Posted on 03/20/2005 2:52:24 PM PST by Jean S
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Senate passed a bill that could prolong Terri Schiavo's life while a federal court considers her case while House Republicans, stymied by Democrats, scrambled to bring enough lawmakers back to the Capitol for an emergency vote early Monday.
GOP leaders planned a House vote just past midnight, hours after the Senate approved the bill by voice vote. President Bush rushed back from his Texas for a chance to sign the measure.
The plan had been for the House to act first and then the Senate to pass the House version. But with Democrats forcing a delay in the House, the Senate went ahead and passed its own, identical, version by unrecorded voice vote.
That means the House will be acting on the Senate-passed bill, still enabling the legislation to be hurried to Bush for signature into law.
The White House said the president would act as soon as the measure reaches him.
"We ought to err on the side of life in a case like this," said White House spokesman Scott McClellan. Asked about a bill that would cover a single person, he said, "I think most people recognize that this case involves some extraordinary circumstances."
Lawmakers who left Washington on Friday for the two-week Easter recess had to make abrupt changes in plans, backtracking for a dramatic and politically contentious vote.
Democrats expressed sympathy for the severely brain-damaged Florida woman and for the plight of her family. But they also accused Republicans of ramming through constitutionally questionable legislation to satisfy the agenda of their conservative allies.
In a special session Sunday afternoon, Democrats refused to allow the bill to be passed without a roll call vote.
Under House rules, such a vote could not occur until Monday, thus the plans for a vote at 12:01 a.m. Monday at which at least 218 of the 435-member House must appear. Also, because it was an expedited vote, the measure needed votes from two-thirds of those present for passage.
The House has 232 Republicans, 202 Democrats and one independent.
The legislation would give Schiavo's parents the right to file suit in federal court over the withdrawal of food and medical treatment needed to sustain the life of their daughter.
It says the court, after determining the merits of the suit, "shall issue such declaratory and injunctive relief as may be necessary to protect the rights" of the woman. Injunctive relief in this case could mean the reinserting of feeding tubes.
"It gives Terri Schiavo another chance," Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., said after the late-afternoon voice vote in a near-empty Senate chamber. "It guarantees a process to help Terri, but does not guarantee a particular outcome."
Frist also noted that the bill, responding to some Democratic objections, does not affect state assisted suicide laws or serve as a precedent for future legislation.
Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., said members scattered across the globe were being summoned back to Washington by aides to House Majority Whip Roy Blunt, R-Mo.
Blunt's office sent a notice to members on their handheld computers Friday to be prepared to return to Washington on Sunday, said spokeswoman Burson Taylor.
In emergencies, when that does not work, the whip's office activates a phone tree, where one member is charged with calling the next. "We do anticipate a quorum," she said.
Smith added, "It should come as no surprise to any members reading a newspaper or watching TV. Smith canceled an official trip to Albania to escort Schiavo's brother, Bobby Schindler, to Capitol Hill press conferences Sunday.
The Democratic whip, Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said his office was informing members of the vote and not discouraging them from returning to the capital. But he said the party was not counting votes and was telling members to vote their conscience on the issue.
Schiavo has been in a persistent vegetative state for 15 years. Her feeding tubes were removed Friday afternoon at the request of her husband, who says that his wife expressed to him before she fell ill that she did not want to be kept alive under such circumstances.
House and Senate committees at the end of the week issued subpoenas seeking to force the continuation of treatment, but that move was rejected by a Florida court.
Schiavo could linger for one or two weeks if the tube is not reinserted, as has happened twice before.
Republicans defined their extraordinary efforts in the context of the sanctity of life: "A society is judged by the way that it treats its most vulnerable citizens," said Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind.
"No person in America should be deprived of the right to life without due process of law and Terri Schiavo is no different," Pence said.
But Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., spoke of "the manifestation of a constitutional crisis" where Congress, for ideological reasons, was ignoring the separations of power written into the Constitution.
Republicans distanced themselves from a memo suggesting GOP lawmakers could use the case to appeal to Christian conservative voters and to force Democrats into a difficult vote.
"I hope we're not ... making this human tragedy a political issue," Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., told ABC's "This Week." "We've got plenty of other issues that are political in nature for us to fight about."
AP-ES-03-20-05 1721EST
This story can be found at: http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBPGFETJ6E.html
Why did the Sheriff Rice, best buddies with Greer, hire Michael Schaivo as a jail nurse instead of investigate him, as requested by citizens of Florida?
There are people who have agendas and doing the right thing, doing their jobs, evidently takes a back seat.
Or do you ignorantly believe that Rice, best buds, with Greer, associated with Felos, who was on the Board of Directors of the Hospice where Terri was put, are all innocents?
