Posted on 03/10/2005 12:22:56 PM PST by amdgmary
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) -- A judge ruled Thursday that the state's social services agency cannot delay the removal of the feeding tube keeping brain-damaged Terri Schiavo alive.
The Department of Children & Families had asked for a 60-day delay in the removal of the feeding tube, now scheduled March 18. The agency said it wanted time to investigate allegations of abuse and neglect by the woman's husband, Michael Schiavo.
But Circuit Judge George W. Greer ruled that the agency's attempt to get involved at this point was inappropriate and "appears to be brought for the purpose of circumventing the court's final judgment ... in violation of the separation of powers doctrine."
Michael Schiavo's attorney had criticized the last-minute attempt by DCF to get involved, saying that it was engineered by Gov. Jeb Bush and others in the state government who support the plight of her parents who are trying to keep her alive.
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Michael Schiavo has gotten a court order to remove the feeding tube, contending that his wife told him she wouldn't want to be kept alive artificially. A 1990 heart attack cut off oxygen to her brain for five minutes, leaving her in what the court has ruled is a vegetative state with no consciousness. She breathes on her own but depends on a tube in her abdomen for food and water.
But her parents doubt she had those end-of-life wishes and are trying to block removal of the feeding tube.
The judge's ruling was another major blow to Bob and Mary Schindler, who have fought their son-in-law in court for nearly seven years over their daughter's fate. They dispute that she is in a persistent vegetative state, saying she laughs, cries, interacts with them and tries to speak when they visit her at her hospice.
The DCF said it wanted to investigate accusations against Miachel Schiavo - who is her legal guaridan - that included denying his wife some medical treatment and therapy, isolating her in her room with the blinds closed, failing to fix her broken wheelchair and failing to file timely guardianship plans.
In his order, Greer noted that those and many other allegations have been investigated in the past and failed to yield any evidence of abuse and neglect by Michael Schiavo.
Other than trying to appeal judge's decisions that have gone against them this week, the Schindlers will look again to the state Legislature and perhaps the U.S. Congress for help. Both bodies have bills in the works that lawmakers say could save Terri Schiavo's life.
In Tallahassee Wednesday, a House committee approved a bill requiring doctors to provide nutrition and hydration to incapacitated patients who didn't leave an advance directive. It still needs approval from two more committees before facing the full House.
Bush, who has said he would do anything within his power to save Terri Schiavo, supports the bill.
The governor in October 2003 pushed a law through the Legislature authorizing him to resume the woman's artificial feedings six days after the court stopped them. The law subsequently was ruled unconstitutional by the state Supreme Court.
On Tuesday, U.S. Rep. Dave Weldon and U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez, both Florida Republicans, introduced legislation in Washington that could give the Schindlers access to federal courts in the effort to save their daughter's life. Their bill requires that incapacitated people who don't leave advance directives have attorneys appointed to give the case a full review before artificial life support is terminated.
"In March, 2002, Michael Schiavo and his attorney, George Felos, secretively relocated Terri Schindler-Schiavo from the Palm Gardens Nursing Home to the hospice without court order and without notifying her parents.
George Felos also conveniently forgot to give notice to the court and her parents, Mary and Robert Schindler Sr. that he was chairman of the board of directors at the Hospice at the time and had been since at least Jan. 31, 1997 and perhaps earlier."
Simply ignoring the order - by feeding her - and getting a contempt charge would keep Teri alive, and further minimize legal liability.
Tell that to the police should you be arrrested for breaking the law.
ROTFLMAO! Here we agree!
And YOUR family lives where? NJ? Someplace where they'd have access to your grave?
Ping to #600.
Ever hear of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.?
I think we celebrate his birthday, or something....
We are to BELIEVE that a strikingly beautiful 26 year old, seriously wanted to be STARVED and CREMATED???????
I have no idea where my kids will end up living when they are grown. I have told them, however, to not take up residence in NJ when they get out of college. It's too crowded, too expensive, too corrupt,... Both hubby and I like Big Sky country. Maybe that's where we'll choose our final resting place.
Absolutely. If a law is seriously IMMORAL, we have a DUTY and an OBLIGATION to oppose it. The success of many of the Nurenberg trials were based on that belief.
Mary you said "we". What is Schiavos point of burying her where none of her family lives anymore? Don't you think it might be spiteful in nature?
That's "Nuremberg."
Not at all. Some people are cremated and their ashes strewn to the wind. They have no grave at all for loved ones to visit.
C'mon. You're more savvy than that. You know exactly why he's doing it. We've talked enough for me to know how smart you are.
No, I'd really like to hear this. I've read some real whoppers.
I have a big problem about that out of state burial thing. Let's just say for the moment that Michael *does* have Terri's best interests at heart. He said she would want to be cremated because she dislikes bugs. Ok, let's go with that. Terri moved down to Florida, and had a life there. Her parents and siblings moved there. She was living with her husband there, and had a job and made new friends there. What is the purpose of burying her ashes in PA?
The Schindlers have always been a close family. Terri's parents are old, and probably unable to travel extensively. The Schindlers fought long and hard for Terri's life. I say let them have some closure and healing. Throw them a bone, for heaven's sake.
One of the biggest sources of pain from 9/11 is that a majority of the victims' families have nothing of their loved ones to bury, and visit. That's why so many still come to Ground Zero. The families feel that the site is the final resting place of their missing loved ones. There's a lot to be said for having a place to go, to grieve a deceased loved one.
I don't think Terri would want to add to her family's pain. I think she would want the location of her remains to be accessible to them. As I said before, they are a close-knit family, and I think she would consider their feelings. Who stands to benefit from Terri's remains being in PA? She would be dead and reduced to ashes - no principle of privacy rights would apply here.
Some have mentioned a concern that Terri's burial site would become a shrine, if it was to be in Florida. I contend that if it's destined to be a shrine, it would be one in PA just as easily as it would be in Florida. People actually come from all over to pay their respects to United Flight 93 victims in an open field in Shanksville.
If the so called "right-to-die" is such a hard-nosed, spiteful, and cold thing, why on earth do so many Americans buy into it? Michael, Judge Greer, and laywer Felos, are not exactly being good poster boys for the cause, are they?
Hey, that's a good point. Did Michael say he intended to be buried with Terri, or something?
You make a lot of sense. However, I sense that things have gone so far that neither side is capable of doing what is best.
Yes! And this principle succeeds due to the fact that there is a pre-existing natural law, to which we morally owe our allegiance.
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