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.
I believe that issue has been previously decided and the answer is that they don't have that right. It is also not the critical question here. The question is has it been established what her wishes were. Of course at the time she was competent to consider this question the law in Florida did not include feeding tubes as life support machinery.
He said they would take their time and get it right. He also opined that they would ultimately concur with the lower court.
I feel exactly the same way. We have laws but ZERO justice. And Florida and America is going to pay for this outrage if she dies.
God can only stand so much evil.
Gore's.
Better news earlier in the day.
I believe that issue has been previously decided and the answer is that they don't have that right. It is also not the critical question here. The question is has it been established what her wishes were. Of course at the time she was competent to consider this question the law in Florida did not include feeding tubes as life support machinery.
Gore
Maybe we could cut Florida off from the rest of the country. Just kind of cut it loose, to float off into the Caribbean where it belongs.
Was he the one on Greta tonight?
He was Gore's attorney in 2000.
Please do not project your wishes into this. This is not about you. A woman is being murdered by her abusive husband and has been denied therapy for which he won a hefty settlement. Read the Florida statute that describes what PVS is and she clearly has been misdiagnosed by the court-appointed euthanasia activist neurologist - a great impartial choice. His diagnosis was predetermined.
What other cases is such flimsy evidence of what a spouse said to another admissible and all other testimonies dismissed? I hope you are happy that she will no longer have to live the way you wouldn't want to live. You'll get to celebrate fairly soon along with her loving husband.
Schiavo's lawyers filed a brief at 7 p.m. (Eastern, I do believe) and the US Justice department filed a brief at least that late or later. I don't expect a decision tonight (I could be wrong), simply because the judges and law clerks have to read the all the briefs, do legal research and analysis, write a draft decision or decisions and have the three judge panel get this decision or decisions into a final form for publication/release.
Yes, he was on Greta's show, and I was mildly surprised to hear him give that opinion.
One question. To anyone.
FLorida's tax money is paying for the location, the staff, the materials, for an innocent human beings tortuous death?
Is not MEDICAID still footing the bill?
Lawyers, judges, and the courts are in turf-protection mode. The facts of this case are completely irrelevant to them. That's why Dubya needs to order Terri Schiavo to be taken into protective custody.
I have just watched Nightline with George Stephanopholus, and I have never been so angered in my life. The program was supposed to be about Terri Shiavo, but the group setting at the table were all pro-death execept one man, and I believe his name was Ken Cooper. If those people had been in my home, I think that I would have hit each one of them over the head with a board, hoping that I could knock some sense in to them.
They metioned Terri's wishes as if she had actually made them known. They called Michael Schiavo, "her husband", with no mention of his years of adultery and children out of wedlock. No one mentioned that a lawyer in the state of Michigan is going to propose a law that does not allow an adultereous spouse to serve as a guardian of a disabled person. Michael Schiavo certiainly does have a conflict of interest here.
Why not take a poll, asking all women if they would want an adultereous spouse , such as Michael Shiavo serving as their guardian. I am sure that I would not want him for five minutes. I would want my parents, who gave me my life in the first place.
Yes, I would have hit them all in the head with a big board.
This should give every American some idea what might lie ahead for them. Our society lack appreciation for human life, and you might be the next one to go down the tubes.
I have a living will, but until Terri Schivo, I had not realized that it might occur to someone that they could save some money if they deprived me of food and water, so I wrote on my living will that I would not want to be deprived of food and water. Never!
Folks, we are facing a health care and a Medicare and Medicaid crisis, and they are looking for ways to cut costs, and their way of cost cutting might mean terminating you! You may the the next one to be treated less than a dog or a criminal. I could clearly see conivance on the part of ABC!
Do the authorities have the right to refuse oral food and hydration to someone who might be able to accept it?
The denial of all food and hydration is absolutely positively 100% guaranteed to kill any person, no matter how healthy, unless they are allowed to receive food and water before they are fatally starved or dehydrated.
I am ashamed of the policemen that agree to stand guard to her room patting down the parents and stepping into the room to ensure she does not get a morsel of food or a drop of water.
They are the SS to the judiciary. "Just following orders,don't you know!"
Sick,has even one refused that detail on moral grounds.
The stupid MSM are always making such a big fuss overconscientientious objectors to going to war to kill innocents.
Where are the objectors to the killing of Terri?
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