THen why is this the diagnosis? Then why hasn't this come to light in all the years of court battles? If she is not in a PVS, then why isn't it demonstrated to anyone outside of those on the parents' side. It was found, by independent doctors, she is PVS.
Because, repeatedly stating she's in PVS kicks in the "right" to remove Terri's food via a tube, the law that got put into place, by Michael Schaivo's lawyer, George Felos, with the help of Jim King, AFTER TERRI COULD NOT STATE HER WISHES. When Terri could talk, could state her wishes, food and water was NOT even considered ARTIFICIAL LIFE SUPPORT.
Lacking a living will it does seem a bit shocking but if you consider that it is the spouce that normally makes the call in these cases then it isn't all too shocking.
I don't know what to make of the husband. On one hand if what he says about this being his wife expressed desire then it seems that he is doing the loving thing and making sure her wishes be carried out despite what her parents might want. However, having read all the things about his refusing some basic care and rehab on the outside chance that she could improve seems to say that he is anything but loving. So what does that leave? That he wants her to die for the sheer sake of his hatered. Or that he stands to gain monetarily if she is dead.
I have heard it stated that he does stand to gain but I have not seem that in any official sense. Many here have said as much but they never seem to provide any documentation to support that assumption.
Also, if her does get some money how much can possibly be left?
Michael Schiavo is part of a conspiracy to commit murder. I'm not sure the act itself can be pinned on any one individual, since the murder in this case is itself not a single identifiable act. If someone is stoned to death, it may not be possible to identify any particular stone that cause the first mortal wound, but the throwers collectively certainly kill their victim. Likewise with those who actively prevent Terri from receiving water from those who would offer it.
She did not meet the Florida law definition of PVS - but Greer didn't care as long as the docs used the buzzword.
A good a guess as any
Either they are innocent or this is one big conspiracy to which many are aware of but none are able to prove or bring sufficient evidence forward to even get a grand jury to hear.
If you have any evidence to back up your accusations then please bring them to the attention of the authorities so this travesty of justice will come to an end.
September 11, 2001. NYFD rushed in the savaged World Trade Center Towers. A courageous and valient struggle to save lives.
The people working inside those buildings stuggled against all odds to live and to save their fellow-co-workers.
Flight 93 Passengers bravely did what needed to be done to save lives. A fight so that others live.
Today we are bearing witness to another struggle to live. A handicapped woman abandoned by her husband is starving to death by judicial decree. This is a fight for the right to live.
They have been brought. You're looking at the good old boy network of Pinellas County.
Silly man haven't you been listening her husband the judge his lawyer the doctors the juries the state of florida hospice and I m many more conspiritors all stand to gain financially and if not financially it furthers there culture of death agenda.
I am sick after hearing about the amount of money that was supposed to go to treat Terri and how it was all eaten up between MS and the lawyers....this is disgusting, this woman's tragedy was used as a way for all these losers to stuff their pockets! THIS HAS TO BE SORTED OUT IN FEDERAL COURT! I think many people besides Schiavo are afraid of what will be dug up when a legal representative for Terri gets at these records. We can't let this happen...PRAY everyone!
Has there ever been a group of professionals more given to pessimism, to finding the blackest cloud to every silver lining, than medical doctors?
There has not. It's a survival tactic. By casting every situation in the blackest possible shadow, buy finding doom and gloom in the cheeriest piece of evidence, doctors cover their collective derrieres against someone--anyone--who might try to assert that a doctor gave them false hope.
I've been around a lot of doctors, many of them technically brilliant. I have learned to heavily discount their doom and gloom pronouncements. I know what motivates them, and I discount them.
Have you seen the pictures and Videos????
The only type of lawsuit for which anyone would have standing would be a guardianship challenge. Greer seems to deem the guardianship challenge irrelevant, notwithstanding Michael's clear violations of the guardianship statutes.
Proper sequence of events should be (1) File guardianship lawsuit; (2) HINO gets replaced with honest guardian; (3) honest guardian has standing to file motions to protect Terri. But the Great High Omnipotent Unstoppable Lord Almighty George Greer (GHOULAGG) has decreed that Michael is a perfect guardian, probably in part because any other guardian would complain that GHOULAGG hasn't properly handled Terri's accounts.
Are these cases still pending or have they been decided?
I guess I need to add the "good old boy network" of Pinellas County to my ever growing list of conspirators.
By court-appointed doctors...
I'm done "talking" with you. Play your games with someone else.
a guardian ad litem is not a lawyer, she never had a lawyer and that is why she is in this mess. The congress is trying to give her her 14th amendment right to due process because she has not had any up to this point.
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