Posted on 03/28/2005 3:39:06 PM PST by Diddle E. Squat
Terri Schiavo, the badly brain damaged woman at the center of a national right to die debate, was near death and resting peacefully late Monday afternoon, her husband’s attorney said.
Attorney George Felos told reporters late Monday afternoon in Florida that Michael Schiavo has requested that Pinellas County’s chief medical examiner perform on autopsy on his wife once she dies in order to answer questions about the severity of brain damage and to put to rest rumors about her physical condition.
Meanwhile members of Schiavo’s family say the 41-year-old woman is still fighting to live, almost 11 days after the feeding tube that kept her alive for 15 years was removed.
“The look on her face is ‘please help me,’” said Schiavo’s sister, Suzanne Vitadamo.
Terri Schiavo is emaciated, but responsive, said her father Bob Schindler in a brief statement to reporters late Monday morning outside the Florida hospice where Schiavo has survived for almost 11 days without water or nutrition.
“She’s alive, she’s fighting like hell to live and she’s begging for help, ”Schindler told reporters.
“We haven’t given up on her and she hasn’t given up on us,” he said.
“She’s failing, but she’s still with us and she’s showing such a determination to live that its incredible”
Schindler likened his 41-year-old daughter’s appearance to that of a concentration camp inmate with sunken face and hollow eyes, and expressed fears that her death could come sooner because of the morphine she’s receiving to ease pain as her body fails.
“I have a grave concern that they’ll expedite the process to kill her with an overdose of morphine,” he said.
Felos countered the suggestion that Schiavo was receiving high doses of painkillers.
He cited records that indicated that Schiavo has received only two “minimal” 5 mg. doses of morphine over the weekend and said the woman is not on a morphine drip as had been reported earlier.
Fewer than ten protesters stayed through the night as rain and wind lashed the hospice in Pinellas Park.
One man was arrested before dawn trying to take a jug of water to Schiavo.
Doctors say a patient such as Schiavo could survive for as long as two weeks without water or nutrition, but 11 days after the removal of the tube, little time likely remains.
Schiavo's death is unlikely to end the feuding between the brain-damaged woman's family and her husband.
Both sides have battled for years over whether Schiavo lives or dies and now the two sides can't agree on what should happen to her body after death.
Schiavo’s parents had asked a court to allow Terri to be buried in Florida with her body intact, but the judge refused to intervene in Michael Schiavo's plans to have Terri cremated and interred in their native Pennsylvania.
The Schindlers also wanted to take photographs and video of their daughter before she dies, but Michael Schiavo opposed it and a judge has agreed with him.
Florida Governor Jeb Bush says his "heart is broken" about Terri Schiavo's plight, but Bush said he has to respect federal court rulings against reinserting the brain-damaged woman's feeding tube.
Bush said he hasn't seen "any means by which the executive branch can get involved."
Activists who want Schiavo’s feeding tube restored carried their fight Monday to the nation's capital.
Reverend Patrick Mahoney of the Christian Defense Coalition hoped to persuade congressional leaders to enforce a subpoena Congress issued earlier this month.
Congress won’t do that, but some members want to take a closer look at the rights of the disabled in wake of the case.
A Senate panel has changed the focus of a hearing scheduled for next month to include neurological and long-term care of disabled patients.
That hearing was originally scheduled to include appearances by Schiavo and her husband.
A House panel is also expected to hold hearings on long-term options for the disabled.
Democratic Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa is working on a bill that would allow federal court review in cases in which a disabled patient's wishes are unknown and family members can't agree.
The House has already passed similar legislation.
A Southern Baptist leader says the Florida judge who ordered the removal Schiavo's feeding tube has resigned his membership in a Southern Baptist church.
The Reverend Richard Land told NBC's "Meet the Press" that Judge George Greer and the Baptist church he attended in Clearwater came "to a mutual agreement that he resigned his membership."
The St. Petersburg Times says the pastor of Calvary Baptist Church wrote Greer a letter warning that, quote: "In all likelihood it is this case which will define your career and this case that you will remember in the waning days of life."
(After Klintler and his Downside Legacy,).....Inquiring minds want to know.
N'est-ce pas?
There are many freeprs here just as gung-ho as Barney Frank at putting her down.
This rings odd. If she is unaware of anything, why does she need pain relief? My idea of a vegetative state is a person who reacts to nothing.
The evil of these people who are killing Terri Schiavo astounds me and so do the people who are cheering them on. Dear God, what have we become?
It doesn't appear that MS's "request" has any bearing whatsoever on the law. It's all up to the ME.
How on earth that a judge decide that?
Have they such ultimate and total control over a person even after they die?
Cannot whoever has to issue the death certificate require and perform an autopsy (with family permission)? If M. Schiavo denies a request for an autopsy it would make him look pretty bad, IMHO (as if it could get worse).
Yes. They ape the MSM on this.
I read the same thing however it is not up to Greer or Schiavo it is up to the ME everyone goes through his office his call
Which medical examiner are they gong to buy. The only way they will put these issues to rest is if they allow Terri's parents to choose the examiner.
But it would answer questions about other injuries it's contended she suffered from "unknown causes".
Just to set the record straight.
No she's not brain dead. Any statements to that effect, mostly by the MSM, are incorrect.
They could perform a PET scan to find out the condition of her mind while she is still alive, rather that perform an autopsy to find out the condition of her brain after she is dead.
That's what I was thinking.
Where's Quincy when you need him...
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