Governor Jeb Bush May Have Found a Way to Help Terri Schiavo

LifeNews.com ^ | February 23, 2005 | Steven Ertelt

[amdgmary]

Tallahassee, FL (LifeNews.com) -- Florida Governor Jeb Bush may have found a method of helping Terri Schiavo, the disabled woman at the center of a national euthanasia controversy.

The Florida Department of Children & Families investigated a way to intervene in the case on Wednesday, just hours after Bush told reporters in a press conference that he would do everything legally possible to help Terri's parents prevent her estranged husband from starving her to death.

Details of just how DCF would get involved were not yet available, according to an Associated Press report.

Also on Wednesday, Circuit Court Judge George Greer extended a stay preventing the starvation until Friday so the Schindlers could have two more days to take care of additional appeals and legal motions.

However, Judge Greer prevented a DCF representative from being able to speak at the afternoon hearing.

The news had Terri's father, Bob Schindler, hopeful again.

"We are really elated," Schindler told AP. "Forty-eight hours to us right now seems like six years. We pray to God and we thank God that we have some time and our very, very thankful that DCF has picked this up."

However, euthanasia advocate George Felos, the lead attorney for Michael, criticized the Bush administrations latest efforts saying it "reeks of the intervention of politics into the case and is an affront to the court."

DCF may have gotten involved, according to Felos and Schindler attorney David Gibbs, because of a bone scan conducted on Terri after she collapsed 15 years ago.

Though they were never investigated, because local authorities said they were too old to go into, DCF may be alleging that Michael abused Terri to cause the physical head trauma the scans displayed.

Terr is alleged to have made statements before the collapse to her family and friends that she was unhappy in her marriage, but Michael has denied hurting her.

In a press conference Wednesday, Bush said he was exploring every legal possibility to again prevent Terri from being starved to death. He called the effort a "work in progress."

"I can assure you, I will do whatever I can within the means, within the laws, of our state to protect this woman's life," Bush said Wednesday. "I won't go beyond that."

The governor said he has received thousands of calls and emails from supporters of Terri and that he and his staff are working with attorneys at the legislature to devise a solution.

"People with deep faith and big hearts are concerned, as I am about the circumstance that Ms. Schiavo is in," the governor continued. "I want them to know I will do what I can, but there are limits to what any particular person -- irrespective of the title they currently hold -- can do."

[Conservatrix]

The reason why he simply does not divorce her is some life insurance money he is going to get if her gets to kill her.

I hope Hell has a cavern hot enough and deep enough for this rotten devil to go to once he meets his own end!

[From many - one.]

I'vew been suggesting for a while that they hook Terry up to lie detectors or whatever and ask her:

Do you want to live?

Do you want to die?

Do you love your mother (or other positive thing)

Did your husband hurt you?

JUST. Ask. Terri.

How can we get someone to do this?

[Mamzelle]

Taking someone off a respirator is one thing--exactly how is the media going to treat the circumstance of starving someone to death? That does not happen very fast.

[Mamzelle]

Wonder which life insurance company has insured Terry? They have a dog in this fight, too.

[Salvation]

BTTT!

[Saundra Duffy]

The Honorable Jeb Bush
Governor of Florida
FAX # 850-487-0801

Subject: Terri Schiavo

Dear Governor Bush:

Thank you for saving Terri’s life AGAIN!

Thank Goodness that you are stepping in to save Terri from another starvation/dehydration attempt on her life.

Terri has been subjected to neglect and abuse all these years and it was starting to look as if she and the Schindler’s were going to be subjected to yet another attempt to kill her.

What is Terri doing in a hospice in the first place? She’s not terminally ill. Isn’t that illegal?

As a woman, I am horrified that Michael Schiavo has been acting as if Terri is his personal property to be disposed of and toyed with according to his whims. Is this America?!

Thank you again for stepping in. Please let this be the last fight the Schindler’s will have to fight to save their daughter from a painful horrific torturous death.

God bless you.

Sincerely,

[Darnright]

>Isn't it bizarre that liberals fight almost to the death to save vicious killers from death row but pull out all stops to starve this poor woman, who has done nothing wrong, to death?<

A greater irony, is the fact that the average liberal thinks being starved and dehydrated for up to 2 weeks is a good death. However, suggest the electric chair, which is at least very quick, as a form of capital punishment, and the liberals have a collective hissy fit.

We mustn't be cruel to Mumia, but let's all work to torture the inconvenient and the disabled.

[Theodore R.]

Wonder which life insurance company has insured Terry?

Could it be the Jodi Centonze insurance agency? I still prefer to spell it "Centzone" because they are after big bucks but will take cents if that is all they can get.

[TigersEye]

"People with deep faith and big hearts are concerned, as I am about the circumstance that Ms. Schiavo is in," the governor continued. "I want them to know I will do what I can, but there are limits to what any particular person -- irrespective of the title they currently hold -- can do."

