TERRI SCHINDLER SCHIAVO FEBRUARY DAILY THREAD 2005: TERRI IS OUR VALENTINE!

"Interesting article. I wonder if Ruthie DiTucci can provide insight into Michael's remarriage. Also, I see something else worth checking into:
The ruling will also likely clear the way for an insurance company that cleverly avoided paying Michael Schiavo (by hiding behind the court cases), to fork over a million dollars (plus interest) still owed to him.

Cleverly avoided, huh? Hmmmm. How do we get in touch with Ms. DiTucci? Michael is still owed $$$? Hmmmm."

I know that Mrs. DITucci is wrong about Michael's remarriage, but if there really is a million dollar insurance payment out there, waiting for Terri to be starved to death, this is definitely a "conflict of interest" that Michael has lied about. He claims he doesn't have any insurance policies on her. I believe he said this on Larry King Live.

Maybe, Judge Greer could use this information to remove Michael as guardian, so that he can pretend he just found out that Michael is a liar and does not have Terri's best interest at heart.

http://www.theempirejournal.com/0225051_florida_dcf_seeks_60.htm

Florida DCF Seeks 60-Day
Stay of Schiavo Death Warrant
McCabe Conflict Requires Special Prosecutor

Thank you for letting us know.

I will be leaving town today sometime and hope to return by early afternoon tomorrow.

Very good!

FWIW, I'm neither a Floridian nor a legal expert, but I think Greer is the one in a world of hurt if he tries to starve Terri on the word of Michael Schiavo, who is to be investigated(along with others) for possibly abusing Terri, before said investigation occurs.

Theodore R. says the SCOTUS refusal empowered Greer and increased his "I am god" fantasies. I agree it did, but only temporarily. Because too much else is happening on other levels that puts Greer, as you stated, on extremely thin ice.

PC93 even called Sen. Hatch's office and got the impression they were aware of this situation and they did not forclose the Feds getting involved in this, but were holding back on saying more right now. I myself have emailed Sen. Hatch and complained that DOJ and HHS need to investigate this and Congress has oversight. I also asked Fr. Pavone to contact Sen. Hatch.

If Greer thinks this will go away if he starves Terri NOW, per Michael's request, he is truly delusional.

We should treasure life, not discuss whether to end it
Letters to the Editor
Published February 25, 2005

Re: The Terri Schiavo case.

Human life in this country far too often gets no respect. Whether it's the "choice" many women make to end the short life of their unborn child, or the "off with their heads" mentality to end the life of a criminal by execution, or the "it's just a bunch of cells" attitude when piercing an embryo for stem cell research that ends its microscopic life, we seem to forget that life is a rare and special gift that we should always treasure.

And now, people are discussing whether to end or continue the life of Terri Schiavo. Disgraceful. There should be no discussion. And, yet, there is and it has risen to the level of heated debate. We sometimes seem to act like the emperors of ancient Rome giving a "thumbs up" or "thumbs down" to a human's life.

Terri is alive. The feeding tube is keeping her alive much the same way we are kept alive by our food and drink. The tube was inserted because she is alive and could no longer feed herself. Wednesday, the court ruled that the tube could not be removed for at least a couple of days. As far as I'm concerned, that's just a stay of execution for Terri because - make no mistake - removing the tube will kill her.

Is it so hard to understand that life - everyone's life - is sacred? Many people, commenting on this tragic story, say "That is no way to live." Well, no longer receiving food and drink and being unable to beg us not to stop is no way to die.

-- Jack Bray, Dunedin
Trapped in a dysfunctional body
Re: Terry Schiavo.

I am getting more and more annoyed to read about the twists and turns that are carried out on the back of that poor woman. One can only hope that she is not conscious enough to feel what it is like to live in a totally dysfunctional body, kept alive by merciless parents who can't let go, and seem to enjoy the media frenzy; by a few religious fanatics; some business-hungry lawyers; and a governor who tried to make some political points (and with nothing else to do?). It also smells more and more like there is a good amount of money involved, too. It is really disgusting!

I, for my part, made it clear that I do not want to be kept alive for more than a couple of days under such conditions. Everybody I know has the same opinion.

