No Mercy in Florida

AT 2:00 P.M. on October 15, 2003, Terri Schiavo's feeding tube is to be removed, after which she will slowly dehydrate to death. This is to be done at the request of her husband, Michael Schiavo, and at the order of Judge George W. Greer of the Sixth Judicial Circuit, in Clearwater, Florida. If the order is carried out, Terri will die over a period of 10 to 14 days.

The Schiavo case is only the most recent "food and fluids" case to make national headlines, after Nancy Cruzan (Missouri), Michael Martin (Michigan), and Robert Wendland (California). But Terri's case has gone a step beyond all the rest: Not only are Michael Schiavo's conflicts of interest so blatant that he should be allowed no say over her care, but Terri is also being denied rehabilitative therapy that several doctors and therapists have testified could wean her off the feeding tube.

Terri Schiavo collapsed from unknown causes in 1990 and experienced a devastating brain injury. Michael brought a medical malpractice case in which he promised the jury that he would provide Terri with rehabilitation and care for her for the rest of his life. The jury in 1993 awarded $1.3 million in damages, approximately $750,000 of which was set aside to pay for her care and rehabilitation. But once the money was in the bank, Michael refused to provide Terri with any rehab. Moreover, within months, he had a do-not-resuscitate order placed on her chart.

Had she died then, Michael would have inherited all the money. But he denies having a venal motive, claiming that the trust fund money is now exhausted. If true, this is bitterly ironic. For the past three years he has been in litigation, opposed by Terri's parents and her other relatives. Rather than the funds going to pay for medical therapists to help her, as the jury intended, much of it instead paid lawyers that Michael retained to obtain the court order to end her care.

Michael's second conflict of interest is deeply personal. He is engaged to be married and has had a baby with his fiancée, with another one on the way. The couple would like to marry, but Michael's wife, inconveniently, is still alive.

Judge Greer ordered Terri dehydrated based on dubious testimony from Michael, his brother, and his brother's wife that Terri told them she did not want to be hooked up to tubes--something he never told the malpractice jury when he sought a financial award. To the contrary, the malpractice jury was told that Terri could expect a normal lifespan.

Whatever Terri said or did not say, she certainly never asked to be denied the very treatment that might allow her to eat without medical assistance. Yet, in the ultimate injustice, Judge Greer refuses to permit Terri to receive rehabilitative therapy that could help her relearn to eat by mouth, even though several doctors and therapists have testified under penalty of perjury that she is a good candidate for tube weaning.

True, experts hired by Michael disagree. But so what? This isn't a case where we have to believe one side's medical experts or the other's. The issue can be decided empirically by providing Terri with six months of therapy to see if she improves. But Judge Greer, in a decision that elevated procedure over justice, won't do that because, he ruled, it would mean retrying the case.

In that unreasonable denial, it looked as if Greer might have crossed a crucial line. St. Petersburg attorney Pat Anderson, who represents Terri's blood family, believed that denying food and water and potentially rehabilitative therapy that could have made the feeding tube unnecessary, reeked of discrimination against the disabled. She filed a civil rights lawsuit seeking a federal injunction against the dehydration. Adding to the suit's potential legal heft and credibility: Florida governor Jeb Bush dramatically signed on to the federal case, urging the court in an amicus brief to prevent Terri's dehydration until she received treatment to determine whether she could relearn to take food and water by mouth. But once again, the law turned its back on her. U.S. District Court Judge Richard Lazzara ruled on October 10 that the federal courts had no jurisdiction and dismissed the case.

People are often shocked at how Terri has been treated as somehow less than a fully human person by the legal and medical experts who are determined to see her dead. They shouldn't be. This case illustrates how utterly vulnerable people with profound cognitive disabilities have become in this country. Not only are many routinely dehydrated to death--both the conscious and unconscious--but often the people making decisions to stop food and water, like Michael, have glaring conflicts of interest.

