Right hook
About that right to life
By Michael Lafferty
http://www.newsreview.com/issues/reno/2005-03-10/hook.asp
Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn’t mean politics won’t take an interest in you.--Pericles, 430 B.C.
http://www.terrisfight.org/
http://www.leg.state.nv.us/NRS/NRS-449.html#NRS449Sec830
Witness one Terri Schiavo, a Florida woman who collapsed in 1990 when a chemical imbalance due to an eating disorder caused her heart to stop beating, leaving her paralyzed. The courts have ruled that she is in a persistent vegetative state. Yet, Terri is not brain-dead and requires no extraordinary means to be kept alive. She breathes without assistance, and her heart and organs all function. All she needs is food and water.
For the past seven years, her parents, Robert and Mary Schindler, have been locked in a legal battle with Terri's husband, Michael. Michael is perhaps the lowest form of New Jersey pond scum on the planet. He wants to starve his wife to death.
Claiming that Terri wouldn't have wanted to live in her present condition, he has been attempting to get court approval to murder his wife by removing the feeding tube that keeps her alive. This, despite the fact Terri had no written advance health care directive specifically stating she'd prefer death to her current condition.
An advance health care directive is a written statement that specifies how you want medical decisions made. The two most common forms are a "living will" and a "durable power of attorney for health care."
The Schindlers have offered to care for Terri if Michael would simply divorce her. Michael has moved on with his life. He is currently engaged to another woman with whom he now has two children. Yet, there is the matter of the $1 million-plus personal-injury award to cover Terri's care. (What would Claus von Bulow do?)
According to the New York Times, it wasn't until after the money was paid that Michael recalled Terri's "clearly stated desire" to be removed from life support--assuming a feeding tube could be classified as such.
Yet, in his most recent order, Pinellas Circuit Court Judge George Greer writes: "Five years have passed since the issuance of the February 2000 order authorizing the removal of Theresa's Schiavo's nutrition and hydration, and there appears to be no finality in sight to this process."
You may note that five years of litigation is not nearly enough to bring "finality to the process" and end the lives of murderers squatting on death row. Experts predict that convicted murderer Scott Peterson has a good 20 years of appeals before his appointment with a needle. Yet, the same people who want to kill Terri believe that death-row cases are never final, no matter how many courts have ruled, but a helpless woman on a feeding tube is another matter.
The judge then proceeded not only to set the date but actually ordered the tube pulled. "Therefore, it is ... ordered and adjudged that absent a stay from the appellate courts, the guardian, Michael Schiavo, shall cause the removal of nutrition and hydration from the ward, Theresa Schiavo" [emphasis added].
In the absence of an advance health-care directive, you might think the courts would err on the side of life, which Americans have a constitutional right to, except, apparently, in Florida.
On Dec. 8, 2004, deputies from the Washoe County Sheriff's Office booked one Kristine Fosdal on a number of charges, the most serious being 10 counts of starving an animal (specifically, dogs). Bail was set at $20,620.
On March 18, at roughly 1 p.m. EST, Terri Schiavo will begin court-ordered starvation. No bail required.
For more information, visit www.terrisfight.org.
For information on advance health-care directives in Nevada, visit www.leg.state.nv.us/NRS/NRS-449.html#NRS449Sec830.
The life you save may be your own.
bttt
Lawmakers wade into Schiavo case again
Support for a House bill is aimed at her situation and broader end-of-life issues.
By Maya Bell | Miami Bureau
Posted March 10, 2005
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/state/orl-locschiavo10031005mar10,1,5094651.story?coll=orl-home-headlines&ctrack=2&cset=true
TALLAHASSEE -- Florida lawmakers re-entered the debate about Terri Schiavo's fate Wednesday, as a key House committee approved a bill aimed at restricting a guardian's ability to cut off food and water to an incapacitated person.
But unlike the last time they passed a law to prevent the badly brain-damaged woman from dying, legislators aren't in nearly as much of a hurry, even though Terri Schiavo's tube is due to be removed in just eight days.
"If we just turn out a bill just to turn out a bill that's not well-thought-out, we're not going to get anywhere," House Speaker Allan Bense said Wednesday. "I don't think we're doing a service to Terri by ginning it quickly and getting it out of here in a helter-skelter fashion."
Lawmakers said they were looking for a solution that would pass legal muster and deal not just with Schiavo, but with broader end-of-life issues raised by her plight, particularly whether medically supplied food and water should be defined as medical treatment, as it has long been.
One possible course of action was the bill approved by the House Health Care Regulation Committee on Wednesday. The measure, sponsored by Rep. Dennis Baxley, R-Ocala, would prevent a guardian from withholding food and water from an incompetent person unless the person spelled out that he or she didn't want to be tube-fed.
Michael Schiavo, Terri's husband, is her guardian. He says he is trying to honor his wife's wishes not to be kept alive artificially, but her parents contend their daughter never had such wishes and could improve with rehabilitation.
Baxley said it was unclear whether this broader law, which contains a provision making it retroactive, could or would be applied to Terri Schiavo's case. But he said that was his hope.
"When did we ever decide that it's OK in this society to starve someone to death?" Baxley said. "If I have it my way, we'll get it done by March 18."
That's the date Pinellas Circuit Judge George Greer has set for the removal of the tube.
On Tuesday, Terri Schiavo's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, were dealt another loss in the long-running legal battle when Greer denied two more of their motions, including one that asked for new medical tests to determine if the 41-year-old woman has more brain activity than previously thought.
The Department of Children & Families, meanwhile, also argued before Greer that the agency should be allowed to intervene to investigate allegations of abuse, but the judge did not rule on that issue.
In Tallahassee, Bense and Senate President Tom Lee both said this week they were exploring what they characterized as limited legal options.
The last measure, called "Terri's Law," which allowed Gov. Jeb Bush to bypass a court ruling and restore her feeding tube in October 2003, was declared unconstitutional by the Florida Supreme Court.
Lawmakers approved it in less than 24 hours.
At the time, Schiavo's feeding tube had been removed for six days, making the matter much more urgent for some lawmakers. With Schiavo still on the feeding tube at this point, the Legislature is moving much more slowly, at least for now.
Two more committees must hear Baxley's bill (HB 701) before it will reach the House floor, something that lawmakers said is unlikely to happen until the middle of next week.
A similar bill has been filed in the Senate but has not been scheduled for any committee hearings.
Mike Allen, a constitutional-law professor at Stetson University Law School, said Baxley's bill could not be legally applied to Schiavo's case. The reason: In striking down Terri's Law, Allen said, the Florida Supreme Court found that the trial-court order directing the withdrawal of her artificial nutrition and hydration was a final order.
"The Florida Supreme Court's decision on Terri's Law was so clear that this was the final determination of the judicial branch and, short of the judicial branch changing its mind, that decision forecloses any legislation," Allen said. "Once we have a final court order, we're done."
But Rex Sparklin, a lawyer who is working with legislators on behalf of Schiavo's parents, predicted the bill would pass legal scrutiny.
"The family certainly hopes the bill will pass and is grateful to the Florida Legislature for being courageous in looking at protections for the disabled citizens of Florida, including Terri Schiavo," Sparklin said.
Mark Hollis of the Tallahassee
bureau contributed to this report.
Sean Mussenden can be reached
at smussenden@orlandosentinel.com
or 850-222-5564. Maya Bell can be
reached at 305-810-5003 or
mbell@orlandosentinel.com.