Posted on 05/05/2005 5:51:50 AM PDT by NYer
George W. Greer, the Florida judge who ordered Terri Schiavo's feeding tube removed, will receive an award today from his law colleagues, but a spiritual adviser to the late brain-injured woman's parents still insists the jurist is a "murderer."
"On the night before Terri Schiavo died, I said to the national media that Judge Greer was a murderer," said Fr. Frank Pavone, national director of Priests for Life.
"I repeat that today," he said. "I use the word not in its legal meaning but in its moral meaning, that is, a deliberate action or series of actions that intentionally kill an innocent person."
Greer, who presided over the Schiavo case for seven years, will be honored with the Special Justice Award by the local West Pasco Bar Association.
Schiavo died March 31, nearly two weeks after her life-sustaining feeding tube was removed by Greer's order, carried out more than a decade of bitter legal wrangling between parents Robert and Mary Schindler and their son-in-law Michael Schiavo, who contended Terri had verbally expressed a desire to not live if she were in such a condition.
"Terri was not dying until she stopped receiving food and water," Pavone said. "Once deprived of that sustenance, she died. It does not require any legal or medical expertise to recognize that as murder. Nobody who has lost the basic capability to understand that should be honored."
Alan Scott Miller, a member of the West Pasco Bar Association, told the Tampa Tribune Greer's professionalism and integrity was punctuated by the way he handled the Schiavo case.
"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.''
Pavone said, "Whatever judgment, furthermore, is made on Judge Greer's legal authority to do what he did, no court has the moral authority to directly and deliberately take innocent life, and those ordered to carry out such decisions are morally obliged to resist them by conscientious objection. Pope John Paul II made that teaching clear in his encyclical letter 'The Gospel of Life.'"
Some of the appeals to Greer's rulings, which were upheld, argued there was not enough clear and convincing evidence that Terri Schiavo had expressed a wish to not live in her current condition.
Greer's court in Pinellas County, Fla., determined she was in a persistent vegetative state. The Schindlers countered that assessment with statements from neurologists who claimed she was in a "minimally conscious state," able to respond to stimuli.
The Schindlers had pleaded with their son-in-law to allow them to be with their daughter in her final hours, but according to family spokesmen, they were not present when she died.
Pavone was in Terri's room at Woodside Hospice in Pinellas Park, Fla., about 15 minutes before she died. But the priest said he was instructed to leave 10 minutes before her death by order of Michael Schiavo.
"His heartless cruelty continues until this very last moment," Pavone said of Terri's estranged husband, who for 10 years has lived with another woman with whom he has two children.
After Terri died, immediate family members were allowed in the room, the priest said.
Pavone said on the day of her death, "This is not only a death, with all the sadness that brings, this is a killing. We not only grieve for Terri, we grieve that our nation would allow such an atrocity as this, and we pray it will never happen again."
For background on the 15-year saga, read "The whole Terri Schiavo story."
WorldNetDaily has been reporting on the Terri Schiavo story since 2002 far longer than most other national news organization and exposing the many troubling, scandalous, and possibly criminal, aspects of the case that to this day rarely surface in news reports. Read WorldNetDaily's unparalleled, in-depth coverage of the life-and-death fight over Terri Schiavo, including over 150 original stories and columns.
Court documents and other information are posted on the Schindler family website.
Links to all "Terri briefs" regarding the governor's defense of Terri's Law are on the Florida Supreme Court website, public information.
Your comment reminds me of someone. Oh yes.
THe law saying that a feeding tube is extraordinary was added after her accident. How could she predict what changes were going to be made to laws before he incapacity?
I warned ya...
:)
:)
You were not told facts don't matter. You were told "facts" don't matter. And that was explained to you. Notice the quotation marks? "Facts" are invented to support your agenda, and throw a smoke screen over the truth.
That reminds me of an old saying. You can put pearls on a pig, and call her "Monique," but a pig is still just a pig.
I guess you could substitute a black robe, but you'd still just have a pig.
Wrong again. The law specifically forbids him to make that decision.
That was then and there. This is here and now. Now it's a perfectly valid defense. And if you're the one giving the orders (like greer), "I was just giving orders" is also a good defense.
I checked with my only living Uncle. He fought in WWII, as did some of my other Uncles. He said he doesn't want what happened in Nazi Germany to happen here. He's not at all insulted by attempts to turn back the tide. "Never forget" means more to him than just a catchy little phrase. His daughter was born with severe brain damage. He never forgot that if she had been born in Nazi Germany, she would have been exterminated. He's appalled to see it happening here now. He's grateful that while his daughter was alive, Americans still remembered. He did not fight to achieve here what he was fighting against there. He's confident that my other Uncles would agree.
If you can find a WWII Vet who thinks we should be exterminating one or more groups of people using the "I was just following orders" defense, let me know.
God Bless Father Frank Pavone! He is a prolife hero.
And what have you done to save a life lately?
Only to those who support exterminating the disabled. Anyone who thinks it takes a nutburger to support life and condemn murder isn't really pro-life to begin with, and they're not going to be converted to the cause by pussy-footing around it.
Law 101 or whatever you are chanting is meaningless if the so called law violates the natural law. Any and all laws on the books anywhere that permitted this atrocity, precisely like those that permit procured abortion on demand, are anti-moral, and so are invalid by definition. Such so called laws should be vehemently protested on the grounds they are anti-moral.
We can use Terri's case as a teaching tool to show people just how far the culture of death has advanced in the US in such a short time. It can and should make every disabled person and everyone who might become disabled - that's all of us - stop and think why the legal system has made it so easy to kill disabled people who can't feed or drink for themselves.
The Democrats are going to use this as a campaign issue in 2006. If we are smart about this and present our points calmly and directly without throwing around a lot of crazy accusations, the issue will blow up in their faces and work to our benefit, just like their extremism on abortion has.
The answer is not character assassination, but is to focus like a laser on breaking the filibuster and getting judges on the Courts of Appeal and later SCOTUS who will reconsider the nonsense of the last 30 years. The Dems know this, which is why they are fighting so hard on the judges issue.
ping.
Wrong. The judge on the case stunk. Another judge would have made much better rulings for Terri even with the laws we have today. A reasonable judge would have removed Michael Schiavo as guardian years ago.
But when a black robed punk (Greer) works hand in glove with a death lawyer George Felos, then an incapacitated patient can die. Can be murdered
A better judge would have ruled opposite of judge Greer at many junctures and Terri Schindler-Schiavo would not have been killed. You want to kill your incapacitated wife? Then go judge shopping for a George Greer.
You just don't get it.
I feel sorry for you, and I hope you never get sick or find yourself in a vulnerable position.
But I will fight for you if that happens. You can count on me.
The law states that 'hearsay' evidence is not admissable in a court of law. Judge Greer accepted hearsay evidence as fact from a two-timing husband who had other motives for wanting his wife dead. Judge Greer ordered the complete removal of ALL nutrition and hydration for Terri, not just removal of her feeding tube. That, my friend, is court-ordered murder and that is not following THE LAW.......
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