House Panel Seeks to Keep Schiavo Alive

[Insanityfair]

http://www.miami.edu/ethics2/schiavo/timeline.htm

Found that kind of interesting. Don't know how trustworthy of a source it is but it gives kind of an idea. Second site I've found with roughly this same information.

[Rust]

Bush could have sent in an elite military squad and had the whole thing taken care of within 10 minutes. I guarantee he would not be impeached for taking such a humanitarian action.

Oh, now we get the Posse Comitatus act involved too.

Were you asleep in US Civics class or just a bad student?

--R.

[Martrae]

Just cuz I was curious

http://www.miami.edu/ethics2/schiavo/timeline.htm

[Martrae]

Dangit IF! You beat me to it!

[Insanityfair]

Honestly it just made me curious too. Saw all of that and thought...damn

[Langston]

So... as I thought... nothing for EIGHT years. Did Terri Schiavo's wishes not matter for the first eight years - despite the fact that her "husband" had guardianship of her and he supposedly "knew her wishes"?

Sorry... that doesn't wash.

What's going on is very simple. It's not about money. It's not about moral "rightness". Michael Schiavo wants Terri out of the picture so he can continue on without guilt or ridicule or judgement with his new life and family. I can understand why he wants this... it must be very hard to have Terri hanging over his head.

But don't think for one minute that he suddenly remembered Terri's wishes 8 years after the incident. This is not about what's right for Terri - this is about what's right for Michael.

[Martrae]

Yeah, she was in therapy all that time. You can't say he didn't give it huge shot that she would get better.

[Langston]

8 years of therapy.... yeah. *cough*

We're ignoring the nurse reports of what that therapy amounted to, right?

[Martrae]

Where was the nurse's report? I missed that.

[Narrock]

Bottom line, and moral to the story is...

Put down in writing exactly what you want to have done with you if you ever come to be in a vegetative state. Make tons of copies and give them to all your family and friends. That way if your spouse turns into an evil money-grubbing whore then they can't kill you faster than you wanted. As for Terry's husband, I hope somebody presses charges against him for attempted murder.

[Martrae]

You idiot...how can it be attempted murder when it's court sanctioned and ordered?

[Insanityfair]

You idiot...how can it be attempted murder when it's court sanctioned and ordered?

What I was thinking. Sad how the first two lines were pretty reasonable then he had to go blow it.

[shiraz]

I am pretty undecided on this issue. But the thing that I don't get is why Michael Schiavo has gone through all of this to end her life. We know he isn't doing it for money, so he must be doing it because it was her wish. I'm willing to accept she said that she wouldn't want to be kept alive like that, but I think that it must have been a passing remark made in casual conversation because she didn't tell her family and she didn't make a living will. Also, he didn't bring it up for some time.

So Michael Schaivo has spent years in court over this, he's had many death threats, someone in NC was just arrested for putting a $250,000 bounty on his head. I am sure that his family, girlfriend, children are also being harassed over this. He must truly believe that she has no cognitive function, so she isn't suffering, she isn't aware that she is being kept alive. So....what is the motivation for this fight? Is this a story of true love and honor beyond all sacrifice?

[Eziekial]

Made Michael doesn't believe every Floridian should be footing the doctors bill for Terri's care?

[Harrison]

This poor man has another family now and retards like Mindia who can't accept the fact that she didn't want to exist like this are ruining his life.

IT WAS FUCKING 15 YEARS I THINK HE HAS A RIGHT TO MOVE ON

I'm fairly sure Terry would even be accepting of it.

[The Kizzy]

I still don't believe he isn't in it for the money. I can accept that it is her time to go, but I really feel that he will be bringing in the bank after her death.

[Gypsiyee]

I just feel sorry for Terri.. for years now, she's been made a spectacle of, and it kinda makes me doubt where her parents hearts are. Cameras are allowed in her room, people see her in a state that no one should ever be seen except by the eyes of their closest family, and there are tapes of the family in the room allowing it to go on.. I personally wouldn't condone someone I loved being posted all over the media engraving an image in people's heads of something that she wasn't in life. At this point, no one is going to remember who Terri was, they're going to remember her name with controversy and the types of pictures that Ralf had in his sig.. I don't know a single person who would want to be remembered that way.

I was always for letting her go, because this isn't about the right to life anymore imo.. she is no longer alive at this point. After Martrae's post about the reaction to loss of food while in her state, I firmly support letting her pass. I have my doubts about Terri's family, and I worry that they're getting their claim to fame through her suffering.

[Lyion]

I still don't believe he isn't in it for the money. I can accept that it is her time to go, but I really feel that he will be bringing in the bank after her death.

He turned down millions to allow her to die with dignity. He's proven it's not solely about the money.

Call me colored, but I honestly think he believes this is what Terri would want. I can see your point of view, and I certainly empathise with the parents, but in my mind I believe this is what she would want.

Ugz, let me rephrase your wise words: "In your opnion, not fact."

[Rust]

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/11233240.htm

Posted on Sat, