Posted on 02/22/2005 11:10:28 AM PST by esryle
DUNEDIN, Fla. -- A Florida appeals court cleared the way Tuesday for the husband of a severely brain-damaged woman to remove the feeding tube which has been keeping her alive for 15 years.
The 2nd District Court of Appeal offered no specific instructions in a one-page mandate issued in the case of Terri Schiavo. That means Michael Schiavo could order his wife's tube removed within hours of the appeals court action, which ended the last judicial stay blocking the tube's removal.
Terri Schiavo's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, were seeking an emergency stay from a Pinellas County judge in hopes of keeping their daughter alive long enough for them to file additional legal pleadings in the case. It would likely take several days for Terri Schiavo to die if the tube is pulled.
The appeals court's mandate allowed Michael Schiavo to act under previous court rulings. The appeals court has consistently upheld lower court rulings that Terri Schiavo had expressed wishes not to be kept alive artificially, although she left no written directive.
Pinellas Circuit Court Judge George Greer, who twice has granted Michael Schiavo permission to remove his wife's feeding tube, was asked to issue an emergency stay that would keep Terri Schiavo alive while her parents seek to oust their son-in-law as her guardian and additional medical tests which might back their assertion that their daughter has some mental capabilities and reacts to them with tears and smiles.
George Felos, Michael Schiavo's attorney, did not have any immediate reaction.
The internationally watched legal battle which pitted Michael Schiavo against his in-laws over the fate of his 41-year-old wife prompted protests Tuesday -- including the picketing of Michael Schiavo's home -- and pleas in Tallahassee for lawmakers and Gov. Jeb Bush to intervene.
Michael Schiavo's anticipated direction for doctors to remove the tube comes almost exactly to the day of the 15th anniversary of Terri Schiavo's collapse.
She suffered severe brain damage on Feb. 25, 1990 when a chemical imbalance believed to have been brought on by an eating disorder caused her heart to stop beating and cut off oxygen to her brain. While she breathes on her own, she relies on the feeding tube to survive. Doctors have ruled she is in a persistent vegetative state with no hope for recovery.
Not unexpected.
Though we walk in days of sorrow and evil, the One, True God is still on His throne and reigns.
How soon will the starvation killing begin?
THIS IS SICK !!!
We are in big trouble !
Probably as soon as they get the paperwork faxed. Look to have her in-name-only-husband attempt to ban her parents from seeing her. It is to his benefit for her to die without anyone seeing any reaction she may have. Sorrow.
This is only the camel's nose in the tent. The older folks who have been too busy to give a care had better be praying they do not end up in the hospital for any reason. This sits the precedent. Also, the mentally handicapped that cannot take care of themselves..... shades of Nazism...
I'm sure I haven't been watching the details of this story as much as many of the rest of you, but in general, I think it's unwise for the courts and politicians to essentially undo a marriage like Terri's parents are trying to have done. When Terri married her husband, she agreed before God and everyone to make him her next of kin, and the next of kin gets to decide when to cut off life support in situations like this.
In a traditional marriage, the man and the woman leave their parents and cleave to one another. They're now the new family. Letting the courts step in because the wife's parents disagree about the husband's decisions is just one more chipping away at the sanctity of traditional marriage. No-fault divorce, "gay marriage", and now "marriage unless the parents object to the way things are going". Why bother even having marriage in this country anymore? I'm about ready go give up. Either marriage means everything or it means nothing.
When the cops surround the building she is in we will know.
Asking the help of St. Jude, here:
Most holy apostle, St. Jude, faithful servant and friend of Jesus, the Church honors and invokes you, universally, as the patron of hopeless cases, of things almost despaired of. Please pray for Terry, she is so helpless and alone. Please make use, I implore you, of that particular privilege given to you, to bring visible and speedy help where help is almost despaired of. Please come to her assistance in these great needs, that she may receive the consolation and help of heaven in all her necessities, tribulations, and sufferings, particularly let her continue to be fed, to live, and to have visits from her priest and family. And I promise, O Blessed St. Jude, to be ever mindful of these great favors, to always honor you as my special and powerful patron, and to gratefully encourage devotion to you.
How about marriage until the husband takes a new lover, moves in with her and has two kids by her?
Anyone who uses the sanctity of marriage defense in this case is completely and woefully uninformed of Michael Schiavo's contradictory behavior.
Braking news thread up top
You put that so much more calmly than I was going to. Again I benefit from reading the thread before commenting.
If all legal options have truly been exhausted I look for there to be some violent action to save her and rightly so.
If it were my kid I'd take the law into my own hands.
I agree !
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