Attorney Who Aided Terri Schiavo’s Husband Now Advising Barack Obama

Life News ^ | 12/7/08 | Steven Ertelt

[wagglebee]

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- An attorney who won an award for representing Terri Schiavo’s husband Michael in his efforts to kill his disabled wife is now an advisor to the transition team of incoming president Barack Obama.

Thomas Perrelli, who raised over $500,000 for the pro-abortion presidential candidate and is the managing partner of a Washington law firm, Jenner & Block LLP, is helping advise Obama on putting together a Justice Department team.

However, Perrelli provided Michael Schiavo with legal advice during his response to the Congressional bill that President Bush signed allowing the Schindler fail to take their lawsuit seeking to prevent Terri’s euthanasia death from state to federal courts.

Perrelli led the Jenner & Block team that developed the legal briefs opposing appeals for Michael and he ultimately received the Albert E. Jenner, Jr. Pro Bono Award in October 2006 for representing Terri’s former husband at no cost.

On Michael’s legal team, Perrelli worked with infamous pro-euthanasia attorney George Felos as well as lawyers from the Florida chapter of the ACLU.

Obama’s selection of Perrelli to participate on his Justice Department transition team is no surprise given his comments on Terri’s painful 13-day starvation and dehydration death during the presidential campaign.

During his debate with Hillary Clinton in the Democratic presidential primary, Obama said his biggest mistake was voting with a unanimous Senate to help save Terri.

In March 2005, just weeks before Terri died, Congress approved legislation allowing her family to take its case from state courts to federal courts in an effort to stop the euthanasia from proceeding.

Terri was not on any artificial breathing apparatus and only required a feeding tube to eat and drink. Her family had filed a lawsuit against her former husband to allow them to care for her and give her proper medical and rehabilitative care.

The Senate unanimously approved a compromise bill, which the House eventually supported on a lopsided bipartisan vote and President Bush signed, to help the disabled woman.

Obama said he should have stood up against the life-saving legislation.

“It wasn't something I was comfortable with, but it was not something that I stood on the floor and stopped,” Obama said.

“And I think that was a mistake, and I think the American people understood that that was a mistake. And as a constitutional law professor, I knew better,” he added.

That wasn't the first time Obama said he regretted supporting the bill to protect the disabled woman.

During an April 2007 debate, Obama said, "I think professionally the biggest mistake that I made was when I first arrived in the Senate. There was a debate about Terri Schiavo, and a lot of us, including me, left the Senate with a bill that allowed Congress to intrude where it shouldn't have.”

"And I think I should have stayed in the Senate and fought more for making sure [Terri's parents couldn't take their case to federal court to save her life]," he explained.

Since Terri’s death, the Schindler family has established a foundation to help disabled and elderly patients obtain proper medical care and legal and other assistance when they are denied it.

Related web sites:
Terri Schindler Schiavo Foundation - http://www.terrisfight.org

[Dante3]

What a wonderful girl! Prayers for Haleigh.

[floriduh voter]

Tom Daschle, HHS appointee was on tv today. He said the disability community should “make their own decisions”. So, is that doublespeak for handing out Living Wills or pills as the choices for the disabled????

[Sun]

“She’s one of my biggest role models.”

I love that statement.

[wagglebee]

Rest in Peace Father Neuhaus -- your wisdom will be sorely missed.

Thread by NYer.

Richard John Neuhaus, 1936–2009 (Rest in Peace)

Fr. Richard John Neuhaus slipped away today, January 8, shortly before 10 o’clock, at the age of seventy-two. He never recovered from the weakness that sent him to the hospital the day after Christmas, caused by a series of side effects from the cancer he was suffering. He lost consciousness Tuesday evening after a collapse in his heart rate, and the next day, in the company of friends, he died.

My tears are not for him—for he knew, all his life, that his Redeemer lives, and he has now been gathered by the Lord in whom he trusted.

I weep, rather for all the rest of us. As a priest, as a writer, as a public leader in so many struggles, and as a friend, no one can take his place. The fabric of life has been torn by his death, and it will not be repaired, for those of us who knew him, until that time when everything is mended and all our tears are wiped away...

[wagglebee]

NYer has also posted a thread of an excellent commentary that Father Neuhaus wrote nine years ago explaining the true meaning of death.

Born Toward Dying

We are born to die. Not that death is the purpose of our being born, but we are born toward death, and in each of our lives the work of dying is already underway. The work of dying well is, in largest part, the work of living well. Most of us are at ease in discussing what makes for a good life, but we typically become tongue-tied and nervous when the discussion turns to a good death. As children of a culture radically, even religiously, devoted to youth and health, many find it incomprehensible, indeed offensive, that the word "good" should in any way be associated with death. Death, it is thought, is an unmitigated evil, the very antithesis of all that is good...

[BykrBayb]

Prayers up.

[wagglebee]

Lesforlife has posted excellent thread on the relationship between the Komen Foundation and Planned Parenthood.

