Theresa Marie Schindler... May Daily Thread 2005 CALL TO ACTION: Our Fight for Justice Continues

Freeper friends, Terri's Memorial Service is this coming Tuesday night in Gulfport, Florida. Please check and see if www.baynews9.com will carry it on the internet.

I'm still sad and in disbelief that the rescue fell apart. It was on it's way. We were waiting there for ambulances but instead two Sheriff's cruisers arrived.

The April Daily Thread as before will be a meeting place, a news digest and even in the midst of sorrow, a place to make friends.

I want to thank everyone who did everything humanly possible for Terri and her family. Terri's safe now from a room with the blinds closed, strange people and armed guards. She'd still be here if it wasn't for judicial despots who it appears have never read the Declaration of Independence or the U.S. or Florida Constitution.

Freepers, Republicans and Democrats alike voted against Terri or didn't do enough to save her from Judge Greer.

I'd like to thank Ralph Nader, David Boies, Joe Lieberman and Wesley Smith, Phd, author of Forced Exit.

I have disdain for the Naughty Nine Republicans in the Florida Senate who vote "No" which barred Terri from legislative relief. The GOP House Members who voted "No" on Terri, shame on them too.

WHAT EXACTLY IS THE AGENDA AND WHO IS IN CHARGE? I'm afraid that Judge George Greer is in charge - of everything.

HELP US. We feel stranded by tyranny today, but Florida is ripe for change. We will demand it together as Americans.

Va. Delegates Plan End-of-Life Legislation

By Bob Lewis
Associated Press Writer
Thursday, April 28, 2005

RICHMOND -- Legislation addressing the sort of end-of-life struggles that surrounded Terri Schiavo's death in Florida will confront the General Assembly next year, conservative lawmakers said.

"At a minimum, we need to say that you can't just starve someone to death if there is no written declaration by the person in question," said Del. Robert G. Marshall (R-Prince William).

Schiavo's death two weeks ago, 13 days after the severely brain-damaged woman's feeding tube was removed, has angered religious conservatives and generated demands for action by the states and possibly by Congress.

"What we just went through was one of the most ghastly events in American history," said Del. Richard H. Black (R-Loudoun), one of the House's most outspoken conservatives.

Marshall said he is devising legislation similar to bills that he introduced but were defeated in 1999, the year after he orchestrated protests in Virginia in a case with strong similarities to Schiavo's. The legislation would preclude withholding water and nourishment to severely brain-damaged patients without clear, written directives left by the patient.

On Oct. 9, 1998, former Louisville television anchor Hugh Finn died in a Manassas nursing home, eight days after the feeding tube that had sustained him for 3 1/2 years was removed on orders of his wife, Michele.

Finn had been unable to eat, communicate or care for himself since a March 1995 car crash in Kentucky ruptured his aorta, depriving his brain of oxygen.

A few months after Finn's death, Marshall introduced legislation to make it almost impossible to withdraw nutrition from people in a vegetative condition unless it's authorized in writing by the patient. Where there is no explicit, written directive, other relatives could veto a next-of-kin decision to remove a feeding tube under Marshall's legislation.

His bills failed, and there is no guarantee they would be cleared this time given the wide range of opinions on the subject. Still, Marshall and other lawmakers say it's time for new legislation. "At least we should avoid a situation where there is all this he-said, she-said, and nothing is written down," Marshall said.

Black added: "It would probably be good to clarify the issue of living wills. My guess is that very few people who make those out anticipate that they will be made to die of thirst."

Del. John A. Cosgrove (R-Chesapeake) said nutrition and water put into the stomach of an incapacitated patient through a surgically implanted tube is different from more drastic means of life support.

"Most people think of life support as a way to keep someone breathing or a heart beating. Providing nutrition is not an artificial means of keeping someone alive," Cosgrove said. Virginia, however, can't address the issue until next year without a special session. The 2005 General Assembly adjourned in February and can only address bills the governor has amended or vetoed.

Congress, however, might act again this year, a prospect that bothers some conservatives who believe it's a matter reserved for the states.

Last month, Congress swiftly passed -- and President Bush signed -- legislation to remove the Schiavo case from Florida's courts and place it before federal judges. Federal courts refused to order the tube reinserted, and the Supreme Court declined to intervene.

"Congress tried to get involved, and while I understand the intent, it's a cumbersome way of doing things," Cosgrove said. "But what troubles us more is the forced taking of a helpless life, and that's what this was."

Caught in the middle are doctors, who assess patients like Finn and Schiavo, who advise their loved ones and, ultimately, who carry out wrenching and sometimes disputed decisions to terminate life support.

Health care industry lobbyist W. Scott Johnson said Virginia's end-of-life law, updated in 2000, already clearly delineates, in descending order, who can make decisions about withholding life support.

"One of the operational things the physicians try to do, even though this pecking order is in play, is include as many people as they can with the family and answer all their questions. If you do that, you eliminate much of the battle we saw in Florida," Johnson said.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/04/27/AR2005042700585.html

When I cut up my RNC card it felt great! I felt so helpless and shocked while they killed Terri. The only thing we have left is to protest in any way we can. It also helps to write letters and make phone calls. Terri cannot have died in vain and we must save others from that kind of heinous "death process".

