Posted on 10/22/2003 5:16:42 PM PDT by dandelion
Even scarier is the numbers that are anxious to support them.
This matters as Felos will use this for fodder when he meets with the Schindler family next week!
Please ask Greta to have the following neurosurgeon on her show tomorrow!
Please read the following and send to Greta! CALL FOR BALANCE!!
Please note the following by the American College of Physicians and Surgeons regarding Terri Schiavo.
Doctors: Terri case not 'death with dignity' issue WorldNetDaily.com | October 22, 2003 | Diana Lynne
Removal of feeding tube called 'state-sponsored euthanasia'
October 22, 2003
A physicians' group has added its voice to the din of reaction to Florida Gov. Jeb Bush's intervention in the case of Terri Schindler-Schiavo, the brain-disabled woman whose life-sustaining feeding tube was removed last week at the request of Terri's husband and guardian, Michael Schiavo.
Schiavo, who maintains his wife is in a persistent vegetative state and would want to be allowed to die with dignity, has been locked in a 13-year legal battle with Terri's parents and siblings who argue Terri is alert, wants to live and, given appropriate therapy, can be rehabilitated. Terri left no written directive.
Within hours of the state legislature's historic passage of a measure, known as Terri's Bill, which empowered the governor to take executive action in the matter, Bush ordered the feeding tube reinserted last night.
While hailed as a "miracle" by Terri's sister and other supporters, the surprise development – coming on Day 7 of Terri's judge-ordered starvation – angered right-to-die attorney George Felos, who represents Michael Schiavo.
Felos called the eleventh-hour law and Bush's subsequent intervention "absurdly unconstitutional" and maintains Terri has a right under the Florida Constitution to not be kept alive artificially.
"The governor of the state of Florida does not have the right to trump a patient's personal choice," he said at a press conference. "The citizens of Florida should be alarmed by what is happening. What is happening here is a gross and illegal intrusion into the private liberty of citizens. ... This is not the former Soviet Bloc where you don't have the liberty to control your own body."
Following two unsuccessful attempts by Felos to get circuit judges to block the reinsertion of the feeding tube, Terri was transferred from the hospice where she has been a patient for three years to a local hospital and rehydration efforts were reportedly launched.
"She was literally absconded from her death bed in the middle of her dying process," Felos told ABC's "Good Morning America" this morning, calling the rehydration efforts "cruel."
But Dr. Jane Orient with the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, or AAPS, claims the opposite is true: "Dehydration is a cruel, painful death."
"It is unconscionable that the state ordered removal of her feeding tube in the first place – it's nothing less than state-sponsored euthanasia," maintains Orient. "She is not dependent on advanced medical interventions. Nothing is mechanically pumping her blood, or forcing oxygen into her lungs. She is simply being fed through a gastrostomy tube."
Last week the General Assembly of the Catholic Medical Association passed a resolution that concurred with Orient's view. It declared removal of Terri's feeding tube "without first undertaking rehabilitation therapy to ascertain her ability to swallow and digest nourishment" constitutes "depriving her of life without due process of law," according to Florida Statutes Section 744, 3211.
Would we allow a retarded child to be starved to death?" queries Orient. "Where are the 'compassionate end-of-life' groups such as the Robert Wood Johnson 'Last Acts' initiative, and why aren't they weighing in on this?"
Multiple physicians solicited by the Schindlers believe Terri, who vocalizes, laughs and appears to respond to her parents, could be rehabilitated to some extent. Some have even offered pro bono treatment, even though Michael Schiavo was awarded nearly $1.5 million dollars in malpractice suits to pay for Terri's rehabilitation and nursing expenses shortly after her mysterious collapse at home in 1990 during which oxygen was cut off to her brain for several minutes.
WorldNetDaily has reported that during court testimony last year, Victor Gambone, Terri's attending physician hired by Michael Schiavo in 1998, testified he was unsure whether his patient had even had her teeth cleaned in recent years and said she hadn't received therapy. He said he accepted Michael Schiavo's word that therapy had been deemed unnecessary.
