Fed Appeals Court Grant Terri's Parents Petition for Rehearing

FNC

[WhistlingPastTheGraveyard]

FEDERAL APPEALS COURT WILL LET TERRI'S PARENTS FILE A PETITION FOR REHEARING FOR AN INJUNCTION TO REINSERT FEEDING TUBE... BREAKING

---

Moderator update:

Court Says Yes To Schiavo Parents

March 30, 2005

(CBS/AP) A federal appeals court early Wednesday granted Terri Schiavo's parents the right to file a petition for rehearing for an injunction that could allow their daughter's feeding tube to be reconnected.

The ruling came just after midnight from a federal appeals court in Atlanta.

On Tuesday, Schiavo's 12th full day without food or water, the Rev. Jesse Jackson prayed with her parents and joined conservatives in calling for state lawmakers to order her feeding tube reinserted.

The former Democratic presidential candidate was invited by Schiavo's parents to meet with activists outside Schiavo's hospice. His arrival was greeted by some applause and cries of "This is about civil rights!"

"I feel so passionate about this injustice being done, how unnecessary it is to deny her a feeding tube, water, not even ice to be used for her parched lips," he said. "This is a moral issue and it transcends politics and family disputes."

As the Schiavo deathwatch drags on, CBS News Correspondent Mark Strassmann spoke with two families who grappled with the same issues as the Schindlers and Michael Schiavo. On one side are Dorothy and Michael Brocato, who have provided care for their brain-damaged daughter Lisa, who suffered brain damage from a heart attack 15 years ago.

"We have devoted our lives to taking care of Lisa, says her mother. The Brocatos are sympathetic to the Schindler's wish to keep Terri Schiavo alive

"I love her. I love her. I couldn't picture not having her around me,'' says Dorothy Brocato.

Ron Oister has watched the Schiavo drama play out from a very different perspective. When Oister's father was essentially brain-dead, his son's wrenching decision was to let his father go.

"It was very hard,'' Oister told Strassmann. "That was my father. And he was in front of me. And I knew he could never return to what he had been."

Oister says Schiavo's parents helped create this needless public spectacle because they refused to face their hard reality.

"She died then, not now. My own experience would say that one ends life at that time."

Jesse Jackson's visit provided an emotional boost to Schiavo's parents and siblings, who have maintained that Schiavo would want to be kept alive. Her husband, Michael Schiavo, insists he is carrying out her wishes by having the feeding tube pulled.

Mary Schindler, Terri Schiavo's mother, later made a terse but emotional appeal to Michael Schiavo: "Michael and Jodi, you have your own children. Please, please give my child back to me." Michael Schiavo and fiancee Jodi Centonze have two children, born long after Terri Schiavo fell into paralysis.

Although supporters of the Schindlers have claimed the dehydrated woman is being denied comfort measures such as ice chips for her dry mouth or balm for chapped lips, George Felos, the husband's attorney, defended how Schiavo is being cared for.

"Obviously, the parents and the siblings are desperate. Desperation may lead to different perceptions," Felos told CNN. "I can only tell you what I've seen, and Terri is dying a very peaceful, cared-for death." Felos did not return phone messages seeking comment from The Associated Press.

Jackson said he asked Michael Schiavo for permission to see the brain-damaged woman but was denied. He also telephoned black legislators in a last-ditch effort to bring back a bill that would prohibit severely brain-damaged patients from being denied food and water if they didn't express their wishes in writing. Lawmakers rejected the legislation earlier this month and appeared unlikely to reconsider it.

One of those contacted by Jackson, Democratic state Sen. Gary Siplin, said he told Jackson the issue had been "thoroughly discussed." Senate Democratic leader Les Miller added, "I have voted. It's time to move on."

The chief sponsor of the measure, state Sen. Daniel Webster, said he knew of no changed votes and that Jackson's efforts may have come too late.

"If he could sway votes — and I'm certain he may be able to — it would have been helpful if he had done that a little earlier" said Webster, a Republican. "We're running out of time. To do it now is not as timely as a couple of weeks ago would have been."

Bob Schindler described his daughter as "failing" following his visit Tuesday.

"She still looks pretty darn good under the circumstances," Schindler said. "You can see the impact of no food and water for 12 days. Her bodily functions are still working. We still have her."

