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TAMPA, Fla. - An attorney for the husband of a brain-damaged woman is trying to convince an appeals court that Gov. Jeb Bush should not be allowed to delay a challenge to a new law that restored her feeding tube. In a brief filed Monday, Michael Schiavo's attorney argued that his constitutional challenge to the new law should not be held up any longer while Bush takes issue with failing to be served with a formal notice of the lawsuit.Schiavo's attorney, George Felos, also argues that if the 2nd District Court of Appeal in Lakeland sides with Bush, then the...

The parents and siblings of Terri Schiavo have mounted a television campaign to appeal to a national audience and counter similar efforts by her husband. WorldNetDaily has reported the Schindlers have been locked in a 10-year battle to keep Michael Schiavo from removing the brain-damaged woman's life-sustaining feeding tube and to get her rehabilitative therapy she has been denied for a decade. Michael Schiavo insists Terri does not want to be kept alive "through artificial means" and succeeded in getting a Florida court to order the tube removed last month. The 39-year-old survived six days without hydration and fluids...

THE TERRI SCHIAVO CASE continues to take dramatic twists and turns. Even as Michael Schiavo attempts to have Terri's Law declared unconstitutional, pursuant to the law's requirements, a judge has appointed a guardian ad litem--Professor Jay Wolfson, of the College of Public Health at the University of South Florida in Tampa--to represent Terri's interests. There has been some confusion as to whether Wolfson replaces Terri's quasi-estranged husband Michael Schiavo as guardian of Terri's person. (I use the term "quasi-estranged" because Schiavo effectively shattered the sanctity their marriage years ago by entering a committed relationship with another woman and starting a...

CLEARWATER - In a case dominated by strong personalities, everyone has an opinion on what's best for Terri Schiavo. The parents. The husband. The governor. The Legislature. But at the center of the latest controversy, one man is left to decide. Those who know Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge W. Douglas Baird say he will set aside political rhetoric and gut-wrenching emotion. Instead, he will focus on the law. At issue is whether the Legislature violated the Florida Constitution by passing a new law that allowed Gov. Jeb Bush to force doctors to reinsert Schiavo's feeding tube Oct. 21. On Wednesday, attorneys...

Exclusive! Schindlers Respond to Michael Schiavo'sLarry King Love-Fest Sorry to miss posting an update yesterday. It was kind of a crazy day, with more things to do than I had time to do them, including travelling. which limits my access to the Internet. I watched the whole Larry King interview with Michael Schiavo Monday night, and I took note of a number of issues he addressed which didn't seem consistent with things that either Terri's family told me, or that I had read. While Michael was on Larry King, Terri's father Bob Schindler was on Hannity & Colmes, so he...

In an effort toward damage control amid allegations of abuse and ulterior motives, the husband of the South Florida brain-damaged woman at the center of a 10-year legal battle over her life pleaded his case on CNN's "Larry King Live." After insisting he loved his wife and was simply continuing his legal battle to have her feeding tube removed out of respect for her wishes, Michael Schiavo pulled no punches in expressing his animosity toward Terri Schiavo's parents and siblings who have consistently blocked his efforts, most recently with the help of Florida lawmakers and Gov. Jeb Bush. "They...

<p>Two stories in the news this month that deal with life-and-death matters offer signs we might be gaining some traction on that slippery slope we've been warned about.</p> <p>First, after eight years, a partial-birth abortion bill is headed to a president eager to sign it.</p>

By now, most of you are familiar with the Terri Schindler-Schiavo situation down in Florida. Now that her life has been spared through the intervention of the Florida State Legislature and Governor Jeb Bush, many of us can sit back and reflect upon the events as they unfolded. From my own perspective as a canon lawyer and a baptized Catholic, the incident I found most troubling throughout this drama was the denial of Terri’s right to the sacraments. Terri is a baptized Catholic. As such, she enjoys certain basic canonical rights. Thus we should find it troubling that Michael Schiavo...

Michael Shiavo gets Larry King Monday October 27th,2003. This is a change of programming from website!

Husband Michael to Do Some Image-Polishing Watch out! Terri's husband, Michael Schiavo, is going to be making the rounds of the national press during the next week. The purpose of this is to portray Michael as and reinforce his image as the victim of unfair attacks, and as being solely motivated by his deep care for Terri and his desire to carry out her wishes to be killed. The first stop of this train will be his appearance on Monday night's "Larry King Live" show. Larry King is slotted to have Michael on for a full hour, unopposed by anyone...

So What Am I Doing? I imagine some of you might wonder what I'm actually doing while I'm here. And since so many of you have generously contributed to getting me here, I want you too know what you have helped to accomplish. Firstly, Msgr. Malanowski is very grateful that I'm here. He had all but exhausted himself in the past two weeks in being with the family and their supporters for 18-20 hours a day. Because I'm here, he's been able to take a break. He took a long nap Friday afternoon, and feels much better for having gotten...

Martyr is a term derived from the Greek (matyria) that means witness. In Christian antiquity martyrs were those who witnessed of a faith in God even unto death. Martyrs witness to a truth that exists beyond space and time, where meaning, values, and purpose have their source and judgment, and where the touchstone between good and evil resides. Martyrs do not kill. Martyrs are killed. Terri Schiavo, in her courageous struggle against the ministers of death, is a witness for life. The public battle over whether she should live or die is a titan struggle between those who reference that...

The Florida case of Terri Schiavo, 13 years in a "vegetative" (but wakeful) state and the subject of warring factions concerning her fate, is a nightmare in anyone's wolf-stalked night. Simply distilled: Her parents want to her alive; her husband wants her dead. Terri collapsed in 1990 from unknown causes and became severely cognitively disabled. Husband Michael has been trying for years to remove his wife's feeding tube to let her die, as he claims she would wish. Her parents have fought to keep her alive.

Saturday, October 25, 2003, at 3:58 AM PT What's a complacent centrist do when he needs to be angry but can't find anything to be angry about? Simple: He listens to NPR! All Things Considered, in particular, rarely fails to come through. On Wednesday, I needed to come up with a "rant" for a scheduled radio appearance--and, presto, ATC delivered with a stunningly biased and condescending report on the Schiavo "right to die" case. "Bias" isn't quite the right word, actually. A biased report might interview all sides but slant the story to favor one point of view while quoting...

In a court of law, the burden of proof rests with the prosecution. They must be able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the accused actually did commit a crime. In the court of public opinion, it is frequently the case that individuals who are accused of a crime are judged guilty regardless of the facts. Some call that bias; others label it as nothing more than ignorant. In the case of a severely disabled woman whose starvation death was ordered by a Florida judge, the court of law has not determined her guilt or innocence, because she committed...