Posted on 03/22/2005 9:19:02 PM PST by ambrose
Lawyer: Schiavo Ruling Expected Soon
By JILL BARTON Tuesday, March 22, 2005
TAMPA, Fla. - Warning that Terri Schiavo was "fading quickly" and might die at any moment, her parents begged a federal appeals court Tuesday to order the severely brain-damaged woman's feeding tube reinserted.
The appeals court didn't indicate when it might rule, but George Felos, the attorney for Terri's husband, Michael Schiavo, told the Associated Press that he expected a decision before daybreak Wednesday.
An attorney for parents Bob and Mary Schindler said in a court filing that the 41-year-old woman might die before they could get a chance to fully argue their case that her rights are being violated. The appeal came after a federal judge in Tampa rejected the parents' emergency request.
"Where, as here, death is imminent, it is hard to imagine more critical and exigent circumstances," lawyer David Gibbs III said in the appeal filed electronically with the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta. "Terri is fading quickly and her parents reasonably fear that her death is imminent."
Even before the parents' appeal was filed, Michael Schiavo urged the 11th Circuit not to grant an emergency request to restore nutrition.
"That would be a horrific intrusion upon Mrs. Schiavo's personal liberty," Felos said in the filing. He filed a response to the Schindlers' appeal and said he would go to the U.S. Supreme Court if the tube were ordered reconnected.
The Schindlers have been locked for years in a battle with Schiavo's husband over whether her feeding tube should be disconnected. State courts have sided with Michael Schiavo, who insists his wife told him she would never want to be kept alive artificially.
Late in the afternoon, the Schindlers arrived at the hospice, and Terri's mother again pleaded with state lawmakers to save her daughter's life.
"Please, senators, for the love of God, I'm begging you, don't let my daughter die of thirst," Mary Schindler said.
With that, she broke down and was escorted away.
In court documents, the couple said their daughter began "a significant decline" late Monday. Her eyes were sunken and dark, and her lips and face were dry.
"While she still made eye contact with me when I spoke to her, she was becoming increasingly lethargic," Bob Schindler said in the papers. "Terri no longer attempted to verbalize back to me when I spoke to her."
The feeding tube was disconnected on Friday. Doctors have said Terri Schiavo could survive one to two weeks without water and nutrients.
Louise Cleary, a spokeswoman at Woodside Hospice, said she could not discuss Terri Schiavo's condition for reasons of privacy.
Over the weekend, Republicans in Congress pushed through unprecedented emergency legislation aimed at prolonging Schiavo's life by allowing the case to be reviewed by federal courts.
However, early Tuesday, U.S. District Judge James Whittemore of Tampa rejected the parents' emergency request under that legislation to have the tube reconnected, saying they had not established that they would probably prevail at a trial on their claim that Terri Schiavo's religious and due process rights have been violated.
Bobby Schindler, her brother, said his family was crushed.
"To have to see my parents go through this is absolutely barbaric," he said on ABC's "Good Morning America." "I'd love for these judges to sit in a room and see this happening as well."
By mid-afternoon, about 75 protesters gathered outside the hospice, virtually all of them upset with Whittemore's decision. They carried signs and shouted through bullhorns, and a Catholic Mass was celebrated. One woman was arrested for trespassing after trying to bring Schiavo a cup of water.
Among those supporting the federal judge's decision was Richard Avant, who lives down the street from the hospice and carried a sign reading "Honor her wishes."
"We represent the silent majority, if you look at the polls," Avant said. "We agree that Congress overstepped their bounds."
The Bush administration "would have preferred a different ruling" from the federal judge, White House press secretary Scott McClellan said in Albuquerque, N.M., where the president was visiting a senior center. "We hope that they would be able to have relief through the appeals process."
The Justice Department also filed a court statement, saying an injunction was "plainly warranted" to carry out the wishes of Congress to provide federal court jurisdiction over the case.
Unless the feeding tube is reinserted, the department said, Schiavo may die before the courts can resolve her family's claims. "No comparable harm will be caused" by letting Schiavo live while the case is reviewed, the filing said.
At the same time, Howard Simon, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, praised the ruling. "What this judge did is protect the freedom of people to make their own end-of-life decisions without the intrusion of politicians," he said.
Terri Schiavo suffered brain damage in 1990 when her heart stopped briefly from a chemical imbalance believed to have been brought on by an eating disorder. Court-appointed doctors say she is in a persistent vegetative state with no hope of recovery.
Her parents argue that she could get better and that she would never have wanted to be cut off from food and water.
Sure, she MAY feel pain, so let her die of dehydration. That is the most stunning and revealing argument I've heard yet.