I am filled with outrage over what happened. I am still heart-sick and depressed but it's turning into anger and a "want to" DO SOMETHING!

Need I remind you that JUDGE GEORGE GREER is a republican and his candidacy was supported by the local GOP - and it wasn't that long ago that he was re-elected. Terri's death could have been avoided if only the REPUBLICANS had taken a stand for life.

And don't forget that it was REPUBLICANS in the Florida state senate that banned together to insure Terri's slow death by dehydration and starvation.

The way they turned their back on Terri was a wake-up call for me. Re-registered "Decline to State". I am so disgusted with the republican party . . . I have no words.

The only republican I am not blaming is TOM DELAY.

It is very interesting how those in power are trying to run away from the memory of Terri!! They sent Jeb Bush to the new Pope's installation hoping we would all just move on. The newspaper said that Jeb Bush converted to Catholicism about five years ago!! It just makes me madder than ever! How dare they think we will forget about what happened to Terri and just MOVE ON! How can we forget a heinous crime like that on a defenseless innocent daughter of God?!!

If Jeb Bush were such a great all-fired Catholic, then why didn't he save Terri's life - the Church was begging and pleading for someone to save Terri's life. Jeb Bush turned his back and walked away - while the Pope was on his death bed and Terri was on her death bed. I am insulted that my country sent HIM to represent ME at the new Pope's installation. OFFENDED AND DISGUSTED!!!

If they think they are going to pacify us with a few crumbs, they are sadly mistaken!!

I added a few more names (the last four names) that someone told me are also key voters:

Please contact these Key Swing Vote Senators whether you live in their state, or not.

Here are key senators whose votes may well
decide the fate of the filibuster rules change. Contact these individual senators,
urging each to FULLY SUPPORT THE FILIBUSTERING RULES CHANGE.

Even if none of these "swing" senators is your own senator, please
call them and tell them to vote for the nuclear option, aka Constitutional option.

Here are their names and contact information:

Sen. Lincoln Chafee (RI) 202-224-2921
Sen. Susan Collins (ME) 202-224-2523
Sen. Mike DeWine (OH) 202-224-2315
Sen. John McCain (AZ) 202-224-2235
Sen. Olympia Snowe (ME) 202-224-5344
Sen. John Sununu (NH) 202-224-2841
Sen. John Warner (VA) 202-224-2023
Sen. Hagel 202-224-4224
Sen. Murkowski 202-224-2523
Sen. Voinovich 202-224-3353
Sen. Smith 202-224-3753

If you would rather e-mail these senators, or can't get through because of busy signals, the following link is a great resource; look to the left to access contact e-mail info for ANY U.S. senator, where you will see "Action Center, then under that click E-mail your senator."

COALITION FOR A FAIR JUDICIARY
http://fairjudiciary.com/

RESOLUTION TO PROTECT PATIENTS AGAINST INVOLUNTARY DEHYDRATION AND STARVATION

April 28, 2005

Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, Inc

WHEREAS: The Arizona Medical Association is opposed to euthanasia, including “physician-assisted suicide”; and

WHEREAS: The diagnosis of Persistent Vegetative State cannot be made with certainty,” being mistaken in up to 43% of cases, especially when functional neuroimaging has not been performed; and

WHEREAS: Patients in a “minimally conscious state” or with a “locked-in syndrome” may be aware of their surroundings yet unable to communicate this awareness; and

WHEREAS: Patients with severe brain injury, who may be diagnosed as being in a Persistent Vegetative State, are often not terminally ill; and

WHEREAS: Severely disabled patients may nonetheless desire to live, regardless of what their expressed premorbid wishes may have been; and

WHEREAS: Death from thirst or starvation can be extremely painful; and

WHEREAS: Disabled persons look upon their feeding tubes as “assistive devices” that permit them to be nourished without tremendous burdens on caregivers and without the distress of choking spells; and

WHEREAS: Withholding fluids and food from a person who is not terminally ill (i.e. almost certain to die in less than a week) is a method of deliberately causing death that would not otherwise occur, and

WHEREAS: it is unlawful to execute a person who is not mentally competent, even if guilty of committing a crime at a time when he was mentally competent; and

WHEREAS: even mentally disabled patients are persons who are entitled to protection against deliberate infliction of pain or death,

BE IT THEREFORE RESOLVED THAT: The Arizona Medical Association oppose as unethical the withdrawal of fluids and nutrition from a patient who is not terminally ill, unless the patient is mentally competent, capable of expressing in some way his current wishes, and affirms his rejection of food and fluids to the point of becoming unarousable; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED THAT the Arizona Medical Association defines enteral feeding and hydrating of patients as humane care rather than as medical care, even if a nasogastric or gastrostomy tube is required; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED THAT the Arizona Medical Association exhort physicians to refuse to participate in the dehydration or starvation of mentally incompetent persons, as well as the execution of any person, and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED THAT the Arizona Medical Association direct its delegation to present and advocate the adoption of a similar resolution by the American Medical Association.

http://www.aapsonline.org/resolutions/resol23.htm

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