Posted on 02/23/2005 2:12:21 PM PST by gopwinsin04
The Florida Department of Children and Families has moved to intervene into the legal battle over the life of Teri Schiavo. Details of the agency involvement in the case were not immediately available.
The DCF involvement came hours after Florida Governor Jeb Bush told reporters that he would seek a means to intervene in this case.
George Felos, who represents Teri's husband Michael, criticized the DCF move, saying it 'reeks of the intervention of politics' in this case and is an affront to the court.
David Gibbs, attorney for Teri's mother and father, countered there were serious allegiations of abuse in the case. The Schlindlers have accused their son-in-law of mistreating his wife, Michael has emphatically denied the accusations.
Speaking at an afternoon news conference in Tallahassee, Gov. Bush said he was exploring options to block the removal of the feeding tube and called his involvement 'a work in progress.'
Bush said he had received tens of thousands of emails and telephone calls from supporters ecouraging him to keep Terri Schiavo alive. The governor said he is working with his legislative staff to see what can be done.
'People with deep faith and big hearts are concerned, as I am about the circusmstances that Ms. Schiavo is in,' the governor continued.
'I want them to know that I will do what I can.'
(Excerpt) Read more at miami.com ...
Repeatedly changing underwear?
And jumping in the shower after doing that to try to wash it off -- but is seems that some of the stuff coming out is some much like them [what is making them change underwear].
Never thought I would be saying that I am glad to see DFS getting into anyone's life, but if it gives people more time to write and call, well....
YAY!
bump
Thank you for the ping.
Michael Schiavo needs to just sign over rights to his wife's care and when she passes collect up on insurance then.
There is little media attention to this bill currently in our legislature. Please help us get the word out for Floridians to call or email their representatives in support and to co-sponsor HB 701, Withdrawing Nutrition and Hydration.
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ON HB 701,
THE FLORIDA STARVATION AND DEHYDRATION OF PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES PREVENTION ACT
QUESTIONS:
1. What can be done now that the Florida Supreme Court has struck down “Terri’s Law” under which Governor Jeb Bush directed that she be given food and fluids?
2. What can be done that the Florida courts won’t strike down?
3. Since the courts in the Schiavo case maintained there was “clear and convincing evidence” that Teresa Schindler-Schiavo would have rejected nutrition and hydration, how would the proposed bill save her life?
4. Does the bill require nutrition and hydration in every instance in which it has not been specifically rejected by the patient?
5. Some legislators say that since the Florida Supreme Court said denying Terri her food and fluids was a “final judgment”, and the legislature can't overturn a final judgment, nothing can be done.
1. What can be done now that the Florida Supreme Court has struck down “Terri’s Law” under which Governor Jeb Bush directed that she be given food and fluids?
On September 23, 2004, the Florida Supreme upheld Michael Schiavo’s challenge to the constitutionality of “Terri’s Law” which allowed Governor Jeb Bush to intervene and order that Terri Schindler-Schiavo be given food and fluids. The court held that it violates the “separation of powers” doctrine under the Florida Constitution, allegedly invading the province of the judiciary by allowing the Governor and the legislature to direct the outcome of a specific pending case. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal.
Consequently, Terri Schindler-Schiavo’s life is again in danger. What then can be done?
A bill that alters Florida law to create a general presumption for food and fluids for those who cannot speak for themselves would not face the separation of powers challenge. HB701 {click here for text} has been introduced by Representative Dennis Baxley. Such a bill has been drafted precisely to fit with controlling Florida Supreme Court opinions. It is carefully written to cover Terri’s circumstances. It would also bring protection in the uncounted number of unpublicized cases in which persons with disabilities similar to (and, in many cases, less severe than) those of Terri Schindler-Schiavo are routinely denied food and fluids in nursing homes, hospices, and hospitals.
2. What can be done that the Florida courts won’t strike down?
In Guardianship of Browning, 568 So. 2d. 4 (1990), the Florida Supreme Court held that under the Florida Constitution a guardian, acting as a surrogate decisionmaker, must be permitted to make a decision to reject feeding through a tube for a patient who is not presently capable of making health care decisions and who has an incurable condition – even if the patient is neither terminal nor in a “persistent vegetative state.” However, the guardian must base such a decision on “clear and convincing” evidence of what the patient wanted. The Court specifically recognized that reliance on oral statements does not have the same presumption of clear and convincing evidence as written declarations. It stated that “the evidence of the patient’s oral declarations [must be] reliable.”
In creating a presumption that an incompetent person would have wanted nutrition and hydration, the proposed bill provides that the presumption is overcome if the patient executed a valid written declaration (such as a living will) specifically rejecting nutrition and hydration in the applicable circumstances. It also allows the presumption to be overcome if “There is clear and convincing evidence that the incompetent person, when competent, gave express and informed consent to withdrawing or withholding nutrition or hydration in the applicable circumstances.” This conforms to the standard mandated by the Florida Supreme Court, but takes steps statutorily to ensure that the evidence of the patient’s oral wishes is indeed “reliable.”
That “reliability” is increased by ensuring that rather than a casual, thoughtless comment, what is required is evidence of a decision that truly constitutes “express and informed consent.” Based on a combination of elements of two Florida statutory definitions of informed consent, the bill provides, “‘Express and informed consent’ means consent voluntarily given with sufficient knowledge of the subject matter involved to enable the person giving consent to make a knowing and understanding decision without any element of force, fraud, deceit, duress, or other form of constraint or coercion. Sufficient knowledge of the subject matter involved includes a general understanding of: (a) The proposed treatment or procedure for which consent is sought; (b) The medical condition of the person for whom consent for the proposed treatment is sought; ( c ) Any medically acceptable alternative treatment or procedure; and (d) The substantial risks and hazards inherent if the proposed treatment or procedure is carried out and if the proposed treatment or procedure is not carried out.”
This is the critical core of the bill’s protections. In a manner that comports with the parameters set forth by the Florida Supreme Court, it assures that when there is no legal document specifying the person’s wishes, only a statement based on a fully informed decision can be interpreted as “clear and convincing evidence” of an intent to reject nutrition and hydration.
3. Since the courts in the Schiavo case maintained there was “clear and convincing evidence” that Teresa Schindler-Schiavo would have rejected nutrition and hydration, how would the proposed bill save her life?
Any bill that hopes to survive Florida court constitutional scrutiny, based on the existing precedents, must allow for “clear and convincing evidence” that a presently incompetent individual wanted to forego nutrition and hydration, even when the person never executed a legal document specifying his or her wishes. However, in order to ensure the reliability of such evidence, a factor whose importance is acknowledged by Florida Supreme Court precedent, the bill requires that to meet the “clear and convincing evidence” standard, it must be shown that the person gave “express and informed consent” to rejecting nutrition and hydration. As noted above, there is a strict standard for what constitutes truly informed consent. The casual and indefinite statements which Michael Schiavo claimed (and the courts accepted) had been made by Teresa Schindler-Schiavo could not plausibly be said to have been made with a knowledge of the medical condition in which she now finds herself that was sufficient “to make a knowing and understanding decision” based on the “substantial risks and hazards inherent if the proposed treatment or procedure is carried out and if the proposed treatment or procedure is not carried out.” Consequently, the presumption the bill creates for the provision of nutrition and hydration would apply to her. See 10/27/2003 column by Wesley Smith, “The Consequences of Casual Conversations.”
4. Does the bill require nutrition and hydration in every instance in which it has not been specifically rejected by the patient?
The presumption for nutrition and hydration does not apply when it is medically impossible to provide it, when its provision would actually hasten death (as might be the case, for example, in some cases of kidney failure), or when the medical condition of the person is such that provision of nutrition or hydration would not contribute to sustaining the incompetent person’s life or provide comfort to the incompetent person (as may sometimes occur, for example, in the final stages of the dying process when death is imminent). To safeguard against abuses of these circumstances, the bill defines an objective standard for the “reasonable medical judgment” required to establish their existence.
5. Some legislators say that since the Florida Supreme Court said denying Terri her food and fluids was a “final judgment”, and the legislature can’t overturn a final judgment, nothing can be done.
