Free Republic

The whole world watched as 41-year-old Terri Schiavo was slowly starved and dehydrated to death by order of a judicial system that defied Congress, the president and – many believe – the law itself. But the Terri Schiavo story was not unique, as a stunning new edition of WND's monthly Whistleblower magazine – titled "WHO LIVES, WHO DIES?" – makes frighteningly clear. In fact, Terri's case is only the tip of the iceberg. http://shop.wnd.com/store/item.asp?ITEM_ID=108 Take the case of Marjorie Nighbert, for example. Although she had asked for nothing more than a "little something to eat" and a drink of water,...

It is a rare person who has not heard of the recent cruel homicide of the Florida woman, Terri Schiavo. Everyone, it seemed, had a strong opinion on the subject. Yet, despite clear moral teachings on the evils of euthanasia, there are ‘Catholics’ who boast support for euthanasia and doctor-assisted suicide.[1] Are these ‘Catholics’ badly formed and ignorant of their Church’s infallible teachings on the dignity and sacredness of all human life? Is it the fault of Catholic clergy for not preaching the Church’s teachings from the pulpit? In view of the clarity and frequency of the Church’s up-to-date teachings,...

Cecil Circuit Court Judge Dexter M. Thompson Jr. decried lawyers' arguments that a child custody hearing should be closed to the public Wednesday, saying such a move would be akin to creating atmospheres similar to historically totalitarian states. The heated exchange came at the start of a hearing in which the county's social services department attempted to retain custody of John Joseph Dougherty's three daughters. Dougherty, 53, faces a second-degree murder charge after police found his brain-damaged wife dead on a mattress, surrounded by moldy food and her own excrement. "Maybe we should be more like Germany or Russia," the...

A grand jury has indicted an Elkton man on a murder charge, six weeks after police found his emaciated wife dead in a bedroom amidst squalid conditions. John Joseph Dougherty, 53, faces a second-degree murder charge in the indictment, handed up last week after the grand jury heard new evidence against him. Dougherty already faced manslaughter and abuse charges in an indictment handed up March 17. The new indictment, unsealed yesterday, included those charges and added the murder charge. Dougherty is accused of causing his wife's death by keeping her locked in a bedroom for six years without access to...

An Elkton man accused of murdering his brain-damaged wife by keeping her locked in a bedroom regained custody of his three daughters Wednesday. Judge Dexter M. Thompson Jr. returned the children to John Joseph Dougherty, 53, after a hearing that lasted all afternoon in circuit court. The county's social services department took custody of the children Feb. 25, after police found their mother dead on a mattress amidst squalid conditions in their Chestnut Drive home.

ELKTON - New evidence against an Elkton man accused of locking up the mother of his children for six years until her death has prompted a Cecil County grand jury to increase the charges against him from manslaughter to second-degree murder. John Joseph Dougherty, 53, told authorities that he started keeping Mary Elizabeth Kilrain, 46, in a bedroom in 1999 after she suffered an aneurysm and became verbally aggressive toward their daughters, according to police. He told authorities that he wanted to keep her from wandering around the house. Kilrain did not have access to food, water and hygiene, prosecutors...

Terri Schiavo is not brain dead. If you are brain dead, you have suffered an irreversible loss of all functions of the brain. If agreed to by at least two physicians, that means you are legally dead, such that your organs can be harvested to help other people. Instead, Ms. Schiavo is in what many physicians call a "persistent vegetative state," or PVS. From what we know, some doctors dispute one or more of these conditions and believe that it is possible that whatever her symptoms, they are not irreversible. Her condition is hardly unique. In 1995, when the American...

Rep. Tom Delay’s efforts Saturday to have the House and Senate enact special legislation to stop the forced starving of Terri Schiavo and the President’s willingness to return to D.C. over the weekend to sign the emergency law represents a proud moment for all who still maintain that the Judeo-Christian ethic undergirds who we are and what we deem worth fighting for. Long ago Jewish law made a distinction between withholding medication and special treatments from a patient as opposed to withholding food and water. Whereas there comes a time when we are no longer required to proactively employ “heroic”...

I need some help, here. I'm in a discussion at another site, and EVERY BLASTED IDIOT THERE thinks she should die. They all think the poor woman's brain dead and should just be killed. I'd like to post the videos and audios that've been taken, but I can't find them. So I REALLY need the links. Thank you for any and all help, folks.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said Friday that subpoenas issued by Sen. Mike Enzi compelling Terri Schiavo to appear at a March 28 congressional hearing made it a crime to disconnect her feeding tube - and threatened anyone who interfered with her testimony with jail. In a statement issued by the majority leader's office, Frist said: "Federal criminal law protects witnesses called before official Congressional committee proceedings from anyone who may obstruct or impede a witness’ attendance or testimony." "More specifically," said the Senate's top Republican, "the law protects a witness from anyone who - by threats, force, or by...

