Posted on 03/24/2005 10:50:16 PM PST by Messianic Jews Net
STARVATION: DAY 8
Jeb Bush not likely to ride to rescue
Florida governor indicates he won't defy court order
Posted: March 25, 2005
1:00 a.m. Eastern
© 2005 WorldNetDaily.com
Those hoping Florida Gov. Jeb Bush will step forward to save Terri Schiavo from imminent, court-ordered starvation death are likely to be disappointed, based on his comments to a group of reporters following county court Judge George Greer's ruling against the state's effort to take custody of the brain-injured woman at the center of a worldwide euthanasia controversy.
While Bush reiterated his motivation to save Schiavo, based on new evidence that she is not in a persistent vegetative state and is, to some degree, conscious of her surroundings, the governor said "it isn't possible to remove her" from the hospice.
Earlier in the week, there were hints from the Bush administration that the Department of Children and Families might use force, if necessary, to stabilize Terri Schiavo and remove her from the facility.
"The judge is so focused on carrying out whatever decision he made years ago, that I guess the additional information he just rejected out of hand, and rejected the ability of the department to go in and stabilize her," he said. "It isn't possible right now to remove her. ... Given the fact that she's being starved to death it would be difficult to move her."
Bush downplayed the earlier reports about the possibility of action by the DCF.
"We never said that unilaterally we would do something that's against the court," he said. "I've been asked to do it by a lot of people – a lot of the advice I'm getting over the Internet and over television and the like. I know that there were lots of rumors of things that aren't accurate. I have a duty to uphold the law and I have been very consistent about that. It seemed like a big story that never was confirmed because it wasn't true. If we had that ability to do it, if there wasn't an injunction, we would do it right now. We would stabilize her by giving her hydration. We couldn't put a feeding tube in. There was already a court order in place. The opportunity we had was appealing his decision."
A prominent evangelical Christian leader yesterday urged Bush to disobey the judge's order barring the Florida governor from intervening to save the life of Terri Schiavo. In a statement shortly after Judge George Greer's decision, Rev. D. James Kennedy pointed to Bush "as the only legal authority who can save the life of Terri Schiavo."
Kennedy, president of Coral Ridge Ministries, said Bush "must act and he must act immediately on her behalf."
"He must disregard the order of Judge Greer," Kennedy said. "He has both the authority and the duty to do so under the state constitution."
Greer rejected Bush's request to grant the governor protective custody. On Wednesday he barred the Department of Children & Families from taking custody. Also yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a request from Terri Schiavo's parents, Robert and Mary Schindler, for an emergency order allowing her feeding tube to be reinserted.
As WorldNetDaily reported, Bush appeared to be clearing the way for the possibility unilateral action when he appeared at a news conference Wednesday to confirm the DCF, under his authority, has the legal right to remove Terri Schiavo, by force if necessary, from the hospice where she has lived the past five years.
Bush said new information had come to light warranting intervention, including a review of Terri Schiavo's condition by neurologist Dr. William Cheshire, who claims she may have been misdiagnosed. Cheshire believes Schiavo to be in a "minimally conscious state," not a "persistent vegetative state" as Greer has determined.
"It is imperative that she be stabilized so the DCF team can fulfill their statute to review the facts surrounding the case," Bush said.
Kennedy said Bush should be commended for his efforts over the past two years – which include the state legislature's passage of "Terri's Law" – but he noted those efforts "thus far has proven fruitless." The law later was declared unconstitutional.
"Neither the state legislature nor the courts, state or federal, have been willing to act on behalf of this helpless woman who is now within hours of death," Kennedy said.
Kennedy points out the Florida Constitution states in Article I, Section 2, that "[a]ll natural persons, female and male alike, are equal before the law, and have inalienable rights, among which are the right to enjoy and defend life ... ." According to the Constitution, "no person shall be deprived of any right [including the right to enjoy life] because of ... physical disability."
Similar arguments were brought to Florida's capital this morning by former Judicial Watch Chairman Larry Klayman and former presidential candidate Alan Keyes. Keyes wrote a column published yesterday by WorldNetDaily, arguing for Bush to step in and save Schiavo amid judicial abuse of the separation of powers.
"I have talked to a whole lot of people that I respect, not just now but the first time when Terri's law was passed, to make the determination of what my powers are and they are not as expansive as people would want them to be," Bush said yesterday. "And I understand, they're acting on their heart and I fully appreciate their sentiments and the emotions that go with this, but .... I've consistently said that I can't go beyond what my powers are and I'm not going to do it. There are 90,000 abortions that take place in this state every year. That troubles me more than I can ever describe, but that doesn't mean that I have some secret powers to stop that. There are a lot of things that go on in society that trouble me and this is certainly one of them. To have someone starve to death troubles me greatly and we have done everything we can and we will continue to do so within the powers that I have."
Editor's note: WorldNetDaily has been reporting on the Terri Schiavo story since 2002 – far longer than any other national news organization – and exposing the many troubling, scandalous, and possibly criminal, aspects of the case that to this day rarely surface in news reports. Read WorldNetDaily's unparalleled, in-depth coverage of the life-and-death fight over Terri Schiavo, including over 150 original stories and columns.