Some of the worst such conflicts come not from family members but from a medical establishment eager to remedy the chronic shortage of organ donors. The literature is brimming with advocacy that death be "redefined" to include a diagnosis of permanent unconsciousness. An article just published in Critical Care Medicine, the journal for doctors who specialize in treating the most seriously ill and injured patients, urges the adoption of an even more radical policy. Drs. Robert D. Troug and Walter M. Robinson, from Harvard Medical School and the Medical Intensive Care Unit at Children's Hospital, Boston, want to discard the "dead donor rule" requiring that vital organ donors die before their organs can be procured, writing: "We propose that individuals who desire to donate their organs and who are either neurologically devastated or imminently dying should be allowed to donate their organs, without first being declared dead."

The authors urge that the relevant question about organ donors should be changed from the current query--is the patient dead?--to, "Are the harms of removing life-sustaining organs sufficiently small that patients or surrogates [e.g., Michael Schiavo] should be allowed to consent to donation?" This is a prescription for moral freefall. Not only do the authors strongly imply that some of us have less value than others but that those so denigrated can be killed for utilitarian ends.

Troug and Robinson attempt to justify their homicidal proposal by claiming that we already take the organs of those declared brain dead but that such patients are really alive. I don't believe this is true, assuming proper diagnosis. But if I am wrong, it is a scandal of the highest order, for it means that society was sold a bill of goods about brain death by bioethicists and organ transplant professionals.

The answer to such a moral travesty would not be to expand medical homicide beyond patients who have suffered a total cessation of brain activity. Rather, it would be to permit doctors to procure organs only from donors who have been declared dead in the traditional manner; because their hearts have ceased beating without hope of restarting.

Advocacy in Critical Care Medicine for discarding the dead donor rule follows on the heels of the Ethics Committee of the Society of Critical Care Medicine's advocacy for legalizing "futile care theory," which would permit doctors to refuse wanted life-sustaining treatment--including "low tech" treatments such as antibiotics--based on the doctor's perception of the "quality" of the patient's life. "Given finite resources," the Ethics Committee stated in 1997, "institutional providers should define what constitutes inadvisable treatment and determine when such treatment will not be sustained."

This plan is currently being implemented. Medical and bioethics journals have reported in recent years that futile care protocols are being adopted quietly by hospitals throughout the country.

The Schiavo case has drawn attention only because her family is in profound disagreement about the care she should receive. If futile care theory takes hold, we may see fewer such cases, if only because the unilateral refusal of treatment will quietly take place without anyone speaking up for the patient.

The sad truth is, many practitioners of bioethics, medicine, and law no longer believe that people like Terri Schiavo are fully human. As a consequence, these patients are being systematically stripped of their fundamental right to life and, perhaps worse, are increasingly looked upon as mere natural resources whose bodies can be plundered for the benefit of others. If it is true that a nation is judged by the way it treats its most vulnerable citizens, a lot is riding on the Schiavo case.

TERRI SCHINDLER SCHIAVO CALLING ALL FREEPERS Pt2 Disabled FL woman given Death Sentence by FL Courts

Posted by pc93 to pc93
On News/Activism 10/15/2003 9:19 AM PDT #2,431 of 2,431

Lauren doesn't call me back even though she says in her Audix that she will. This is the integrity of Jeb's office.

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TERRI SCHINDLER SCHIAVO CALLING ALL FREEPERS Pt2 Disabled FL woman given Death Sentence by FL Courts

Posted by pc93 to Velveeta
On News/Activism 10/15/2003 9:13 AM PDT #2,430 of 2,431

Also if you get through the Lauren O'Conner or Christa Calamas or ask for anyone on Jeb's legal team then ask them why in the world they would want to be complicit in murder considering the documented improprities in the case-- because that is what they are going to be if they do not bring a halt to Terri's tube removal and subsequent forced dehydration and starvation (this is a State action not a judicial action). Jeb represents the State of Florida and he better the hell know that he has the right and power to stop this.

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TERRI SCHINDLER SCHIAVO CALLING ALL FREEPERS Pt2 Disabled FL woman given Death Sentence by FL Courts

Posted by Velveeta to pc93
On News/Activism 10/15/2003 9:09 AM PDT #2,429 of 2,431

I did fax and have tried calling but the phone signals busy. I just tried calling again a few minutes ago and will continue to keep trying!

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TERRI SCHINDLER SCHIAVO CALLING ALL FREEPERS Pt2 Disabled FL woman given Death Sentence by FL Courts

Posted by pc93 to JulieRNR21
On News/Activism 10/15/2003 9:04 AM PDT #2,427 of 2,431

If you can fax the petition to Jeb as well that would be good.

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TERRI SCHINDLER SCHIAVO CALLING ALL FREEPERS Pt2 Disabled FL woman given Death Sentence by FL Courts

Posted by pc93 to Velveeta
On News/Activism 10/15/2003 8:43 AM PDT #2,423 of 2,431

You can do that but why not also call and fax them:

All,

Please call Jeb's Office at 850-488-4441 and ask to speak to Lauren O'Conner (Aide to Governor Bush).
Let her know that by Jeb's own admission in his Amicus Memorandum that Terri is being denied due process.
Let her know that Jeb as Governor has an obligation to step in and bring a halt to Terri's execution.
Among other things ask that Terri be:

given "Foster Care" custody status based on reports of abuse and
neglect filed on Terri's behalf" in adult protective services.

that Terri be made a Ward of the State.

that Jeb should step in where there is obvious blatant criminality in this case.. criminal negligence in his
own words by the courts, etc.

Do not stop calling.

Please spread the message!

P.S. Please do the same asking to speak to Christa Calamas to relate the same. Ask her why if their are so many criminal improprieties in the case that Jeb refuses to suspend Judge Greer or call a halt to this and that a criminal investigation begun, etc. ask them why her and her legal team are not for true justice in this case and why they are not enforcing the laws against criminal behaviour.

---

WOULD YOU VOTE FOR A KILLER?

Governor of Florida Jeb Bush's Amicus Curiae (Friend of the Court)
wasn't convincing enough to stop the Death Order of Terri Schindler
Schiavo at the hands of Judge Greer who represents the State of
Florida. Husband Michael Schiavo will most likely spend the time,
while Terri is facing death, with pregnant girlfriend of 7 years
Jodi Centonzi and their child. Perhaps they both will be thinking of
how much money might still be left in Terri's rehabilitation fund of
$750,000 (which wasn't spent on Terri's rehabilitation which was
promised) and most of which was spent by the husband (Michael
Schiavo) to pay Attorney George Felos ($550,000 according to the
court records) to help expedite Terri's state sanctioned murder
(based on on highly questionable hearsay evidence).

If you are concerned, there is not much more time (Oct. 15th at 2PM)
to help Terri Schindler Schiavo get the actual
rehabilitation stipulated to the jury in the Nov. 1992 medical
malpractice lawsuit.

Governor of Florida Jeb Bush (Executive Office of Governor Fax: 850-
488-9810, jeb@myflorida.com) acted as Amicus of the court in this
case. Unfortunately, what Terri Schindler Schiavo immediately needs
is an honest Amicus to act on her behalf to halt the execution!!!

WOULD YOU VOTE TO KILL HER?

Governor Jeb Bush -> Executive Office of Governor Fax: 850-488-9810
<- jeb@myflorida.com would like to get your vote.
Voice: 1-850-488-7146
Fax: 1-850-487-0801

Please fax, phone, e-mail, and write Florida Governor Jeb Bush, your
representatives, the media, your friends and neighbors to help get
this message out as often as you can!!!

Ask him why he never answered e-mail, voice and faxed letters anent
him convening a special session in the legislature to stop Terri's
execution by revising the laws to protect against this madness. IT'S
UP TO GOVERNOR BUSH TO CALL AN EMERGENCY SESSION TO GET TERRI AN
INDEPENDENT GUARDIAN AD LITEM.

