Schiavo Judge To Be Honored

NEW PORT RICHEY - Pinellas- Pasco Circuit Judge George Greer, who was thrust into the national spotlight and scrutinized by pro-life advocates during the Terri Schiavo case, was a consistent judge who followed the law, colleagues say.

His professionalism and integrity was punctuated by the way he handled the Schiavo case, said Alan Scott Miller, a New Port Richey lawyer and member of the West Pasco Bar Association.

As part of Law Week, which kicks off today, the association will award Greer, 63, its Special Justice Award.

``He's getting this award for all of his contributions on the bench, not just the Schiavo case,'' Miller said. ``It's like a lifetime achievement award for an actor.''

Greer will receive the award during a banquet Thursday at the Heritage Springs Golf and Country Club, 11345 Robert Trent Jones Parkway.

For years, Greer presided over the politically and emotionally charged Schiavo case, which ended when the 41- year-old woman died March 31, 13 days after her feeding tube was removed a third time on a court order.

Some doctors said Schiavo was in a persistent vegetative state since suffering brain damage after her heart stopped in 1990.

Her husband, Michael, fought for years to have her feeding stopped, saying his wife didn't want to be kept alive by artificial means.

Eventually, Florida's governor and Legislature and then Congress took up the battle.

Supporters and detractors watched as Greer made rulings backing Terri Schiavo's purported wishes and received threats on his life.

``I don't think anyone could ever say his decisions were unlawful,'' said Joan Nelson Hook, president of the West Pasco Bar Association. ``They were very thoughtful. His decisions were meticulous.

``We admired his ability to sustain the pressure not to follow the law. ... I think that shows his character.''

Steve Doran, association president-elect, echoed Hook's thoughts on Greer's handling of the Schiavo case.

``His decisions in that unfortunate case withstood the test of every appellate court in the country,'' Doran said. ``Those who are criticizing him are not seeing the big picture.''

When the association voted this month on this year's recipient of the Special Justice Award, the result was almost unanimous for Greer.

``He's a man of integrity. He's followed the flow. He's done an excellent job on the bench,'' said Miller. ``That's why he's getting this award.''

In addition to Greer's award, the Law Week celebration offers events that allow the community to get a closer look at what the West Pasco Bar Association and the law profession are about, Hook said.

* Representatives of the association will be at Gulf View Square mall in Port Richey offering free legal advice from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesday through Friday.

* All week, 22 lawyers will visit Pasco schools to discuss the law and this week's national theme, ``The American Jury: We the People in Action.''

* The 2nd District Court of Appeal will hold a special session at 10 a.m. Wednesday at the West Pasco Government Center, 7530 Little Road, in county commission chambers.

* Business suits, shoes and accessories will be collected at area law offices for Connections, a not-for-profit organization that helps people looking for jobs.

The Law Offices of Attridge, Cohen & Lucas, 7136 Little Road, New Port Richey; The O'Conner Law Group, 9735 U.S. 19, Suite 2, Port Richey; Pejot Law, 11911 Pine Forest Drive, New Port Richey; and The Law Offices of Gay & Ehrhardt, 5318 Balsam St., New Port Richey.

Schiavo Thoughts: Feeding Tubes
Before I post about this morning's ruling from the Eleventh Circuit, which you can read here, I'm going to offer some thoughts on an issue that has been the subject of countless emails I've received: feeding tubes.

Some people believe that feeding tubes are different from ventilators and other machines that keep us breathing, or machines that make our hearts beat. Some people just seem uncomfortable that removing those other devices leads to an expeditious death, whereas removing or declining to insert a feeding tube -- when a patient cannot otherwise ingest food and water -- leads to a slow death. Some assume that death is painful.

I don't want to comment on the morality surrounding feeding tubes and their use or nonuse. This is a legal blog, so I'm going to offer a few legal observations in this area.

First, a Florida law enacted in 1999 makes it clear that the "life-prolonging procedures" a person may refuse include "artifically provided sustenance and hydration." This point is made on the Info Page I created to help explain the law at issue here.

But numerous people have pointed out that this law was passed by the Florida Legislature and signed by Governor Bush only in 1999 -- years after Terri's collapse and even longer after Terri made whatever statements she made about such things. They contend that this 1999 law shouldn't apply to Terri.

