Posted on 03/26/2005 3:08:40 PM PST by ma bell
When Johnson arrived, a police officer demanded identification; she had none. And after a hospice employee cleared her, another officer halted her for a search with a metal detector.
The delays lasted three to four minutes the last of her grandfather's life.
"It's a terrible, extra obstacle to put in front of a family. ... Everything is about Schiavo," Johnson said. "It's all about her and in my family's case, it cost us dearly."
Woodside Hospice has 70 patients besides Schiavo, whose parents are desperately trying to have her feeding tube reconnected. Dozens of protesters have arrived from across the nation since the tube was removed March 18, and at least 15 have been arrested, prompting a police barricade around the facility and unprecedented security.
Family members visiting patients must pass through a police checkpoint to park, then show identification outside the door before another security screening inside. They also must walk by scores of signs decrying Schiavo's "crucifixion," "torture," and "starvation," plus navigate around hordes of media who have been camped outside.
"To have to maneuver through all of this and have a hostile environment outside when all they want is peace and quiet and to enjoy those few days they have left with a loved one is a horror," said Dr. Morton Getz, executive director of Douglas Gardens Hospice in Miami.
Getz said many people with a family member in a hospice have to make the same excruciating decision that courts have made for Schiavo.
"It's causing a lot of grief and questions in their own mind on whether they did the right thing," he said. "It's unconscionable to have a family member to be near the end stages of life and to get there, you have to walk through signs that say, 'Murderer.'"
Most protesters direct their signs and their chants against the courts and Michael Schiavo, Terri's husband, who insists she would not want to be kept alive artificially.
But walking through a hostile environment can only add stress to what's already an emotionally draining situation.
"It probably has the same psychological effect on the residents' families as it does on someone who is walking into an abortion clinic and facing signs and aggressive behavior," said Elizabeth Foley, a Florida International University law professor who specializes in bioethics.
Over the past few days, as Schiavo's parents' attempts to have their daughter's feeding tube reinserted repeatedly failed, signs outside the hospice have grown more desperate. Doctors have said Schiavo would probably die within a week or two of the feeding tube being removed.
Messages compare Michael Schiavo to Scott Peterson (news - web sites), convicted of killing his wife and unborn child in California, and John Evander Couey, who allegedly murdered a 9-year-old girl in Homosassa.
One woman in a wheelchair regularly moves up and down sidewalks in front of the hospice yelling in a megaphone, "We're disabled, not disposable!" and "Terri is a person, not a vegetable!"
Relatives of hospice residents say the clamor intended to rattle Michael Schiavo rattles their patience.
"It's a real pain in the neck," said Bill Douglass, whose mother-in-law is a resident. He said the only consolation is that she is "oblivious" to the outside scene.
Police and hospice officials say they are trying to minimize the intrusion on hospice residents and their families, and that the security measures are meant to protect the privacy and safety of all residents, not just Schiavo.
But Johnson, 24, said her 73-year-old grandfather, Thomas Bone, was restricted from moving freely around the hospice grounds during his final days. He died just hours after Terri Schiavo's feeding tube was removed and protests intensified.
"They've taken away hospice's greatest quality, that it is peaceful and serene and quiet and calming and it's not fair," Johnson said.
----"It's a real pain in the neck," said Bill Douglass, whose mother-in-law is a resident. He said the only consolation is that she is "oblivious" to the outside scene.-----
What a selfish egotistical do-gooder brat.
"The moral and spiritual issues about Terri are not about her sex life nor her husband's."
True. Although I did hear a snippet on a news show saying Michael got a settlement of ~$300,000 dollars for not being able to have relations with Terri anymore. Didn't catch why there was a settlement. If it was an insurance thing - or did some doctor mess up in the initial treatment of Terri or what.
You Sir, or Madam are one sick individual.!!!
What do you consider a "normal" life? How many people are disabled, parapalegic, quadrapalegic, Down's syndrome, retarded? Are there loved one's "selfish" for refusing to help them survive day to day?
What is your definition of "half-normal"?
We take on horse rescues. Animals who are no longer "useful" or living "half-normal" lives but they are loved and fed to the end of their natural lives. It's an act of compassion. At what point would someone like you just put a bullet through their head?
You're nothing special. In fact, you're revolting.
The delays lasted three to four minutes the last of her grandfather's life.
Courtesy of Michael Schiavo, Judge Greer, and the ghoul Felos.
You don't think that we're defined by the innocents we torture and murder?
He doesn't seem very rich to me. Most of the million dollars went towards attorney's fees. Anyway, a million doesn't go that far. I dont' think he is in the lap of luxury.
yes, clearly.
however, if you go into denial mode, for gawd knows what reasons spurred on by what personal issues, then you might begin to wonder if your eyes are playing tricks on you.
but if you're capable of viewing the video without any media, emotional or ideolgically induced delusions, it's plain as the keys on your computer that Terri Sciavo was conscious in the film.
John Kerry might try to tell you it was all a gruesome fabrication, but who'd believe him?
cry me a river. some things are bigger than personal convenience or preference. uh, nevermind.
with my blessing. adios.
I don't have all the facts on hospices, but I wouldn't be surprised at all if they were grossly overused. I think this topic struck a nerve, among other reasons, because we ALL have to face our own (physical) mortality eventually.
If the legal principles of this case are that the spouse (husband) has the final say on a person's treatment and that his evidence as to her wishes is given the greatest deference, then let's test it with a hypothetical. Do you think we'd be hearing the same people defending this situation as "a private matter, in which government should not get involved" if a woman were in this state and pregnant, and the parents wanted her to have an abortion for health reasons? What if the husband told the court that his wife would rather not have an abortion, even at great risk to her own health or even life, and had "medical experts" who said she would probably not recover anyway? What if the husband allowed her communion but not morphine, rather than the other way around?
I don't know.
Best Easter wishes. God help us all.
And maybe, you shouldn't admit people who ARE NOT DYING!!!!
HEY. I'm divorced, can I get money for going without sex too?
Would I have to move to Florida?
Seriouly, though, has anyone heard of a settlement where you got money for loss of sexual priviledges? Especially where you weren't doing without anyway?
Bottom line. With food and water she lives. Without it she dies just like everyone else in the world. That is murder. Short and simple.
But, that's just an opinion.
ANd the cop at the door searches the parents for video equipment. Because?
You have me pegged 100% wrong.
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