It's what the death doctors call for. Dr. Mengele, except a little nicer with morphine.
Well since there are thousand of people in similar circumstances I expect Congress will pass a law premitting a more humane method of killing the helpless.
Like a big ol' oven, perhaps? Maybe a chamber that emits poison gas? Those would definitely be a lot quicker than a week of dehydration.
I do hear the sentiment of your post. I'm mostly with you. But how can you be sure that Jeb is, "washing his hands and walking away."
EVERYONE (including me) who has stayed at their computers and in front of their tv's and elsewhere........ everyone who has done nothing to stop this "killing" is guilty to some degree. We should all be ashamed, but Jeb has the job, he should have moved by now. It's just WRONG what he is doing. Use the State Police powers, Jeb. Do not be cowed into inaction.
This is all so unnecessary. Stand up for the Florida Constitution as you know it, Jeb. You are the rightful representative of the people of Florida.
If somehow the children got to her what could they then do? It all seems a theater piece rather than a way to help.
If Jeb Bush asked folks to come to Fla and help him save Terry I would fill up the truck and drive to Fla. Leaders have to lead.
"He must disregard the order of Judge Greer," Kennedy said. "He has both the authority and the duty to do so under the state constitution."
Gee I didn't know Dr. Kennedy was a legal expert on the Florida state constitution?
I don't know about anyone else but I am not comfortable with preachers in their pulpits demanding unconstitutional, illegal acts from elected officials.
Maybe its just me...
But not today, not in Florida, and not Governor Bush.
That is true, but doesn't happen too much these days.
We just might be paying the tax rates of the English right now if others long ago were not a different quality of men.
;-)
They have devised the perfect system.
Once elected, they have access to unlimited booze, broads, and bribes-for life.
The only thing that can go wrong is that-quite incomprehensibly, to them-a mob of their inferiors, on election day, can bring it all to an end.
In order to prevent this, all decisions which could make someone-anyone-upset or angry, are transferred to an unelected judiciary.
Congressthings then can, and do, denounce those judges (but don't exercise their constitutional power to regulate them), while obtaining their preferred result at the same time, and, best of all, none of them loses the best job they've ever had, or ever will have.
Nice work if you can get it.
The Founders referred to (perfectly regular) Acts of Parliament as "acts of pretended legislation" because they contravened the natural law. They took these acts of "pretended legislation" so seriously that they overthrew the government over it.
The body of case law that has developed in this nation for the past 58 years is at this point an irritant to the body politic, but, inasmuch as it contravenes the intent of the same Supreme Judge to which our founders appealed to vouchsafe the rectitude of their intentions, may at some time in the future again lead to war.
As a Dem who's been voting Pubbie for the last 7 years, all I can say is A POX ON BOTH THEIR HOUSES.
We need a third party.
You haven't answered my questions directly. I would love to hear how you answer.
Yes, God uses people all the time but I think God would have made a way for Terri much earlier than this. The fact that it is to this point and nothing has worked makes me think, deep in my spirit, that God wants to bring Terri home.
FTR, I'm 45, so I will accept your compliment.
The state of legal and medical ethics in this country is out there for all to see. Legally, technically, this is not even suicide, per Florida statute.
If Terri had a living will, she would have been starved to death years ago, as the court would construe the language of the living will as the patient's wishes to go without food and water, if it is "artificailly provided" (whatever that might mean is beyond me, "virtual food" maybe).
(10) "Life-prolonging procedure" means any medical procedure, treatment, or intervention, including artificially provided sustenance and hydration ...765.303 Suggested form of a living will.
Declaration made this _____ day of _____, (year) , I, __________, willfully and voluntarily make known my desire that my dying not be artificially prolonged under the circumstances set forth below, and I do hereby declare that, if at any time I am incapacitated and
(initial) I have a terminal condition
or (initial) I have an end-stage condition
or (initial) I am in a persistent vegetative stateand if my attending or treating physician and another consulting physician have determined that there is no reasonable medical probability of my recovery from such condition, I direct that life-prolonging procedures be withheld or withdrawn when the application of such procedures would serve only to prolong artificially the process of dying, and that I be permitted to die naturally with only the administration of medication or the performance of any medical procedure deemed necessary to provide me with comfort care or to alleviate pain.
That language is construed as permission to remove a feeding tube from an otherwise healthy, but PVS, terminal, or end-stage patient. Despite the "natural" reading of the "contract."
765.309 Mercy killing or euthanasia not authorized; suicide distinguished.--Chapter 765, Florida Statutes 2004 <-- Link(1) Nothing in this chapter shall be construed to condone, authorize, or approve mercy killing or euthanasia, or to permit any affirmative or deliberate act or omission to end life other than to permit the natural process of dying.
(2) The withholding or withdrawal of life-prolonging procedures from a patient in accordance with any provision of this chapter does not, for any purpose, constitute a suicide.
I think Jeb has tried his best and needs to be thanked for his efforts. There are a lot of hard questions the family lawyers should have been asking before now.
You should read 93, Jim explains things quite nicely.
And she'd have been denied food and water to the point of death years before that if she'd had a living will in the model form contained in Florida statutes.
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