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Posted on 03/30/2005 10:15:58 PM PST by freespirited
With the impending death of Terri Schiavo, US euthanasia advocates have scored a public relations hat-trick. Within a single month Clint Eastwood won an Oscar for Million Dollar Baby and The Sea Inside, about a quadriplegic who commits suicide, was feted as the best foreign film.
Now, after more than a decade of litigation, a 41-year-old brain-damaged Florida woman is slowly dying at her husband's request. What's more, recent polls show that most Americans are so confused about end-of-life treatment that they think that this is a good thing.
Who is to blame for this fear of extreme disability? Pro-lifers might plausibly blame "left-leaning media" for the Oscars. But the fate of Terri Schiavo is an own goal. Their lawyers were outsmarted at every turn by George Felos, the lawyer for Schiavo's husband.
Felos was the heavy artillery of the right-to-die movement, a cunning strategist who had won Florida's most influential right-to-die case in 1989, and who is a media-savvy talk-show guest.
Schiavo's death warrant was effectively signed in 2000, with a decision by Florida judge George Greer that she would have chosen to have her tube removed. It is this judgement that was upheld time and time again by superior courts. Pro-life bloggers have demonised Greer. But they ought to read some of the evidence.
First of all, the Schindler family were tricked. They are loving and compassionate people, but they were manoeuvred into giving a incredibly distorted picture of what the Catholic Church teaches about patients in a persistent vegetative state.
Her brother said that it would be a joy for him to see Schiavo alive - in a respirator or with limbs amputated.
Her mother stated that discomfort or pain was not a factor in discontinuing life support. The mother and the brother and sister all agreed that if they were in Schiavo's situation and had gangrenous limbs that had to be amputated, they would choose that rather than die.
But Catholics are not masochists. Their church has always taught, in the words of a 1980 Vatican document, that patients can "refuse forms of treatment that would only secure a precarious and burdensome prolongation of life, so long as the normal care due to the sick person in similar cases is not interrupted".
To compound the confusion, Felos wheeled out a hospital chaplain, Father Gerard Murphy, as "an expert in the area of the Catholic Church's position on end of life care". Father Murphy said that removing Schiavo's feeding tube was consistent with his church's teaching. This is nonsense, of course. The Pope, also an expert on the Catholic Church's position, recently stated that "a sick person in a vegetative state . . . still has the right to basic health care (nutrition, hydration, cleanliness, warmth, etc)." But given the uncertainty about Schiavo's religious beliefs and the apparent insensitivity of her family, Greer found Murphy's testimony sympathetic and "completely candid".
Still worse were the medical experts. Felos easily found two "clear and convincing" neurologists who testified that Schiavo was in a persistent vegetative state. With all of the American medical profession a phone call away, the Schindlers' team wheeled out two duds.
One was a Dr William Maxfield, who was not even a neurologist, but an expert in hyperbaric medicine - breathing pressurised oxygen.
The other was a Dr William Hammesfahr, a neurologist whose garish website touts him as a "Nobel Prize nominee". Nobel Prize winners normally publish papers in major journals, unlike Dr Hammesfahr, whose publications are few and obscure. However, he was a 1992 keynote speaker for the Alabama Academy of Osteopathic Physicians. You get the picture: one random and one shonk.
To break the tie, Greer engaged a fifth neurologist, Dr Ronald Cranford. He is well spoken and highly convincing. He is also a spokesman for the right-to-die movement. His testimony tilted the scales.
The fundamental problem with the case mounted by the Schindler family is that they depicted Schiavo's plight as a religious issue.
In fact, it is a human rights issue. Schiavo is not in pain and is not dying. She is not on life support. Her care is not expensive. Why does her disability deserve a death sentence?
The American disability lawyer and activist Harriet McBryde Johnson put it clearly: "This belief that withdrawing a feeding tube is different than other killing - why is that a reasonable distinction? I haven't heard anybody say it would be OK to kill Terri Schiavo if she weren't on a feeding tube."
Given that US law favours living wills, even though studies have shown that they often don't work, the fight to save Schiavo's life was bound to be difficult. But it could have been won if it had been fought by professionals. It wasn't.
Michael Cook is the editor of BioEdge, an email newsletter on bioethics. mcook@australasianbioethics.org
Because even the President and his brother read the Polls.
The GOP has bungled this bigtime...
Supporters of the Terri Schindler-Schiavo Foundation have learned that Dr. Bambakidis and attorney George Felos may have had a personal relationship prior to Dr. Bambakidis being assigned to the case on April 24, 2002. In marketing materials promoting his seminars, Mr. Felos notes that he has served as a Governor for the American Hellenic Education Progressive Association. Upon research, supporters discovered that the Ohio chapter of the American Hellenic Education Progressive Association was managed by Dr. Bambakidis' brother Gust. Moreover, Gust's son Nicholas had worked with Dr. Bambakidis.
"just the facts please" -- or "just the PUSH POLLS please"?
