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Dr. Ronald Cranford aka "Dr. Death" is hosting a seminar in Minneapolis on September 22-23, 2005 entitled "33 Years of Clinical Ethics in Minnesota: Ron Cranford's Stories of Heroes and Courage".

Michael Schiavo is featured as one of the speakers. Schiavo and Jay Wolfson (guardian ad litem) will give a talk on Terri.

10:15 – 12:00 Landmark Cases: The Family Perspective
Christine Busalacchi in Missouri
Pete Busalacchi
Terri Schiavo in Florida
Michael Schiavo and Jay Wolfson

You can download a pdf of the conference schedule here

Ronald Cranford (a doctor responsible for a great many feeding tube removals and who proposes hastening the deaths of Alzheimer's patients) touts Michael Schiavo as a "hero" or someone of "courage."

Jay Wolfson was (supposedly) an independent Guardian ad Litem, appointed by Chief Justice David Demers, over the objections of Terri Schiavo's family. Their objections stemmed from comments Wolfson made, prior to his appointment, that illustrated his bias towards removing Terri's feeding tube.

The guardian ad litem's responsibility is to represent the ward -- Terri. He is supposed to be her lawyer versus any adversary and the court itself, to see that her rights are upheld. Jay Wolfson's report, however, sided with Greer, Felos and Schiavo on virtually everything. He sided against Terri, in contempt of his legal and ethical duty. Now here he is, only months later, revealing his bias by appearing with Dr. Death and Michael Schiavo in a bioethics meeting. This is horribly embarrassing to the folks who cited Wolfson's report as objective. It ought to embarrass Wolfson himself, but obviously does not.

Barbara Weller, attorney for the Schindler family, wrote a letter to the Florida newspaper Sun Sentinel regarding Michael Schiavo's award as "Guardian of the Year."

Re "Michael Schiavo honored by guardian group" (Aug. 6):

This award and the awards to the judges who had no interest in ever actually seeing Terri or in finding out what her true condition was before her feeding tube was removed are a pretty clear indication of Florida's extreme commitment to expanding euthanasia in this state for the elderly and the disabled.

The Schiavo case was about a guardian who had no interest in caring for a severely disabled ward and about a group of judges who permitted that guardian to neglect and abuse his ward for more than a decade. No cause for awards in my book.

My award would still go to Terri's family who only wanted to love her and care for her and to all the other families in Florida and across our nation who do not believe they should throw away family members simply because they cannot care for themselves.

We will never know what Terri's true condition or potential was since her autopsy was not able to determine whether she was actually in a persistent vegetative state, a minimally conscious state, or something else since that diagnosis could only have been made before her death, as her autopsy report clearly stated.

It is the people who refused to find out the answer to that question and who just wanted to throw Terri away who are getting the awards. It is tragic that the myths about Terri's condition persist in the media and in the legal community merely to advance the cause of euthanasia.

We have become a culture desirous of throwing away people at both ends of life and even in the middle if they are inconvenient and are not able to care for or speak for themselves.

A society is measured by how it cares for the least of those among us. We all need to seriously ask ourselves what these outrageous awards are really saying about the current culture of death in Florida.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/opinion/letters/sfl-brmail892aug15,0,3749703.story?coll=sfla-news-letters

<< Dr. Ronald Cranford aka "Dr. Death" is hosting a seminar in Minneapolis on September 22-23, 2005 entitled "33 Years of Clinical Ethics in Minnesota: Ron Cranford's Stories of Heroes and Courage".

Michael Schiavo is featured as one of the speakers. Schiavo and Jay Wolfson (guardian ad litem) will give a talk on Terri.

10:15 – 12:00 Landmark Cases: The Family Perspective
Christine Busalacchi in Missouri
Pete Busalacchi
Terri Schiavo in Florida
Michael Schiavo and Jay Wolfson

You can download a pdf of the conference schedule here [ http://www.hcmc.org/education/cme/documents/Cranfordethicsbrochure_004.pdf ]

Ronald Cranford (a doctor responsible for a great many feeding tube removals and who proposes hastening the deaths of Alzheimer's patients) touts Michael Schiavo as a "hero" or someone of "courage."

Jay Wolfson was (supposedly) an independent Guardian ad Litem, appointed by Chief Justice David Demers, over the objections of Terri Schiavo's family. Their objections stemmed from comments Wolfson made, prior to his appointment, that illustrated his bias towards removing Terri's feeding tube.>>

BUMP; thanks for posting that info. Sponsored by the Hennepin County Medical Center.