Free Republic

CINCINNATI — Investigators recovered 18 bone fragments near an old chimney where investigators believe the body of a developmentally disabled 3-year-old foster child was burned, a county coroner said Thursday. The boy's foster parents, charged with killing him, pleaded not guilty Thursday to murder. The bone fragments were from a child 2 to 4 years old, said Dr. O'dell Owens, the Hamilton County coroner. Each was less than inch long and found in soil in rural Brown County, east of Cincinnati. "The DNA that is being processed came from a small piece of tissue that was found," Owens said. Authorities...

PLANT CITY -- Nurse Carla Sauer-Iyer won't lose her nursing license for discussing former patient Terri Schiavo's condition on television last year. A Florida Board of Nursing panel dismissed a complaint against Sauer-Iyer on Thursday after a lawyer representing the Department of Health said rules requiring nurses not to disclose patient information also require them to report ``apparent neglect and abuse'' of patients. ``The obligation to protect the patient must prevail,'' Assistant General Counsel Kathryn Price told the probable cause panel. Sauer-Iyer's 2005 CNN interview came after she raised concerns about Schiavo's welfare to law enforcement, officials at the convalescent...

A 21-year-old man was trapped in a tank of chocolate for about two hours early Friday, police said. Capt. Randy Berner said the worker said he got into the tank at the Debelis Corp. to unplug it and became trapped waist deep in the chocolate. "It was pretty thick. It was virtually like quicksand," Berner said, and co-workers, police and firefighters were not able to get him out until the chocolate could be thinned out. "It's the first time I've ever heard of anything like this," the police captain said. The worker said his ankles were sore after the incident,...

Tom Gallagher’s campaign has changed media consultants and will begin airing new television ads this week with a sharper focus on the issues in the hope of overcoming Charlie Crist in the Republican primary. Mike Murphy, one of the nation’s most successful GOP media strategists and consultant Matt Leonardo are taking over the task of writing and producing television and radio ads for the campaign. They replace media consultant Scott Howell who left the campaign. Howell’s departure comes on the heels of the resignations of David Johnson, Gallagher’s general campaign consultant, and David Browning, the campaign’s finance director. Losing key...

Only a few politicos paid attention last month when Sen. Sam Brownback held a hearing on the way doctor-assisted suicide impacts society. No legislation emerged from the session. None is forthcoming this year. Major news media did not pick up on the item until weeks later. But during that May 25 meeting of the Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, those who oppose Oregon’s controversial experiment met their new legislative champion. Since the 2003 retirement of Sen. Don Nickles, the Catholic Republican from Oklahoma, it was not clear who would step in as chief opponent of assisted suicide. Brownback, a Kansas...

Tales of Iraq Soldier brings treasures, history to school By JOHN MOLSEED Messenger staff writer Fair Oaks Middle School sixth-graders learning about Mesopotamia, the cradle of civilization, had a special guest Friday — someone who had been there. Sgt. Tony Echevarria shared his experiences and visits to historic sites while stationed in Iraq with the students — one of them his son, Zak Echevarria. ‘‘This is believed to be the birthplace of Abraham,’’ Sgt. Echevarria said describing a Powerpoint slide showing the ancient brick structure. ‘‘He is the father of Judeo-Christian belief that we have today.’’ Echevarria has spent eight...

SEMINOLE – Death and dying, hospice, palliative care, advanced directives, living wills and bereavement are among the end-of-life issues to be presented by the Applied Ethics Institute of St. Petersburg College at the college’s Digitorium on the Seminole Campus on Thursday, Nov. 17, 7 to 9 p.m. The free forum will be moderated by Mary Tittle, Ph.D., RN, College of Nursing, St. Petersburg College and begin with presentations from David A. Weiland, M.D., The Hospice of the Florida Suncoast; Patricia Thieleman, Ph.D., RN, College of Nursing, St. Petersburg College; and Hanna Osman, Ph.D., College of Public Health, University of South...

NEW YORK, Oct. 31 /Christian Wire Service/ -- Fr. Frank Pavone, National Director of Priests for Life, thanked President Bush this morning for acting swiftly to announce a nominee for the Supreme Court. "The President has fulfilled his duty. We urge the Senate likewise to carry out their role of 'advice and consent' in a timely and fair way. "We also welcome the debate over 'conservative values.' The nation is in a culture war, and there's no need to hide that fact. Some Senators will oppose any change on the Court that would threaten so-called 'abortion rights.' But the American...

Posted on Mon, Aug. 29, 2005 Shelter-seekers find long lines, noisy conditions in Superdome BY DAVID OVALLE Knight Ridder Newspapers NEW ORLEANS - (KRT) - As Hurricane Katrina pounded relentlessly on its roof, the tourists and the vagabonds, the poor and the frail dozed awkwardly - if at all - in Mardi Gras-colored chairs in the giant Louisiana Superdome. When they got hungry, there was not the beer-and-hot dog fare served up at Saints football games. More than 10,000 refugees from Katrina dined on the same instant meals as U.S. soldiers in Iraq, fitting because it was soldiers who were...

LOWRY CITY, Mo. -- Someone beat a disabled man. It's a crime that people don't expect to happen in a small town. Some of the man's painkillers have disappeared, but clues are nowhere to be found. We want to warn you some of the video is disturbing. The man’s family wants you to see the video, in hopes of finding the person or people responsible for this brutal attack. The beating happened at the Castle Court Complex in Lowry City, a place for disabled people and seniors. Juanita Miller’s husband runs the place but she was asked to check on...

