
Felos told reporters yesterday Terri was showing signs of massive organ failure and said the reinsertion of the feeding tube was just prolonging her death.
AAPS, a non-partisan, professional association of physicians dedicated to protecting the sanctity of the patient-physician relationship put out a warning to colleagues: "The ethical question for her nurses and physicians is whether they will cooperate in carrying out a death warrant.
"And the ethical question for all of us is whether we will allow the state to obstruct the efforts of people who want to provide medical care to a patient who wants to receive it," said Orient. "If we go down that path, who's to say what treatment the state will prevent you from getting?"
Updates and other information about Terri's fight for life are posted on the family's website.
The last thing Mikey wants is any kind of a divorce. He'll fight that tooth and toe nail. The malpractice settlement was ear-marked for Terri, and if he loses control of her, her money can be gone after.
How can anyone stand to be around him? He's refused her rehab, tried multiple times to remove her feeding tube, desperately tries to block videos that show she is NOT in a PVS, and still he's her "guardian". Unbelievable...
If the family gets guardianship, they may get enough evidence to net attempted murder convictions against the Schiavo Triumvirate. Buying off Micahel would require buying him an extradition-proof off-shore retirement home.
You're right, George. The citizens should be alarmed by what's happening. You're grossly and illegally intruding into Terri's liberty to live. This isn't supposed to be like the Societ Bloc where you didn't have the liberty to keep alive your own body.
I'm hoping a little birdie told him an attempted murder rap is no fun, but a murder rap is worse.
Leni
Given the publicity and temper of the crowd, one might be hard pressed to find a Life Insurance Company willing to write him any policy.
OPERATIONS (( why we need the republican party healthy -intact )) !
You mean like the fact that attempted murder wouldn't get him the Needle?
Ok...since when is food fed by tube , keeping alive artifically??
Let me get this straight!!!!
Child is born paralyzed.Cannot feed herself. Mother has to feed her. She is fed, " artifically" since she is not doing it herself.All those who cannot feed themselves must die eventually?? ......nuts!!! Also they have NOT ATTEMPTED to TRY and feed her or teach her to eat.GRrrrrrrrrrrrr getting mad again here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Not true!!! Florida Supreme Court justices are subject to a retention vote. Usually no one pays any attention to this given that many of the characters in the 2000 decision were retained by large margins in the 2002 mid-term elections.
From the Florida State Courts site: [emphasis added]
Merit retention is a system of selecting Justices established by the voters when they amended the Florida Constitution in the 1970s. Under merit retention, the Governor appoints new Justices from a list of three to six names submitted by a Judicial Nominating Commission. The Governor must select from the list. Once appointed, Justices eventually must face the voters in a "yes" or "no" vote as to whether they should remain in office.
New Justices face their first merit retention vote in the next general election that occurs more than one year after their appointment. If not retained in office, the Justice will be replaced in the same manner appointed.
If retained, the Justice serves a six-year term beginning in early January following the merit retention election. The Justices then will again face an up or down vote in the general election occurring just before the six-year term expires. If not retained in office, the Justice will be replaced through the Judicial Nominating Commission system.
We have some FReeping to do in 2004
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.