Bush did file with the US Supreme Court. I'll look for the file.
I'm so far behind on all the posts *sigh* trying to catch up.
From the Daily Breeze
Area panel focuses on end-of-life decisions
Spirituality and law sometimes cross at death's door. Religious leaders and lawyers agree that dealing with dying takes open communication, sensitivity.
By Denise Nix
Daily Breeze
Spirituality and the law rarely cross paths. But when they do, it's often at death's door.
Families forced to make end-of-life decisions for loved ones, such as how long to maintain life support, whether to force feed and how to bury, often will turn to spiritual leaders and lawyers for guidance, in addition to physicians.
Recently, three religious leaders met with some South Bay probate attorneys to shed light on the current religious views of these issues that the attorneys come across while helping clients draft Ad- vance Health Care Directives (commonly known as living wills).
To the attorneys' surprise, Protestantism, Catholicism and Judaism have similar viewpoints on dying and death matters -- especially when it comes to going with dignity and without agony -- and allowing individual families to do what they believe is best.
"I ultimately can't make this decision," said Monsignor David Sork of St. John Fisher Catholic Church in Rancho Palos Verdes. "All I can do is lay it out."
The Rev. Chris Tweitmann said he tries to "give people permission -- permission to actually make a decision" when advising parishioners.
Technology is key talking point
Tweitmann, of St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church in Redondo Beach, summed up the three panelists' sentiments by saying: "Technology can muddle the waters."
Life support has good and bad points, said Gila Katz of the South Bay's Klein Chaplaincy Service, representing the Jewish point of view.
"It's easy to start, but very difficult to stop," Katz said.
The Jewish tradition says that people should do everything possible to ensure life, even if it violates tenants of Judaism, Katz said.
"But if you know death is imminent, you are not to do anything to disrupt that process," Katz said. "We ought not to create ... indignities for people. We need to allow them to go in peace and make the transition as easy and beautiful as possible."
"There's a difference between allowing someone to die and causing someone to die," added Sork, who said it is difficult to weigh the benefits vs. burdens of machines.
In discussing life support, Tweitmann said he advises people to think about life in terms of relationships and psychological and emotional capacities, not just in the physical sense.
"Is this person alive in the best way possible?" Tweitmann asks families of the sick.
Life support, though, is different than continued hydration, the religious leaders agreed.
"Even hospice will not remove hydration," Katz said. "You don't want someone to suffer or be uncomfortable."
Interestingly, the three religions have similar views about cremation. Each religion frowns on cremation, but has made allowances in recent years, the representatives said.
The Christian faith prefers burial of the body because there is an expectation of resurrection, and cremation can show a lack of belief in resurrection or disrespect for the body as the temple of the Holy Spirit, explained Tweitmann, the Presbyterian minister.
There was a time Catholics were not allowed to cremate their dead, said Sork, but the rules were loosened around World War II. Now, if the body is incinerated, internment of the ashes is preferred over scattering, Sork added.
Judaism, which also discourages autopsies, encourages burial of the body as a whole on the belief that the body is a gift from God and it should be returned the way it was given, Katz said.
Also, in the last 50 years, cremation is often associated with Holocaust, in which 6 million Jews were killed in Nazi concentration camps, Katz added.
Open communication critical
Besides discussing the religions' opinions with the South Bay Bar Association probate law section, representatives stressed the importance of making these decisions ahead of time and discussing wishes with family and those chosen to represent themselves when they can't speak for themselves.
"End-of-life issues are difficult, especially if there is no prior conversation," Katz said. "We encourage conversation before it's too late."
No case has illustrated that point more than that of 40-year-old Florida resident Terri Schiavo, hospitalized since 1990 in a vegetative state when a stroke caused brain damage. Schiavo is at the center of a national debate on right-to-life issues and a tug of war between her parents, who want her to continue on life support, and her husband, who says Schiavo would not have wanted to live this way.
Earlier this year, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and the courts intervened, ordering that the feeding tube that keeps her alive cannot be removed.
"Just as you register to vote you should fill these things out," Torrance attorney David Rice said of the Advance Health Care Directives. "No one knows if they are going to get in a car accident, have a stroke or get sick."
California's Health Care Decisions Act, which took effect July 1, 2000, allows for such directives that not only include documenting preferences and making them known to a physician, but also appointing an "agent" to make health-care decisions in case of incapacitation.
"Whatever your thoughts are, have them made known," added Rice, a partner at Rice and Keely, who has practiced law for 25 years.
Rice and the religious leaders acknowledge that these conversations and decisions are not easy, and the topic often makes people uncomfortable.
The different religious viewpoints will help him better assist his clients, Rice said, but the best advice he received at the recent panel discussion was to call his clients' clergy with them to assure all their questions are answered.
"It's real easy for me to tell my clients to do it, but they never do," Rice added.
Religious tradition helpful
One of Rice's clients, Beverly Hills attorney Lee Cotugno, is helping his 84-year-old parents draft their living wills. His father has had a couple of strokes and can no longer drive, and he realizes there are some tough decisions they should make now, while they can.
Cotugno, who is Catholic, said he suspects their choices will be consistent with the Catholic Church's views on such things as life support. "But I think I'm a little bit in the dark on where the line is drawn," he said.
"You listen, I think, to what the church has to say because it has some degree of authority -- not so much from the pope but from centuries of tradition and approach to life issues," said Cotugno, 53. "Those are taken seriously and you do have to, I think, work with those guidelines."
Torrance attorney Mark Miller, co-chair of the South Bay Bar Association's probate section, said these issues come up and invariably attorneys don't have all the answers.
Miller, who posed questions to the panel along with co-chair Cynthia Pollock, said he was surprised to hear how "reasonable and rational" the different faiths are in tackling these issues.
"What we took from that meeting was that, ultimately, it is up to every individual and their desire should be followed," Miller added.
http://www.dailybreeze.com/news/articles/1111067.html
Thanks amdgmary. Don't go to any trouble, though. No rush. Now that I know it's out there, I will look for it, too. Thanks tons for letting me know.
Hugs
Unfortunately, Governor Bush didn't get the stay (or the US Supreme Court didn't consider it yet?), and the Florida Supreme Court reissued its mandate today, making their decision that Terri's Law is unconstitutional a "final" one.
The FL Supreme Court mandate document can be found here:
http://www.floridasupremecourt.org/pub_info/summaries/briefs/04/04-925/Filed_11-30-2004_Mandate.pdf
In searching through the U.S. Supreme Court docket, there's no indication that Governor Bush has filed the appeal yet (if he has, no case file has been set up yet), much less the application for a stay of the Florida Supreme Court's mandate.
I'm really baffled by what's going on with Governor Bush and this case. I know he's busy...VERY busy...but it's disappointing that the "stay" opportunity was missed.
Let's bump the November thread to 600 posts before December!