but if I can use the ACLUs favorite ox to gore them with, even better.
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.
But if they don't allow it then there is a BIG 1st Amendment violation in play.
Well the Vets were so influencial in the 2004 re-election, because they stood on moral principles of honesty and integrity. What is happening right now in the top levels of our government would have been expected of the John Kerry's and Al Gores, but I hardly see that it is acceptable with GWB. He did stretch at the beginning to which I was so proud.He only went to a certain line in the sand and then STOPPED.Greer won.Morality and integrity lost.
There appears to be no end to the arrogance of this human being.
You are correct and it should be allowed.
Stateside it would appear we can only use such force for evil!
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
Wow now there is a description comparrison!!!
jackbill is correct. I merely affirmed the post.
but if I can use the ACLUs favorite ox to gore them with, even better.
That is all I need to know to have the highest degree of respect for your dad and his thoughts on this issue.
I don't need to.....all the males in my family have served in all the wars from WWI on......I would have too after ROTC if they hadn't been getting rid of people after the Vietnam War.....
Amen. May we change our ways, and confess our sins, in order that they didn't die in vain!!!
thank you.....and I respect the hell out of him.....and while he is sick about what is happening like I am, he also admits we must change the laws but not circumvent them
I saw that show also---the little lib on the show was his usual arguementative self---
When Felos describes Terri the way he did, does it not sound like someone who just left an open casket funeral---
isn't that what you hear people say about the deceased?
Oh, didn't she "look so peaceful" or, "doesn't she look lovely the way they fixed her up"---that was the impression I got when he said those things---it just gave me the creeps....just like everything Felos says, does
BTW, the Florida Supreme Court just said "No way" to the Schindlers---is this it?
The difference here is that no one's life was at stake when they took the little boy, despite his mom had given her life to get him here. She gave her all and the Clinton bunch just spit in her face and gave in to the demands of Cuba and Fidel Castro. I fear this will end up the same way, a lot of sound and fury, but when it's all over not a single person will pay any price or be held accountable for their outrageous behavior. The only way to face down an overreaching judiciary was to take it to them and not take no for an answer. I liken this to being on a diet. You work and work and work and then you fall off the wagon and all the work you did becomes for naught. This was a perfect case to be used to cut the judiciary down a notch or two. The moment Terri dies the heat will be off and it will back to business as usual.
In a very real sense, the Revolutionary War was also a civil war. Was the Revolutionary War worth the risk?
I'm not seditious. But there is a time when risk must be taken to assure that the bedrock of the American experiment is not undermined by tyrrany.
Felos shaved his beard and moustache to try to appear less evil on television.
Then Congress should send federal agents to Florida to enforce a lawful subpeona.
Yes. Terri's dying and the scene surrounding her are both surreal. A demon possessed person does not always act like one. There is something very very wrong with George Felos. It's almost as if he is receiving something spiritually gratifying from watching the helpless die.
The man is hideous.
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