First lady Laura Bush also commented on the case Tuesday, saying the government was right to have intervened on behalf of Schiavo.

"It is a life issue that really does require government to be involved," Bush said aboard a plane bound for Afghanistan, where she was to promote education and women's rights.

During Jackson's visit, a man was tackled to the ground by officers when he tried to storm into the hospice, police said. He became the 47th protester arrested since the feeding tube was removed March 18. The man had two bottles of water with him but did not reach the hospice door, police said.

Doctors have said Terri Schiavo, 41, would probably die within a week or two of the tube being removed. She suffered catastrophic brain damage in 1990 when her heart stopped for several minutes because of a chemical imbalance apparently brought on by an eating disorder.

The parents also lost another round in the courts Tuesday when an appeals court upheld a pervious ruling by Judge George Greer that blocked the Department of Children and Families from intervening in the case.




Court Says Yes To Schiavo Parents

[tomkat]

I can't even stand to come to this site anymore because of the fanatic unreasonableness of the Terri Cult. It's nauseating

20 yr old Conservative Christian Republican ... Its my goal to know everything

Youth truly IS wasted on the young.

<plonk>

[jude24]

That's a fair point.

I want to commend you for engaging me on the issues, and not with personal attacks (unlike many other posters here).

[tutstar]

Amazing news!

[cpforlife.org]

Wow. Excellent. How many more of us are there? LOL

Now I gotta ask: What's your take on Jeb Bush RE not moving in to save Terri?

I agree with Alan Keyes:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1371172/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/1369504/posts

[NautiNurse]

So the brain could actually just slush around inside the skull in a liquid form??

All of our brains are bathed in cerebral spinal fluid--yours, mine, and Mrs. Schiavo's. In effect, all of our brains are sloshing around in a liquid inside our skulls.

Mrs. Schiavo has significant reduction in brain tissue mass (atrophy). Thus she has more CSF:brain matter ratio than you or me.

[pollyg107]

Sorry, I don't have time, gotta get dressed for work. You could start by reading a text on appellate practice and procedure in the federal courts. This case has never been litigated in the federal courts. Because Congress passed a law granting the right to a trial de novo, collateral estoppel and res judicata are inapplicable. Best of luck with your legal studies.

[greccogirl]

These judges MAKE ME WANT TO PUKE - They have starved this woman for almost TWO WEEKS. I doubt she could live now even if they reinserted the tube and idiots have been discussing it what midnight?

[lainde]

You could have made that statement with some degree of certainty 15 years ago but it would not meet minimal standards in 2005. That's why we have functional MRIs and PET scans. We can get an idea of not just brain mass but also function. These kinds of studies are extremely relevant when making a decision about harvesting organs for donors if brain death is suspected. Why kill someone based on 15 year old technology?

[jude24]

. Because Congress passed a law granting the right to a trial de novo, collateral estoppel and res judicata are inapplicable.

Thanks for the answer.

I can see how they wouldn't apply in the first trip through the federal courts, but why not the second?

(Appellate practice and advanced fed procedure will come later in my legal studies.)

[syriacus]

is document does not exist on this server...

My link TO post 50 was bad...BUT the link AT post 50 was good.

Any way... here's a working link to the original article for anyone who couldn't find their way to post 50. I've provided an excerpt, and those that are interested can go to the link to read the rest.

Federal Complaint Filed with DOJ in Schiavo Case Alleging ADA Violations 03.29.05 © The Empire Journal

   A New York State special education teacher has filed a detailed eight-page complaint with the U.S. Department of Justice on behalf of Terri Schindler-Schiavo, alleging  numerous violations of the Americans with Disabilities.

    An immediate stay of execution has been requested until the matter can be investigated..

   Danielle P. Miller, special education teacher at the Central Islip High School at Central Islip,  Suffolk County, NY, filed the complaint Monday, March 28 and served copies upon Florida’s Gov. Jeb Bush, President George W. Bush, Florida Attorney General Charlie Crist, DCF Secretary Luci Hadi as well as numerous other state and federal officials.[snip]

The complaint alleging violations of ADA names numerous judges involved in the case as the “accused”[snip]

The complaint also addresses allegations of neglect and refusal of medical care and therapy for her by Schiavo as her guardian.[snip]

[Terri] did not have informed consent ...Terri] could not/did not have an understanding that the determination of artificial means would include a feeding tube after the year of 2000”,

[NautiNurse]

What's your take on Jeb Bush RE not moving in to save Terri?

