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Posted on 03/21/2005 2:45:19 PM PST by AntiGuv
PINELLAS PARK, Fla. (AP) -- Armed with a new law rushed through Congress over the weekend, the attorney for Terri Schiavo's parents pleaded with a judge Monday to order the brain-damaged woman's feeding tube reinserted.
U.S. District Judge James Whittemore did not immediately make a ruling after the two-hour hearing, and he gave no indication on when he might act on the request.
The hearing came three days after the feeding tube was removed. Doctors have said Schiavo could survive one to two weeks without the tube.
During the hearing, David Gibbs, an attorney for the parents, said that forcing Terri Schiavo to die by starvation and dehydration would be "a mortal sin" under her Roman Catholic beliefs.
"It is a complete violation to her rights and to her religious liberty, to force her in a position of refusing nutrition," Gibbs told Whittemore.
But the judge told Gibbs that he still wasn't completely sold on the argument. "I think you'd be hard-pressed to convince me that you have a substantial likelihood" of the parents' lawsuit succeeding, the judge said.
George Felos, one of the attorneys for husband Michael Schiavo, told Whittemore that the case has been aired thoroughly in state courts and that forcing the 41-year-old severely brain damaged woman to endure another re-insertion of the tube would violate her civil rights.
"Every possible issue has been raised and re-raised, litigated and re-litigated," Felos said. "It's the elongation of these proceedings that have violated Mrs. Schiavo's due process rights."
Terri Schiavo's feeding tube was removed at 1:45 p.m. Friday, the third such time she had begun what Felos described as "her dying process." On both previous occasions, the tube was re-inserted by court order.
"A final thought, if dying of starvation and dehydration is such a fine way to go, why don’t we use it on criminals and pound dogs?"
RK - my response to Terri's death by dehydration will be to lobby for this for criminals.
Children-!
Each to your prospective rooms/corners/keyboards!
BearWash - There is a higher law - and when that higher law spoke He reminded us what our duties are under the law.
Williams - You may not understand a higher law other than logic. Yet there is a time when logic will fail us because as humans we are willing to fool ourselves.
You are both right. Two sides of the same coin. Both ideals are what are the country was based upon.
Over time, and tears, and even a war the people clung together. Even when we hated what the other person stood for and thought sometimes, they were in fact evil personified. Why: Because we are a Republic.
BearWash - Your higher law would dictate you be willing to die if need be if you chose to violate the law. Not that you couldn't - because you have Free Will - but that you accept the outcome.
Williams - You may not like it, but that Higher Law guides you, too. Because you make decisions on right and wrong - though you phrase it logically.
Now I'll take my soapbox and go home for lunch. I think I hear my mommy calling me. (humor.)
Whereabouts in Maine? Don't need a city. I was a Loring for 6 years.
Sorry. Didn't mean to bring in 'chat'room talk. Just saw your name.
The judge should have laughed this moron lawyer out of his court. Moreover, our ancestors used to tar & feather such charlatans. Civil rights violated....how about Terri's civil right to live?
Terri, no matter how many judges have condemned her to death, has struggled to live. She continues to survive. The fate her husband and agreeable judges is worse than putting an acquitted man through another trial...isn't that double jeopardy?
This is the 3rd time a man's cruel death sentence has fallen upon her innocent head.
That's what I'm picking up from the article.
I've never heard such "reasoning" before. Ludicrous.
He's supposed to apply the law objectively. The legislature hands him a law, that's what binds him, not the prospects of future litigation.
I accept your intervention. Thank you.
YOU NAILED IT!!!!
....Yes i agree entirely. No. terri certainly should not be a martyr she hasn't chosen to be one and this has nothing to do with dying for religion. But yes, historically many early Christians considered martyrdom to be the best way to go, and they happily chose death over acknowledging the pagan gods, even just saying it with crossed fingers to save themselves. But I'm not claiming they were all happy to die.
The same people would not offer a drink of water to Terri.
What is taking this judge so long to decide? Decide on the side of life.
Reverse of another question.
Reason number one is because unlike warm, cozy, brown doe-eyed furry creatures to many people, people themselves are the lowest form of life.
Reason number two is that unlike criminals who would glady allow criminal behavior (for a piece of the take - let's be reasonable) your normal average person is thought to be too stupid to warrent the proper care and feeding.
Reason number three is they just do not like people who do not think like they do and consider people not like themselves a very direct threat.
I reversed the asking to 'why don't they,' which I think [hope] is what you were really asking.
Did anyone suggest to the judge the possibility of inserting an IV as a temporary measure?
Or, for that matter, allowing her parents to dribble a little water on her tongue?
He's probably hoping to time things so that Terri is permanently and severely harmed by dehydration but not totally killed.
Even if he times it wrong, he wants to ensure that he dehydrates her enought that if she shows signs of conciousness when rehydrated he can claim it was the dehydration that did it, rather than merely being the fact that she was no longer stifled.
Looks like we've got another hard-hearted, hard-ass judge. Judge Whittemore. And damn her stupid lawyers for being so ineffective.
yes, sleep on it and then head to the club for breakfast and a round of golf...life for a judge is hell...
Torie,
I have an allergy to: Needles of any sort, poison of any salt, too much sunlight or darkness, too much noise or silence, breathing underwater, mud, dry land or anything in between.
Can I get a note from my mother to NOT attend the field trip?
Sorry. My sick humor just creeps (I'd say slither, but I will FOREVER associate that with those cretins if Florida) out. Sometimes.
Her parents are not allowed in her room now.
Those who have tried (even just symbolically) to give her food or water have been arrested.
Not quite accurate. Won't say false, because you're not being false, so PLEASE do not think I'm saying that.
Christians throughout history have 'resisted.'
When they spoke of Christ - it was OFTEN against the law.
When they met in secret - it was ALWAYS against the law.
When they accepted Jesus - it was often KNOWING they'd be considered criminals, deviants, pervertors of law and such before they even accepted them. This act alone made Christians threats to governments then and now.
The difference is Christians are to understand that there is an earthly price to pay.
They (we/I) sometimes, in the heat of the moment, forget that while Christ was falsely accused, he died under the law.
It doesn't say we're to always accept the law as some would say - because we're instructed there is a higher law.
It also doesn't say we can ignore the law and say God said it was okay.
(sOMEONE'S GONNA TAKE MY SOAPBOX AWAY AND HIDE IT.)
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