Ask Jeb why he hasn't suspended Greer for his improprieties.

Ask Jeb how is it that while he knows the actions he can take he
isn't taking them!

1) Taking judicial action,

Jeb's sworn duty in Article IV Executive, Section 1. Governor, "(b)
The governor may initiate judicial proceedings in the name of the
state against any executive or administrative state, county or
municipal officer to enforce compliance with any duty or restrain
any unauthorized act."

by:
A) Filing with the Supreme Court and or the Legislature a Motion for
a STAY on all currently in play judicial proceedings having anything
to do with the discontinuance of Life or having a resulting
expectation of death. The people involved should by executive order,
etc. be ordered to deliver and insure that ALL rights (including
right to food and water, etc.) and retained rights of those involved
are afforded.

B) Filing a Motion in the appropriate venue to effect a Moratorium
on the entire judicial branches ability to receive, open, or proceed
with a case in which the petitioning of the discontinuance of life
support or facilitation of intentional dehydration/starvation is
desired by anyone.

C) Establish a commission that is at least 2/3 comprised of the
public and includes members of the Terri Schiavo supporters main
group to have fact finding powers and give a report to the Governor
and Legislature on the extent of the merchants of death's subversive
methods as is unlawful pursuant to FS 876.22 through FS 876.31. To
give recommendation of the legislation needed to repair, fix and
provide future constitutional protection of every citizens Right To
Life. The President and the Popes "Culture of Life Initiative" in
essence.

D) Initiate a criminal investigation into what happened to Terri
Schiavo and bring charges and full prosecution of all the principal
perpetrators and accomplices as a societal message to all those who
are approached or succumb to the unlawful merchants of death. Any
investigation should encompass the entire history of events from
before her injury incident in 1990 through the present which
continues daily as THE atrocity of humanity. Many involved in the
fight to do what the state is required to do, protect its people
from abuse, neglect and exploitation - the "legal civil murder" as
will become the precedent (if something isn't done to save Terri) -
have uncovered 1000s of evidentiary details that will be of great
assistance to fixing the damage and repairing with greater
shielding, the Right To Life, by writing out the methods that have
become the Death Merchants tools and pathways to TAKING the Lives
and Assets of this State's vulnerable.

I think a federal lawsuit is in order. I found this here
http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/42/14402.html
This what it says
TITLE 42 > CHAPTER 138 > Sec. 14402. Prev | Next
Sec. 14402. - Restriction on use of Federal funds under health care programs
(a) Restriction on Federal funding of health care services

Subject to subsection (b) of this section, no funds appropriated by Congress for the purpose of paying (directly or indirectly) for the provision of health care services may be used -
(1)
to provide any health care item or service furnished for the purpose of causing, or for the purpose of assisting in causing, the death of any individual, such as by assisted suicide, euthanasia, or mercy killing;
(2)
to pay (directly, through payment of Federal financial participation or other matching payment, or otherwise) for such an item or service, including payment of expenses relating to such an item or service; or
(3)
to pay (in whole or in part) for health benefit coverage that includes any coverage of such an item or service or of any expenses relating to such an item or service.
(b) Construction and treatment of certain services

Nothing in subsection (a) of this section, or in any other provision of this chapter (or in any amendment made by this chapter), shall be construed to apply to or to affect any limitation relating to -
(1)
the withholding or withdrawing of medical treatment or medical care;
(2)
the withholding or withdrawing of nutrition or hydration;
(3)
abortion; or
(4)
the use of an item, good, benefit, or service furnished for the purpose of alleviating pain or discomfort, even if such use may increase the risk of death, so long as such item, good, benefit, or service is not also furnished for the purpose of causing, or the purpose of assisting in causing, death, for any reason.

Seems to me since they recieve federal money they can be tried federally for taking out her feeding tube.

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