Group that fights breast cancer has troubling ties to Planned Parenthood

Eve Sanchez Silver had her first abortion at age 16 and her second at age 21. In 1998 she started fighting her first of two bouts with breast cancer, undergoing a lumpectomy, mastectomy, and breast reconstruction. Silver has come to believe that her abortions increased her breast cancer risk, so when she discovered she was active in an organization—Susan G. Komen for the Cure—that gives grants to Planned Parenthood, she thought it was "really horrific."

Silver, director of Cinta Latina Research, helped found a minority advisory council for Komen, served on a review board, and spoke on its behalf until she resigned in 2004. "They were supposed to be a life-affirming organization and this other organization was killing people," Silver said. "I resigned because I felt that they were being duplicitous and that they were not supporting the very women they claimed they were supporting." Other pro-life activists—Karen Malec with the Coalition for Abortion/Breast Cancer, and Leslie Hanks, vice president of Colorado Right to Life, among others—have drawn attention to the grants for years. Komen counters that the money goes to breast cancer screening, not abortions, and says that newer research disproves any abortion-breast cancer link...

[wagglebee]

An excellent thread on unexpected consequences.

Thread by GonzoII.

Pill inventor slams ... pill

Eighty five year old Carl Djerassi the Austrian chemist who helped invent the contraceptive pill now says that his co-creation has led to a "demographic catastrophe." In an article published by the Vatican this week, the head of the world's Catholic doctors broadened the attack on the pill, claiming it had also brought "devastating ecological effects" by releasing into the environment "tonnes of hormones" that had impaired male fertility, The Taiwan Times says...

[wagglebee]

"Terri's Day" is fast approaching.

Thread by me.

Terri Schiavo's Family, Pro-Life Group to Mark "Terri's Day" on March 31

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- The family of Terri Schiavo and a leading pro-life Catholic group are set to again mark Terri's Day on March 31. The Schindler family and Priests for Life are urging people to make preparations now to mark the day and to remember the disabled woman whose former husband killed her.

The groups are urging individuals, families, churches and and organizations to observe the "International Day of Prayer and Remembrance for Terri Schindler Schiavo, and All of Our Vulnerable Brothers and Sisters" -- otherwise known as Terri's Day.

March 31 is the fourth anniversary of Terri's painful 13-day starvation and dehydration death after a court awarded her former husband Michael the right to take her life...

"We will not be silent. We are your bad conscience. The White Rose will give you no rest."

[wagglebee]

Haleigh Poutre

I took the liberty of posting this as a separate thread.

Abuser of Near-Euthanasia Victim Haleigh Poutre Jailed as She Recovers

Boston, MA (LifeNews.com) -- Haleigh Poutre, the girl who almost became a victim of euthanasia, has lived long enough to see her step-father and abuser Jason Strickland, jailed for more than twelve years. Poutre was the victim of child abuse and was nearly killed when Massachusetts officials gave up on her after she entered a coma.

Boston media report that a judge sentenced Strickland to 12 to 15 years in state prison for participating in the abuse.

Hampden Superior Court Judge Judd Carhart, who handed down the decision in December, characterized Strickland's actions as a "horrific pattern of child abuse."

The sentence came three years after the case drew national attention when state officials tried to receive permission from the courts to take Poutre's life. The young girl eventually responded to doctors just as the permission to end her life was about to be received...

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[wagglebee]

Some things are so shocking that I am left speechless.

Thread by traumer.

Starved to death in an NHS hospital: patient left without food for 26 days (UK)

A vulnerable patient starved to death in an NHS hospital after 26 days without proper nourishment.

Martin Ryan, 43, had suffered a stroke which left him unable to swallow.

But a 'total breakdown in communication' meant he was never fitted with a feeding tube. It was one of a number of horrific cases where the NHS fatally failed patients with learning difficulties, a health watchdog is expected to rule later this month. Tragedy: Martin Ryan died starving and 'in agony' in an NHS hospital after a 'communication breakdown' meant he was not fitted with a feeding tube...

[wagglebee]

It appears that the culture of death will get it's way in Montana.

Thread by me.

Assisted Suicide Now Officially Legal in Montana as Judge Rules Again

Helena, MT (LifeNews.com) -- Montana officially became the third state to allow assisted suicide as a state judge ruled again on the issue. Helena District Judge Dorothy McCarter handed down her ruling allowing the practice in December and, this week, ruled again by dismissing a request for an injunction during the appeal...

[wagglebee]

Chuck Colson does a brilliant job explaining how the culture of death employs euphemisms to achieve their goals.

Thread by me.

Abortionists as Euphemists – the Curious Case of the Shifting Language

January 9, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Most abortionists are euphemists. By which I mean merely, to quote Chesterton, “that short words startle them, while long words soothe them. And they are utterly incapable of translating the one into the other, however obviously they mean the same thing.”

If, for instance, you say to an abortionist, “The excessive burden upon the mother, particularly in light of the rights to autonomy, privacy and reproductive freedom, of an unplanned pregnancy precludes any ethical objections to surgically removing the products of pregnancy post-viability, but prior to completion of delivery,” a gentle, indeed a radiant smile will cross his face, and he will dose off as if to a lullaby.

