Posted on 11/06/2003 11:07:50 AM PST by nickcarraway
Pinellas Park, FL (LifeNews.com) -- Attorneys for Florida Governor Jeb Bush have issued their response to a lawsuit filed by Michael Schiavo seeking to overturn the law. Bush's lead counsel filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit saying that it is constitutional.
Attorney Ken Connor, former president of both the Family Research Council and Florida Right to Life, is Bush's lead attorney. He said Terri's Law was a "necessary safeguard" to protect her rights.
"The Legislature often passes legislation in response to court decisions," Connor explained. "We don't believe this is an infringement of any patient's rights. We believe the law is an extra layer of protection afforded an incompetent patient unable to express her wishes."
Connor's motion also indicated that Governor Bush was not properly served with the lawsuit. He said Schiavo's attorneys, who have recently received legal help from the ACLU, should have filed suit in Tallahassee, the state capital, rather than in Pinellas County, where Terri is living at a hospice.
He also criticized the process the judge has set up to expedite the lawsuit. Connor said it doesn't provide Bush's legal team with enough time to gather evidence to make their case.
"Given the life and death nature of the issues before the Court, Mr. Schiavo's attorneys should not be allowed to create a rush to judgment by circumventing standard legal practice," Governor Bush said in a statement.
Michael's lead attorney George Felos, an assisted suicide advocate, called the motion "a transparent delay" and "one of the most shameful delaying tactics I've ever seen."
Felos claimed the lawsuit was served properly on October 21, the day Bush signed Terri's Law into law. He said Bush's attorneys were faxed a copy of the lawsuit and participated in an emergency conference call with the judge that night.
He also said Circuit Judge Douglas Baird can rush the process because the lawsuit regards legal rather than factual concerns.
Connor said the motion was not a stalling tactic and said it was bad judgment to rush this case through the legal process.
"There is no margin for error here," he said, concerning Terri's life.
Related web sites:
Terri's family - http://www.terrisfight.org
ABSOLUTELY!!! You go Ken Connor!!!
Always important to refine the laws when those laws are found to not fully reflect our basic constitutional foundation ..the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
As the judges in our nation so often say..."So, you don't LIKE the law, change it!
Floridians did just that, they spoke out, and refined a law that held a devastating power in the hands of any spouse, who without a written consent, demands the death of a helpless partner. This law is a safeguard against unscrupulous spouses.
In the 15 years that my wife and I have been married, she has insisted that I respect her DNR request.
If we are forced into such a situation, no matter how horrible it may be to me, I will enforce her request.
So send me to prison and do anything else that you desire. I will risk my life to grant my wife's choice on this subject.
If anyone wants on or off my ProLife Ping List, please notify me here or by freepmail.
She is my wife, and her wishes will be obeyed. Seriously, she believes so much in DNR that she has contemplated having it tattooed on her breasts!
With a tattoo, nobody could ever say that she did not authorized her DNR request!
My wife is a Registered Nurse and has seen this abuse of the law way too often. That is one of her worst fears.
Yes, even if I must go to prison, I will enforce her desire.
PERIOD!
IF there is some other family left to challenge it. If the spouse is IT, however....
YES!
The surgery was good and she is still with me today. Do not think for a second, that I would not have enforced her DNR request.
Granted, I probably would have committed suicide after her death, but that is a different subject.
I am sorry, but on this case, I must trust the husband.
Good for you. But how do we know that your situation with your wife is the same as Terri Schiavo's case? Personally, I see far too much grey to be sure. The only person that claims Terri made such a wish was the husband -who stands to gain some $250,000 from her death. As the husband is currently living with another and as the husband has blocked every attempt to rehabilitate her, he appears to have more to gain by her death than her life. Indeed, there is speculation now, that Terri's original condition was brought on through strangulation - she's the victim of a botched murder attempt.
Those things need to be investigated. If true, the husband needs to pay.
If in doubt, choose life.
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