Let's take a step back. Statutes are one form of law in Florida, but there is another form of law that's higher: the Florida Constitution. In 1980, Florida's citizens amended Florida's constitution to add a right of privacy to Floridians' fundamental rights. The Florida Supreme Court addressed this right in the 1990 case In re Browning. Florida's high court determined that the constitutional right of privacy includes the right to decline any medical treatment, including the use of a feeding tube. The court said:

Recognizing that one has the inherent right to make choices about medical treatment, we necessarily conclude that this right encompasses all medical choices. A competent individual has the constitutional right to refuse medical treatment regardless of his or her medical condition. The issue involves a patient's right of self-determination and does not involve what is thought to be in the patient's best interests.

* * *

We see no reason to qualify that right on the basis of the denomination of a medical procedure as major or minor, ordinary or extraordinary, life-prolonging, life-maintaining, life-sustaining, or otherwise.

* * *

Courts overwhelmingly have held that a person may refuse or remove artificial life-support, whether supplying oxygen by a mechanical respirator or supplying food and water through a feeding tube. We agree and find no significant legal distinction between these artificial means of life-support.
(emphasis added) (citations omitted).

So, as explained by the Florida Supreme Court in 1990, the right to decline medical treatment -- including use of a feeding tube -- has been the law of Florida since no later than 1980. Under the Florida Constitution, feeding tubes are medical treatment that may be refused. What the statutes say on this point cannot overcome the rights conferred by the Constitution.

As many know, the federal constitution does not have an express right of privacy, but the federal courts have found many privacy-like interests to be liberty and due process interests protected by the federal constitution. When the U.S. Supreme Court decided Cruzan v. Missouri in 1990, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor authored a concurring opinion discussing Nancy Cruzan's federal right to decline use of a feeding tube. Justice O'Connor explained:

Artificial feeding cannot readily be distinguished from other forms of medical treatment. Whether or not the techniques used to pass food and water into the patient's alimentary tract are termed "medical treatment," it is clear they all involve some degree of intrusion and restraint. Feeding a patient by means of a nasogastric tube requires a physician to pass a long flexible tube through the patient's nose, throat and esophagus and into the stomach. Because of the discomfort such a tube causes, "[m]any patients need to be restrained forcibly, and their hands put into large mittens to prevent them from removing the tube." A gastrostomy tube (as was used to provide food and water to Nancy Cruzan) or jejunostomy tube must be surgically implanted into the stomach or small intestine. Requiring a competent adult to endure such procedures against her will burdens the patient's liberty, dignity, and freedom to determine the course of her own treatment. Accordingly, the liberty guaranteed by the Due Process Clause must protect, if it protects anything, an individual's deeply personal decision to reject medical treatment, including the artificial delivery of food and water.
(emphasis added).

I hope this helps clear up what the law is in this area.

...posted by Matt Conigliaro http://abstractappeal.com/archives/2005_03_01_abstractappeal_archive.html#111158613257156180

Being that it's become an obession for you, the real question is, what do YOU want now?

I want an acknowledgement from the Executive, Legislative and Judicial branches of government that EVERY person, in or out of the womb, til natural death, is endowed by their Creator with the unalienable right to live, and that our Constitution is predicated on that guarantee.

I want every judge who ignores the clear protections of our constitutions to be thrown from office poste haste and in disgrace.

I want every judge who makes law from the bench to be met with swift and active opposition from the Legislative and the Executive branches.

I want the Congress to use their constitutionally-invested power to rein in rogue judges.

I want an Executive who doesn't believe in Judicial Supremecy, and who will actively fight those who do.

I don't want to see the likes of Felos and Greer starving people to death because they think they have god-like powers to determine whether someone's 'quality of life' is what it should be.

I don't want to see GOP party hacks and lawyers slicing and dicing pro-lifers because they have the temerity to speak out against gross injustice.

Terry Shiavo isn't coming back. Now what?

While we would rather have had a live Terri than a dead martyr, now that she is gone she is the symbol of our fight for LIFE in America; whether you or me or anyone else likes it or not. Many politicians are going to wish they never heard her name, if they don't already.

The political 'geniuses' that are running this show have no clue how deeply what happened to Terri has impacted people across this land.

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