Supreme Court rejects Schiavo appeal Feeding tube to be removed from brain-damaged woman Friday Thursday, March 17, 2005 Posted: 9:45 PM EST (0245 GMT) Terri Schiavo gets a kiss from her mother, Mary Schindler, in this August 11, 2001, image taken from videotape. (CNN) -- Less than 18 hours before Terri Schiavo was scheduled to have her life-sustaining feeding tube removed, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected an emergency appeal by her parents to stop the procedure. The court rejected the appeal by Bob and Mary Schindler on Thursday, clearing the way for Schiavo's husband, Michael, to have the feeding tube...

A Philadelphia Inquirer columnist who believes in the "right to die" has changed his mind about the Terri Schiavo case, pointing to "uncomfortable details" about her estranged husband that now lead him to side with the parents of the brain-damaged Florida woman, who are fighting to keep her alive. John Grogan said in a column published today, "I no longer so blithely believe Schiavo's feeding tubes should be pulled and her life allowed to end. I'm no longer so sure her parents do not deserve a say in their daughter's future. I no longer am totally comfortable assuming her husband,...

The well-known risk of breast cancer for women who harbor mutations in the BRCA1 gene is significantly reduced among those who have breast-fed for a cumulative total of more than 12 months, new research shows. The protective effects of breast-feeding seem to be much greater for BRCA1 mutation carriers than for women in general population. "This means that if the woman is identified to have a BRCA1 mutation, it is possible to modify her breast cancer risk without having to resort to surgery," Dr. Steven A. Narod from the Center for Research in Women's Health in Toronto told Reuters Health....

Cincinnati Business Courier - November 24, 2003 IN DEPTH: HEALTH CARE Viewpoint Politicians should remain out of end-of-life decisions Rebecca Bechhold The stomach churning events of the Terri Schiavo case in Florida are disturbing on a number of levels. She is the unfortunate woman who has been in a vegetative state for 13 years and her parents are feuding with her husband about discontinuing forced hydration and nutrition. The most alarming issue is the legal attempts by the Florida governor to intervene in a personal matter that should be between the patient, her husband and the doctors. If physicians continue...

Senate OKs bill giving Bush power in feeding-tube case By JACKIE HALLIFAX Associated Press October 21, 2003, 3:57 PM EDT TALLAHASSEE -- The state Senate approved a bill Tuesday that would give Gov. Jeb Bush the power to order a feeding tube be reinserted in a brain-damaged woman in defiance of courts and her husband. The bill (SB 35E) now goes to the House, which was waiting for the measure. If the House passes it, Bush has said he will immediately sign it and order a feeding tube reinserted into Terri Schiavo, the subject of one of the nation's longest...

Explain this to me. In Florida...Excerpted from The Miami Herald: "Comatose Woman's Life Tube Removed":ST. PETERSBURG -- A five-year battle to keep Terri Schiavo alive ended Wednesday, when medical workers at a hospice center removed the tube that has fed the brain-damaged woman for 13 years, a move expected to lead to her death within two weeks. ''She'll be OK for the next couple of days,'' Schiavo's father, Robert Schindler, told supporters outside the Hospice Villas Woodside after the tube was removed. After that, it gets tougher, he said: "We're going to try to work some magic and hopefully there...

Easy-Feeder Bottle Sling, invented by former Millington resident Cherie Alexander, allows hands-free feeding of a baby in a car seat. The sling is no substitute for holding and feeding a baby, Alexander said. "It's only to be used when you really need it." Necessity inspires mother's invention... but will it sell? Patent Pending By Linda A. Moore lmoore@gomemphis.com May 27, 2003 The problem is simple and nothing new to anyone who has ever cared for a baby. How do you give a baby a bottle when you can't hold the bottle yourself? Cherie Alexander, a biomechanical engineer formerly of...

(KCBS)--Hundreds of women gathered Saturday at a park in Berkeley to break the world record for the number of mothers breastfeeding at one time. KCBS reporter Mark Selig at the scene said the record was 767 set just this week by a group in Australia. Ellen Sirbu who runs Berkeley's Women Infant and Children (WIC) program says they should pass that mark with more than 900 women having signed up. "We have a woman coming from Houston, Texas. She says she saw a blurb in her newspaper in Houston and she thought this would a neat thing to come to...