Replies

URGENT!!! PLEASE ACT. PLEASE GET OTHERS TO ACT. PLEASE GET OTHERS TO GET OTHERS TO ACT. PLEASE CONTACT THE LEGISLATURE, ETC. SAVE TERRI NOW.

PLEASE SEE THE CONNECTIONS. See the CONFLICT of GOODMAN in this. He has an agenda to see Terri dead. 13 YEARS OF PERMENANT UNCONSCIOUSNESS???!!! I could have done more research but I simply don't have the time to put this all together for everyone. He is connected to Hospice of the Florida Suncoast, Inc., Michael Masinter of Nova Law College (sic) in Miami- (of course they have connections to Stetson Law College where Felos hails from) and others, who no doubt have connections to Wolfson as well. They all have connections to the Hospice of the Florida Suncoast, Inc. where Terri is being held hostage, being neglected, and under threat of being murdered by Hospice, etc. Please see what Johnny Byrd says.. WE need to hold the legislature to their word. They were supposed to revisit. WE MUST DEMAND THAT THEY DO REVISIT AND THAT THEY SAVE TERRI LIKE PROMISED. THIS TIME CONSTITUTIONALLY!!!

Google -> "Ken Goodman" "Terri Schiavo"

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22ken+goodman%22+%22terri+schiavo%22

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Google -> "Ken Goodman" "Byrd" "pbs"

http://64.233.187.104/search?q=cache:E-CHUPSA6mIJ:family-source.com/offsite/8657783/+%22ken+goodman%22+%22byrd%22+%22pbs%22&hl=en

October 22, 2003 -- Right to Die Florida Gov. Jeb Bush ordered a severely brain-damaged woman be placed back on life support, at the request of her parents, after the woman's husband won a court order to have his wife removed from life support six days ago. Speaker Johnnie Byrd of the Florida House of Representatives and Kenneth Goodman, director of the bioethics program at the University of Miami, discuss the unique circumstances of this case with Ray Suarez.

Google -> "pbs" "right to die" "goodman"

http://64.233.187.104/search?q=cache:ECa1mmz7I9cJ:www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/law/july-dec03/lifesupport_10-22.html+%22pbs%22+%22right+to+die%22+%22goodman%22&hl=en

The decision of the legislature and the governor

RAY SUAREZ: For more on this controversial case, we're joined by speaker Johnnie Byrd of Florida's House of Representatives -- he is also a lawyer -- and Kenneth Goodman, the founder and director of the Bioethics Program at the University of Miami. Speaker Byrd, why did you and your legislative colleagues in both the Florida House and Senate intervene in this case?

Johnnie ByrdJOHNNIE BYRD: Well, something had gone terribly wrong with this process. The vast majority of the legislators in Florida and thousands of Florida citizens were -- completely lost confidence in this process that seemed to be replete with conflicts of interest between the husband and the best interest of this beautiful lady. So, we had to intervene to give a clear signal to the Florida courts what the legislative intent and the public policy of Florida would be in cases such as the Terri Schiavo case.

RAY SUAREZ: Professor Goodman, is there anything wrong with the legislature stepping in when it finds it can't abide a court decision, when it strenuously disagrees?

KENNETH GOODMAN: It's not merely a court decision but a series of decisions made by physicians and others over 13 years. It's been through the courts quite a bit. And it has been the topic of extensive debate during all that time. It seems to a lot of people -- and with all due respect to Representative Byrd -- I think a lot of Floridians are actually quite troubled that the idea that, in fact, this process might run its course naturally be intervened with at the last minute is actually troublesome.

We agree completely that this is a beautiful woman. She's undergone an extraordinary and difficult ordeal, but the right thing to do -- and I think the legislature while it may have believed that, was actually on the wrong side -- THE RIGHT THING TO DO IS AFTER 13 YEARS OF PERMANENT UNCONSCIOUSNESS THAT SHE BE ALLOWED TO DIE WITH DIGNITY. I think most Floridians would support that.

RAY SUAREZ: In your reading of the law, Professor, what should have happened in the years after Terri Schiavo first was diagnosed as having severe brain damage?

