Freepers call to action re. Terri Schindler-Schiavo. Make a complaint against Judge Greer:

Various ^ | August 28, 2003

[windchime]

"He probably feels helpless over this."

He did help by increasing public awareness and having Terri's family as guests.

Felos usually is interviewed and portrays the situation from his perspective. John Gibson, Fox, had Felos on a couple of weeks ago and was intense in his questioning.

[MarMema]

Maybe he is concerned about the repercussions on the governor of Virginia after the Hugh Finn case.

[Theodore R.]

America is truly a sick society. People who would turn a blind eye or even endorse the plight facing Terri Schindler would nevertheless shed copious tears for days if their 16-year family pet had to be euthanized because of multiple system failure.

[phenn]

My heart aches for this young man. He adores his sis and just wants her to get fair and proper treatment.

The younger Mr. Schindler (like the entire Schindler brood) is a damn sensible person. Doesn't want a dime or a novel written for his benefit. He just wants his sis back. How he, his mum and dad and his other sis keep their senses of humor together, keep their minds clear is beyond me. I admire these people. They are the real deal. I don't know if I could do the same under similar circumstances.

Now knowing them, the Schindlers are "Aces". Decent, no-drama people who only want to get Terri out of harm's way. Salt of the earth types and dedicated.

I feel almost honored to know them.

-PH-

[Theodore R.]

Tell me about the Finn case in a nutshell and how this affected, was it, Governor Warner in VA. I know nothing about the case but do remember seeing the name "Finn" somewhere on this post.

What you are writing seems to indicate that there is indeed much broader support for euthanasia than many conservatives had thought. Money talks, as the old adage goes.

[lakey]

Yes. The thing is though, we don't (at least I don't) want the feds in states' rights. Florida has its own Constitution, & the federal government has to butt out.

[Ohioan from Florida]

She will be cremated and her ashes probably scattered over Tampa Bay.

BTW, a long time back in this thread, someone asked about cremation and the Catholic church. I asked the priest about this a few months ago, and he replied that cremation is fine, but scattering the ashes is prohibited. I sure hope Michael isn't planning on that, but I wouldn't put anything past him.

[MarMema]

Hey look at how old this one is, what do you think about this?

Chicago Tribune
February 13, 1994

PARENTS, HOSPITAL FIGHT OVER BRAIN-DEAD TEEN

Author:
New York Times News Service.
Miamia

A Sarasota hospital that has been caring for a brain-dead teenager since early last month is seeking permission from the courts to disconnect her life-support system, despite opposition from the girl's parents.

The parents, Frederick and Sharon Hamilton, say the action is premature and want doctors at Sarasota Memorial Hospital to release their 13-year-old daughter, Teresa, to their custody.

Teresa, a severe diabetic, was admitted Jan. 7 and fell into a coma soon afterward

"We are aghast at the fact that they want to call it quits," Frederick Hamilton said Friday in a telephone interview. "She must come home, and we have to work with her."

Hospital president Michael Covert said Friday that he planned to ask the state attorney how to proceed with the case.

Medical workers familiar with the case say doctors determined that Teresa was legally dead after three brain scans showed no brain activity and a blood scan indicated no blood flow to the brain.

But Sharon Hamilton asked the hospital to do everything to keep her daughter alive. The girl is being kept breathing by a ventilator.

"The hospital is asking the court for direction because of the conflict concerning Teresa Hamilton," said Mike Vizvary, a hospital spokesman, adding that the parents' wishes were in conflict with the hospital's policy.

But John Williams, a lawyer for the Hamiltons, said he feared that the hospital would seek to have a guardian appointed in the case, who would then be responsible for medical decisions about the girl. "The first question is should the parents be deprived of their guardianship rights," he said.

Further complicating the case, the Hamiltons' medical insurance has run out. The intensive care unit where Teresa is being treated costs about $3,240 a day, bringing the Hamiltons' five-week hospital bill to more than $116,000.

Until now, most cases in which a court has been asked to make a determination of life or death have dealt with family members who wanted to stop efforts by a hospital or state to keep a relative on life support.

This case is attracting attention among specialists in medical ethics because it does not fit that pattern.

"If the child is still alive, this is an important case," said George Annas, director of the law, medicine and ethics program at Boston University of Medical and Public Health. "It's almost always the other way around. Hospitals never go to court trying to stop treatment on a child against the wishes of the parent."

In Florida, a person is considered dead "when there is irreversible cessation of the functioning of the entire brain," even though respiratory and circulatory functions are being maintained with the aid of machines. In such cases, there is no requirement for the hospital to ask permission of next of kin or a court to disconnect life support.