Hopefully, the courts are more realistic and will render a fast and final decision.

-- G. Budian, Tierra Verde
With breath there is hope
Terri Schiavo's parents want to take care of her.

Even if she is in a persistent vegetative state, what is the big deal with her parents caring for their daughter?

The removal of the feeding tube and the withholding of medical treatment are euthanasia. Why was Dr. Kevorkian put in prison for the same type of activity?

I say her parents love her the most. She is not dead. Where there is breath there is hope. Let her live.

-- Karen Catlin, Clearwater
Why let her go on?
I thought judges were supposed to be educated and intelligent - not the one who made the decision on Terri Schiavo! How in God's name can he leave this vegetable going and going?

The pictures they show on TV are so old - I'd like to see what she looks like now.

-- Mary Voiles, New Port Richey
Don't kill an innocent woman
I am a follower of Jesus Christ and a Floridian, and it hurts me to watch as we quietly allow Michael Schiavo, who declines to uphold the phrase "in sickness and in health" from his marriage vows, and Judge George Greer, who in the past has ordered the death of Terri Schiavo by withholding nourishment, to decide her fate.

She is guilty of no crime other than not being a financial asset to her husband. He is not a fit guardian for her. Her parents are.

For the people who insist, "I wouldn't want to live like that": This is not about you.

How can anyone be drastically opposed to abortion or capital punishment and be in favor of killing an innocent woman who is breathing on her own?

When did God add all these exceptions to the commandment "Thou shalt not kill?"

-- Marylou Hess, Gulfport
Time to end Terri's suffering
Re: Schiavo case nears decision - maybe, Feb. 23.

Why are so many of these "right to live" people so gung-ho about telling everyone else how to live?

Look, guys, it's very simple: If you personally choose to live out your days in the "persistent vegetative state," with no way to communicate, no dignity, relying on strangers for your most basic needs, by all means, do so. You should have that right, if you so choose.

But to force a stranger into those same actions, just because you believe she should live the life you would choose, is beyond ridiculous - it's cruel and inhumane.

You right-to-lifers may need to re-evaluate why you are so involved in such a private matter. Are you really in this fight for Terri, or just to further your misguided political causes?

Terri has not improved in the 15 years since she suffered brain damage. She will not miraculously get better with last-minute therapy. She will never walk, talk, eat, or have any kind of a normal life ever again.

Michael Schiavo is not trying to expedite Terri's death. He is trying to, at last, give dignity to his wife by making sure she no longer suffers.

-- Kathy Hainisch, St. Petersburg
Starvation: a horror or not?
Today, there are in our world millions of people starving to death, or within days of starving. We are horrified, as we should be, and work actively to try to stop the tragedy.

Today, in a nursing facility in Largo, a helpless woman waits to have her feeding tube removed so that she can, actively, be starved to death, with the approval of our judicial system.

Why is one a horror to be stopped and the other not?

-- Mary C. Meza, St. Petersburg
Let her go to a better place
Re: Terri Schiavo.

I can readily sympathize with both sides of this issue. However, I have heard clergy say at funerals that the person who died is "now in a better place." Why won't the parents let their daughter go to that "better place"?

I wonder how Terri would feel knowing that her picture is on TV and newspapers seen around the country and maybe in other countries every day.

God Bless her, her husband, and her parents.

May God's will be done.

-- J.C. Skoglund, Clearwater [Last modified February 25, 2005, 00:51:16]

http://www.sptimes.com/2005/02/25/Opinion/We_should_treasure_li.shtml

Let Schiavo case come to a close
A Times Editorial
Published February 25, 2005

The Terri Schiavo case is a family tragedy that has turned into an unseemly public circus, and as another deadline looms today Gov. Jeb Bush and the Legislature should stay out of it. They intervened the last time her feeding tube was removed with a law that was obviously unconstitutional, and they have no business acting as obstructionists again in a controversy that needs to come to a conclusion.