KENNETH GOODMAN: Well, in fact, what should have happened is I think what happened. Certainly nobody was in a hurry to deprive her of life support. It has been 13 years. A number of neurologists and others have examined her. Whenever you have a family dispute, though, this is something we try and teach our students everywhere, and I assume representative Byrd agrees, the idea that all of us should take away is make clear that your loved ones know what your wishes would be.

There's a dispute about whether or not her husband, who according to the law of Florida, would be her surrogate -- HAS SOME CONFLICT OR OTHER -- SOMETHING I'M NOT COMPETENT TO ADDRESS. Normally people want their spouses to make those decisions for them. In fact, a lot of people think that the parents of adult children actually don't make particularly good surrogates for a bunch of reasons.

End of life and legal guardianship

RAY SUAREZ: Well, what does the law say though? Has there ever been any challenge to Michael Schiavo's legal standing as his wife's guardian?

GoodmanKENNETH GOODMAN: Not as such, only the allegations against him in particular. The law puts after, for example, a court-appointed guardian, the spouse of someone who is unable to speak for him or herself as the primary proxy to make those kinds of decisions. That's true in Florida. It's true in many other states.

The problem, of course, is when you have a family dispute -- and of course everyone's heart goes out to the Schiavo family -- when you have a dispute like that, courts are sometimes clumsy mechanisms for resolving it. But the best process that anyone could think of went forward and did over the last several years.

RAY SUAREZ: Mr. Speaker, is the professor right when he says that this is sort of complicated by the fact that there was no written end of life directive, that there was no document codifying Terri Schiavo's end of life wishes?

JOHNNIE BYRD: Well, certainly, Floridians as well as Americans have the right of self-determination. Yes, if there had been a written declaration in this case, this case would not be here at all. The problem is, is a very cloudy section of law. The legislators, three out of four legislators, thought that the courts had gone off on a tangent. Above all, I don't think you can cast this as just an inter-family dispute. Here we have loving parents who want to take care of their daughter -- their only daughter. And if you look at these videos, I think you cannot characterize her as being in some sort of a coma. She responds to her parents.

The testimony I think in this case was is that she could have therapy and live a higher quality of life. And It's not for us to say whether her life was worth living. We just need to err on the side of life. And I believe now with this new law, we will have another guardian ad item appointed, someone who has no conflicts of interest, you know, there were monetary incentives, I understand that Mr. Schiavo has another lady that he lives with and maybe even a child or one or more children by this other person.

And so I think to say that Terri Schiavo would like for her husband to make a decision to have her die a terrible death now -- that assumes a whole lot that I don't think the people of Florida see, nor does the legislature. I think the bottom line is we're going to stop; we're going to make sure that she has a chance to live and that hopefully her parents, who love her very much, can take care of her. And I think that a new objective guardian would be a good first step.

The legislature's deliberations

RAY SUAREZ: But in debating this bill, in writing it down and getting it through the House and Senate, were expert witnesses called to explain Terry Schiavo's brain scans, people testify on her condition, that kind of thing -- because you've expressed your impressions of the videotapes that the family has distributed.

ByrdJOHNNIE BYRD: I think that's the whole point is that, you know, the more facts that come out of this case, each fact, each excruciating fact that came from this case led to a conviction by both legislators and lay people and citizens in Florida that something terribly had gone terribly wrong with this case, that there was a lawsuit in which the husband promised that he would take care of her for the rest of her life if only he could recover these dollars.

Then, you know, after the dollars had been recovered, all of a sudden he's saying that she wanted to die. And I think that, you know, there's something to this case that is disturbing to most people as these facts came out. I think that the only thing we could do is make a decision to respect life. You know, we're talking about a human life. We don't have any second chances on this case. And slow this thing down and let's let another guardian take a look. And I think that we did the right thing. We protected life in this case.

RAY SUAREZ: But it wasn't for the legislature a medical decision, was it?

