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

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[Dante3]

I also am glad. Good for Laura.

[wagglebee]

Talk about poetic justice!

Thread by me.

National Planned Parenthood Fires 20 Percent of Staff After Madoff Scandal

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- The Madoff fundraising scandal has had some beneficial fallout for the pro-life movement. Combined with the current economic downturn, the Planned Parenthood Federation of America is feeling the pinch and has laid off 20 percent of its staff.

The nation's largest abortion business, which does 25 percent of all abortions in the United States annually, laid off about 30 people this week...

[wagglebee]

I cannot imagine how ANY sane woman would choose abortion if she actually understood the procedure.

Thread by GonzoII.

Forced abortions - America's secret epidemic (Homicide Leading Killer of Pregnant Women)

The Elliot Institute has released a report that exposes America's forced abortion epidemic. Elliot Institute spokesperson Amy Solby tells OneNewsNow that one study found 64 percent of women who had abortions reported they felt pressured to abort by others. "Something like 80 percent of them said that they didn't get the counseling they needed to make a good decision, that often they were not given counseling at all, or that the counseling they had was inadequate," she explains...

[wagglebee]

The continuing saga of a mass murderer...

Thread by me.

Probe Shows George Tiller's Center Routinely Flouts Late-Term Abortion Law

Wichita, KS (LifeNews.com) -- George Tiller has been embroiled in a multi-year legal battle defending himself against charges from the Kansas attorney general that he is violating the state's late-term abortion laws. A pro-life group that has been monitoring him released the results of an undercover probe showing that's the case.

Operation Rescue released to LifeNews.com the results of an undercover investigation it recently conducted at Tiller's late-term abortion facility, Women's Health Care Services.

The results show what OR says is compelling evidence that Tiller's abortion business routinely underestimates the fetal age and viability of unborn children in order to comply with Kansas law...

[wagglebee]

ALL babies are a gift from God -- PERIOD!

Thread by me.

U.K. Mother Pregnant with Siamese Twins Resists Abortion Pressure

PORTSMOUTH, UK, January 12, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Lisa Chamberlain, 25, pregnant with dicephalus twins who have separate heads but share a single body, is determined to allow her conjoined daughters a chance at life, despite doctors advice to kill the children in utero.

If the babies survive after birth, they will become the first ever living British dicephalus twins.

"Some people might look at me and say 'You're going to give birth to a freak' but I don't care because I feel blessed," Chamberlain told the UK Sun.

"To me, my twins are a gift from God and we're determined to give them their chance of life," she said, adding, "I've even give the twins names – Layla and Kelsey – because I think they're going to be little girls. I've been told that 75 per cent of Siamese twins are."

. . .

[wagglebee]

Prayers for this family!

Thread by Sopater.

Woman gives birth two days after dying

(UPI) - Doctors in Oxford, England, say they kept a woman's body alive for two days after her death to allow her to give birth.

The Daily Mail said Monday despite the fact professional ice skater Jayne Soliman was declared brain dead last week, doctors were able to keep her body alive long enough to deliver her unborn child via Cesarean section.

David Phillips, a fellow skater and friend of Soliman's, said Soliman was deemed legally dead last Wednesday after suffering a brain hemorrhage caused by a tumor.

The 41-year-old woman had been 25 weeks pregnant at the time, so doctors used large doses of steroids to speed up the unborn child's lung development.

Phillips said within 48 hours of Soliman's official death, she became the proud mother of a nearly 2 pound, 2 ounce girl.

"She lived to have a baby girl -- that was the one thing she wanted in her life," Phillips told the Mail of last Friday's birth.

"This would have been the best day of her life," he added later.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[Sun]

“I also am glad. Good for Laura.”

Another reason why Laura is my favorite talk show host(ess).

[floriduh voter]

Criminal Negligence, not just a tragedy...FV

"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]

Eluana Englaro

Italian doctors are making it clear that they understand that a doctor's role is to help people not kill them.

Thread by me.

700 Italian Doctors ask that Eluana’s Life be Spared

ROME, January 13, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – An open letter by doctors, circulated before Christmas, asking that Eluana Englaro be spared death by dehydration has grown from 44 to over 700 signatures. The letter says that physicians have a “professional and scientific duty” to provide hydration and nutrition to a patient who is not capable of feeding himself.

The case of Eluana Englaro, the young woman in a state of diminished consciousness whose father has campaigned in the courts to have her food and hydration removed, continues to make headlines in Italy. In November, the Court of Cassation, Italy’s highest appeals court in Rome ruled that Eluana could be dehydrated to death.

The open letter, however, states that if the decree of the Court of Cassation allowing the killing of Eluana is applied that will be an attack against the “basic rules of good medical practice as established in the declaration of Helsinki.”

Avvenire, the newspaper of the Italian Bishops’ Conference, carried comments today from Luigi Tesio, a signatory of the letter and professor of physical therapy at the university of Milan, underlining that the duty of the medical doctor is to “take care of handicapped patients and not to let them die.”

. . .

[wagglebee]

Sopater has a thread on a wonderful tribute to the 50 MILLION victims of the American Holocaust.

Georgia Right to Life Launches the Nation's First 'Virtual' Abortion Holocaust Memorial Wall

LAWRENCEVILLE, GA, Jan. 13 /Christian Newswire/ -- In 36 years, 50,000,000 children have died as a result of legalized abortion in the United States. There is no visible monument capable of handling the scope of these deaths. Georgia Right to Life wants to correct this injustice by establishing an Abortion Holocaust Memorial Wall in cyberspace...

[wagglebee]

Kmiec is showing his true colors.

Thread by me.