Bumpin' that, kenth.
I think he meant Greer and Cranford...that would be plural.
The O'Reilly replay is coming on again at 1:00AM Pacific;
3:00AM Central
4:00AM Eastern.
Don't know about Mountain...lol.
If you have cable or dish, I urge you to watch it.
The interview cuts thru the bull, the rumors and the confusion.
"... all Experience hath shown that Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while Evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the Forms to which they are accustomed."
I saw Cranford on Hannity that night. It was unbelievable.
The brother's associatiobs are disgusssed.
It's old news.
Look, to me truth and accuracy matters.
There's already enough rumor, slander, inuendo and hysteria to last a lifetime. Too serious of a matter
to permit the fanatics on both sides to have free reign.
Perhaps they should have relied more on Thomas Jefferson and personal rights.
LOL...please forgive the typos.
I am hunt and peck typist and I'm
typing in the dark right now... so as to not
awaken husband... or I'll be in trouble for
being up late. :)
BIG TIME BUMP, voice of sanity!!!!!!
"See # 2...Please be careful...the AMs may not be you FRiend."
Thank you so much for your WARNING!!!!!!
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...is pretty offensive, to say the least.
And I see you've trumpeted your army's phone tree.
His ranting about "spiritual presences" and contact with the soul of dying patients strikes me as absurd as Benny Hinn, and dozens of American TV evangelists like him.
Here’s a typical scene. A small, frail older black woman in a wheelchair is brought up the aisle to where Rev **** stands.
‘Do you believe Dr Jesus can cure you?’ **** booms. He appears to divine the name of the woman’s doctor and the specifics of her illness.
‘You have not talked to anyone or sent a note up here to anybody. Is that right?’ he asks. ‘Your doctor told you that you have crippling arthritis and will never walk. Is that right? Well, Dr Jesus is healing you right now. Get up out of that wheelchair and walk.’
She does and **** climbs into the wheelchair. ‘Now show me how fast you can push. In the name of Jesus,’ he calls as he rolls down the aisle, ‘let’s all give the Lord a big hand.’
As the end of the well-orchestrated half-hour approaches, Brother ***** makes his pitch: ‘Write me today, I’ll anoint your letter, I’ll pray for you and write back, even if you do not send an offering. But if you do send a tax-deductible offering of $20 or more (remember we have to raise seven million dollars a year to keep broadcasting God’s word to you) I’ll send you copies of my books How to be Healed in Three minutes and How to Keep your Healing.’
This whole tragic scene was played out by players with their own agendas and a very personal family matter became a public abstract.
There was some speculation and even questioning of the doctor, but he denies knowing Felos and Felos won't talk about it. A vague link through the doctor's brother who is in an association with Felos exists but certainly isn't conclusive. However, the doctor doesn't know why he was picked, as he had never testified in court before as an expert witness. It might be interesting to know how Judge Greer chose him.
Incidentally, although the doctor testified that Terri was PVS and was never going to recover, he also testified that she had an unusual neck injury and had not had a heart attack. This is from documents at http://www.zimp.org/stuff/
It should read Why America lost a do-or-die battle.
The reason is that America relegated it's faith to small buildings, one day a week. America expelled God from the public venue. America slept while the amoral Hippies grew-up and took over the country. America permitted abortion on demand. America is embracing and normalizing homosexuality. Now, America is allowing the life of an innocent woman to be reduced to arguments over legal procedures and the correctness of court filings.
I came from an America that that would have stood up and said: To hell with your procedures and your lousy paperwork! We're talking about an innocent woman's life here.
Now, America cringes in fear before the likes of George Felos, the Shiva-worshipping Hindu lawyer for the adulterer-husband of Terri, Micheal Schiavo, and that black-robed Mullah, George Greer.
That Cabal has effectively established that elected officials and representatives do not run the country. An elitist oligarchy has seized control; the "rule of law" has become whatever they decide "the law" is, on any given day; and now they determine who the "usless eaters" are, as well as how they should be disposed of.
While America neglected it's responsibilities and obligations to God, the Creator of the Universe has been preparing His judgment upon this nation of sleepers. It is only because of his mercy and grace, that swift and sure destruction has not already befallen America.
But it is coming, just as sure as it came upon Israel. "And it shall come to pass in that day, that every place shall be, where there were a thousand vines at a thousand silverlings, it shall even be for briers and thorns. With arrows and with bows shall men come thither; because all the land shall become briers and thorns. And on all hills that shall be digged with the mattock, there shall not come thither the fear of briers and thorns: but it shall be for the sending forth of oxen, and for the treading of lesser cattle." (Isa 7:23-25)
One of the Founders (whose name escapes me at the moment) remarked to the effect that he feared for our nation, when he considered that God is just. I echo those sentiments because His Grace & Mercy will not restrain His Justice forever.
Forgive us, Almighty God, for our sins of omission. Save Terri's life through your Mighty Power, to your glory. Save her, and have mercy upon us.
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