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"How do we reverse this trend?"

I don't know if we can. The incredibly foolish actions of some "demonstrators' have so alienated the population of Pinellas and Hillsboro Counties that it may be all over from a public opinion point of view,

For example, early on, a very influential writer wrote a pro-Terri article in the St. Pete Times:

START OF ARTICLE ONE

"Terri Schiavo's story is terrible to contemplate.

Her heart stopped in February 1990, perhaps as a result of a chemical imbalance caused by her throwing up repeatedly to stay thin. She was deprived of oxygen for five minutes and she has not awakened since.

Her husband wants her feeding tube removed so she can die. Her parents want it to remain. They disagree on what Terri Schiavo would have wanted. Her husband, Michael Schiavo, says she wouldn't want to live like this, in what three doctors said in Pinellas circuit court last week is a permanent vegetative state.

Her parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, cling to the hope represented in her occasional cries, laughs and moans. They know that once in a very great while the impossible occurs:

This past Christmas, a New Mexico woman who had been in a coma for 16 years woke up. Last April, a pregnant woman in Los Angeles came out of a month long coma and gave birth to twins. But these rarities are not why Pinellas Circuit Judge George Greer has no business pulling that feeding tube. The law says Terri Schiavo's own wishes have to be known by "clear and convincing evidence." The evidence so far is neither.

But there are more elemental reasons for keeping Terri Schiavo alive - 700,000 of them. Terri Schiavo left no will. If she dies, her husband Michael stands to inherit $700,000 from a malpractice settlement she won several years ago. He has said he would give the money to charity. Although he is engaged to another woman, he also says he doesn't want to divorce Terri. If he did, he might have to pay her alimony. And he would probably lose the $700,000 to her, for her care, according to lawyer Richard L. Pearse Jr. of Clearwater, who was temporarily Terri's guardian.

Terri's parents also have a financial stake here, although it's more remote. If Terri and Michael were divorced, and Terri later died, her parents would inherit the $700,000. "Nobody is free of some sort of financial conflict, actual or potential," said Pearse, who testified in court last week and wrote a report to the judge recommending that Mrs. Schiavo's feeding tube remain.

We turn to judges in cases like this when families can't make their own choices. They often consult with medical ethicists too. So I did - with Peggy DesAutels, who teaches philosophy at USF. For some years, she sat on the ethics committee at Bayfront Medical Center in St. Petersburg, helping family members decide whether or not to prolong the lives of the dying. When relatives disagree, DesAutels said, "the decision has to fall with keeping the patient on life support." "If you're going to err, you want to err on the side of keeping someone alive. It can be very sad to watch, because often it appears the patient is suffering."

This is where the going gets rough. Nobody would want Terri Schiavo's life to be any worse. But what choice is there, when her wishes are uncertain, and money could motivate her husband? I've come to a conclusion that is the utter opposite of where I began, on the side of Michael Schiavo. As his wife's closest kin, he should have the right to decide for her, I thought. I was thinking of what I want, what most of us want - no extraordinary measures to keep us alive at the end.

I started out where we all would, in matters like this, relying on my heart. But this case has too much ambiguity.
Discomforting as it is, I've come to believe that this life that isn't much of a life at all should be prolonged, for now."

END OF ARTICLE

Later, after seeing all the idiocy some of the "friends" have committed," the writer's opinion changed drastically

START OF ARTICLE TWO

"Michael Schiavo could make everything so easy.

All he has to do is divorce his wife and then walk away from the fight.

But he won't, says his lawyer. For if Michael Schiavo quits now, his wife's parents will have control of her. They will take every measure they can to keep their daughter Terri alive.

And that, according to Michael Schiavo, is the opposite of what Terri wanted.

So the fight continues over whether she lives or dies. She has been in a vegetative state since 1990. Meantime her husband continues this all but hand-to-hand combat with his wife's parents while in his private life, he has clearly moved on. He has a girlfriend. They have a baby.
Last week, Pinellas Circuit Court Judge George Greer sided with three doctors who said Terri Schiavo would never recover. The judge ordered her feeding tube removed on Jan. 3.

This is the second such order by Greer, and this one, like the last one, will produce an almost automatic appeal. The tube will not be pulled. The interminable legal fight will continue.

It has taken on the peculiar overtones of a death penalty appeals case.

The lawyers hop from court to court. The motions are endless, picayune and sometimes off the wall. The process goes on for what seems like perpetuity.

And the original cause of action is buried in the paperwork. What started out as a dispute over Terri Schiavo's wishes long ago became a personal feud between her parents, Robert and Mary Schindler, and Schiavo, whom the Schindlers have all but demonized.

Nobody knows why Terri Schiavo, a young married woman, suffered a heart attack in 1990. One theory is that she had a potassium deficiency brought on by an eating disorder. The heart attack cut off oxygen to her brain. She has been in a vegetative state since.

It was said for a long time that Michael Schiavo was in the fight because of the money, about $700,000 from a malpractice settlement. But those who despise him can say that no longer. The money has been chewed up by his legal bills.

I suggest he walk away not because I think he's wrong. He's right. He has the right as his wife's legal guardian to speak for her. He was in the best position to know her wishes.

But it doesn't matter if Michael Schiavo is right. The Schindlers will never back down. They now have the support of the hysterical right-to-life movement. A California group, the Life Legal Defense Foundation, is paying some of their legal expenses.

This fight could go on another decade. But in every fight, there comes a point when you have to ask what it's all worth. The Schindlers will never do this kind of weighing and measuring. It's up to her husband, paradoxical though that may seem.

What's more, if Terri Schiavo is allowed to live, even if she never comes out of her vegetative state (as she likely won't), no harm would be done to him. Michael Schiavo would not so much lose his fight as surrender. But he'd have his own life back, without this obsession at the core. Surely that would be a relief.

It would be a brutally hard decision. Michael Schiavo would have to decide to stop fighting even as he is - at least in Judge Greer's courtroom - winning.

But this isn't so much a court case. It's a grudge match. Somebody has to yell stop. The judges can't or won't, as long as the Schindlers have one last breath, one last appeal.

The buck stops with Michael Schiavo. It would be the toughest call of his life, but it would offer a most valuable lesson: Sometimes victory comes only through surrender.

END OF ARTUCLE TWO

The current agenda-driven "advisers" are so entrenched, I doubt there is much I can do, but I'm willing to go down there when I can to help, as previously stated.

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