As difficult as it may be for politicians to resist the campaign of e-mails and phone calls coordinated by Randall Terry, founder of Operation Rescue, the courts are the proper venue to thrash out the disagreements between Schiavo's husband, Michael, and her parents, Bob and Mary Schindler. There is no room for the governor, the Legislature or the Department of Children and Families. Government restraint, a respect for the separation of powers and the rule of law should take precedence over the lobbying.

In an unseemly ploy that appears politically motivated, DCF attempted to intervene in the hearing Wednesday before Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge George Greer. The agency was trying to raise allegations of Schiavo's abuse at the hands of her husband, apparently as a way to remove him as her guardian. Greer, to his credit, refused to allow DCF into the case.

Bush has promised to "do what I can" to prevent the removal of Schiavo's feeding tube, although he says he will respect the law in the process. That is at least better than what happened in 2003, when Bush and the Legislature quickly passed "Terri's Law" to have her feeding tube reinserted. The law was struck down by the Florida Supreme Court last year.

The various schemes being talked about to remove Michael Schiavo as his wife's guardian should not be seriously entertained. The courts have been extremely careful with this case, and Michael Schiavo has won at every turn. The judicial branch is the proper place to resolve the dispute, which needs to come to an end.

[Last modified February 25, 2005, 00:51:16]
http://www.sptimes.com/2005/02/25/Opinion/Let_Schiavo_case_come.shtml

Bump for excellent coverage!

BREAKING!!! Can I get confirmation? I called Senate Orrin Hatch's aide this morning in DC and he told me that this morning, Terri was given an additional one week's STAY.

(why does Orrin Hatch's office know something that nobody else knows?) My www.sptimes.com had a headline that read "Humbled lawmakers say court is final Judge" Metro & State Section.

It would be nice if someone would tell Floridians what was going on. THE QUOTE BY DANIEL WEBSTER made me sick. "The Court has come up with much better solutions than we have so far." Daniel Webster who we thought was for justice.

See my last post. Hatch's office KNOWS MORE ABOUT BREAKING SCHIAVO NEWS THAN FLORIDA MEDIA DOES. That's a good thing plus I pushed that the USDOJ needs to investigate the violation of Terri's Civil Rights ongoing for years. Yes, the aide acknowledged they have been receiving calls about Terri. I explained that Floridians are calling for outside help because Jeb Bush's administration had so many holdovers from the democrat administration and that Floridians DO NOT TRUST ANYONE IN OUR GOVERNMENT AT THIS TIME. This is a federal matter re: Terri's Civil Rights!

From an e-mail from Fight4Terri@aol.com ...

======

John Grogan

| Second thoughts on Terri Schiavo

http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/news/columnists/john_grogan/10985482.htm

Sometimes even newspaper columnists change their minds.

In the matter of Terri Schiavo, the permanently brain-damaged former suburban Philadelphia woman caught in a life-and-death tug-of-war, this columnist has changed his.

I no longer so blithely believe Schiavo's feeding tubes should be pulled and her life allowed to end. I'm no longer so sure her parents do not deserve a say in their daughter's future. I no longer am totally comfortable assuming her husband, Michael, who now has two children by another woman, is acting unselfishly.

That's not to say I have changed my opinion about the right of all of us to die with dignity when life has lost all meaning. But for Terri Schiavo, who lingers in a Florida nursing home, the devil is in the details, uncomfortable details that raise sticky moral dilemmas.

Detail 1: Terry Schiavo is not dying. She is not being kept alive artificially. Her heart beats and lungs breathe without help. She cannot swallow food or water. Once the feeding tube is removed, she would slowly starve to death over days or weeks.

Detail 2: Schiavo is not comatose. Her eyes open, and she sometimes responds to stimuli. Doctors say there is no brain activity and her responses are simply reflexive. Her parents, Robert and Mary Schindler, want to believe otherwise.

Unanswered questions

Detail 3: The Schindlers think their daughter could benefit from physical therapy and might someday swallow on her own, but her husband, as her legal guardian, reportedly will not allow it. Which leads to an equally uncomfortable question: If Schiavo merely required spoon feeding instead of tube feeding, would anyone seriously be arguing to withhold food and water? Does not every human, no matter how incapacitated, deserve sustenance?