In a number of states, legislatures have passed laws allowing inmates on death row to use new DNA evidence to prove their innocence – even though there have been “final judgments” condemning them to death. These are constitutional because even if the legislature can’t overturn a past final judgment of a court, it can pass a law that changes the future effect of a court order that means someone’s death – as long as the person is still alive when the bill is enacted.
"For legal memorandum explaining this point, click here."
FRTL also has a petition for download or printing on prevention of starvation and dehydration.
http://www.frtl.org/petition/Starvation&Dehydration.pdf
You can print this out, garner signatures from friends and neighbors, then send or fax to FRTL. Address on petition.
http://www.frtl.org/
This bill is for all incapacitated Floridians and all who potentially become incapacitated.
Save a life. Prevent state spomsored euthanasia.
He's been offered that very thing, plus much, much more! Still he turns it down.
Thanks for the ping!
Both Presidents Jackson and Lincoln ignored Supreme Court rulings, exercising their own judgment as to what was Constitutional. However, no President has challenged their rulings since then, and to my knowledge, neither has any governor or state legislature done so in connection with their respective high courts. However, that does not mean that Jackson or Lincoln were wrong.
Governor Bush and the Florida Legislature need to draw the line on judicial tyranny.
Our calls and emails are working!
God Bless JEB!
Keep on praying!
We must fight the two-bit corrupt Judicial Tyrant like Greer, the murderous, greedy Michael Schiavo, and his evil crooked shyster.
What did the greedy michael do to cause Terrie's problem in the first place? Word is that he shook her so much that she had brain damage. Just like the child shaken syndrome Can anybody verify this? Also he has kept Doctors from examining her to find out what is wrong, nothing but food and water, no specialists allowed.
He has denied all mediccal help, such as speach therapy, muscular therapy, mental help..........he spent the $1.7 mill on him self! We need to sack the bastard./
Well Gov'nor
You Can send in the State Police to take custody of Terry.
You can remove that scumbag Greer from his lofty tyrannical post.
You CAN intervene in ways that will save this woman's life.
Unfortunately for her it's not politically expedient for you to do so.
Politicians make me sick.
We have not yet, thanks to God, arrived to a point in this nation where we officially starve a disabled person to death.
Unfortunately, that is what is proposed for the disabled Terrie, death by starvaion, they tREAT PRISONERS BETTER THAN THIS LAW ABIDIING CITIZEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!tHEY AT LEAST GET A LEATHL INJECTION, DONE IN SECONDS, BUT WE WANT TERRIE TO STARVE FOR SEVERAL WEEKS? WE HAVE TO STOP THIS MURDER!
Sure hope so! Long, long overdue attention and consideration.
Yes, He is; He's also been watching every iota of every participant's criminal acts of omission or commission of against Terri thus far.
"He's been offered that very thing, plus much, much more! Still he turns it down."
And that alone - much less so many other things - ought to arouse a great deal of suspicion.
- knightshadow.
You are right, we have to keep up the pressure! Thank people too, like the DCF and Jeb Bush and the newsies who have reported accurately. Keep praying, my beads are going a mile a minute when I'm not typing. Keep the negativism to a minimum, we need positive energy flow, but keep the pressure on. Write to mccabe@co.pinellas.fl.us flood his mail box urging he help Terri! I know it is a hoot, but it gets inside the courthouse! Write all of the senators both state and US, it takes time, do 10 at a time. Call that local talk show radio host and state your piece. Go, go, go!!!!! I am against driving and cell phone use, but in this case, have at it.
I'll second that, if he can pull this off he deserves my vote!
He can't do that, dad is tromping around indonesia on a humanitarian mission.
Semper fi! So start e-mailing and calling, this is about vets just like you. Thousands of vets and retirees became wards of nursing homes and retirement centers by signing over their assets in exchange for lifelong care. Terri is leading the charge, get your vets to e-mailing. The guys and today, gals lives are stake in Florida. Get your VFW involved and e-mail McCain, I promise it is easy to do. He is a great source of support, even has an interest in a museum down here. Don't forget your commander in chief.
Frankly, I thank Jeb Bush for his efforts and I have e-mailed him to that effect and I e-mailed his wife for her support of him. He is doing all he can do legally, but he also needs the pressure kept on. Just don't be too rough on him.
Goodnight prayer for Terri!
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