I love it when people see the real deal. You're exactly right.
Florida is a state in which an incapacitated person can be assigned a professional guardian if no next of kin are living in the state.
We have a lot of people who retire to Florida. They bring their life savings with them. Quite a few dollars.
A guardian has access to those dollars.
An elderly person gets to a stage where their death is not necessarily imminent, but they become severely incapacitated and fully dependent. Lots of those folks require feeding tubes ('artifical life support' since 1999). Off to Hospice they go.
If Felos and Greer get away with forcibly ending Terri's life by removal of her feeding tube and not allowing sustenance by mouth, you have case law in place to forcibly end the lives of a whole lot of people - whether or not you have their permission.
This is the nut of this case - to be able to do it without permission. Judge Greer has accepted very flimsy testimony as 'clear and convincing' evidence that Terri had a death wish. That is outside our current laws and wrong.
If you try to follow the crumbs, your head will hurt:
Greer - former County Commissioner and now Judge on Schiavo case - board member of Hospice of Florida Suncoast.
Felos - death attorney on Schiavo case and self-proclaimed 'right to die export - former Chairman of Florida Suncoast
Jim King - Florida's Senate President who refused to hear a bill that would protect vulnerable patients from wrongful death and who was responsible for many of Florida's current 'death with dignity' laws - Hospice Hall of Famer
Ridenour, Director of Hospice of Florida Suncoast - contributor to Judge Greer's Reelection campaign
There's not enough room to post all the players, but you probably get my meaning. This may have stopped being about Michael and what he wants back in 1998. This may be nothing more than a legal train out of control trying for the case law that will loosen up all those dollars, free up those beds and 'help these poor people go on to better things'.
It's sick.
Footnote: Between 1992 and 1998, the average length of stay in Hospice declined 27%, but the amount of Medicare benefits received by Hospice increased 151% (Quality of Life Matters, Jan 2002)
Follow the bouncing dollar....
=== This may have stopped being about Michael and what he wants back in 1998. This may be nothing more than a legal train out of control trying for the case law that will loosen up all those dollars, free up those beds and 'help these poor people go on to better things'.
You did an awesome job of confirming in many ways something I know is true but yet try very hard to pretend cannot possibly be true.
I've spent waaaaay too much time working for "healthcare" attorneys not to have a sick feeling about this.
Thanks very much for the post, the nuts and bolts of which I'll be using in the future when arguing futile care protocols and other means of expedititing the draining and divvying up of the estates of folks no longer enjoying the proper "quality of life".
Astute observation.....exactly right.
This is a whole hell of a lot more than Terri, or what MS wants.
The U.S. Attorney General should be notified of crimes being committed here.
It is a simple matter. As potential potential retirees learn that the State of Florida has laws in place for euthanizing them, they will find somewhere else to retire. Add in the now very real chance that their estate can be raided and stolen as well, and you could start a stampede out of the state. No senior in his right mind would even risk visiting Florida.
It's like going to some barbarous place where crime is legal and casual tourists could be stabbed in the back for their wallets, purses and gold tooth fillings.
Bump to your Post #19.
This is the real deal about Terri's case.