JOHNNIE BYRD: No. The legislators make public policy. I think, you know, if the step back away from this case, you know, we have three branches of government. I'll say that the legislatures have maybe, you know, delegated their authority too much to the court system. We've relied too much on the judicial system to make public policy when, in fact, the judiciary is very good at resolving disputes but very poor at making public policy.

So in this case I think some in the judiciary, some officers of the court, lawyers, have been somewhat -- had maybe apoplexy over the fact that the legislature actually stepped in and said wait a minute, the public, what we meant when we passed this statute was this and that the public policy of Florida should be in cases like Terri Schiavo, that she does have the right to life and a right to a quality of life. It is not for us to judge the quality of that life. It is for us to protect that life. And so I think what you've had is a very clear signal from the legislature as to what our legislative intent was when we passed this law.

The issue of feeding and hydration

RAY SUAREZ: Professor, you've heard the speaker refer to weaknesses in the system as it existed in adjudicating these cases. Are these matters, like for instance, his objections to the way the courts have acted in this 13-year saga a call to Florida to sort of address these so that every time there's a right to die case, it doesn't end up in the governor's lap?

GoodmanKENNETH GOODMAN: Well, the question of where right to die cases should end up is itself quite an interesting one. I actually agree with Speaker Byrd that the legislature thought it was doing the right thing. Unfortunately, I think the legislature was mistaken for a number of reasons. And it's going to produce some very interesting constitutional questions that legal scholars will need to sort out. One thing that needs clarification in boldface is that the withdrawal of artificial hydration and nutrition does not produce a terrible death.

If that were the case, then Florida law and the law of 49 other states would not permit it. In fact, it's done all the time at hospitals around the country and it can be done with dignity and it can be done in a way that shows as much respect for life as anything that we can imagine. Surely no one can say that after 13 years that we've been hasty in these sorts of decisions.

In fact, a lot of reasonable people in cases where there's confusion I think would say -- this is what I hear from ordinary Floridians I speak to -- "for heaven's sakes we're really concerned about this. We want to make sure that this is not a debate about partisans trying to hustle the legislature. But now I'm worried. I mean, is there something I need to worry about -- about the refusal of hydration and nutrition?"

The answer is absolutely not. Once again there's obviously conflicting testimony in any kind of court case. But the courts ruled that the evidence before them from neurologists and other experts was that poor Terri is in a persistent vegetative state. What that means is she's not having any conscious actions or thoughts or anything else. She's not seeing. She's not hearing. And she's not feeling. Respect for life is something precious. And we all do agree that it's important for courts and legislatures to protect it.

On the other hand, the right of people to say no to burdensome treatment has also been protected heretofore by Florida statute. The concern here is a dispute about, one, whether or not the diagnosis is accurate and, two, whether or not the husband is a good surrogate or not. But as I say, I think most reasonable people, a direction by the way the Florida statute takes elsewhere, would say that after 13 years of unconsciousness with the best experts saying there's no alternative, surely morality makes room for that kind of treatment to be removed. That's what the law says. That's what ethics says, and, by the way, it's what most of our major faith traditions say.

RAY SUAREZ: Professor, Speaker Byrd, thank you both.

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http://www.ashbrook.org/publicat/oped/stewart/03/will.html

Indeed, Terri is teaching us a lot. But is the living will what we really need to learn? Is "put it in writing" really the moral of Terri’s story?

Many attorneys and bioethicists think so. "If you don’t want your loved ones fighting at your deathbed, make sure they all know what you want and what you don’t want," says Ken Goodman, director of the University of Miami ethics program.

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http://64.233.187.104/search?q=cache:q8-wBkveP5EJ:www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/8612555.htm%3Ftemplate%3DcontentModules/printstory.jsp+%22ken+goodman%22+%22terri+schiavo%22&hl=en

The legal battle is being closely followed nationwide by partisans on both sides of the right-to-die issue. Kenneth Goodman, who heads the University of Miami's bioethics program, called Thursday's ruling ``an antidote to legislative civil disobedience.''

''Nobody who knows how law is supposed to work in a free and open society is surprised by this'' decision, Goodman said.

