Posted on 05/22/2004 7:07:30 AM PDT by floriduh voter
Believers in the U.S. Constitution and the Declaration of Independence:
Where is Terri's independence?
I'm talking about her independence to learn and to be free from her lonely room.
To kick off Terri's May-June 2004 Dailies, our first article is by Deroy Murdock of Scripps Howard News Service.
Let Terri Schiavo's Parents Restore Her Dignity. May 22, 2004
http://www.naplesnews.com/npdn/images/columnists/deroymurdock.jpg
Derry Murdock
Terri's troubles began on February 25, 1990 when she collapsed at her St. Petersburg home. She was hospitalized and suffered brain damage sometime during this ordeal. She has been in a hospice since April 2000.
It is hard to see how she could live normally again.
Terri's right to die should be respected -- if she were lucid enough to assert it beyond dispute. However, her wishes are, at most, muddled.
"She made a number of statements, and the court found by clear and convincing evidence in January 2000 that Terri Schiavo would not want to be artificially fed in her condition," said George Felos, Michael's attorney.
She never expressed that to family or friends, Terri's mother, Mary Schindler, replies from her home in Gulfport, Florida. "The only people who heard that were her husband and his brother and sister-in-law."
Terri's family also categorically rejects the idea that she is in a persistent vegetative state. Their Web site, www.terrisfight.org, features short video clips from a September 2002 medical evaluation in which Terri clearly welcomes her mother's arrival at her bedside. She follows a balloon as it's moved over her head. Asked to open her eyes, she first hesitates, then opens them as widely as humanly possible.
"The patient is not in a coma," concluded neurologist and 1999 Nobel Prize nominee Dr. William Hammesfahr after observing Terri. "She responds to specific people best. She tries to please others by doing activities for which she gets verbal praise."
"The above behaviors are all indicative of cognition," clinical neuropsychologist Dr. Alexander Gimon stated in an August 2003 affidavit after reviewing videotapes of Hammesfahr's examination. "They are completely inconsistent with a diagnosis of vegetative state."
For his part, Michael Schiavo has not been a model husband.
He lives adulterously with Jodi Centozone, with whom he has had two children. In a monumental conflict of interest that should disqualify him from deciding Terri's fate, her death would facilitate his marriage to Jodi while Terri's existence only complicates their lives.
After winning control of Terri's treatment, plus medical malpractice and other legal awards totaling some $1.6 million, Michael had Terri's cats put to sleep.
He testified before attorneys in November 1992 that he took Terri's engagement and wedding rings and "made a ring for myself."
Terri's family complains that Michael has denied Terri speech, occupational and other therapies that could strengthen her mind.
According to the September 2003 deposition of Terri's nurse, Carla Iyer, Michael asked, "Can't you do anything to accelerate her death?" and "When is that b**ch gonna die?"
When Terri's health waned, Iyer said he would exclaim, "I'm going to be rich!" then discuss plans to buy a car, boat, and European vacation.
Terri's family cites a September 5, 1991, bone scan by Dr. W. Campbell Walker. It lists "compression fracture(s)" throughout Terri's body and concludes: "The patient has a history of trauma." They wonder if Terri suffered domestic violence.
"This whole claim that Michael somehow abused Terri is totally false," Felos retorts. "It was considered by the court at a hearing and rejected."
Absent incontrovertible, documented proof that Terri Schindler-Schiavo wants to die, she deserves the presumption of life.
Terri refutes claims she is comatose by interacting with her surroundings.
Her cat-killing, ring-melting husband has more pressing priorities than Terri's longevity.
If Florida judges grant her husband's wishes -- as they did before an urgently-adopted, now-overturned, law reversed them -- Governor Jeb Bush's attorney, Ken Connor, warns: "Michael Schiavo effectively gets to kill his wife through starvation and dehydration."
Before that happens, Florida officials or a federal court should disqualify Michael Schiavo and let Mary and Robert Schindler nurse their daughter back to life with dignity. http://www.naplesnews.com/npdn/pe_columnists/article/0,2071,NPDN_14960_2905016,00.html
FV FAIR WARNING: For the sake of the thread, please do not solicit DONATIONS or do posts regarding DONATIONS you have made or plan to make to Judge Greer's opponent.
It's a standing Free Republic Policy against solicitation.
But freeper friends, you are invited to join my Defeat Greer Ping List. FREEPMAIL ME TO JOIN... floriduh voter
If you see other current Terri threads, please feel free to hyperlink them here.
Ping.
