Posted on 03/02/2005 6:22:20 AM PST by amdgmary
Most marriage vows don't include murder. Love and honor in sickness and health, yes. Starve to death, not usually.
It is a shame that one must use a qualifier, but the case of a Florida man who wants his wife to die from lack of food and water defies the most basic notion of marriage. The ineptitude of judges in Florida only compounds this travesty of justice.
On Friday, a court order expired that prohibited Michael Schiavo from depriving his disabled wife, Terri, of food and water until she dies. Terri is not able to feed herself, so she relies on a tube to be connected to her stomach during mealtimes to provide her with nourishment.
Terri does not require any other means of life support. She is not in a coma, and for years, she has been able to breathe on her own. Videos of her at www.terrisfight.org depict a woman who can open her eyes, move her head, smile and even laugh. All of her organs work properly, despite the fact that she has received minimal medical care and no rehabilitation while her husband - acting as her legal guardian - has sought to end her life for the past few years.
Michael has multiple conflicting interests regarding his wife's care and should be immediately removed as Terri's legal guardian. If the judicial system fails to protect the innocent woman, and the state of Florida won't step in to defend her inalienable rights, only one option remains to prevent a terrible injustice from staining America. Citizens must adopt non-violent means of civil disobedience to ward off attempts against her life.
Ironically, 15 years before the day she might have been sentenced to death, Terri was rushed to the hospital after collapsing at home. Doctors were unable to determine a cause, but Terri's brain was damaged due to a lack of oxygen. Since then, she's fought for her life, often against her husband.
Michael maintains that it is his wife's wish for him to remove the feeding tube, saying there is no hope for her recovery. He says that if Terri is dying, she has the right to die peacefully and without pain. But she is not dying, and she is not in pain. There is also significant evidence that shows that Terri is not in a persistent vegetative state, and several doctors who contend and are willing to assist in her rehabilitation.
But the fact is Michael gave up on his wife years ago. According to CNN, he openly admits to fathering at least one child with his current girlfriend, and there are numerous reports that he has had other girlfriends, all while maintaining his legally married status. Obviously, he has no real intention of acting in Terri\'s best interest, or he would not have betrayed her in such a way.
After pleading before a medical malpractice jury that he would take care of his wife for as long as she lived in fulfillment of his marriage vows, Michael was awarded money to pay for Terri's medical care and rehabilitation. He has since spent most of it on attorney's fees and court costs in attempts to end her life.
Wesley Smith, attorney for the International Task Force on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide, wrote that both Michael Schiavo and the judge presiding over Terri's case, George Greer, have failed to comply with Florida state laws regarding the actions of a legal guardian. Michael has repeatedly ignored the requirement to file a plan for her care and the judge has allowed him to remain as Terri's guardian despite the legal mandate. "This means Michael has no legal authority over her," Smith said.
Starving Terri to death could be very painful for her based on her current level of brain activity, according to Dr. Marc Siegel of New York University Medical School. Dr. Siegel also sees a problem with the proposed action.
"In a terminal situation, it's certainly reasonable for a physician to treat suffering first, even if it accelerates dying. But it is not reasonable to withhold creature comfort (including food)," Dr. Siegel writes.
The path to dehumanizing entire groups of people begins when a single innocent person is denied the right to live.
Once an individual is denied the rights of life, the door to refusing those same rights to entire subgroups opens, even if just a crack. That is why what happens to a woman 1,000 miles away should matter to the students at Texas A&M and the rest of America.
If there was ever a case for civil disobedience, ladies and gentleman, this is it. Terri has fought to live for this long, it is time she had some help. You may never again have the opportunity to do something so great with such little effort. For a woman unable to, stand and be counted; speak and be heard.
Ping. A very good commentary by a student at Texas A&M University.
bttt
If michael shiavo does succeed in murdering his wife , through the partiality of the "inept" greer-at least their reputations will not survive. Had her murderous spouse succeeded in 1995 or earlier , no one outside of Florida (and only a few there) would ever have known about this travesty. But thanks to the internet, that is no longer the case. Biased media figures brought down....a blatant attempt to steal the election in 2000, foiled....and the reputations of michael shiavo, judge greer, felos, and judi centonze , ruined...all because of the internet.
