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
If a patient can produce any response demonstrating cognition in response to any stiumulus, with a frequency above chance, the patient is not PVS. In some cases on non-PVS patients, identifying a stimulus and response may take a very long time and yet be unmistakable once found.
As a hypothetical examine, imagine a patient with almost no sensory abilities except the left pinkie and no motor abilities except breathing. Such a patient might easily be diagnosed PVS, but suppose a doctor tapped his pinkie and the person took an unusually quick breath, then paused, and then resumed normal breathing. Possibly reflex. Suppose the doctor taps the pinkie three times and the patient responds shortly thereafter by taking three quick breaths, pausing, and resuming normal breathing. Suppose this is tried with two taps, and five taps, and four taps, yielding similar results. Such a finding would prove the patient not to be PVS.
What a diagnosis of PVS really means, quite simply, is that the person making the evaluation has given up on finding any stimulus/response combination that would demonstrate cognition and disprove the diagnosis. Based on the amount of time spent examining Terri, it's clear Michael's doctors didn't try very hard.
"Terri is brain dead"
That is a lie. If you believe that, then you are very ignorant of this case.
I haven't been playing games.
What I have been doing is trying to point out to you and others that for all your emotion in this case that you are failing to apply any reason or logic to your arguement.
If you would just simply say that you are opposed to the removal of Terri's feeding tubes on moral grounds then your case is a strong one.
When you try to convince me and others that through all the court proceedings and doctors diagnosis and application of the law that some giant conspiracy is afoot for monitary gain and the furtherence of the culture of death agenda then you just come off as some nut job with a agenda of his own.
Stick with the right to life and moral grounds issue and you will further your cause.
Just my two cents.
Thank you for discussing this with me tonight.
Democrats...
Does this "Constitutionally questionable legislation" compare in any way to democrats' creation of the Federal Reserve, an agency through whose actions the economy has been systematically looted for 6 decades?
On a related subject, can we end the government-sponsored embezzlement of Social Security funds, if you please...
Sounds like a perfect idea.
I wish reason and common sense would preval and that this would be the outcome.
Reminds me of country song "Ain't no way we'll never change, we will always be the same, there ain't nothin like livin' with the good ole boys." Statler Brothers? It was back in the 70s.
mtbopfuyn wrote, "I've just started reading the posts on this particular thread and am confident by the end others will have torn you to shreds. Bu-bye."
I would like to think that most FReepers are adult enough not to tear someone to shreds because they have of a difference of opinion. We are adults, right? :)
You are so supposedly sensitive to God that you won't countenance an organ being played in church, yet you don't pick up beans about real evil?
Since when does a state judge have the authority to order the death by starvation of a U.S. citizen?
Cordially,
Very good post. Thank you. :)
You will have to go back and read my posts because I too have said that I think this is wrong and Terri should not be starved to death.
I am pro-life.
Would it make you feel any better if I jumped up in down and histerics and accused everyone in this case of lying and breaking the law and conspiring to have someone killed?
The rats say that too
I can't site any other cases but this is the third time in Terri's case that a judge has exercised such authority and with impunity I might add.
Do I think it is right? No.
"You will have to go back and read my posts because I too have said that I think this is wrong and Terri should not be starved to death.
I am pro-life.
Would it make you feel any better if I jumped up in down and histerics and accused everyone in this case of lying and breaking the law and conspiring to have someone killed?"
Apparently you will have to do just that. LOL I've read this thread, and I get what you're saying but some either can't understand it or don't want to. Nice try though. :)
What a diagnosis of PVS really means, quite simply, is that the person making the evaluation has given up on finding any stimulus/response combination that would demonstrate cognition and disprove the diagnosis.
I suspect they don't want to.
I figure most Freepers are pretty smart however it seems that emotions have blinded them to reason.
This is a terrible thing and should not happen. The same can be said for abortion but it happens every day.
We will all have to answer to our maker for actions in this life.
LOL! Perfect.
Yes, it is a terrible and sad situation. I can't for the life of me understand how someone could withhold food and water from that poor woman. If she was being kept alive only due to modern technology, that would be a different argument. But IMO, Judge Greer and her "husband" gave her a death sentence using starvation and dehydration as a rope. That being said, I also understand the arguments on the other side of the issue, especially those who are concerned about Congress getting involved. But I cannot throw stones at either M. S. nor Terri's parents. I can only know what is reported and both sides of their own version of the "truth". Prayers for Terri....
I would say that sticking a feeding tube into someone stomach is modern technology.
Years ago she would have died on her own not being able to swallow.
I have read where a nurses aid and maybe even Terri's parents said she can swallow but I wonder if that is true.
Does anyone know how long her feeding tube has been there?
Was it placed there immediately following her collapse?
No, the previous orders allowed the guardian to starve her to death. This court order to starve a U.S. citizen to death was given by the judge ACTING AS TERRI'S PROXY.
Cordially,
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