"Although severely disabled, some believe that she does have the capacity to communicate a desire to live. The husband has obstructed efforts at rehabilitation or independent assessments of his wife's true state," continues Orient.
WorldNetDaily reports the family has been blocked by Michael Schiavo from visiting Terri at Morton Plant Hospital in Clearwater, Fla., where she was transferred. Their inability to verify she is being rehydrated per Bush's order concerns them. As of yesterday morning, they reported she was awake and appeared alert, although shrunken.
Felos told reporters yesterday Terri was showing signs of massive organ failure and said the reinsertion of the feeding tube was just prolonging her death.
AAPS, a non-partisan, professional association of physicians dedicated to protecting the sanctity of the patient-physician relationship put out a warning to colleagues: "The ethical question for her nurses and physicians is whether they will cooperate in carrying out a death warrant.
"And the ethical question for all of us is whether we will allow the state to obstruct the efforts of people who want to provide medical care to a patient who wants to receive it," said Orient. "If we go down that path, who's to say what treatment the state will prevent you from getting?"
End of article
Please act to save this woman. Something is terribly wrong with this case. It is NOT compassionate to kill someone who had NEVER been given the chance to rehabilitare. She breaths on her own, she responds to love and she has suffered at the hands of a husband-living with another woman, of course-who wants her dead. It has never been about Terri's wishes...no man who loves his wife would have EVER done what this man has done to this woman.
Please look into the background of Felos-Micheal Shiavo's attn. This horror of a man is associated privately with the Hospice of Florida assc. and is a member, himself, of the hemlock society. Judge Greer is ALSO associated with that hospice.
Terri's parents love her and want to GIVE HER A CHANCE.
A hospice is NEVER supposed to terminate a life that is NOT terminal, especially if that life has not had that CHANCE of exhausting EVERY means of rehabilitation. What Terri's husband has done to stop rehabilitation will break your heart. Please read up on it.
Felos and Micheal and the Woodside hospice deserve to have a major lawsuit rolled against them if Terri is murdered.
Michael and Felos want Terri stuck at the hospice because they can DENY her every therapy available while in a hospice, and also can ORDER the doctor there, as to what to do and not do for Terri. It is a hellhole for Terri-who is not terminal.
DID YOU KNOW THAT MICHAEL KEPT TERRI FROM HAVING HER TEETH BRUSHED FOR TEN YEARS????
Terri must have quite a story to tell about Michael and her 'accident' if she has striven to stay alive in the hell Michael has put her through for SO LONG.
It is pretty obvious that Terri WANTS to live!
Something stinks....if you have a heart, PLEASE INVESTIGATE Thanks!
The attorney Pat told Greta that Terri should be in intensive care......Greta didn't respond.
Off went the TV.
IMO hubby's attorney OWNS PINELLAS COUNTY and he's intimidating the medical community.
Terri's treating doctor is Greek as is Felos and if he is a Hellenist like Felos, they worship beauty and perfection and I'm glad we have Terri's treating doctor at Hospice's name on this thread for future reference.
That is wonderful that there is so much response. It is good to know that Terri and her family are surrounded by those who really care for them and are praying for them. Surely that is a comfort. Budge, maxplunder and I wanted to make the trip and considered it, but I was concerned that it would be a bit much for Budge, camping out on the hospice lawn and all, although I've sure got to admire his willingness to endure for Terri's sake, but I am thinking that perhaps we were needed here making contacts and sending emails. Budge has been on the phone constantly for days, and I am so squirrely my eyes are crossing. Max is over at the DU and doing a fine job of being civil. Terri has friends there too and it just goes to show how special she is that she can build a tunnel bridge between FR and the DU. I don't think it's ever been done before. LOL!
.......and the ONLY WAY to stay semi-sane throughout this is to picture our Lord, RIGHT AT HER SIDE. I mean it, HE IS THERE. HE'S holding her hand. HE'S comforting her.
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