Thank you for the article.
It is good to see that this reporter or student gets the point ,why it is worth the fight.
God bless him,Terri and her family.
Joshua Dwyer.................well said! Someone finally gets it!
You can say that again, since the court obviously thinks that cruel and unusualy punishment is unconstitutional they should see that it is the same in the Terri Schiavo case.
I'm extremely frustrated...these obvious facts keep being printed, but people in authority who could actually do something about Greer's conflict of interest situation, Michael's probable criminal activity, and the injustice of what is happening to Terri are still, for the most part, remaining quiet and still...as though they're hoping if they stay in one spot long enough, this problem will go away. WHERE ARE THE PEOPLE WHO CAN DO SOMETHING, AND WHY AREN'T THEY...NOW!
A lovely thought when discussed amongst FReepers who get it, but in the hands of the "separation of church and state" whackos, who would define such a clause? After all, if freedom of choice is the ticket to justify abortion, where would the lines be in defining cruel and unusual? I think being subjected to homosexual rhetoric is cruel and unusual. I think anything "politically correct" is cruel and unusual as it is completely against my beliefs. However, imagine that I am strongly in the PC camp, I'm a lesbian who's dyin' to get married to my 'partner' of however long and we want to adopt - an added clause to the constitution would just give that entire crowd more ammunition because, as with things we all thought were sacred, they can twist it and claim it all to their benefit.
Right on! I guess if Terri were under 18 and a had murdered her family she would be allowed to live! Cruel and Unusual my ass! Maybe we need international opinion, since the Supreme court did take interntional opinion into consideration regarding not executing murderers under 18!Certainly international opinion would be for not starving Terri!
BTTT
Thank you -- I'm printing it out to read more closely.There are basic gold nuggets of truth that need to be brought out and repeated at every opportunity. These are the two I see:
1) Terri is responsive. The Schindlers and others including, but not limited to, an RN and two attorneys, have told of her responding in their visits. Most recently, notably, and humorously, the account that I will try to post below of Terri responding to the auditory and visual stimuli of atty. David Gibbs.
To deny or ignore the above information is to call those eyewitnesses liars. I did not hear anyone call Mr. Schindler a liar at the Jax press conference. H'mmm.
2) Terri's current guardian has denied Terri the ordinary care that any other patient in her condition would be allowed to have, in things big and little. I'm not even referring to rehabilitation or therapy here -- the denial of which is incomprehensible to me -- but ordinary daily care given to any other patient in her condition.
It is a travesty and unacceptable that she is a virtual prisoner in her little room (described here) and is not allowed out in a wheelchair; that her cards, flowers, personal items are removed or refused; that she has not had the mandated swallow tests since ___ . I hope CD and others will add to this w/their knowledge and experience.
Interestingly, the video clips that showed on our Jacksonville TV stations after their press conference here included the one of Michael taking Terri out to the park, pointing out the ducks. This relates to both #1 and #2.
No comment . . . you know what I mean.
Folks, load up and get to Florida....if this isn't stopped, it could be you or your family next.
More than that, though, is the fact that IF allowed to go to her parents and obtain rehabilitation, she may someday be able to communicate. If that happens, the truth behind how she ended up where she is will come out. Michael is absolutely hell bent on keeping her PERMANENTLY shut up.
The second factor in him playing "Cover my ass" is the fact that the money he obtained "for Terri" was received under false pretenses. I can't fathom an insurance company NOT demanding the money back - can you?
It's easy - if she dies, he gets to keep her money (does anyone know if a life insurance policy may also be involved here??), he gets to bury the secrets of what *really* happened to her, and he gets to marry his mistress/mother of his children. It's a win/win/win for him. Actually, I'd be surprised if he marries his mistress - after all, he may qualify for some federal dollars as a widower! He's obviously got Greer in his pocket and his attorney is just lovin' the huge amounts he's billing and the spotlight. I'd look for the lid to blow off this many years from now - someone will admit to having transferred vast sums of money into Greer's offshore accounts. How else can anyone explain the madness he's perpetrating??
It's sick, sick, sick!!!
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