Posted on 03/19/2005 12:31:03 AM PST by bd476
PINELLAS PARK, Fla. - With a furious legal and political battle raging outside her hospice room, doctors removed Terri Schiavo's feeding tube Friday after a judge rebuffed an unprecedented attempt by Congress to keep the brain-damaged woman alive.
Schiavo, 41, could linger one to two weeks without the tube, provided no one intercedes and gets it reinserted — as happened twice before.
Late Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court (news - web sites), without comment, denied an emergency request from the House committee that issued the subpoenas to reinsert Schiavo's feeding tube while the committee files appeals in the lower courts to have its subpoenas recognized.
Republicans on Capitol Hill used their subpoena power to demand that Schiavo be brought before a congressional hearing, saying removing the tube amounted to "barbarism." The attorney for Schiavo's husband shot back at a news conference, calling the subpoenas "nothing short of thuggery."
"It was odious, it was shocking, it was disgusting, and I think all Americans should be very alarmed about that," George Felos said.
The judge presiding over the case ruled in the husband's favor early Friday afternoon and rejected the request from House attorneys to delay the removal, which he had previously ordered to take place at 1 p.m. EST. Felos said Michael Schiavo was at his wife's side shortly after the tube was disconnected.
Meanwhile, Republican congressional leaders said in a statement that they planned to work through the weekend to try to save Terri Schiavo's life.
The removal of the tube signals that an end may be near in a decade-long family feud between Schiavo's husband and her devoutly Roman Catholic parents, Bob and Mary Schindler. The parents have been trying to oust Michael Schiavo as their daughter's guardian and keep in place the tube that has kept her alive for more than 15 years.
Michael Schiavo says his wife told him she would not want to be kept alive artificially. Her parents dispute that, saying she could get better and that their daughter has laughed, cried, smiled and responded to their voices. Court-appointed physicians testified her brain damage was so severe that there was no hope she would ever have any cognitive abilities.
"This is what Terri wanted. This is her wish," the husband said late Friday, making his first comments after the tube removal on CNN's "Larry King Live." He said he was angry that "government has just trampled all over my personal life."
The family is still hoping for a long-shot legal victory to have the tube re-inserted.
It is unclear how much time the family will have. The effects of such feeding tubes being removed can be seen by the third or fourth day, when the patient's mouth begins to look dry and the eyes appear sunken. From days five to 10, respiration becomes irregular with periods of very fast and then very slow breathing. By the final days, kidney function declines, toxins begin accumulating in the body, and multiple organ systems fail from lack of nutrition.
Court-appointed doctors have said Schiavo will not feel any pain given her state, but her parents' doctors dispute that.
Several right-to-die cases across the nation have been fought in the courts in recent years, but few, if any, have been this drawn-out and bitter.
The case has garnered attention around the world and served as a rallying cry for conservative Christian groups and anti-abortion activists, who flooded members of Congress and Florida legislators with messages seeking to keep Schiavo alive.
Outside Schiavo's hospice, about 30 people keeping vigil dropped to their knees in prayer when word spread of the judge's ruling calling for removal of the tube.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan said President Bush (news - web sites) discussed the case with his brother, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, and members of the state's congressional delegation during his swing through Florida on Friday to discuss Social Security (news - web sites) reform.
"We're continuing to monitor developments," McClellan said. "The president believes when there are serious questions or doubts in a case like this that the presumption ought to be in favor of life."
Gov. Jeb Bush said the judge's decision "breaks my heart" and noted that it often takes two decades for a death row inmate's appeals to go through the system.
"There's this rush to starve her to death," Bush said.
But Rep. Henry Waxman (news, bio, voting record) of California, senior Democrat on the Government Reform Committee, called the subpoenas a "flagrant abuse of power" and said they amounted to Congress dictating the medical care Terri Schiavo should receive.
"Congress is turning the Schiavo family's personal tragedy into a national political farce," Waxman said.
Schiavo suffered severe brain damage in 1990 when a chemical imbalance apparently brought on by an eating disorder caused her heart to stop beating for a few minutes. She can breathe on her own, but has relied on the feeding and hydration tube to keep her alive.
Both sides accused each other of being motivated by greed over a $1 million medical malpractice award from doctors who failed to diagnose the chemical imbalance.
The Schindlers also said that Michael Schiavo wants their daughter dead so he can marry his longtime girlfriend, with whom he has young children. They have begged him to divorce their daughter, and let them care for her.
