The judge determined in his ruling based on evidence from court appointed medical team that Terri was in a PVS and thus could not swallow. When he gave the ruling to pull the life support (feeding tube is life support order Florida statue). As part of that ruling he did not allow outsiders to come in and try and interfere with that decision. If she could swallow water on her own she would not have been allowed to die of a natural death (natural for someone in her condition (can't drink or eat) - just like death from kidney failure or heart failure is a natural death for someone in that condition).
Ah, you admit it! The goal was to kill her, not just to free her of tubes.
"Can you point to me where the judge forbade "natural means"?"
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CAN SOMEONE PLEASE POST THE LINK TO GREER's RULING TO STARVE AND DEHYDRATE TERRY TO DEATH?
I had the link to the ruling, and it said that he was ordering that no nutrition or hydration to be given to Terri. Period.
He could have phrased it, to order the removal of the tube and ordered no feeding through the tube, but he specifically ordered no nutrition or hydration.
The judge ordered that no one could attempt to feed or water her by mouth after the tube was removed. If you didn't know that, please stop making opinions about a case you weren't following. Seriously - it's ridiculous to just make things up as you go along and expect people to respect your opinion.
Either she could swallow or she could not. Reflexive or not - it is a contraindication to the diagnosis of PVS. She did not drool, she only had one pneumonia in the last few years (and survived that without antibiotics) and she was not suctioned by the hospice nurses.
There was a court order among the many that forbade, in the judge's words "natural means." Greer declared any such action to be an "experimental procedure." Here is the order found here on FR by a simple google search:
http://209.157.64.200/focus/f-chat/1372022/posts?page=11#11
""Greer's ruling:
Order
This cause came before the Court for hearing on March 7, 2005 on Respondents’ Emergency Expedited Motion for Permission to Provide Theresa Schiavo with Food and Water by Natural Means after the assisted nutrition and hydration are discontinued. The Court heard the argument of Daniel Gibbs, for the Respondents and of George Felos, for the Petitioner.
Having also reviewed portions of declarations or affidavits of several doctors, which were submitted to the Court by Respondents, it has become clear that the motion is part and parcel of the Respondents’ FLa. R. Civ. P Rule 1.540(b)(5) motion on medical evaluations. The same declarations are being used for both motions and the motion appears to be an alternative pleading to the 1.540(b)(5) motion. Both are asking for an experimental procedure. The Court reasons that if the 1.540(b)(5) motion is granted, there is no need for this motion. If the 1.540(b)(5) motion is denied, the Court should not do indirectly what is has not done directly.
It is therefore
Ordered and adjudged that the Respondents’ Emergency Expedited Motion for Permission to Provide Theresa Schiavo with Food and Water by Natural Means is DENIED.""
The swallowing of saliva is not quite as simple as you describe it. That is why babies drool and why those in minimally conscious states or altered conscious states and even those who are mentally competent may choke on or aspirate their own saliva.
If the person is terminal and unable to tolerate liquids by mouth, and the court has ruled that he or she is not to recieve any life support or tube feedings, what is the logic in denying communion or forbidding a brother or mother the solace (for them) of placing ice chips on a parched tongue? These are "comfort" measures. I cannot imagine any hospice nurse I know going along with this decree. What would be the logic in a Court declaring that such an act is wrong?
The only thing that could have been wrong would be, as in the case of denying Dr. Cheshire or any other neurologist that the Governor or DCF sent in to examine Terri, that the judge could not bear to be proven wrong. He could not allow Terri to live. So he invented the proposition that oral hydration was "experimental" or "medical evaluation" and forbade it.