A shootout at the Hospice Corral would have been a disaster, particularly when there is evidence the Schindler's attorney did not approach the federal court with the most prudent case when given the opportunity.

[txradioguy]

I see. I guess I mis-spoke. I understand the whole cerebral fluid in the skull etc.

It's just the impression I get when I hear some MSM talking head say her brain is "liquified" that her brain...gray matter/brain tissue and all is just sloshing around in her head like a milkshake.

[jude24]

However, to declare it liquefied is also a factually false assertion.

From In re: Theresa Marie Schaivo,
Incapacitated, Report to Gov. Jeb Bush and the 6th Florida Judicial Circuit 1 Dec. 2003
Jay Wolfson as Guardian Ad Litem to Theresa Marie Schaivo at 34

Theresa's neurological tests and CT scans indicate objective measures of the persistent vegitative state. These data indicate that Theresa's cerebral cortex is principally liquid, having shrunken due to the severe anoxic traumna experienced thirteen years ago. The initial oxygen deprivation caused damage that cannot be repaired, and the brain tissue in the area continued to devolve....

In recent months, individuals have come forward indicating that there are therapies and treatments that can literally re-grow Theresa's functional, cerebral cortex brain tissue, restoring part or all of her functions. There is no scientifically valid, meidically recongized evidence that this has been done or is possible, even in rats, according to the president of the American Society for Neuro-Transplatation. It is imaginable that some day such things maybe possible, but holding out such promises to families of severely brain injured persons today may be a profound disservice.

In the observed circumstances, the behavior that Theresa manifests is attributable ot stem and forebrain functions, rather than cognitive. And the substantive difference according to neurologists and neurosurgeons is that reflexive actitvities of this nature are neither conscious nor aware activities. And without cognition, there is no awareness. (Descartes addressed this in his proposition that it is our awareness, our consciousness that defines our being: "Cogito, ergo sum." This logic would imply that unless we are aware and conscious, we cease to be.)

Source

[syriacus]

They are conscious when their episodes aren't occuring, aren't they?

What if people with narcolepsy or epilepsy are "tested" for consciousness when they aren't conscious?

What if Terri was denied sleep for several days and nights before her neurological exams?

[PleaseNoMore]

"Michael and Jodi, you have your own children. Please, please give my child back to me."

Very personal plea. This is not about a woman with a brain injury and it's not arguing her being cognizant vs her being a "vegetable". This is a mother pleading for her child. The public can relate to this.

"Obviously, the parents and the siblings are desperate. Desperation may lead to different perceptions," (Felos)

Felos knows the public can relate to this and doesn't like it at all.

[Arthur Wildfire! March]

Mary Schindler, Terri Schiavo's mother, later made a terse but emotional appeal to Michael Schiavo: "Michael and Jodi, you have your own children. Please, please give my child back to me."

That was a multi-dimensional smack. Not only personal, it might get through the See-BS, N-BS, and other BS gatekeepers. Even the BS channels will be tempted to let out more truth.

FReegards....

[PleaseNoMore]

I have always respected Sekulow, but have wondered why he didn't take this fight on earlier. This sort of thing is right up his alley of legal expertise.

[NautiNurse]

cerebral cortex is principally liquid, having shrunken

I've seen the source, and cringed at the odd choice of words. How is something liquid if it shrinks? CSF filled in the area of cortex that atrophied. Bad choice of terms.

[cpforlife.org]

Yes, A shootout at the Hospice Corral WOULD have been a disaster.

This whole thing is a disaster.

Judges have for the most part precipitated the greatest evil in this country - from Dred Scott to Roe v Wade to Sodo-Marriage and now the beginning of the Euthanasia Holocaust

It's a disaster that the other 2 branches have all but stood by.

[Arthur Wildfire! March]

It's good to ponder the possibilities. But it's also good to keep in mind the simple truth: she just may have spoken when that tube was removed. That's 'may' should be examined by a truly unbiased court before she dies. FReegards....