says that some religious expression is unconstitutional and is prohibited; like the Pledge, the Boy Scout Oath, the Ten Commandments, etc,.......
This will foist them on their own petard.
Posted on 03/26/2005 4:12:10 PM PST by wagglebee
PINELLAS PARK, Fla. (AP) - After another round of losses in the courts, Terri Schiavo's parents kept watch over their dying daughter Saturday, seeking permission to give her Easter communion as their attorneys acknowledged the fight to reconnect the brain-damaged woman's feeding tube was nearing an end.
Attorneys for Bob and Mary Schindler decided not to file another motion with a federal appeals court, essentially ending their effort to persuade federal judges to intervene - something allowed by an extraordinary law passed by Congress.
But at least three more appeals loomed by the Schindlers and Gov. Jeb Bush. Schindler attorney David Gibbs III appealed an unfavorable ruling Saturday with a last-ditch plea to the Florida Supreme Court to get the feeding tube reinserted.
"Time is moving quickly and it would appear most likely ... that Terri Schiavo will pass the point that she will be able to recover over this Easter weekend," Gibbs said. He filed an emergency petition arguing that a Pinellas County judge ignored new evidence of Schiavo's wishes and her medical condition.
Paul O'Donnell, a Roman Catholic Franciscan monk, said the family is urging Schiavo's husband to allow his wife to receive the sacrament of communion at sundown Saturday, when Catholics begin celebrating their holiest feast of the year. Schiavo, who cannot swallow, would have a minuscule piece of bread and a drop of wine placed in her mouth.
Earlier, Pinellas Circuit Judge George Greer rejected the family's latest motion. The family claimed Schiavo tried to say "I want to live" hours before her tube was removed, saying "AHHHHH" and "WAAAAAAA" when asked to repeat the phrase.
Doctors have said her previous utterances weren't speech, but were involuntary moans consistent with someone in a vegetative state. Greer agreed.
Scott Schiavo, the brother of Schiavo's husband, Michael, said the family was pleased to see the Schindlers' efforts nearing an end.
"He knows in his heart he is doing the right thing, he is doing what Terri wanted," Scott Schiavo said. "He's having a hard time understanding why people are fighting him on this, why they are calling him a murderer. It's very tough on him."
Michael Schiavo has said she has no hope for recovery and wouldn't want to be kept alive artificially. The Schindlers believe their daughter could improve and say she laughs, cries, responds to them and tries to talk.
Doctors have said she would probably die within a week or two of her feeding tube being pulled, which was done March 18 after Greer sided with her husband. Her body wracked by dehydration, attorneys for her parents said she may not last through the weekend.
"She's doing remarkably well under the circumstances," said Schiavo's father, Bob Schindler, after visiting her inside the hospice Saturday afternoon. "She has put up a tremendous battle to live. She's not throwing in the towel."
Michael Schiavo's attorney, George Felos, denied reports by the parents' attorneys that her tongue and eyes were bleeding.
"She is calm. She is peaceful. She is resting comfortably," Felos told reporters Saturday as four sheriff's deputies stood by to protect him.
Terri Schiavo's brother, Bobby Schindler, called that "absurd" and challenged Felos to allow videos and photos to be released, so the public can see Terri's condition. "They're mischaracterizing the condition today, just as they have been ... It's sick. It's heinous," he said.
Felos said earlier that allowing videos to be recorded inside Terri Schiavo's room during her death process would violate her privacy rights.
Outside the hospice, about 60 protesters maintained a subdued vigil and, like her parents, hoped for a miracle. Some said they believed it was not a coincidence that the woman would lay dying during the Easter weekend.
"Things are all done in God's timing," said David Vogel, a 47-year-old Steubenville, Ohio, musician who was arrested for trespassing last week when he tried to enter the hospice to take water to Terri Schiavo. "Does he have his hand upon this? Oh, yeah. The parallels are there with what happened to Jesus Christ. He was condemned to death, an innocent man. She's an innocent woman."
A group of 22 protesters bearing wooden crosses arrived by bus from a Christian community in Augusta, Ga., to join the fray.
