Posted on 04/22/2005 10:18:32 AM PDT by amdgmary
WASHINGTON(BP)-Disabled Americans feel vulnerable in the wake of Terri Schiavo's death and need societal and legal changes if their lives are going to be protected, leaders of two disability organizations said.
In the hours after Schiavo died March 31, both Joni Eareckson Tada and Diane Coleman said the brain-damaged Florida woman's death and the events leading to it do not bode well for other severely disabled people unless some changes are implemented.
Schiavo, 41, died nearly two weeks after the tube that provided her with food and water was disconnected at a state judge's order. For years, her parents and her husband had been in a legal struggle over whether she should live or die. Acting as her guardian, Michael Schiavo, her husband, gained court approval for the removal of the tube, saying she did not want to live in a severely disabled state, though no written direction from his wife existed.
Though Tada said she prays God will use Schiavo's example "to stave off this terrible culture of death and give us a fresh re-energizing to build a culture of life," the popular evangelical Christian author and speaker also said her death "alarms me deeply."
"The death of Terri Schiavo will adversely impact literally thousands of Americans who have severe mental incapabilities whose legal guardians might not have their best wishes at heart," Tada said on the April 1 radio broadcast of Focus on the Family.
Coleman, president of Not Dead Yet, told Baptist Press, "[W]hat we are seeing here is the dismantling of the constitutional rights of people in guardianship. No longer will there be the presumption for life.
"The social presumption that [Schiavo] would be better off dead appears to have influenced the decisions in the case," Coleman said. "We feel threatened by this, almost as if there is a cognitive test for personhood under the law."
Joni and Friends is a Christian ministry to the disabled that Tada started in 1979. She became a quadriplegic in a diving accident at the age of 17. Her testimony of God's work in her life has become well-known among Christians throughout the world.
Coleman, a lawyer, founded Not Dead Yet in 1996 to combat assisted suicide and euthanasia on behalf of the disabled. She was disabled at birth and has used a wheelchair since she was 11.
Both of their organizations agree some steps need to be taken to protect the rights and lives of the disabled. They recommend, in statements on their Internet sites, there should be:
• Federal review in state cases of contested decisions about withdrawing feeding tubes when there is no advance directive or personally chosen guardian.
• State-by-state reform of laws governing guardianship and healthcare decisions in order to protect against involuntary euthanasia.
• A moratorium on the removal of food and water from severely disabled people when the latest diagnostic procedures are unavailable.
In all, Not Dead Yet has listed eight steps on its Web site, www.notdeadyet.org, that it says need to be taken to guard the disabled. Joni and Friends also calls for a change in terminology in a statement on its site, www.joniandfriends.org. Society must stop using the phrase "persistent vegetative state," Tada said.
"There's just too many people with significant disabilities who have been called vegetables, and this must stop," Tada said on Focus on the Family, which was taped the day Schiavo died. "That is beyond demeaning. It is dehumanizing, and when people with significant disabilities are labeled like that, then the discussion all too quickly next turns to death, pulling their feeding tube or warehousing them in a hospice.
"Something else that has bothered me as I have listened to the national media - everybody has been talking about whether or not Terri is 'going to get better someday,' as though that fact was a criteria for her life," Tada said. "However, millions of Americans with disabilities will 'never get better' by today's standards, and we believe that a quality of one's life should never be a criteria to put them to death. Life is the most irreplaceable and fundamental condition of what it means to be human. It's a gift of God, the Author of life; and disabled people, no matter how significant their handicapping condition, have that right to life."
Coleman told Baptist Press her organization would not have filed three friend-of-the-court briefs on behalf of Terri Schiavo had she chosen her husband as her guardian and made clear her intentions regarding her care. The court's willingness to grant the guardian his request in the Schiavo case contrasts with reports of parental abuse and neglect when society expects the government to intervene, Coleman said.
"Unfortunately, people with disabilities are not so valued [as are children]," Coleman said. "We share a social devaluation that is so strong that most people are sure we are living a fate worse than death and that they would never want to live" that way.
"[W]hat we've learned like any other minority group, you might say, is you can't trust majority culture... In some cases you can't even trust your own family ...," she said. "While many caregivers are wonderful and value us, not all do.
"The most telling thing is [Schiavo's] guardian forbade qualified people from giving her swallowing tests, swallowing therapy" the last seven years, Coleman said. "She might not have needed a feeding tube really. A lot of people in nursing homes are on feeding tubes, not because they cannot eat but because there is not enough staff to feed them. That's the context we are in."