If I re-pinged you, I'm sorry. Please lend your talents and enthusiasm to this thread. Thanks, FV
great license plate
Terri Schindler-Schiavo
visit www.terrisfight.org or sign up at fight4terri@aol.com.
There are other license plates about this matter but this one has Terri's name on it as opposed to Florida Sucks, etc.
Governor Jeb Bush is litigating as a defendant in a suit filed by Michael Schiavo over Terri's Law, enacted on October 21, 2003.
Judge Baird declared Terri's Law unconstitutional in that lawsuit and Jeb's attorney Ken Connor is fighting tooth and nail for Terri's Law.
The judiciary is over-riding legislation for the benefit of one man, Michael Schiavo. The next decision will come down from the Florida Supremes.
>> She made a number of statements, and the court found by clear and convincing evidence in January 2000 that Terri Schiavo would not want to be artificially fed in her condition," said George Felos, Michael's attorney.
No statements, no evidence whatsoever, a feeding tube is not "artificial," and "her condition" is not hopeless. Greer "found" what he wanted to, not with evidence or facts, but on the basis of false and unsubstantiated hearsay that Michael pretended to remember -- ten years too late. In fact, MS got the suspicious malpractice settlement by claiming exactly the opposite, that Terri should live and he would take wonderful care of her, even for fifty years. Lies, lies, lies.
All lies!
This torture is unimaginable, yet so very real. We plead for the souls of those who take part in this inhumanity ... may their hearts be pierced by the Power of the Holy Spirit. Reach into the lives of husband and lawyers and judges and all those who seek to end the life of an innocent woman ... open their eyes and their hearts to the truth. Keep them away from this defenseless woman ... continue to be her Shield and Defender ... let no further harm come near her. Raise up more and more people with an understanding of the truth ... let them add voice and effort to those who have been at Terri's side these many years. Sustain Terri's mom and dad, sister and brother, for this family has been in crisis for many years, yet they continue in faith and in hope. Vindicate their years of heartbreak, Merciful Father, and open the door to Terri's prison that all might freely enter, and that Terri at last would be released from bondage. In the Name of Jesus, I pray, Amen ...
Nobody can say that she "collapsed," Mr. Murdock. In fact, the (very improbable) "chemical imbalance" theory has been pretty well ruled out by examining physicians. Neither can anyone say with certainty, yet, that she was the victim of domestic violence, though that is the most common cause of severe injury to young wives and the theory that best fits the facts.
Hedge your language? Say she was found unconscious on the floor of her home in unexplained circumstances.
One of these ladies is a speech therapist and she stated that Terri can learn to swallow "better" and to communicate "better". Terri can swallow. Terri can communicate.
When I hear husband's attorney say that "she's been gone for 13 years", I want to throw things at the tv. The Schindlers were on Fox, with Greta Van Susteren one night last week and HINO's attorney was on the following night.
HINO's attorney looks like he is shrinking or, maybe Fox News Channel is creating the illusion that he is shrinking.
"State Attorney" McCabe is a sorry excuse for a human being, much less a state official.
General MacArthur in his farewell speech recalled the motto at West Point: "Duty, Honor, Country."
Bernie McCabe would say, "Duty? Stop right there. I ain't gonna do no steenking duty."
Our county has this black eye and that's not good in an election year for the GOP. I've tried to warn them that the mob rule against Terri has divided our communities in a major way. I hope they're listening to my voicemails and reading my emails. This gang needs to be busted up. I remember "The Untouchables" in black and white. This is a gang.
http://my.aol.com/index.psp
The trouble with this "Free Terri" license plate is that Michael R. Schiavo would say that's exactly what he is trying to do: "Free Terri" but through the dehydration and starvation that will light up HIS eyes!
>> For his part, Michael Schiavo has not been a model husband.
10. For his part, Bill Clinton has not been a model husband.
9. For her part, Madonna has not been a role model for children.
8. For his part, Tom Daschle has not been a model parliamentarian.
7. For his part, Baghdad Bob has not been a model announcer.
6. For her part, Barbra Streisand has not been a model intellectual.
5. For his part, Michael Moore has not been a model fact-checker.
4. For her part, Courtney Love has not been a model of delicate manners.
3. For her part, Hillary Clinton has not been a model of haute couture, even if you rule out everything but pants suits.
2. For his part, Ted Kennedy has not been a model swimmer, logician, orator, teetotaler, Dr. Atkins showpiece or warm decent guy.
1. For his part, O.J. Simpson is probably as bad a husband as Michael Schiavo.
It's just a picture and I've never been concerned about what Michael thinks because imo, he's just a pawn.
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