"The hospital has an obligation to take her off the ventilator," Annas said. "Now they are treating a corpse."

By doing so, he said, "you really do confuse the parents, because you lead the parents to believe that the child is still alive."

That is what appears to have happened in Teresa Hamilton's case. "They have claimed that she is brain dead, which is the clinical way of saying she's a goner," said Hamilton, an unemployed oil engineer originally from Scotland. "But they've pursued with her care."

In 1990 the Supreme Court ruled that treatment could be withheld if there is clear and compelling evidence of the patient's wishes. The decision came in the case of Nancy Cruzan, a young woman from Missouri who spent eight years in a coma while her parents fought to have her disconnected from life support, contending she had told them that was her desire.

Last paragraph snipped....

[Theodore R.]

I understand that there are actually rules about where human ashes can and cannot be spread. Tampa Bay, considering the power of environmentalists in FL, is probably an area where they may not be spread, on second thought.

[Theodore R.]

I have about decided that staunch "conservatives" who say they don't want the federal court intervening in "state affairs" have their own escape clause in mind -- SO LONG AS I AM UNAFFECTED BY THE MATTER!

But, oh, when the shoe is on the other foot, the person has a "change of heart."

[phenn]

Robert Wendland:
http://www.worldrtd.org/wendlandDies.html

Hugh Finn:
http://www.petersnet.net/browse/682.htm

[phenn]

These cases have a lot in common. There is a protocol. Read on. You will see it.

-PH-

[kimmie7]

Okay, someone give me a hand? The quote "First they came for .... but I wasn't .... so I didn't rise up. Then they (etc.) Then they came for me, but there was no one left...." Would the wonderful person that posted it please post it again? I've read so many pages my eyes are crossing.

[Theodore R.]

I do remember the Hugh Finn case but never got emotionally involved as I have with Terri's fight. Notice again how useless the Catholic Church was in this ordeal of terror. It's too bad he did not have a "living will." In the future though such "living wills" probably won't make any difference. The law will extinguish the disabled even as it proclaims an "Americans With Disabilities Act."

I wonder if any will leave Catholicism if they find out how the church sanctions euthanasia though they do not call it "euthanasia."

[lakey]

The Schindlers are batting their heads against the wall by insisting that the federal government intervene. Ain't gonna happen.

Why waste time? Why not go through the State Legislature - get hold of those state senators on the nursing, health & long-term committees?

[Theodore R.]

Phenn, after reading about Hugh Finn again, I got more despondent. Mr. and Mrs. Finn erred in giving up on the matter. Perhaps they realized that they could never prevail. VA must be equal to FL in regard to preference being given to euthanasia. What would Patrick Henry think about that, or does anybody in VA know who Patrick Henry was?

When the Finns thought that giving up in regard to removing the feeding tube would bring "peace" with the daughter-in-law, they were really unrealistic. The only way to conciliate a tiger is to allow oneself to be devoured, they surely learned. Now I would assume that they are forever estranged from the granddaughters as well. Hugh just married the wrong woman, as Terri married the wrong man.

The article did not say if Hugh's wife got a healthy settlement from his starvation death. Somehow I think that she might have. Maybe someone who knows could tell us how she is living these days -- probably in pretty grand style, I would imagine.

It appears that Hugh actually was making more progress than Terri, yet he was starved to death. This poor creature in FL hasn't a chance against all the forces of modern-day liberalism. She will be crushed to death like a roach skimpering across the kitchen floor. That's how meaningless liberals consider her life to be.

[MHGinTN]

Actually, TheodoreR, liberals don't really concern themselves with Terri's life, it is empowerment for their twisted perspective they desire. See, liberalism wants on the one hand to make everyone dependent upon the central authority and on the other hand reduce at every turn the ability of We The People to change that central authority. It was not a casual comment when Hillary asserted that maybe it was time to do away with the electoral college! 'Lie'berals/societal engineers don't want a Republic, they want a rule of the masses because lieberals have learned how easily the masses may be manipulated into acting as the scoietal engineers desire them to act. It isn't freedom for individual human beings that liberals want, it is raw power of the state. And the 42,000,000 plus slaughtered posterity since 1973 proves the point that liberals will sacrifice anything to the imperative of central power over the individual.

[iowamomforfreedom]

First They Came for the Jews

First they came for the Jews
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Communists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left
to speak out for me.


--Pastor Martin Niemöller

[MarMema]

Wow you found a picture of one of these people...thanks.
Just FYI, I also am collecting links on my FR page.

[kimmie7]

Thank you very much! (How are ya, btw?)