Fed Appeals Court Grant Terri's Parents Petition for Rehearing

FNC

[WhistlingPastTheGraveyard]

FEDERAL APPEALS COURT WILL LET TERRI'S PARENTS FILE A PETITION FOR REHEARING FOR AN INJUNCTION TO REINSERT FEEDING TUBE... BREAKING

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Moderator update:

Court Says Yes To Schiavo Parents

March 30, 2005

(CBS/AP) A federal appeals court early Wednesday granted Terri Schiavo's parents the right to file a petition for rehearing for an injunction that could allow their daughter's feeding tube to be reconnected.

The ruling came just after midnight from a federal appeals court in Atlanta.

On Tuesday, Schiavo's 12th full day without food or water, the Rev. Jesse Jackson prayed with her parents and joined conservatives in calling for state lawmakers to order her feeding tube reinserted.

The former Democratic presidential candidate was invited by Schiavo's parents to meet with activists outside Schiavo's hospice. His arrival was greeted by some applause and cries of "This is about civil rights!"

"I feel so passionate about this injustice being done, how unnecessary it is to deny her a feeding tube, water, not even ice to be used for her parched lips," he said. "This is a moral issue and it transcends politics and family disputes."

As the Schiavo deathwatch drags on, CBS News Correspondent Mark Strassmann spoke with two families who grappled with the same issues as the Schindlers and Michael Schiavo. On one side are Dorothy and Michael Brocato, who have provided care for their brain-damaged daughter Lisa, who suffered brain damage from a heart attack 15 years ago.

"We have devoted our lives to taking care of Lisa, says her mother. The Brocatos are sympathetic to the Schindler's wish to keep Terri Schiavo alive

"I love her. I love her. I couldn't picture not having her around me,'' says Dorothy Brocato.

Ron Oister has watched the Schiavo drama play out from a very different perspective. When Oister's father was essentially brain-dead, his son's wrenching decision was to let his father go.

"It was very hard,'' Oister told Strassmann. "That was my father. And he was in front of me. And I knew he could never return to what he had been."

Oister says Schiavo's parents helped create this needless public spectacle because they refused to face their hard reality.

"She died then, not now. My own experience would say that one ends life at that time."

Jesse Jackson's visit provided an emotional boost to Schiavo's parents and siblings, who have maintained that Schiavo would want to be kept alive. Her husband, Michael Schiavo, insists he is carrying out her wishes by having the feeding tube pulled.

Mary Schindler, Terri Schiavo's mother, later made a terse but emotional appeal to Michael Schiavo: "Michael and Jodi, you have your own children. Please, please give my child back to me." Michael Schiavo and fiancee Jodi Centonze have two children, born long after Terri Schiavo fell into paralysis.

Although supporters of the Schindlers have claimed the dehydrated woman is being denied comfort measures such as ice chips for her dry mouth or balm for chapped lips, George Felos, the husband's attorney, defended how Schiavo is being cared for.

"Obviously, the parents and the siblings are desperate. Desperation may lead to different perceptions," Felos told CNN. "I can only tell you what I've seen, and Terri is dying a very peaceful, cared-for death." Felos did not return phone messages seeking comment from The Associated Press.

Jackson said he asked Michael Schiavo for permission to see the brain-damaged woman but was denied. He also telephoned black legislators in a last-ditch effort to bring back a bill that would prohibit severely brain-damaged patients from being denied food and water if they didn't express their wishes in writing. Lawmakers rejected the legislation earlier this month and appeared unlikely to reconsider it.

One of those contacted by Jackson, Democratic state Sen. Gary Siplin, said he told Jackson the issue had been "thoroughly discussed." Senate Democratic leader Les Miller added, "I have voted. It's time to move on."

The chief sponsor of the measure, state Sen. Daniel Webster, said he knew of no changed votes and that Jackson's efforts may have come too late.

"If he could sway votes — and I'm certain he may be able to — it would have been helpful if he had done that a little earlier" said Webster, a Republican. "We're running out of time. To do it now is not as timely as a couple of weeks ago would have been."

Bob Schindler described his daughter as "failing" following his visit Tuesday.

"She still looks pretty darn good under the circumstances," Schindler said. "You can see the impact of no food and water for 12 days. Her bodily functions are still working. We still have her."

First lady Laura Bush also commented on the case Tuesday, saying the government was right to have intervened on behalf of Schiavo.

"It is a life issue that really does require government to be involved," Bush said aboard a plane bound for Afghanistan, where she was to promote education and women's rights.

During Jackson's visit, a man was tackled to the ground by officers when he tried to storm into the hospice, police said. He became the 47th protester arrested since the feeding tube was removed March 18. The man had two bottles of water with him but did not reach the hospice door, police said.

Doctors have said Terri Schiavo, 41, would probably die within a week or two of the tube being removed. She suffered catastrophic brain damage in 1990 when her heart stopped for several minutes because of a chemical imbalance apparently brought on by an eating disorder.

The parents also lost another round in the courts Tuesday when an appeals court upheld a pervious ruling by Judge George Greer that blocked the Department of Children and Families from intervening in the case.