Say, on the other hand, in a forceful, straight-forward way, “Crush the skulls and suck out the brains of your children!” and he will leap from his seat, startled and full of objections.

But in every way the two sentences mean precisely the same thing...

[wagglebee]

The last thread I pinged WAS NOT by Chuck Colson, it was by John Jalsevac of LifeSiteNews.

This is a thread I've posted on a Colson piece where he shows the evil thread that has woven its way from the Slaughter of the Innocents through to the culture of death today.

Chuck Colson: The Slaughter of the Innocents - The First Attack on Life

Yesterday, Christians around the world celebrated Epiphany, commemorating the visit of the Magi. Epiphany reminds us that God’s salvation reached beyond the Jews. Christ would be, as Isaiah foretold, “a light for the Gentiles.” He would bring “salvation to the ends of the earth,” (49:6) as far as those very kings had traveled...

And where did Evil strike? It attacked life in its most vulnerable form. The very first assault of Satan after the birth of Christ is against society’s weakest members—infants. He attacked the “least of these.”

Even today, the Enemy’s mode of attack hasn’t changed much. We’re painfully aware of the slaughter of the unborn, and the devaluation of the elderly, the poor, the disabled, and the prisoner.

But the good news is our Savior has come. He has established the beach-head. And He will have the victory.

So friends, as this New Year begins, we mustn’t be deceived. There is a real battle with real casualties. We remember that we wage war not against flesh and blood, “but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”

We shouldn’t be surprised at setbacks and assaults upon us. Of course the Enemy won’t go down without a fight.

But remember, the Kingdom of Heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it. So lay hold of it, and don’t let go.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[wagglebee]

The culture of death loves setting new records for body counts.

Thread by me.

Oregon assisted suicide at record high

Advocates of the new Washington law that will soon allow terminally ill patients to end their lives through lethal drugs expect Oregon's near-identical law to account for a record 55 deaths there in 2008.

A "very small number of people" probably will seek to use the law in its first year in Washington, said Robb Miller, executive director of Compassion & Choices of Washington, the state affiliate of the Portland-based group that advocates for what it calls "aid in dying."

Washington's Death With Dignity Act will take effect March 5. Washington voters approved Initiative 1000 to legalize the law in November. Washington would be the second state after Oregon to allow what opponents call "physician-assisted suicide."

Under the law, doctors could prescribe -- but not administer -- a lethal dose of medication if requested by Washington residents given six months or less to live.

[wagglebee]

Abortionists often have trouble keeping their stories straight.

Thread by rhema.

Abortion heresy: Illogical positions lead to revealing slips of the tongue

A pro-abortion culture requires eternal vigilance. Heresy can sneak through. The New York Times has for four decades maintained abortion orthodoxy, but an editor should be fired for not cutting out a tender dialogue in the next-to-last paragraph of a 7,500-word lead story in the newspaper six weeks ago.

Let me set the scene: A husband and a wife have had 15 failed pregnancies and in vitro fertilization non-starters. Author Alex Kuczynski, a fine writer, comes perilously close to falling off the cliff when she describes a "fetus" that didn't make it past 10 weeks as "a small dead baby" and quotes a nurse as telling her, "In case you were interested, it was a girl." But she quickly regains her footing and writes, "I was not, in fact, interested in attaching a gender to the coagulation of cells, briefly and potentially human. . . ."

Kuczynski and her husband then decide to hire a surrogate mother to bear their child. They chose one "not so different from us. Later, during the election season, she and I were unaccountably pleased to learn that we were both planning to vote for Obama." The article proceeds with great specific detail about the emotions involved as the author's baby grows in another woman's womb. When baby Max is born, the author notes "the mind-bending philosophical weirdness of it all: there is our baby—coming out of her body."

. . .

[wagglebee]

Abortionists HATE being showed pictures of their brutality.

Thread by me.

Spanish Pro-Abortion Politician Shown Late Term Abortions During Interview on TV Expresses Shock

SPAIN, January 8, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The pro-abortion vice president of Spain's ruling Socialist Worker's Party was surprised recently when he was unexpectedly shown a video showing the gruesome details of late term abortions during a national television interview, and asked to comment on them.

Jose Blanco was being interviewed on the "Cat to the Water" show produced by Intereconomia TV, which early last year did an expose on the abortion industry using a hidden camera.  The network filmed and broadcast abortions of babies well beyond 24 weeks gestation, showing them being injected with poison and then thrown in the trash after their premature birth (see LifeSiteNews coverage at http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/dec/07121401.html).

After being shown footage of abortions from the reports, Blanco admitted that he was moved by what he had seen, and stated "I am against abortion.  Abortion is an exceptional situation."  However, he attempted to defend his party's pro-abortion position, asserting that the purpose was to protect women and doctors...

[Sun]

I was glad to hear Laura Ingraham talking about: “Attorney Who Aided Terri Schiavo’s Husband Now Advising Barack Obama
Saturday.”