For Not Dead Yet and at least some other disability organizations, this is a civil rights issue, not a sanctity-of-life or culture war issue, Coleman said. Her organization is as concerned about conservatives cutting Medicaid and Medicare funds as it is about liberals wanting to kill the disabled quickly in the name of compassion, she said.
A bill to legalize physician-assisted suicide has been introduced in California, and Tada fears what happened in the Schiavo case will embolden its supporters in the state legislature.
"There will be those who will look at the situation of Terri Schiavo and turn it on its head," Tada said. "Pro-euthanasia advocates ... will say, 'Oh how awful that this woman had to linger so long toward her death. She should have been aided with a lethal injection of three grams of phenobarbital to hasten her death more quickly and more compassionately.'"
Tada said she was lying on her back as she was interviewed for Focus on the Family. She had recently recovered from pneumonia and had been mostly in bed for four or five days with a pressure sore. Shortly before the interview, a friend had fed her by hand.
"It underscored how much people like me and people like Terri Schiavo depend on strong advocates to be by our bedside to fight and to protect and to safeguard the protections around people with severe disabilities," Tada said.
He certainly had his chance to enfore the law by bringing attempted murder against Terri to a halt. Unfortunately he said that his job as Governor is controlled by the courts. Can't believe this guy is my Governor. He also had every chance to be creative as well in stopping the attempted murder (now murder) of Terri but that was just beyond what he was willing to do. His office told me voice that he wasn't going to do anything creative. Now he is going to go represent the U.S. at the Vatican for the inaugration of the new Pope and will probably take communion without being refused by whomever he takes the host from - the ultimate slap in the face of those who fought for Terri not to be murdered and the ultimate slap in the face to Terri in regards to him having blood on his hands regarding her murder - the ultimate slap in the face to the Catholic Church, etc.
Yes, I agree that this euthanasia movement has been very busy at work over the last 10 years getting laws written via the courts (starting with the Browning case)
http://www.law.fsu.edu/library/flsupct/74174/op-74174.pdf
Look at who one of the Petitioners was (George Felos) - they wrote law here. Felos is a very determined man to see his vision come to life. I suspect that he has the backing of the Scientologists, and we know how powerful they are based on what happened to Lisa McPherson. They were able to murder a girl and get away with it completely.
When the Fl. legislature tried to pass Terris Law they called it unconstitutional. This is a complete power grab by the judiciary - and all the courts in this country were on the take. So my take is that the euthanasia movement has complete say in what goes on in the state of Fl. via the Browning case and now the Shiavo case - anything the Legislature tries to do at this point regarding turning back the clock on who can be killed in Fl. will not succeed because the Fl. Supreme court will declare it unconstitutional. So the time to act was before she died, Jeb would have had to of caused a constitutional crises and he was not willing to do so - because apparently he would rather lay down his sword and let the judiciary walk all over him. So I am sure he did so on good advice - in that it was probably a lost battle to start with. And I blame the public most of all. They were swayed by the media and unfortunately because the public was not outraged by what happened the Governor, and the Republicans in Congress were left standing without an army. So I don't expect that things will change, cause at the very heart of this issue is that the public appears to want George Felos and company to allow the state to kill them when they become disabled and can't speak for themselves. If you live in Fl. beware.
Good post.
Another horrible thought is - could the Medicare/Medicaid administration be involved in this also to rid the rolls of "partakers" of their benefits? I wonder if Gov Bush found out something as he had his people search the files.
Maybe the corruption is so deep and dark that they backed off rather then broach it at that time. Of course, we can conjecture all day long.
But, we know something evil just went down and we are right to get our antenna really active. Now, we must keep on digging. They will not get away with murder again.
The democrats know that the disbled often vote Republican, but after they die they can count on them voting a straight democratic ticket.
Ex in chart form of conflicting testimony of Michael Schiavo
Sun Apr 24, 2005 13:57
68.210.40.16
http://tekgnosis.typepad.com
I went to the link but the visual was too small to read even on my 21 inch monitor! Any suggestions?
Yes there were just way to many things that did not make sense. There were way to many people that either looked the other way or had a hand in the deceit. There was so much stuff that went on that Gov Bush could have investigated from a criminal aspect. Even now why is he not opening up an investigation to expose all that went on? I just don't think Bush had the political will do do his job and unfortunately he did not have public support. Had their been an outcry from the public I think things possibly would have been different. But the powers that be in the media made sure that that would not happen. From the day they took Terri's tube out the media coverage was so lopsided it was sickening. It is a powerful force that made this all transpire - that can not be denied.
