Death by Court Order (Terri Schiavo)

The death certificate for Theresa Marie Schiavo should record that she was killed by court order. The state courts flagrantly violated the democratically enacted laws of Florida — laws expressly intended to protect the incapacitated and vulnerable whenever there is doubt about their true condition or their desire to live. When the Congress and the president of the United States took extraordinary steps at the end to have the case reviewed, the federal courts haughtily ignored them.

The courts’ overreaching began in 1990, the very year Terri Schiavo, then 26, was stricken. The Supreme Court that year decided the Cruzan case, which concerned another woman’s tragedy. Here, the Court held both that the Fourteenth Amendment guaranteed a right to decline medical treatment, and that medical treatment included basic sustenance. Further, the Court held that a surrogate could exercise this right for people who (a) were in a “persistent vegetative state” (PVS) and (b) had convincingly expressed a desire not to be sustained if they ever reached that state.

Both tests were dangerously imprecise. PVS combines the total loss of higher cognitive functions with the persistence of rudimentary reflex responses. A person who is minimally conscious and responsive to stimuli is not in a PVS. Because the condition is so difficult to get a precise fix on, some experts peg its misdiagnosis rate as nearing one out of every two cases. The Court’s standard for intent, meanwhile, did not require a reliable piece of writing, such as an authenticated will. Hearsay would do the trick. . .

With all due respect, Migh, I will grant you your every point- the judiciary is arrogant. I know that first hand. We should fight this arrogance at every opportunity. But, was this principled position, worth sacrificing Terri’s life?

Remember, our task was to save Terri’s life under exigent circumstances. The point of my prior post was that the Republicans should have known that the Federal Legislation was going to be disregarded by the arrogant judiciary, with the support of the pro choice/death forces, the atheist liberal media, and the Democrat Party- Thus, that Legislation could not save her life.

The alternative, flipping the Numbskull Nine by force of political persuasion by the Rep. National Leadership, would have been much more expedient, expeditious and practical- Your description of that alternative as “velvet glove”- should have been any thing but. It should have indicated to the Numbskulls that disloyalty to the national party on this particular pro-life issue was tantamount to the end of their tenure in the Republican Party. Here, at least there was the chance, to save Terri’s life.

We will have plenty of opportunities to fight our battles against the judiciary, et al. We had only one chance to save Terri. Regrettably, imho, we adopted the wrong strategy in trying to do so.

That said, my firend, we are on the same side. Going on to your side of the fence, given the facts as they DID occur, I honestly could not see any long term political harm coming to either the President or Jeb had they exercised executive powers- They could merely have said:

“In my view, the law was ambiguous. And as a matter of conscience and of natural law, I do not believe that here in America we put any human being to death by the deprivation of food and water. And if the majority of Americans feel that that belief makes me unfit for office, than frankly, I will be blithe not to serve.”

Protective custody? Ask those who want useless eaters dead what they think about "protective custody" charges paid by taxpayers.

We pay full salary retirement benefits for senators, breakfast and lunch for school children, perks, pork, and trips wherever for government representatives and benefits and medical care for illegals - but we have to kill those too handicapped, too sick, too old because they are too expensive?

Wonder why they never consider cutting the above payments first? That would seem logical before you go killing American citizens.

Look, this is not a "hate Bush" site. There were plenty of people in the system that should have done differently. It is not fair to blame Pres. Bush because he did not rush in like Superman to the rescue.

Turn your tackiness against the real culpripts - the Florida senators who did not pass a state bill to help her. That is where the action should have taken place and they are the ones getting off scott free.

The same Florida legislature that freely turned over law making to the end-of-life panel who have steadily marched step by step to the conclusion you saw with their laws.

That is an outrage - and the whole Florida legislative branch should be thrown out for allowing state murder to occur in that state.

Quit trying to turn this against Pres. Bush and Gov Jeb Bush for whatever political points you can make.

"The standards to convict criminals are infinitely higher
than the standards to order the death of an innocent
defenceless person." This is a frightening truth,
and Cruzan was a major step into the abyss. The NR excerpt
states that the Cruzan court mentioned the "PVS" syndrome.
I've found several published articles by Chris Borthwick,
http://home.vicnet.net.au/~borth/PVS.htm discussing the
dangers and pernicious simplification of the so-called PVS
diagnosis. Death by definition, not diagnosis.

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