This is exactly what's taking place. The courts and judges are circling the wagons to protect the power they have usurped from the Executive and Legislative branches, the power to make and enforce law.
For the last half century these two branches, because they have to stand for election and answer to the people, have shirked their duties on most of the tough moral issues and let activists judges who did not have to answer to the people do their job for them.
Now we have and have had a Judiciary that has become dictatorial and out of control making and enforcing it's law apart from the other two or the people, without any restraint or oversight.
If they don't act to rectify this soon and slap some judges hands it will be too late if it is not already.
So you would be happy with keeping her alive but in constant pain?
Go away. You do not need to come to the rescue of your comrades. Either rebut what I say or close it.
This is exactly what's taking place. The courts and judges are circling the wagons to protect the power they have usurped from the Executive and Legislative branches, the power to make and enforce law.
For the last half century these two branches, because they have to stand for election and answer to the people, have shirked their duties on most of the tough moral issues and let activists judges who did not have to answer to the people do their job for them.
Now we have and have had a Judiciary that has become dictatorial and out of control making and enforcing it's law apart from the other two or the people, without any restraint or oversight.
If they don't act to rectify this soon and slap some judges hands it will be too late if it is not already.
Nerves are frazzled. Emotions are raw. But that does not excuse this type of behavior.
I think you are fortunate to have a great governor. You have alot of good, God-fearing people there. And I would love to come down there and take in some sun and good fishing right about now.
The only reason she's in pain is because she's dehydrated. If she's in pain. Some think she's being given morphine for the pain. That would be new. The other 2 times Michael tried to kill her, he refused to allow pain medication.
What would cause her constant pain? She is not dying of a terminal illness. I cannot imagine advocating starving and dehydrating a woman because she may feel some pain and there is no written directive. Do an internet search on the effects of dehydration on a human body. It is not pretty.
"So, the 'artificial means' wasn't even necessary, just convenient."
The tubes happen often in patients for this very reason. Without it,it can takes an hour or more just to get one meal down, it's usually either hurried, or not really finished because the aide has other things to do, or finished real hurriedly, and it's boring to give little sips over and over. And there are other patients to care for. So a tube is often for convenience. But the doing of it makes her swallowing reflexes less used, and more prone towards atrophy.
This is why I encourage people to bring your loved ones into your home. It's hard. A convenience tube wouldn't even be wrong necessarily. But a facility is paid money to do certain things, and doesn't even do it, like now.
Like Dr. Laura is her kid's Mom, let us be our "family's family." The reason why the neurologists say she is in a PVC is because they try to lessen the guilty conscience of those who leave their loved oned in a home. They try to be consistent.
A traumatic brain injury. Certainly that has to be much worse than an headache. Clenched extremities. Catheters in places you don't want to think about.
Why should I go away? Besides no one should have to respond to you when you are acting like a child.
What would cause pain?
A traumatic brain injury. Certainly at least a headache.
Perpetually clenched limbs.
Catheters in places you don't want to think about. (Hint, she cannot use the bathroom.)
So I'm just looking for an answer to a basic question, you are ok with her living a life of constant pain? Or you don't care if she's in pain or not, beyond the situation at hand.
She is brain damaged, but she did not suffer a brain injury. Her brain was damaged due to lack of oxygen. And perhaps if she was permitted to receive rehabilitation with the money her husband received for just that purpose, and as the law states she is entitled to, her extremeties wouldn't be clenched.
Are you advocating the extermination of people because they could be in pain or not? If so, it is disturbing - especially if your comment about the catheters is to be considered. There are so many patients with catheters.
Please stop interjecting unless you have something constructive to bring to this debate.
I'm saying she could be living a life of constant pain. There's no way to know. It just seems inconsistent to say that she can only feel pain since Friday. If she can feel pain, then she could have been feeling it all along. There is no way anyone here knows the answer to that with certainty.
In fact this circus might stop off in your town next.
What can I say about the Bush family. I've cast my vote for them a total of 6 times. Of course if this case is lost...The same people demonising our Republican Judges here will then start running down Bush and your esteemed Senator.
Freepmail and let me know before you come.
I know where all the wrecks are and I have over 20 years worth of loran numbers and they've been adjusted for GPS.
I'm talking about 48lb Rustybellies.
YeeeeHaa!
Lower Court Ruling Affirmed.
You would prefer that the death date of each of us were determined by a panel who also look at the productivity ability of our lives?
Once you start to kill, you continue to kill. Just who do you think all of these people will be killing next? One day it will get down to you.
To: Proud Conservative2
Which judge gets the Pontius Pilate award of 2005?
66 posted on 03/23/2005 3:20:08 AM EST by ClaireSolt (.)
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