As Terri’s legacy to us, we have to work, no we must work to change the laws that allow something like this to happen in this country, Florida is more perverse than most, but there are many more. When Florida has a legislator who writes publicly that she was going to change her vote until someone called her a name I became most worried. We have children going out and making pipe bombs or stealing weapons and going back to their schools and killing other students and teachers because they have been called names. But for a legislator to admit that being called a name was the reason she chose death over life is downright scary. Just as Michael’s choice of a terribly agonizing death over a lifetime of unconditional love is scary and indicative of the person he is. We cannot blame the Bush's, they did everything they could within the statutes we allowed our legislators to enact, and then some.
We must work to hold judges responsible for their actions or lack of actions when they fail to act when a crime is committed. Judge Greer failed to protect a young woman who asked for his protection and the protection of the court. He can never be held responsible for that action even though he is as responsible for her death as if he had placed the knife in her killer’s hand, because he allowed it to happen. While I don’t think he was a judge at the time, as a judge today, as every judge should, he should be actively pursuing or causing the pursuit of those who starved and dehydrated Lisa McPherson to death. There should be an investigation documented in the records of the court and there should be warrants for the arrest of the men whether they are within or beyond the boundaries of the United States. We do have international agreements providing for the extradition of such persons, but someone must pursue it, or it doesn’t happen. It should be mandatory, not something the judge or states attorney decides they want or don’t want to pursue. A murder was committed. A life was prematurely and perversely taken as documented by the autopsy report.
Incompetency/guardianship laws need to be changed. Lawyers who haunt rehab and phased life care centers should be disbarred period. No one should have a judgment of incompetency placed on them without a full conversation with the judge (face to face), no sooner than 3 months after any surgery or process requiring anesthesia or pain relief medication other than aspirin or similar OTC medication, and no attorney should be allowed to oversee the guardianship. When the incompetent person is so adjudged, the guardianship should include one medical representative, one family member, and one member of the clergy or advocate. When there is not a surviving family member, then another advocate, perhaps DCF, should be appointed. These guardians should not be in charge of their funds nor should they be allowed to dissipate any funds or assets, nor should the judge be allowed to dissipate those assets to provide for ANYTHING other than medical care or educational use. Where you have a parent whose spouse has died, then a petition to the court should be allowed to use funds to provide for educational and medical care of a minor, and they should be allowed physical guardianship of the minor until they reach their majority. Persons should be allowed to petition the court to re-instate their identities.
In the case of Terri, the spirit of the law was ignored. She is/was the victim of a judge who followed the letter of the law forgetting the balance of justice, the spirit of the law, as has been consistently upheld by other courts. The law was written for the terminally ill (i.e. dying of cancer or other diseases). Terri was never dying, but Judge Greer, ruled contrary (sp.) to the spirit of the law. Terri was also the victim of a man who has twice previously killed, who admitted on nationwide TV that he had no idea what her wishes were, and as such, who is a threat to every patient in any hospital, jail or clinic he may work in. She was the victim of an attorney who is certifiable and with a deep abiding interest in the “cleansing” of our society of the disabled and infirm, according to his own book.
We must change the law with the help of our legislators to eliminate the use of starvation and dehydration as a method of terminating any person’s life under any circumstances. The terminally ill who do not have a legally written living will, signed by their own hand, and sworn to in front of a legitimate notary, and who has made an informed decision, should not be forced to die at the hand of anyone under any circumstances, regardless of who makes the request. This case proved that women, in particular, are still chattel and that whatever their husband wants is what the court will approve. This is one reason why so many young women are remaining single, by choice, and raising their children as single parents. In fairness to 99.9% of men and women spouses in this world, most would not want to end a life to unburden themselves, but then we have Michael, who chooses death in agony over a lifetime of unconditional love. Witness Prince Ranier, who could have courted many women, he chose to honor of his marriage vows and I doubt very seriously that he would have chosen to kill Princess Grace regardless of her circumstances.
A right to die law should involve an informed decision regarding a persons own condition. Their request for assistance in dying should be signed by them, sworn to in front of a reputable notary, and witnessed by no fewer than 3 people. The assistance should not include the withholding of food and water. The terminally ill self-regulate regarding the ingestion of food and water. Death should be painless, and it should be administered by professionals who are able to judge the level of acuteness of the disease at the time, but at no time by the request of a spouse, child, or parent. PVS should not be a reason to kill. It has no clear and concise definition and therefore should not be included as a reason to terminate a person’s life. Withholding food and water to terminate a life allows us to terminate anyone’s life, without the clear definition above, and since all of us eat and drink, in fact we have to eat and drink to survive, should not be included in the definition of “artificial” life support.
So: eliminate starvation/dehydration as a means to terminate any life; change guardianship/incompetency laws to eliminate dissipation of funds; living will encouragement; depending on your point of view, a right to die law that clearly puts you in command, and enact laws holding judges responsible for errors in judgment and failure to act. (Note: capital cases are judged by a jury and therefore a judge would not be held responsible in such a case, not should they.)
We should also try to help eliminate Medicare/Medicaid fraud by not allowing judges to place persons on it after allowing the dissipation of their funds for other than medical or educational uses. This is a major reason for the withholding of food and water to our disabled and seniors in the US. A person, anywhere in the United States, cannot afford to live on the allowance of Medicare/Medicaid, so hospices, phased care retirement facilities, etc., cannot keep these people and make the profit their stockholders demand. Florida is owed $14 million in medicare fraud by Terri’s hospice chain, but no one is collecting it, why not?
A CAT scan after the accident it showed that Princess Grace's brain had been damaged in two different places. One was from the trauma of the crash and the other appeared to have been a stroke, although it was impossible to tell if the stroke caused the accident or if the accident caused the stroke.
Princess Grace was put on life support and her family had to make the difficult decision of deciding whether or not to end the artificial life support. The family decided that they were going to "pull the plug" -as it is said.
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Florida does allow separation of Guardianship of the estate and guardianship of the person.
I think we do not want to change the law such that a husband or wife will not be the presumed guardian. Not everyone has a perfect inlaws.
IF there is disagreement, and the parties do go to the courts, then an attorney ad litem should be randomly assigned as the exclusive advocate of the alleged incapacitated person. SOME counties do this as a matter of course. The assigments are random and off a list. I am only aware of one case were the person was actually selected and that was a true emergency and the selection was based on the fact the attorney was known to be physically close at hand. (and the parties were actually in agreement but needed a court finding of incapacity)
must of what you suggest should be done is in fact already the law in the state of FL.