http://www.northcountrygazette.org/articles/050306EuthanasiaTour.html
May 06, 2006
Activist Judges Do More Harm than Good
Janice Sanford
George Greer says lawmakers aren't equipped to make right-to-die decisions.
If "lawmakers" aren't equipped to make right-to-die decisions for Americans who can't speak for themselves, what makes a judge eligable, except the laws that have been made by lawmakers?
After the Greer Court had Terri Schiavo starved and dehydrated to death, Greer supporters applauded him for following the law. In doing so they all, in my opinion, made a mockery of everything good and right that the United States has ever stood for.
Laws are made by State Legislators and US Congressmen.
For Greer to go around the country belittling "lawmakers" for making laws he personally didn't agree with is pathetic.
There are two types of due process: procedural and substantive.
Procedural due process is older. It grew out of Magna Carta and embodies the ancient idea that no man should be deprived of his/her life, liberty, or property unless he has violated the law and has had a fair trial.
38) In future no official shall place a man on trial upon his own unsupported statement, without producing credible witnesses to the truth of it.
Terri Schiavo had no written directive. Michael Schiavo never mentioned that his wife(who had been brain-injured since 1990) told him she wouldn't want to live with a feeding tube until 1998. Then the only witnesses that Greer found "credible" was Michael Schiavo's brother, and sister-in-law (who was married to another of Michael Schiavo's brothers).
And the only excuse for Terri husband not mentioning her wishes until after a "2,000,000 settlement came from Michael's attorney,George Felos, when Pat Anderson said,"Michael didn't say to the jury, "Oh, by the way, I intend to kill my wife next year" to which Felos replied, "It's true Michael never affirmatively said Terri would never want to be kept alive if there was no hope. Then again, he didn't lie. Nobody ever asked him the question."
Tampabay: Schiavo's wishes recalled in records + (39) No free man shall be seized or imprisoned, or stripped of his rights or possessions, or outlawed or exiled, or deprived of his standing in any other way, nor will we proceed with force against him, or send others to do so, except by the lawful judgment of his equals or by the law of the land.
Michael Schiavo rushed to take steps to become his wife's guardian. Becoming her guardian was all Schiavo needed to get control of Terri's life, and her destiny.
"...As the husband, I was able to approve her health-care treatment, but guardianship gave me power of attorney for her. Getting guardianship of another person means that you become that person. You are her mind and body. You speak for her legally...." -Michael Schiavo [Terri the Truth, page 31,3rd paragraph] + (40) To no one will we sell, to no one deny or delay right or justice.
Both, "right" and "justice" were denied Theresa Schindler-Schiavo, by a judge who today actively supports killing people who's lives "another person" controls.
British Library treasures in full: Magna Carta - English translation
Whereas procedural due process primarily restrains the executive and judicial branches, substantive due process mainly limits the lawmaking branch.Substantive due process means that even if a law has been legally passed and is being properly applied, if the law itself is unreasonable it is unconstitutional.
What was so "unreasonable" about Terri's Law? The fact is the Greer Court , as shown by its actions in the Terri Schiavo Case, left the State Legislators and Governor Bush no other alternative but to get involved. Terri Schiavo was an innocent brain-injured human being who's life was to be ended violently by the very system that was put in place to defend her right to life, regardless of her mental or physical condition.
This is the United States of America. Once we could boost that "we would never allow the wanton killing of our disabled " like Hitler did. But because of activist judges like George Greer,and James D. Whittemore we can do so no longer. We, Americans who have been shamed by their actions, can only hope and pray that the silent-majority, during the thirteen days that Terri Schiavo was being killed by starvation-dehydration, will make their voices heard at the polls. Because it is time that "We the People" look at the type of country we will be leaving to our offspring and to all future generations of Americans.
Substantive due process withdraws certain subjects from the reach of public regulation regardless of the procedures used.
The trouble with the substantive interpretation of due process is that the view of the reasonableness of a law depends on a man's (Judge's) economic, social, and political views.
In the United States, as in any democracy, elected officials are supposed to be responsible accommodating the clashing notions of reasonableness and for deciding what regulations of liberty and property are needed to promote the public welfare.
When any court substitutes its own idea of reasonableness for the legislature's, it is acting like a superlegislature.
The activist judges involved in the Terri Schiavo Case thumbed their noses at anyone, regardless of the office they held, who didn't share their eagerness to put Theresa 'Terri' Schindler to death.
Judges should never have been given the option of whether or not to use our legal system to legally put to death America's with disabilities..