Why? Terri was killed by a government entirely under GOP control. The GOP only pretends to be pro-life.
Better not rely on your own advice, or you'll be the one who ends up looking stupid. And dead.
I'm so thankful for your cousin's ability to create a great life out of a time of misery.
If we ever come to the day you mentioned with any done away with, we will cease as a country of power because when you are willing to kill, you lack character, morality, and compassion. All they will build is another Nazi Germany which will spiral downward - never, ever upward to better things.
Who would ever be willing to fight for such a country - why would they? It would just be a killing field.
Felos and the other death lovers are anxious to see their vision come to life, as long as it is someone else being killed. I wish they would be the first ones to step up to the plate and take the needle. But they are cowards and only want to get their jollies by seeing someone else die.
When the Fl. legislature tried to pass Terris Law they called it unconstitutional. This is a complete power grab by the judiciary - and all the courts in this country were on the take.
When Congress wrote the law stipulating that the Schiavo case be places into the Federal judiciary system, I was pessimistic from the start that Terri Schindler would get any mercy from the judicial system of this country, be it state or federal. Remember that it is the judiciary, through tortured legal "reasoning", that has perpetuated the ongoing holocaust of abortion in this country. With the blood of going on fifty million on their hands, why would they stop when it came to killing Terri Schiavo?
There was no way any higher court would find against the initial court ruling. Why? Because to do so would have been to admit an error on the part of the judiciary in sentencing an innocent person to death. Once the courts started down the path of killing an innocent person, they couldn't turn back, because to find in favor of appeal would be to admit they were wrong in ordering that Terri be killed.
An interest historical aside for those students of history (like myself) who may be interested. This is exactly the argument used by the German judges tried at Nuremberg and ultimately found guilty of crimes against Humanity. To turn back from the road once started upon, to admit they were wrong to enable the Holocaust that cost six million innocent lives by upholding and administering what they knew to be unjust laws, would have been to admit to the world, and themselves, their complicity and guilt in such a monstrous and heinous crime. They argued that instead of justice they fell back on "enforcing the laws", and instead of justice they meted out "devotion to duty', which sounds an awful lot like the Circuit Court judge who talked about "dispassionate discharge of duty". Well, it didn't work at Nuremberg, and it won't work now, at least for those of us who understand that the law is not only about process but justice, and that "devotion to duty" and "dispassionate discharge of duty" must be tempered with the notions of basic decency, compassion, mercy, and wisdom.
I have a friend who is disabled and she is scared to death! She should be, one of these days a doctor over her care may tell her family that she has no quality of life left and to pull the feeding tube. That may happen to us all!
Right click on the pic and save as.. then you can view it with the build-in viewer in XP or any other program that can view jpgs. Let me know if this helps.
Thanks for sharing this.
Thanks ... but don't worry about me. I've had my
living will on file with my lawyer for 15 years!
My spouse has too. Neither of us wants tubes and
machines keeping us in this world for 1 year let
alone 15!
And, all our kids know our wishes on this matter.
We've had too many relatives who wasted away
hooked up to a resperator, dialysis machines,
etc. They still all died...just took a helluva
long time to do it!
I'm just curious as to what law would have been broken in such an instance.
Cordially,
That is a very good point - Greer would have been totally exposed and would have had to face attempted murder charges. That is why also the autopsy will be a sham and why no one is trying to investigate this. Poor Terri - she was such an innocent victim to what is America's first judicial homicide of a living human being that committed no crime. America use to stand for something - this type of inhumanity was beneath our threshold of decency. Well that is no longer the case - we have sunk very low indeed. Thanks to the judges of this country.
I think what the media was most guilty of was taking a specific story with its own unique set of facts and putting it before the public as a stereotypical situation faced by thousands of families daily.
The POINT OF THE STORY, according to the mass media, was that we should all have living wills. Why? I'm not married to Michael Schiavo. My wife will make decisions based in love, as will I.
Nobody in my family is a scientologist so being starved to death isn't that great a threat.
Even some conservatives lost sight of the ball, due to media manipulation. Many of them got on this site and discussed the pain of removing life-support systems.
That wasn't the issue. The issue was whether Schiavo had his wife's best interests at heart (therapy award won, no therapy provided answers that question for me) and whether the judge acted ethically.
The question I want to see answered is whether Michael Schiavo met Jody Centonze, the mother of his illegitmate children, before his wife's brain injury and did he buy a life-insurance policy on his wife from Centonze. Did the judge or the county he works for buy insurance from Centonze or any of her partners.
As always, it's time to follow the money.
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