He means there are limits to what any person can legally do. This sounds to me like an admission that when any arm of the government can find a way to legally justify murder there is nothing that can be done to stop it or rather that no one in office will be willing to stop it.

An act of civil disobediance by a Governor would carry a lot more weight than a thousand average citizens defying the law.

Besides, the FL Constitution guarantees the protection of life for every citizen regardless of physical disability. Can the Governor allow a court to break that primal law on the basis of procedural inadequacies?

[CedarDave]

...exactly how is the media going to treat the circumstance of starving someone to death?

What a silly question. The media is going to do what it always has in this case --- use the key words "persistent vegetative state", "severely brain-damaged" woman, kept alive "against her wishes", "loving husband", etc. Do you expect them to do anything else but regurgitate the press party line on this?? They will just take the old news copy, put a new date on it, update the first couple of lines and put it out to the hoodwinked public. But what they continue to learn is that the internet blogs and forums are gaining on them in the truth and accuracy department plus being ahead of them with breaking news information. See the thread highlighted below:

Blogging Revolution May Help Save Terri’s Life

(p.s. -- not belittling you or your question)

[MadAnthony1776]

If they allow him to have his way it should have the following stipulation. Once they pull the feeding tube he can not have food or water until she passes away. Maybe then he'll realize what an a$$h*le he is and the suffering he put her through. It might be enough to make him change his mind and for him to take a different course of action.

[RS]

"...she is RESPONSIVE and communicative"

I haven't followed this at all, but if she could open and close her eyes on her own, I would think they could have some kind of "code" that allows her to communicate in some fashion other then what people have to interpret as communication.

[Ethan_Allen]

To: 1stFreedom
"I can assure you, I will do whatever I can within the means, within the laws, of our state to protect this woman's life," Bush said Wednesday. "I won't go beyond that."

Please show me state or federal law that allows Bush to send armed National Guard soldiers to the hospital to fend off anyone who comes near her?
_________________________________________________________

2004 FLORIDA STATUTES

CHAPTER 776

JUSTIFIABLE USE OF FORCE

776.012 Use of force in defense of person.--A person is justified in the use of force, except deadly force, against another when and to the extent that the person reasonably believes that such conduct is necessary to defend himself or herself or another against such other's imminent use of unlawful force. However, the person is justified in the use of deadly force only if he or she reasonably believes that such force is necessary to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm to himself or herself or another or to prevent the imminent commission of a forcible felony.

History.--s. 13, ch. 74-383; s. 1188, ch. 97-102.

776.031 Use of force in defense of others.--A person is justified in the use of force, except deadly force, against another when and to the extent that the person reasonably believes that such conduct is necessary to prevent or terminate such other's trespass on, or other tortious or criminal interference with, either real property other than a dwelling or personal property, lawfully in his or her possession or in the possession of another who is a member of his or her immediate family or household or of a person whose property he or she has a legal duty to protect. However, the person is justified in the use of deadly force only if he or she reasonably believes that such force is necessary to prevent the imminent commission of a forcible felony.

History.--s. 13, ch. 74-383; s. 1189, ch. 97-102.

http://www.flsenate.gov/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=Ch0776/ch0776.htm

[Ethan_Allen]

Sorry, that post was for you.

[Ethan_Allen]

776.08 Forcible felony.--"Forcible felony" means treason; murder; manslaughter; sexual battery; carjacking; home-invasion robbery; robbery; burglary; arson; kidnapping; aggravated assault; aggravated battery; aggravated stalking; aircraft piracy; unlawful throwing, placing, or discharging of a destructive device or bomb; and any other felony which involves the use or threat of physical force or violence against any individual.

History.--s. 13, ch. 74-383; s. 4, ch. 75-298; s. 289, ch. 79-400; s. 5, ch. 93-212; s. 10, ch. 95-195.

http://www.flsenate.gov/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=Ch0776/ch0776.htm

That phony judge [ http://www.theempirejournal.com/0219056_gov.htm ] is threatening Terri with several of the above.

[Ethan_Allen]

I need to regroup and reboot my computer, so I can't do a search right now, but there must be a statute or two about impersonating a public official, particularly a judge who has the capability to cause the loss of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

[atruelady]

Nobody is allowed to ask or do anything for Terri.

The scumbag HINO is keeping any assistance away from her illegally in a hospice all this time.

[KidGlock]

the person is justified in the use of deadly force only if he or she reasonably believes that such force is necessary to prevent the imminent commission of a forcible felony.

So now we are back to the "asinine" statement I made earlier.

And you wonder why I thought you were the type to to advocate taking a gun to an abortion clinic?

You are mentally deficient, 1stFreedom, if you don't see where your line of reasoning ends.

[jackibutterfly]

"I'vew been suggesting for a while that they hook Terry up to lie detectors or whatever and ask her:"

I LOVE your idea; however, it will never happen as long as Michael is her guardian. Remember, he has a guard posted at her door, and no one gets to visit her unless he says so. Monster!