Posted on 03/01/2005 4:34:44 PM PST by churchillbuff
Attorneys for Terri Schiavo's parents are hoping for the best, but preparing for the worst.
Even as they fight to extend Schiavo's life beyond the March 18 date that her feeding tube is scheduled to be removed, lawyers also filed motions Monday on her last rites and on whether Schiavo will be cremated or buried.
Lawyer David Gibbs III, representing Schiavo's parents, asked the court for several days of total hearing time to argue numerous motions, including other filings to get Schiavo experimental treatment and to remove her husband as her guardian.
In all, about a dozen emergency motions were filed Monday, though Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge George Greer declined to hear several. Most of those he agreed to consider at a future hearing deal with end-of-life issues.
Greer has not yet scheduled a hearing date. He will consider all pending motions in one afternoon.
Gibbs said he will appeal Greer's decision against scheduling a motion on matters dealing with a number of things, including efforts to remove Michael Schiavo as his wife's guardian and obtaining experimental treatment for Terri Schiavo.
"Our goal is to do everything we can to defend the parents' position that, No. 1, Terri is not in a vegetative state, and No. 2, she should not be killed in this fashion," Gibbs said.
George Felos, an attorney for Michael Schiavo, dismissed the latest filings as a delay tactic.
"I think they're just trying to inundate the trial judge with a lot more paper and frivolous motions," Felos said.
Among the motions filed Monday that Greer has agreed to consider are those that would:
--Prevent Michael Schiavo from having his wife's remains cremated. He has previously indicated in court papers that he is considering cremation.
--Allow Schiavo, a Catholic, to receive the last rites of the church. Felos said Michael Schiavo has never barred his wife from receiving the last rites, though the parents dispute that.
--Allow select media to visit Schiavo with the family to "memorialize and celebrate her life and the unity of their family bond."
--Let Schiavo die at her parents' home rather than at a hospice.
--Allow Schiavo's feeding tube to be clamped shut rather than removed to provide for less trauma.
--Allow Schiavo's family free access to visit her as she dies, saying members were barred from visiting her the last time feeding was stopped in 2003. Felos said the family was free to visit her in 2003.
--Give the parents permission to videotape or photograph their daughter to preserve "precious memories."
--Appoint a medical witness to oversee the removal or clamping of Schiavo's feeding tube.
Schiavo has been in what some doctors call a vegetative state for 15 years. Her husband and parents have been battling in court over her fate for nearly seven years.
In other news Monday, Bishop Robert N. Lynch, head of the Diocese of St. Petersburg, issued a statement urging the two sides in the Schiavo case to come together to negotiate one last time to resolve their differences.
"I beg and pray that both sides might step back a little and allow some mediation in these final hours," Lynch said.
Last week, a Vatican cardinal known for his outspokenness said he opposed the removal of the feeding tube, the first time a Vatican official has spoken publicly about the case.
"I beg and pray that both sides might step back a little and allow some mediation in these final hours," Lynch said.
Unless this quote by Bp. Lynch was taken out of context, it doesn't sound like he's going to bat for Terri very strongly!
ping
Bishop is greased up and bent over, is he not??
Sickening. For context, I am married to a devout RC. She sent him a letter of admonishment. Pray for his repentance.
Are you suggesting he's one of the lavendar types who are so numerous in the modern American Catholic clergy? I know nothing about him myself -- except that his quote doesn't suggest he's trying very hard to defend Terri, who's one of his flock.
It sounds a lot like Bishop Lynch is siding with the Culture of Death.
Prayer ping.
What would St Peter Do?
Some of these motions have a chance of being granted, but the Schindlers are basically down to a strategy of throwing everything against the wall and hoping something sticks.
The Bishop will have to account for this failure to speak out for one of his flock when he stands in judgment.
But, Jeb still has the National Guard option.
The Bishop, all the judiciary and appellate courts but in particular the judge, the media, the people who voted to return the judge to office, the insurance companies, Michael of course and his lawyers, any doctor who doesn't agree with the zealots, the public, the legislature, Jeb Bush at times, GW Bush, the attorney general (both state and federal), any LEO who keeps activists away and any FReeper who doesn't agree with the zealots. I'm sure there are others.
This has got to be one of the biggest conspiracy of all time.
Has Judge Greer flatly refused to allow oral feeding and hydration, despite the fact that such measures would almost certainly provide substantial pallative relief.
He's just not going to do that. The battle will either be won or lost in the courts, not with military muscle.
Jeb already did that when all the hurricanes hit.
The solution isn't to bring in troops to NOT enforce the law. The solution is to change the law, or certainly to provide more safeguards so that we don't have a repeat of this situation later.
It does not, however, allow the simultaneous prohibition of oral food and hydration.
Further, Judge Greer's rulings are predicated on findings of fact which are only tenable by viewing any evidence which favors them in an absurdly favorable light and any evidence which goes against them in an absurdly unfavorable light. Unfortunately, the fact that Greer's rulings are only 99.43% contradicted by the evidence allows them to be upheld on appeal.
...continuing to keep Terri in my prayers...
I don't recall anything in the Florida statute that implied that. Maybe it was in a different provision, but I was reading it over the weekend, and it used them in the same sentence.
The findings of fact are a different matter, and while I'm not quite sure he's wrong on exactly 99.43% of them, significant questions remain in my opinion which justify far more inquiry and testing. The courts, though, are where factual determinations are made in contested matters.
It is forbidden to withhold oral food and hydration so as to cause death. If gastrostomic feeding is discontinued, a reasonable person would have to believe that continued withholding of oral food and hydration would cause death.
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