"It's the most significant weekend for Christians, and God wants us to be aware of the preciousness of life," said one of the coordinators, Louis Hymel, 52. "God calls us always to the cross, and this is an example of us taking up our cross."
Schiavo was reared in the Roman Catholic church, and her parents have made heavy use of her faith as the basis for the numerous appeals to reinsert the feeding tube that was removed more than a week ago.
The Schindlers have argued, for instance, that she should be spared based on statements by Pope John Paul II that people in vegetative states have a right to nutrition and hydration. They say Terri would have obeyed the pope and would not choose to have her tube removed. That argument was rebuffed in the state courts.
Terri Schiavo has been without food and water longer than she was in 2003, when the tube was removed for six days before Gov. Jeb Bush pushed through a law to have it reinserted. The law was later thrown out by the state Supreme Court.
Many supporters of the Schindlers say Bush could simply ignore the courts and take emergency custody of Schiavo. But Bush, himself a convert to Roman Catholicism, has said he's not willing to go beyond the boundaries of his powers.
Bush and the state have two appeals pending in their fight to support the Schindlers. But the challenges are before the state 2nd District Court of Appeal, which has rebuffed previous efforts by Bush in the case.
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. She left no living will.
Knowing how important communion is to Catholics, should her husband deny her of her right to take communion and should the courts allow him to do so, I believe every bible believing Catholic, Pentecostal, Baptist, Episcopalian and so forth, rise up in protest and demand she be afforded this right.
Also, should she still pass from this life into her eternal life, I am still hopeful that she has been a catalyst of a movement decrying the culture of death in this country.
Please note: This is not an invitation to discourse over religious dogmas. I merely stated what I believe.
Your last word "TIME" is really the problem. There isn't TIME to find a judge to rule the tube must be reinserted without being immediately superseded by another court saying no. Terri Schiavo will die while the legal revolving door spins.
Macabre is the word. Orwell and Huxley combined don't define the blissful nightmare of the right to life turned inside out. Why don't they just smother her with a pillow and get it over with? They want her to die but they don't want to be accused of killing her, which is exactly what they are doing. If Michael shot her in the head, would he be tried for murder?
It is not necessary for communion to mean a complete "host". Years ago I was in circumstances where an insufficient number of hosts were available and only small pieces were used. She could be given communion with a minuscule piece of host and a drop of wine.
To deprive her of this is obscene.
BINGO!!! You hit the nail on the head!!
Me to...
I feel tonight like I felt back when I watched us leave our friends behind in S Vietnam and fled..
GW has stabbed us all in the back
-IMO
Denying Terri communion is a sin. Withholding food and water, is like this: It is quite simply one thing, to let go and withhold forced feeding, intubation, and the like. If -- the person is terminally ill.
Has - anyone - noticed - that - Terri Schiavo, was quite physically, healthy, as far as her longevity was concerned?
Until the "Other" Michael had his way, of course..... ("other" being like M. Moore...)
Give is twenty years and any government funding that might gets near a suicide hotlines or even a cop trying to talk you off a bridge will be ruled a violation of church and State/State establishment of religion
It will go along with the new federal holiday.... Dr. Kevorkian Day… civil rights pioneer
Time isn't on our side. As long as the right or wrong of what is happening is debated with the feeding tube removed we lose.
They expose themselves for the worshippers of death in what they say about Terri now.
You are so right.
I can't stand the UN, but if the left believes that the UN should be the foundation for America's laws, then so be it.
Sometime in the next few weeks I want you to go out to a veterans cemetary and contemplate all of the fallen Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines burried there and in cemetaries all over the globe who have given all of their tomorrows so that a day like today would never visit the US.
Your grandchildren will be taught in school the ideal gift for their grandparents will be a Gift Certificate for 1 free visit to Dr. Kevorkian Hospice.
You are absolutely correct.
then you tell me, why has he not acted?.....is that "more" legal scholars say he does not have the power.....I really don't know but have to go by what they tell me at this point.....either that or call them liars and move on...I don't have the time to get a law degree in the time necessary
We have law, but I see what you mean.
Then Governor Bush can do the same thing to save the life of an innocent woman.
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