The tangled case has encompassed at least 19 judges in at least six different courts.
In 2001, Schiavo went without food and water for two days before a judge ordered the tube reinserted when a new witness surfaced.
When the tube was removed in October 2003, her parents and two siblings frantically sought intervention from Gov Jeb. Bush to stop her slow starvation. The governor pushed through "Terri's Law," and six days later the tube was reinserted.
That set off a new round of legal battles which culminated in September 2004 with the Florida Supreme Court (news - web sites) ruling that Bush had overstepped his authority and declared the law unconstitutional.
On Feb. 25, Circuit Judge George Greer gave Michael Schiavo permission to order the removal of the feeding tube Friday.
"I have had no cogent reason why the (congressional) committee should intervene," Greer told attorneys in a conference call Friday, adding that last-minute action by Congress does not invalidate years of court rulings.
The attorney for the parents said he would likely file a new appeal early next week with a federal appeals court. He also said he hoped lawmakers in Washington or Tallahassee could agree on legislation that would force the tube to be reinserted. Similar efforts have failed in the past.
"I'm hopeful these men and women can get a strategy, get a focus, because we're running out of time," said attorney David Gibbs.
Politics aside who would ever imagine allow someone who had survived a bout of polio to become President of the United States? FDR
This situation is appalling! The state is entering a hospital and executing a patient who has committed no crime.
I can't come to grips with the logic of those who allow this to happen.
"...someone who had survived a bout of polio..."
Some people are still living in iron lungs, 50 years after contracting polio:
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Ranch/5212/ironlung.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3182096.stm
http://www2.indystar.com/articles/7/225327-5037-052.html
Yada yada...we all know that the GOP doesn't have the stones to take action. If they are convinced that a wrongful act is being committed then they should send in the federal authorities and intentionally create a constitutional crisis. This is one issue that should be heard by the US Supreme Court.
The left is in a state of panic that they are on the way to losing one of their most cherished "rights", the right of one person to make life and death decisions about another person who is in no position to make those decisions themselves. This is much bigger than Terri, her murderous husband, and a corrupt judge. This is about protecting abortion-on-demand.
That is precisely what is happening. Michael Schiavo, meanwhile, will face no reprisal and no investigation for his role in causing Terri's condition. Once she's gone (and I hope and pray this does not happen this week), the only one who could ever testify against him is out of the picture. If his motives were otherwise, why would he not simply divorce her and let her go home to the mom and dad and siblings who love her so much?
This is Darwinism at its finest.
Oh I'm sorry.. I thought the federal government was to uphold the constitution.. you know the one...the right to LIFE???? because saving a woman's life is a violation of state's rights..? get out of here death troll....
Has anyone asked him that extremely good question?
"Terry Schiavo is a person we must never allow to be murdered by the same bunch of people who organize candle light vigils for people on Death Row."
This statement portrays the morality of the left. Brutal murderers have their sympathy, but not helpless, innocent women and babies. If Terry dies, it will be another issue which will figure into the failure of the Democratic party which represents the left in the US and it will damage the Republicans, as well, if they do not move to stop this.
A) Michael, did you have anything to do with this? Multiple fractures? History of trauma?
B) Is this indicative of how you treated your wife?
Even if she really did have an eating disorder (which is in doubt), that in itself prompts a question?
C) Michael, would you get nasty toward your wife because of her weight? Why otherwise would she feel the need for an eating disorder of the sort that would deny nourishment?
This guy should be investigated thoroughly before the state goes any further in supporting his attempts to murder his wife.
Some doctors say she will nhot feel any pain and others say that she will.
I wonder if her husband or her parents can ask that she be given ample amounts of narcotics to ensure that she does not experience any pain just in case seeing as how no one can say for certain.
It is the least and I do me the least anyone can do and I sure hope that even as barbaric as starving someone to death is and how evil her husband might be that he would not want her to suffer her final days.
Or if he truly is that evil that her parents can in some legal way at least give that little bit of comfort to their dying daughter.
However, KILLING her MIGHT!
The issue of her choking and whether she can or cannot swallow her own saliva is relevant as to whether she can be given oral morphine. It's criminal that they removed her feeding tube since nurses could have administered pain relieving medication there.
Executing innocent people for no reason other than their state of health seems to me to be a major threat to both constitutional law and civilization.
Very much Agreed!
(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
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