Posted on 03/23/2005 4:42:39 AM PST by Jeff Head
PINELLAS PARK, Fla. - After losing two consecutive appeals in federal court, Terri Schiavo's parents vowed Wednesday to take their fight to the U.S. Supreme Court (news - web sites) as their severely brain-damaged daughter began her fifth full day without the feeding tube that has kept her alive for more than a decade.
In a 2-1 ruling early Wednesday, a panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta said the parents "failed to demonstrate a substantial case on the merits of any of their claims" that Terri's feeding tube should be reinserted immediately.
"There is no denying the absolute tragedy that has befallen Mrs. Schiavo," the ruling said. "We all have our own family, our own loved ones, and our own children. However, we are called upon to make a collective, objective decision concerning a question of law."
In his dissent, Judge Charles R. Wilson said Schiavo's "imminent" death would end the case before it could be fully considered. "In fact, I fail to see any harm in reinserting the feeding tube," he wrote.
This is probably not a new observation, but I think we are seeing a judges rebellion, judges basically telling non-judges to stay out of their business. They aren't at this point interested in any bottom-up review of the case, they aren't at this point interested in Theresa Schindler as a human being, their priority is defending their turf from anyone outside their guild.
I am sick at my stomach, to be frank. I'm not afraid for her, death isn't the end, and death isn't to be feared. I am more afraid for what this means, for what this case reveals about the moral state of affairs among the living.
The end of life comes for us all, and at the end, as the fight comes to a close, there are difficult decisions to be made as we try and decide how to continue that final fight. It can be difficult at the end to know whether and how to proceed. But I can easily promise that I will never stand by and allow food and water to be cut off. Refuse some further procedure, and the disease takes its course. Refuse food and water, and you have become complicit in killing someone you claim to love.
Its odd, the attack on 9/11 was a kind of watershed, an event that forced people to choose where they stood on some very key issues. People who I had previously admired, or tolerated, who chose wrong I have been unable to ever again see in the same light, I have lost respect for individuals and institutions and whole countries because of it.
This is another such event. People are forced to choose, to defend her, or to be complicit in her death, and those who choose wrong, and those who have refused to choose, are marked in my eyes, I will not be able to look at them in the same light again.
There is something almost biblical in the way the entire world stands by to watch this woman's death as we approach Easter, as men in suits studiously wash their hands of her and turn away.
Well said. Thank you.
If so, the federal judges went out of their way to convey the opposite impression in their opinions this week. I wouldn't have been surprised if they had taken the opportunity to slap Congress and perhaps declare the weekend law unconstitutional. But they didn't. They accepted its constitutionality at face value and even delved into legislative intent.
Very well said! Thank you.
RE: Judges rebellion
You may be right! Sad.
That may be what you saw. What I saw was something else. They were asked to review the case; they didn't refuse to do this, they merely refused to preserve her life while they do so. This is how you refuse to comply while apparently complying. Any good bureaucratic infighter should know this tactic.
I agree this is a watershed moral event. Most people however choosing to support the husband are unaware of the details of the case. I have found that most of them (not all by any stretch) upon hearing of the details of the husbands behavior and treatment of his wife and unfaithfulness to her, then turn and support keeping Terri alive.
The desire was for a complete rehearing in essence...a clearing of the deck and complete review of the case. The dissenting Judge apparently saw this, agreed to it, and knew that the vistim, Terri, would have to be kept alive for it to have any meaning.
The other justices, apparently looked at a preponderance of the evidence from Greer's court and decided there was no credible chance of success based upon it...when the evidence and proceedings from Greer's court are the very issue at hand. Thereby they sidestepped the issue at hand and in essence closed ranks with the state court.
Just my opinion.
Translation: "However, bleep justice, we're going with the law." Lawyers used to be a social rung lower than blacksmiths in this country. Blacksmiths, after all, served a real purpose. But over a period of decades lawyers generated a need for their profession and continuously added arcane layers to it -- further generating a need for lawyers in order to understand what the lawyers were doing and saying.
And what it's come down to today is, us simple, ignorant blacksmith folk are supposed to see something noble in this statement, this cry of "The law, the law!" from a lawyer, from those who twist it and turn it and ignore the justice it was meant to serve.
All the Schindlers did was assert some federal questions in an appellate style brief, essentially reasserting the same objections that had failed in the Florida appellate courts.
Their constitutional issues really weren't that strong. What they needed was a redetermination of fact.
I agree. Could they stillpursue such an option?
The Supreme Court appeal is a waste of time at this point, and Terri is well into her dehydration process by now.
If the District Court invents some excuse to throw it out, then we'll know what the real agenda is, but as far as I'm concerned, the Schindler's attorney is not representing his clients well at all.
In addition, there is still time for the executive branch, particularly in Florida over the protective services investigation which has been ignored by Greer, to act and take Terri into protective custody while their investigation proceeds.
You seem to have the background and experience...contact them and suggest it! Every bit helps.
This is not about seeing "bad law" this is about review to see if its bad rulings by judges on law passed by the people (or even not passed by the people but "inverted" by judges or passed by the people and tossed by judges)
err one way and it can be changed... err the other it can't.... put that in the scales and which way does it fall...she committed no crime.... her living hurts her less if its the wrong ruling then her dieing hurts her if its the wrong ruling ....life is temporary...death is permanent
The only way to tear through the obfuscations and reach the truth is to seek simplicity.
Your post does exactly that at least as well as, and probably better than, anything else I have seen written on this dreadful subject. A heartfelt thank you!
Abominations such as partial birth abortion have been condoned in part because they are actually performed ‘in private’ and because the re-directed attention mentioned above chooses to focus elsewhere (to focus instead on the use of steroids by professional baseball players, or who should be the next American Idol ... ).
Terri Schiavo’s case is different. Even those who have been unaware of her plight for the past fifteen years have been dragged into the fray because their President and congress have become involved (although I believe the majority of Americans are still ignorantly unaware of Michael Schiavo’s probable motives and wicked past behaviors). But the media can no longer ignore her premeditated murder. There are now three hundred million witnesses to it. And yet we all sit by, impotent to come to her rescue because, as you so eloquently observed, unelected, unaccountable judicial tyrants are either too lazy or too agenda-driven to look Terri, and her murderer, square in the face. And their questionable ‘decisions’ have trumped those of our own elected representatives.
I believe that, once Terri’s murder has been accomplished, the average American will crawl back into his comfortable cocoon (if indeed he chose to emerge at all), return to concentrating on bread and circuses, and the judicial tyrants and their accomplices on the Hill and in the media and academia will continue to claim increasing malevolent power over all of our lives, and, if terrorists from outside of our borders don’t drive the final nail, homegrown ignorance and apathy may.
That is not to say that those of us who still seek to know His will for this republic should throw in the towel. Not by a long shot. Man has free will, but God is, and always will be, in control. He will allow our evil choices, but His love for the faithful is eternal. His power is infinite, but His patience with evil is not. And the evil represented by this example of ‘American justice’ may be without precedent.
~ joanie
There's a decent chance it will get lost in all the emails they are probably getting, but it can't hurt to try. It's crunch time.
Please do...and contact the freepers on site there in Florida on their Daily thread and ask how you can get in touch directly with the Shincdlers with your information...I just bet they can get it done. I saw this type of thing happen in Klamath on many occassions.
Amen Joanie, as always, very well said.
I believe we are witnessing spiritual warfare manifesting itself via the fight over Terri's life.
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