Posted on 03/21/2005 5:25:35 AM PST by Brilliant
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The fate of a brain-damaged Florida woman went back to the courts early on Monday after President Bush (news - web sites) signed emergency legislation aimed at prolonging the life of Terri Schiavo.
Bush signed the legislation at 1:11 a.m. (0611 GMT) after extraordinary intervention by lawmakers that drew Congress back from Easter recess and into a bitter family dispute as it tried to circumvent years of state court rulings.
A federal judge in Tampa was considering early Monday morning whether to reinsert the feeding tube that had been removed from the 41-year-old woman Friday, CNN reported.
David Gibbs, a lawyer for Schiavo's parents, filed a lawsuit and a request for a restraining order with the federal court as soon as Bush signed the bill in Washington, CNN said.
Bush had cut short a Texas vacation and flown back to Washington to be available for an immediate signing.
"Today, I signed into law a bill that will allow federal courts to hear a claim by or on behalf of Terri Schiavo for violation of her rights relating to the withholding or withdrawal of food, fluids, or medical treatment necessary to sustain her life," Bush said in a written statement.
The House of Representatives passed the measure 203-58 shortly after midnight following three hours of debate. The Senate cleared it unanimously Sunday.
"We are very, very thankful to have crossed this bridge," Suzanne Vitadamo, Terri Schiavo's sister, said after the House vote. "We are hopeful, we are very hopeful, that the federal courts will follow the will of Congress and save my sister's life."
Schiavo's husband and legal guardian, Michael Schiavo, said he was outraged by the government's intervention.
"It's a sad day for Terri and it's a sad day for everybody in America because the government is going to trample all over your personal and private matters," he said on NBC. "This is an outrage. They have no business in this matter."
Speaking on CNN, he vowed to fight on in the courts.
The measure gives U.S. District Court in Tampa, Florida, jurisdiction on a case that has been taken up by Republican congressional leaders and galvanized activists on both sides of the emotional end-of-life issue.
EMOTIONAL DEBATE
Several Democrats objected, calling the legislation a political exploitation of a tragic family matter that undermines Florida courts and states' rights.
But House Republican leader Tom DeLay of Texas said: "This is not a political issue. This is life and death, and this is a bipartisan attempt to save this life."
Schiavo has been fed through a stomach tube since a heart attack starved her brain of oxygen in 1990, leaving her in what the courts declared was a persistent vegetative state.
Michael Schiavo has long argued -- and has been supported by the courts -- that his wife would not have wanted to live in such a condition.
The tube feeding has twice been halted and resumed in the past amid legal wrangles. Until now, federal courts have turned the case back to state courts.
Schiavo was expected to survive for one to two weeks without it at the Florida hospice that cares for her.
Schiavo's parents say she is responsive and can be rehabilitated. Her father, Bob Schindler, told CNN he spoke with her about going out to breakfast after the vote.
"I got a big smile out of her face, so help me God," he said. "She seemed to be very pleased. And we're pleased."
House members who scattered for a two-week recess were called back to Washington for the late-night session.
Despite the sudden notice, 261 of the House's 435 members voted, and gave the measure well over the two-thirds majority required under the streamlined procedure.
In the House debate, Republican Rep. James Sensenbrenner, the Judiciary Committee (news - web sites) chairman, said Florida's courts were "enforcing a merciless directive to deprive Terri Schiavo of her right to life."
But Rep. Barney Frank (news, bio, voting record), a Massachusetts Democrat, said lawmakers were voting according to their own ideological bias, not necessarily in Schiavo's interest.
"I don't know what her wishes were, but neither do any of you," he said.
Courts don't issue "instant" orders. They insist on evidence, they have hearings, require briefings, etc. I'm not surprised it wasn't done instantly, particularly since "instantly" was in the middle of the night.
On the other hand, I'd be surprised if any relief is granted. It seems like it would be very easy for this judge to simply rule that the bill authorizing his jurisdiction is a bill of attainder, and hence, is unconstitutional.
And yet, I'd say that a federal court has jurisdiction to hear a case relating to Terry's due process rights, even before Congress passed the law last night. So maybe we'll get lucky, and the court will use that as a basis for intervening.
The court could have issued an emergency order in the middle of the night. It happens all the time. That order could only be in effect ten days before another hearing must be held. The fact the judge let the lawyers leave the courthouse and did not rule quickly is not a good sign. I hope I'm proven wrong.
RIGHT TO DIE????
Title should be - US Federal Court Reviewing Right-To-Kill Case.
If you abstained from food and liquids for that period of time, I hope you were very healthy to begin with.
***Why would the conversation have led to the distinction between "life support" and "feeding tubes"? ***
That distinction has bothered me all along. Many of us have said that if we are truly brain dead and have absolutely no signs of life, we'd rather not be hooked up to a machine. But how many of us would want to be starved to death when we are conscious and can feel the pain?
The judge was also assigned by random computer choice according to one account.
A preliminary injuction so she won't suffer is fitting here.
It might be good that this is a Clinton judge, finding her a federal right would not be originalist. OTOH Clinton judges often rule against whatever the Republicans want. We'll see, she may "get off on a technicality". Which, sadly, is all I can see to hope for.
LAst night Wasserface said that he had spent all his own "loss of consortium" money won in the malpractise. I suspect that most of the money allocated for her care and therapy was spent on legal fees to kill her. There is not likely much left over and he could stand to receive the remiander at her death. The longer she lives, the more he loses.
She wasn't healthy. She had lost more than a hundred pounds very quickly and had anorexia and bulimia. As is common in people with eating disorders, she had a dangerously low potassium level. People with eating disorders like that do have heart attacks.
LAst night Wasserface said that he [Michael] had spent . . .
What you're talking about is a TRO or preliminary injunction. I wouldn't say it "happens all the time" but it does happen. You're still required to have some evidence, though. The papers must include a sufficient affidavit, and a bond. Without those, I don't think he could have done it without a hearing.
I fast for 5 days a couple of times every year. However, I don't do without fluid.
There might be an insurance policy....or other assets. As long as he is the husband, he would probably inherit other assets via intestacy statutes and the Parents would be cut-off from her assets. If Terri and Michael owned a home, as tenants by entireties or joint tenants....the husband would get it by operation of law when she dies. Joint brokerage accounts, IRA's, 401k....anything with a beneficiary designation would go to him. It's hard to imagine 20-somethings would have had much, but could be a factor.
Either he should allow her hydration / food while he studies the case......or he should be denied food and water while he studies the case. Something tells me that denying him food and water would focus his mind appropriately.......
Does anyone have a list of the 58 representatives who voted no?
"Does dapper dan Michael Schiavo get more money when she dies?"
I am wondering the same thing. Wonder how much life insurance he took out on her life??? BTW -- isn't his mistress in the insurance business?? This HINO is as guilty as Scott Peterson and OJ. AND if he gets his wish of Terri's cremation immediately after she dies and no autopsy, we will never know how she got into this condition, and the HINO will have destroyed all evidence against him. HE WILL GET AWAY WITH MURDER!!!
Here you go.
http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2005/roll090.xml
I read some of that but couldn't go on; it was making me ill. That absurd left-wing hyperbole, spawn of the Vietnam anti-war protests, has gone on to the point where no rational person takes it seriously any more.
I fast for 5 days a couple of times every year. However, I don't do without fluid.
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puck puck puck... cluck cluck cluck... Chicken !!! -))
Exactly. As a general principle the body can do without food for a much longer period that it can without liquids.
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