Detail 4: Unproven allegations that Schiavo might have suffered physical trauma immediately before her heart stopped for several minutes in 1990, leading to brain damage, have not been fully investigated. The Schindlers have long suggested their son-in-law strangled their daughter; Michael Schiavo's lawyer says the abuse allegations have never been substantiated. Before pulling the plug on this woman, don't these questions need to be fully answered?

The abuse allegations against Michael Schiavo may be nothing but scurrilous rumor spread to damage his credibility. But what if there is even a tiny chance he is guilty of abuse? Should such a person be in a position to decide this life-and-death issue?

Last month, I wrote that Michael Schiavo's wish should be granted and his wife allowed to die rather than suffer for years in what the courts have deemed a "persistent vegetative state." I still believe Terri Schiavo, if she were aware today, would instruct us to not make her linger on like this.

Undisputed devotion

But she is not aware and left no written directives. So we are left to guess her wishes. Last month, I said we could look inside our own hearts and know what she would want. Today, with the latest stay barring the removal of the feeding tube set to expire in hours, I am less confident making such assumptions.

Who best to decide? In the murky mess that this case has become, we are left with one unwavering truth: Over the last seven years of fighting, Terri Schiavo's parents have proved themselves nothing if not fiercely loyal, utterly committed parents. They might be misguided. They might be in denial. But no one can argue their devotion. They have not given up. They have not stopped caring. They have not stopped loving. Who are we, as a society, to tell them they must?

Clearly, Schiavo's husband has moved on to a new life, and who can blame him? It's been 15 long years. But parents cannot move on. Parents cannot give up. Their child will always be the precious gift they brought into the world.

If the Schindlers want to dedicate the rest of their lives and resources to caring for their brain-damaged daughter, if they want to shower her with attention and affection she likely will never recognize, who among us will tell them they cannot?

It won't be me.

=======

Fight4Terri @aol.com

www.fight4terri.blogspot.com

Visit Terri's site: www.terrisfight.org

Bump

Prayerfully waiting with you for confirmation about a week's stay ...

what number did you call to get Hatch's office

That's wonderful..Thank You Jesus

we just called DC, senate judiciary committee and guy said he read in the paper there was a week reprieve---I don;t think that's a reliable statement---dont know what paper he could have read that in---think he read the paper wrong

Good to hear someone on the other side having second thoughts, but he still needs more education on this case though.

Hatch's aide said that he saw the news this morning that there was a week's stay. Pretty sloppy if untrue to tell someone calling asking for help. That's why I came here to see if this was bad information.

Now Daniel Webster, that was a horrible quote. Sounds like he's in the grip of the powerful aclu and death lobby. They must have his FBI file or something.

"You don’t have to be an anti-euthanasia activist to find the behavior of Michael Schiavo downright creepy."

Mr. Schiavo is so committed to seeing his brain-damaged wife dead that he is legally fighting her parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, to have her feeding tube removed.

Schiavo claims that his wife, Terri, once told him that if she were ever in the sort of state she is now that she would want to be allowed to die. So now he is doing his best to make that happen.

The case has made national news and "right-to-die" groups are squared off against "pro-life" groups.

Because Michael Schiavo is still Terri’s husband, he has had the upper hand in the legal battle. But he has clearly moved on from her emotionally. He’s been living with another woman since 1995. They have two children. Why is it so important to him that Terri be killed, especially when she has a father and mother and brothers and sisters who are willing to take care of her?

Doctors have deemed Terri to be in a persistent vegetative state but others so deemed are not routinely put to death. Some have rallied from such diagnoses, surprising doctors and their hopeful families. Just a couple of weeks ago, a woman came out of a 20-year coma.

Bob and Mary Schindler’s dream is to take their daughter home and take care of her.

Michael Schiavo’s dream is to see their daughter dead.

Which dream deserves more respect?

Gil Spencer’s column appears Sunday, Wednesday and Friday.

In DC, are they reading Washington Post or USA Today? I'm wasn't awake enough to ask Hatch's aide where he saw that news about a week's reprieve that likely is untrue.