Father Gave Son Legal Advice In Holloway Case POSTED: 10:45 pm CDT June 29, 2005 ORANJESTAD, Aruba -- Aruba's attorney general said the father of a Dutch teenager arrested in the disappearance of an Alabama honors student told his son and his two friends that "when there is no body you don't have a case." District Attorney Caren Janssen said Paul van der Sloot, a judge in training in Aruba, gave his 17-year-old son, Joran van der Sloot, and two Surinamese brothers legal advice the day after Natalee Holloway disappeared. Janssen said that the elder van der Sloot had obstructed...

June 23, 2005 Look to the Future: Preparing for Baby Boomer Dementia Epidemic INDIANAPOLIS — How can the U.S. health-care system and more specifically, primary care doctors - the physicians from whom older adults receive most of their care - prepare for the huge wave of dementia patients expected to engulf us in 2010, the year the baby boomers begin to reach 65? Researchers from the Indiana University School of Medicine, the Regenstrief Institute, Inc. and the Indiana University Center for Aging Research begin to answer this difficult question in a study published in the July issue of the Journal...

E-2.20 Withholding or Withdrawing Life-Sustaining Medical Treatment The social commitment of the physician is to sustain life and relieve suffering. Where the performance of one duty conflicts with the other, the preferences of the patient should prevail. The principle of patient autonomy requires that physicians respect the decision to forego life-sustaining treatment of a patient who possesses decision-making capacity. Life-sustaining treatment is any treatment that serves to prolong life without reversing the underlying medical condition. Life-sustaining treatment may include, but is not limited to, mechanical ventilation, renal dialysis, chemotherapy, antibiotics, and artificial nutrition and hydration. There is no ethical distinction...

New tragedy for Lesley Martin 14 May 2005 By DON KAVANAGH Euthanasia campaigner Lesley Martin and her family have had to make the agonising decision to turn off her brother's life-support system after a truck crash. Michael Charles Martin, 43, suffered serious head injuries after the meat truck he was driving and a lime tanker collided near the Waikato town of Pirongia two weeks ago. Ms Martin – who served nine months of a 15-month sentence for giving her terminally ill mother an overdose of morphine and then suffocating her with a pillow in 1999 – said the decision to...

‘It’s amazing, isn’t it?’ Tracy Gaskill shows major signs of recovery after critical accident in 2002 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- By FOSS FARRAR, Arkansas City Traveler For nearly three years, Don and Stella Gaskill had hoped their severely injured granddaughter would talk again. Just recently, their prayers were answered. On Sept. 3, 2002, Tracy Gaskill suffered critical internal and head injuries when her pickup overturned on its top. Doctors told her relatives that night that she probably would die by noon the next day, Don Gaskill said this morning. “That accident scared us to death,” said Gaskill, who lives in rural Winfield. Tracy...

Devaluing lives By Nat Hentoff While the media focused on religious groups and pro-lifers (not all pro-lifers are religious) engaged in trying to save Terri Schiavo, largely ignored were many disability-rights organizations. Andrew J. Imparato, head of the largest of them, the American Association of People with Disabilities, emphasizes there are more than 56 million American children and adults with disabilities, and I would note that many of the rest of us may unexpectedly join their number. This past March, Mr. Imparato, speaking to CNN regarding Mrs. Schiavo's plight, said that he feared that "when we start devaluing the lives...

S.A. hospital won't cut off man's life support Web Posted: 04/30/2005 12:07 AM CDT Nicole Foy - Express-News Medical Writer An agreement was reached Friday that ended a standoff between the family of an East Texas man and a local hospital that planned to remove him from life support. Spiro Nikolouzos, critically ill and in a persistent vegetative state, will be returned to Avalon Place, a long-term care facility that came to his aid after a Houston hospital also decided to end life support. Nikolouzos was transferred from Avalon to Southeast Baptist Hospital at the end of March after he...

-snip- A St. Cloud area man who suffered a brain injury in an April 8 altercation at a St. Cloud nightclub died Tuesday afternoon, more than a week after he was removed from life support. Justin W. Smiley, 28, of Sauk Rapids, died about 1 p.m. at the St. Cloud Hospital, his aunt, Pam Heldt, said Tuesday. "We're feeling a lot of relief right now that he's finally at peace," Heldt said. -snip- Janelle Kendall, the Stearns County Attorney, said an autopsy is scheduled for today. She said her office is awaiting the results of the autopsy before making a...

Congress Works to Outlaw 132nd Trimester Abortions; Michael Schiavo's Lawyers to Appeal The United States Congress frantically continues working to reconcile two ultra-late-term abortion bills before Congressmen go home for the Easter holidays. The Jawa Report's Washington bureau chief, Dale Gribble, has been following the legislation. The Senate has a narrowly focused bill that deals only with the planned abortion of Terri Schiavo, allowing her standing in federal court, which would immediately stay a Florida court's ruling which would allow Planned Parenthood's Boca Raton office to perform the controversial abortion procedure, now scheduled for March 18. The House, however, passed...

Efforts to prevent the death of Terri Schiavo hit roadblock Video Story TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - Last-ditch efforts to block the removal of Terri Schiavo's feeding tube foundered today as courts rebuffed her parents' appeals and lawmakers failed to agree on legislation to intervene in the contentious battle to keep the severely brain-damaged woman alive. Unless a court or lawmakers step in, Michael Schiavo can have doctors remove his wife's feeding tube at 1 p- m tomorrow against her parents' wishes, ending the long-running right-to-die drama. Lawmakers in Tallahassee and Washington wrestled unsuccessfully today with legislation intended to keep her...