Douglas Kmiec Blasts Pro-Life Advocates For Criticizing His Pro-Obama Position

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- To hear pro-life advocates tell it, attorney and Obama apologist Douglas Kmiec sold out his alleged pro-life, Catholic views for backing the man who could become the most pro-abortion president in history. In a new editorial in Commonweal, Kmiec strikes back at the pro-life people who blasted him.

Kmiec claims the so-called "right-wing Catholic" bloggers were the ones leading the charge -- as if to say that they are out of touch with the pro-life views of the Catholic Church.

Never mind that mainstream pro-life groups of every stripe called Kmiec on the carpet for underplaying Barack Obama's radical pro-abortion views.

In the editorial, Kmiec acknowledges his crimes but continues to peddle a not guilty plea...

[wagglebee]

I've gotten better apologies from restaurants that overcooked my steak.

Thread by me.

British Hospital Apologizes for Allowing Disabled Patient to Die, No Accountability

London, England (LifeNews.com) -- A British hospital that allowed a Down syndrome patient to starve to death over a 26 day period has apologized but will not be held accountable. That's upsetting to one bioethicist who says he can't believe the hospital hasn't made any progress in investigating the case in four years.

As LifeNews.com reported, Martin Ryan died in a hospital in Kingston-upon-Thames and the medical center conducted an internal investigation following his death.

Ryan, who could not swallow after a stroke, was allowed to lie in a bed and starve to death without receiving any medical care.

Now, Kingston hospital has apologized and issued a statement telling Martin's parents that officials are very sorry he died.

Chief executive Kate Grimes told the London Daily Mail that the medical center had apologized personally to Mr Ryan's parents, and that the staff involved "very much regret" his death...

[wagglebee]

This is a great interview with Joe Scheidler of the Pro-Life Action League.

Thread by me.

"We're Headed into Crisis but Maybe It's what we Need" Says Pro-Life Leader

CHICAGO, January 13, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - This is the first of a short series of LifeSiteNews.com articles in which we ask major leaders in the pro-life movement their impressions of the current status of the movement, where we're headed and the best response to the Obama administration.  The first to comment in the series is one of the most senior and well known figures in the movement - Joe Scheidler, the founder and President of the Chicago-based Pro-Life Action League.

Q.  Where are we today in the pro-life movement facing the Obama Administration?

R. We're going into a crisis with this circus that's going on.  But I'm thinking deep down this might be what we need to get rid of the whole goofy Democratic attitude.

Q. How do you think we got here?

R. These things are all planned out way ahead of time.  There's no way Obama could be where he is if there weren't a lot of power behind and a lot of planning. He was totally unknown, working in a community, and suddenly he's president of the United States. How does that happen? There's a machine going and he just was picked.  (Scheidler compared the situation to the movie 'The Candidate' starring Robert Redford)  I feel that there almost has been a re-run.

. . .

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[wagglebee]

The media considers Terri's murder one of their greatest triumphs and they will attack anyone who suggests otherwise.

Thread by me.

MSNBC's Olbermann Attacks Pro-Life Advocates on Obama Picking Schiavo Atty

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- MSNBC anchor and commentator should have stuck to his original career giving out the latest sports news and information. The left-wing media man is coming under fire for bashing pro-life advocates and their opposition to Barack Obama picking a former lawyer for Michael Schiavo for a high post.

As LifeNews.com has reported, Obama selected Thomas Perrelli, who is best known as the right-to-kill lawyer who represented Terri Schiavo's husband pro-bono in his suit to euthanize his wife.

In the Obama administration, Perrelli will occupy the third highest post in the Justice Department.

Tom McClusky of the Family Research Council, conducted media interviews outlining how Perrelli's appointment as associate attorney general was "detrimental" to the pro-life movement.

In the media world, however, Perrelli seems to have at least one staunch ally -- Olbermann.

Olbermann, host of MSNBC's "Countdown," highlighted McClusky's quote in a recent broadcast and named him "the worst person in the world" for criticizing Perrelli's nomination...

[wagglebee]

Women ARE willing to consider alternatives if they are informed of them.

Thread by GonzoII.

Nation's First Government-Funded Abortion Alternatives Program Helps 20,000 Women in 2007-08

HARRISBURG, PA, January 13, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Real Alternatives, the statewide program administrator for the award winning Pennsylvania Alternative to Abortion Services Program, has reported that in fiscal year 2007 -2008 a record 19,742 women were provided comprehensive counseling, mentoring, and support...

[wagglebee]

Socialists are all the same.

Thread by me.

Mexican Socialists Threaten Church for Opposing Abortion, Homosexual “Marriage," Euthanasia

MEXICO CITY, January 14, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The leadership of Mexico's socialist Social Democratic Party (PSD) has issued a demand to Mexico City's Cardinal Archbishop Norberto Rivera that he and the Church stop opposing its initiatives to legalize abortion, homosexual "marriage" and euthanasia, or face legal action...

[wagglebee]

Wesley J. Smith has offered his predictions for 2009, they are neither surprising nor optimistic.

Thread by me.

(Wesley J. Smith) Prediction: 2009 Will See More Abortion, Assisted Suicide and Human Cloning

Each year at this time, I predict the coming year's happenings in the field of bioethics. Such prognostications do not require a crystal ball. It is merely a matter of being informed about current controversies, sniffing the air to see which way the wind seems to be blowing, connecting some dots, and making educated guesses about how things will turn out.

Alas, the bioethical events of 2009 are all too easy to foresee. While the recent election results were not determined by bioethical issues—the economic meltdown swept all other considerations aside—it amounted to a cultural earthquake nonetheless because the people now in power have views that are inimical to the sanctity and equality of human life...