Court Says Yes To Schiavo Parents

[hipaatwo]

The complaint addresses the issue that if indeed she did make any statement to Michael Schiavo prior to her “accident” in 1990”, it must be made clear that prior to 2000, a feeding tube was not legally considered “artificial means” due to process and language. “Therefore, she did not have informed consent that she could not/did not have an understanding that the determination of artificial means would include a feeding tube after the year of 2000”, the complaint says. “Her inability to be appropriately informed and her lack of decision making capacity combined with her inability to divorce her husband due to her incapacitation has placed her in a situation where she is being discriminated against by the courts due to her condition”, the federal complaint charges. That brief is so good I think I need a cigarette ;)

[CyberAnt]

I wonder if you'll be saying that if Terri is able to speak again - and tell us that her husband tried to strangle her to death.

If there's no money left in the trust - then there is no other reason for the husband to want her to die except that she could be rehab'd to speak well enough to accuse him of attempted murder. NOW IT's DOUBLE ATTEMPTED MURDER with the help of the courts.

The husband was offered $1 mil to release her to the parents - included divorce and everything. HE REFUSED.

[Mo1]

Several people on this thread have already said that it is possible to rehydrate her but it has to be done slowly in a hospital.

I would believe that to be correct

[WhistlingPastTheGraveyard]

Please Lord, let this be one of those occasions...

[AngieGal]

Boy, it sounds like Congress whacked these judges. They sure did need to put them in their appropriate place. I'm starting to get hopeful based on how quick their response has been that Terri might have medical help before or by morning. PLEASE LORD!

[cherry]

sometime I would like a discussion as to how professional doctors and nurses and therapists can ignore the good of the patient and cowtow (sp?) to the next of kin.....

isn't there something about ethics that would prohibit professionals from mistreating a patient, no matter who tells them to do it??????

[windchime]

Santorum has made the case via the MSM, IMO. I'm sure you noted his direct assault on Judge Whittemore on H&C.

[SolomoninSouthDakota]

"..the doctor has ethical DUTY to do whatever he would do for any other patient and bloody ignore the legal.."

Sorry, I laughed out loud reading the part about someone doing something from an ethical duty..
This has been so devoid of ethics.

[Fudd Fan]

"One the medical basics of what happens to the human body after over a week without water or food."

Terri has SOOOO defied the odds so far. It's understandable that so many of us want to pray for a miracle. I, for one, cannot call this either way - but I CAN continue to pray for her and her family.

[Utah Girl]

I've gone back and forth on this case. But after the feeding tube was removed and I realized that this was a severely disabed woman who was being starved to death, I landed on the Schindlers side of things. To me, it is just unbelievable that she has lasted 12 days without any nourishment or liquids.

[PhiKapMom]

Thank you for posting that -- it was really nice! We are all on the same team just trying to get there in different ways sometimes. I don't see how a person alive could want to seem someone starved to death without their ever signing a document saying they wanted it -- that has bothered me from the beginning to take the word of the scumbag husband.

Take care!

[CitizenM]

I left this thread early on when I saw he was running amuck (putting it nicely).

I just had a troublesome thought though. If this is heard de novo, I hope the Schindler attorney is extremely well prepared. I hope with all the people now involved (including J.Jackson, et al) he has the best assistants, staff, advice, etc. to win the argument this time. I would hate to have Felos succeed again. That would be devistating!

And, as quickly as possible, get Terri to a facility where they specialize in life not death!

[CyberAnt]

Well .. this was in the works before Jesse got there. I'm not dissing his appearance - but I just don't have a very high regard for the man - not after the horrible things he has said about the President and other on the conservative side of the isle.

[narses]

"without any nourishment or liquids."

She had the Body and Blood of Our Lord.

[Hunble]

Take the tube out...

Put the tube back in...

Take the tube out...

Put the tube back in...

Take the tube out...

Put the tube back in...

......

Your are correct, and I should never have considered this as a form of torture.

[windchime]

I just posted the same about Santorum, PKM. He delivered the message perfectly!

[ArmstedFragg]

Wouldn't that have been a procedural error, for Judge Whittemore NOT to have heard it as DE NOVO, and shouldn't the 11th circuit have picked that up???

Not if it wasn't presented to them.

The original ruling was on the issue of whether an order to reconnect should be issued in a circumstance where the party asking for it is unlikely to win at trail. Whittemore said, "no", and the appellate courts agreed. Absent the reconnect order, a de novo hearing would have been moot. Here you have the question of whether Congress can, in effect, create a circumstance where he HAS to enter a reconnect order. I'm not going to make a prediction on their decision, but I'll note that an order would be unlikely to issue, in any case, until a decision has been reached. Given the circumstances, issuing an order would be, at least temporarily, the same as deciding the case.

Two days ago would have better for this.

[Auntie Mame]

Since I have been reported to the Admin for abuse, then perhaps it would be better if I not continue with any replies.

That would be wonderful. Thank you!

[churchillbuff]

No.... The way I read this is that the tube will be reinserted while the facts are being reviewed...

I don't think so. They're just hearing another petition for an injunction that would allow some kind of hydration. It's the same kind of hearing as last time - and they didn't reinsert the tube for that hearing.

[Fred Nerks]

bookmark, back in 5.
Praying for Terri.