DCF Considers Removing Schiavo from Hospice by Force

Palm Beach Post ^ | 3.23.05 | Dara Kam

[gopwinsin04]

State officials say they are considering removing Terri Schiavo from hospice, by force if necessary, despite numerous court orders upholding the removal of the artificial nutrition tube that has kept her alive for 15 years.

Lucy Hadl, secretary of the Department of Children and Families, said Wednesday morning that her staff is relying on a state law that gives the department the authority to intervene on behalf of a vulnerable adult who is 'suffering from abuse or neglect that presents a risk of death or serious physical injury.'

Hadl said that the DCF would have to file a petition in order to remove Schiavo, but that 'it doesn't mean we'd have to have judicial approval in advance of taking the action if we believed it met the threshold for doing it.'

Hadl said that seven years of court rulings backing Schiavo's husband Michael, in his contention that Terri Schiavo did not wish to be kept alive artificially would not stop the DCF from taking action.

'We're not compelled to look at prior judicial proceedings,' Hadl said.

What we are compelled to look at is the presenting circumstances and any allegiations of abuse and neglect that we have recieved. So we have to deal with those and fufill out statutory responsibility.'

[nicmarlo]

I'm not a lawyer tutstar....but I believe that DCF'S authority to act COMES FROM THE LEGISLATIVE BRANCH OF GOVERNMENT not by judicial decree!

[supercat]

How can we know this is not his plan, this is not Terri's purpose?

Exodus 14:15-15:1 explains it quite well.

It would not have done the Israelites any long-term good if the Egyptians had not pursued them. The Egyptians would have eventually found away around the Red Sea and recaptured the Israelites. Before the Israelites could really be saved, it was necessary that the Egyptians be absolutely and thoroughly committed to their attack.

[Centurion2000]

Go Lucy !!

[zygoat]

There seem to be quite a few doctors on record as saying there is hope for this woman. Where is the harm in granting them a little time to make their own prognosis in this case? What is the harm in letting her parents care for her for that matter? If you are going to take the word of a man who waited seven years to announce that she stated that she "wouldn't want to live like that", a man who created a new family for himself in the meantime, a man who seems to be in collusion with this judge and others in this whole murky mess, then you may be an easy victim for the next "contractor" who knocks on your door and informs you that your roof needs repaired, please pay in advance. There is something going on here besides the "rule of law", and time is required to find out exactly what it is.

[jackibutterfly]

"I hate Michael Schiavo with a passion I reserve for third-world dictators and in my irrational hate, I want some good old boys from 'bama or Georgia to show this POS that Southern chivalry isn't dead. "

Be caaaarefullll! Good way to let Satan into your heart,and then you become just like HIM (Michael). My sister warned me about that this morning. I was pretty upset, too. Said it's ok to feel anger, but hate, it's a no-no. You also have to be careful what you do with that anger.

[Two-Bits]

It amazes me. Bill Clinton pardon drug dealers and Terrorists and our own President doesn't have the b.... to
commute the sentence on one helpless handicap woman. What is my son fighting for???

[HiTech RedNeck]

There is a very heavy Scientologist presence in that locale, and their theology is not kind to the disabled. Probably enough Scientologists to have, alone, put him well over the top of his challenger.

[krunkygirl]

I thought so.
I went back to double check but the AM had removed the offensive post.
If you did not make that ugly remark, my apologies.

[conserv13]

I actually agree with you, I think she should be given more time. But it is not up to me it is up to the courts - and the courts have decided - over and over again.

[supercat]

Over 20 judges have said that it was not Terri's wish to remain in that pathetic state. No rational person would want too.

Right. Rational people would rather be at home with parents who take them out in the sunshine and fresh air, let them have rehabilitation and treatment, and generally treat them like human beings.

[SouthernFreebird]

I can't seem to get an answer. Just keep getting passed to full mail boxes. Do you know if they have closed for the day?

[Shazolene]

Christians? How about the ones braving arrest to bring her a glass of water?

Doesn't that count??

[chimera]

The judiciary pulls rulings out of thin air all the time,...

They do it when it comes to reinforcing the legalization and manifestation of the culture of death that has infected this country with a disease as fatal as any bubonic plague or malaria. Look at the tortured legal "reasoning" the USSC (and Harry Blackmun in particular) came up with for justifying abortion: a "penumbra" of rights, a shadow of a ghost of a hint of a right. Yet when faced with an issue of saving the life of a person, they can't find any legal pathway to do so, in spite of unambiguous language in the law to do so, and a long history of legal tradition and ethical theory that dictates we err on the side of life when there is any reasonable doubt.

[conserv13]

Are you serious? Holy crap, I did not know that. That is scary!

[joesnuffy]

5 days without water..and this isnt the first time they have tortured her this long..

I dont know too many congressman that could have taken the kind of abuse this poor woman has been able to endure..

But I would sure like to see some experimental data...

[lainie]

Depends what you mean "execute" a law. You mean write one? The legislative branch does that. The fact that an executive branch cannot write its own law is not "tyranny." Or do you mean act in accordance to existing law?

[Fury]

If you did not make that ugly remark, my apologies.

Understand. That post sent by the disruptor was over the top.

[FastCoyote]

"Some unknown judge is now the governor of Florida."

Yeah, it goes way beyond that. The Schiavo case sets precedence at many levels and essentially neuters the executive branch.

[supercat]

I actually agree with you, I think she should be given more time. But it is not up to me it is up to the courts - and the courts have decided - over and over again.

Name all of the fact-finding courts who have heard the case. Bear in mind that trying a case "de novo" requires that witnesses be requestioned so that any questions which were inadvertantly admitted the first time may be asked; any appeals court which claims to evaluate a case "de novo" without witnesses being re-examined is talking nonsense.

[adiaireton8]

I fed my son through an NG tube for two years. He was alive the whole time, even though he couldn't see or talk or communicate. If you think being fed through a tube constitutes not being alive, then you need some education. Plants are alive, and they can't talk or walk or even feel. Terri is a living human being. She breathes; her heart beats. She digests her food. All her organs (except her higher brain, apparently) are fully functional. No doctor has said that she is dead. It does not matter what we think Terri would want; it is unethical to starve a person to death, just as it would be unethical to assist in a suicide. It does not matter if 100 judges said we should starve her; it would still be unethical to starve her.

-A8