Goodman, who has followed the case closely and offers historical information on the case at the ethics' program's website, calls Terri's Law ``one of the darkest days of the Florida Legislature.''

Goodman said that lawmakers cynically injected themselves into a family's tragedy in order to score votes with a well-organized movement.

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Google -> "ken goodman" "terri schiavo" "brain"

http://www.miami.edu/ethics/schiavo/Schiavo_links.htm

CT scan of Ms. Schiavo's brain, showing extensive cortical regions filled with spinal fluid.

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Making Choices - Beginning to Plan for End-of-Life Care sponsored by the Florida Department of Elder Affairs in collaboration with the FLORIDA PARTNERSHIP FOR END-OF-LIFE CARE

Terry White, Secretary of Florida Department of Elder Affairs

Jeb Bush, Governor

June 2002

Message from Jeb Bush

Floridians are living longer today than at any point in our history. And thanks to advances in technology, we are living a better quality of life. With these advances often come difficult decisions about end-of-life care, and the effect it will have on our families and loved ones. By talking with family members and planning for our care, we can ease the burden of making some of life's most difficult decisions. Florida is taking the lead in helping caregivers and individuals prepare for these challenging choices. In an effort to continue helping our most vulnerable citizens, I encourage all Floridians to begin dicussing end-of-life care with your family and loved ones.

Acknowledgements - These articles first appeared in the Elder Update, a publication of the Florida Department of Elder Affairs from April 2001 to April 2002. The original articles have been edited for this volume. The series of 13-articles were developed by the Department of Elder Affairs in collaboration with the Florida Partnership for End-of-Life Care, a community and state partnership partially funded by a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Special acknowledgement is given to the members of Florida Partnership who authored these articles

* Florida Hospices and Palliative Care, Inc.

* Florida Department of Health

* University of Florida, Program of Law, Ethics, and Medical Professionalism

* University of Miami, Ethics Program (Goodman)

* Florida Bioethics Network

Statewide Network of 23 Community Coalitions

The members of the Florida Partnership would like to acknowledge the encouragement and support of numerous individuals including State Senator Ron Klein from Boca Raton, Florida.

If you have any questions about the information provided or would like to contribute, call the Department of Elder Affairs at 1-850-414-2000 or the Florida Partnership office at 1-850-878-2632

(see above and below - Goodman is a founding member of Florida Partnership for End-of-Life Care and Director of University of Miami Ethics Program)

http://64.233.187.104/search?q=cache:HS6OL3ccBlkJ:elderaffairs.state.fl.us/doea/english/LMD/EOL/EOL.pdf+%22ken+goodman%22+%22terri+schiavo%22&hl=en

Has a piece in this document:

The Moral and Legal Equivalency Between Withholding and Withdrawing of Treatment - Kenneth W. Goodman, Ph.D. - Highlighted" "Rights are slippery things".

Florida Partnership for End-Of-Life Care Advisory Committee (Founding Members) - Ken Goodman, Ph.D., Director University of Miami Ethics Program
Phone (305) 243-5723

Hospice of the Florida Suncoast (where Terri is being held hostage by those trying to murder her):

Communicating End-of-Life Choices to Family and Loved Ones: Isn't It Time We Talk About It? - Kathy Brandt, MS, and Karen Lo. M.S., R.N. - The Hospice of the Florida Suncoast, in partnership with many local organizations, participated in a statewide effort in 2000, to encourage everyone to discuss advance care planning and communicate wishes to friends and families through conversations, and by completing advance directives. The "Isn't It Time We Talk About It?" campaign focusses on the importance of these discussions.

Kathy Brandt, M.S., Director of The Hospice of the Florida Suncoast Rallying Points Regional Resources Center, an initiative of The Robert Wood Johnson Foundations Last Acts Campaign. She serves on the board of the Florida Counsel on Aging and is an active member of Florida Hospices and Palliative Care, Inc.

Karen Lo, M.S., B.A., R.N., Curriculum specialist, trainer and consultant at The Hospice of the Florida Suncoast and with K-Lo Training & Associates, Inc.