Posted on 06/22/2005 8:06:02 PM PDT by Tumbleweed_Connection
"Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last?" asked Joseph Welch in his famous confrontation with the pathologically cruel Joe McCarthy. "Have you left no sense of decency?"
More than a half-century later, I would ask the same question of Florida's governor, Jeb Bush.
In an abuse of power that has been widely denounced, and has even appalled many of his own supporters in the Republican Party, Governor Bush has tried to keep the Terri Schiavo circus alive by sending state prosecutors on a witch hunt against her husband, Michael.
The state attorney who has been pushed by the governor into pursuing this case told me yesterday he has seen nothing to indicate that a crime was committed. Nevertheless, the inquiry continues.
Governor Bush asked Bernie McCabe, the state attorney for Pinellas County, to "take a fresh look" at this already exhaustively investigated case to determine, among other things, whether Michael Schiavo had perhaps waited too long to call for help after discovering that his wife had collapsed early one morning 15 years ago.
Mr. McCabe did not seem particularly enthusiastic about his mission. "I wouldn't call it an investigation," he told me in a telephone conversation. The word "investigation," he said, "is a term of art in my business."
He then explained: "When I conduct an investigation, it would mean that I have a criminal predicate. In other words, that I have some indication that a crime has occurred. That's my job...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Hmmm ~ sounds like you didn't attend enough Sunday school in your youth.
Where your rights end and mine begin is very much still to be decided.
Why? Because it was grandstanding. Hopeless, pointless and irrational. As silly as trying to bring her a big ole steak.
You think Mrs. Schindler was grandstanding when she wanted to wet Terri's lips?
My rights are superior. Don't forget that. I know more lawyers.
Yes, though I sympathize with her plight, I believe Mrs. Schindler was in obvious denial where her daughter's condition was concerned, and was in an understandable desperate rage about what was happening. That doesn't change whether it was appropriate.
You are precisely the kind of pest I will fight to prevent from attaining too much power.
Then giving her a chance to do something might have eased her pain. It couldn't have hurt Terri.
That doesn't change whether it was appropriate.
A nurse could have supervised. It seems more appropriate that a nurse be in the room than a cop.
You don't have a chance.
You should pleased that I am concerned for the welfare of perfect strangers.
A real mensch that one, eh?!
"You think Mrs. Schindler was grandstanding when she wanted to wet Terri's lips?"
Gee, you think she might have been able to try that while her husband was holding a cellphone to Terri's ear for a hour each day working with Dr. Joe Champion ?
http://www.apfn.org/apfn/Terri_live.htm
"... And so was Schindler. It was part of a covert rehabilitation program the desperate father ..."
Some water on a towel would not seem too hard to bring in if you had a hour a day for a "covert" program.
It would not have eased Mrs. Schindler's pain. It would not have changed the outcome.
It may have only encouraged those who would disrupt what had been decided for Terri. The ugliness and distrust surrounding Terri's situation was far beyond the simple and benign motives you pretend were involved here. A long long series of events led to strict limitations on what was allowed to be done to Terri, limitations that would never exist in a normal circumstance like this. This situation can't even be put in the same ball park as normal.
I feel for the utter desperation Mrs. Schindler must have felt.... but that utter desperation was the reason for the very strict limitations, and the reason for the cops.
Shoo.
Even if he was sincere what he did was unnecessarily cruel
Two hours, tops.
Can you put yourself in her place and still say that? You have someone you love deeply dying of dehydration and you are convinced that person can still feel. You wouldn't be eased if you were allowed to give her something that he fervently believed eased her suffering in her last days?
It would most certainly have eased Mrs. Schindler's pain, and if it would not have changed the outcome would difference would it to make to let her do it?
They weren't allowed to give her water once the judge ordered the tubes removed.
I can't truly imagine myself in her position for one moment. But consider my last sentence carefully. "I feel for the utter desperation Mrs. Schindler must have felt.... but that utter desperation was the reason for the very strict limitations, and the reason for the cops."
Read the entirety of my post at 172. You can't distill this situation into soundbite grabbers. It's not that simple.
The reason for those limitations was nothing other than it was ordained that Terri die. I believe she wasn't allowed water out of glass or cloth was because it was felt it might have kept her alive. If I'm wrong, then giving her that comfort would not have disrupted the process in the least.
No one thought she could survive on oral water, that's silly. It was a desperate desire that was irrational and emotional, and just a small stone that would have started an avalanche to fight the whole legal case again there in the hospital room.
I'm sorry you can't see that. It's obvious to me.
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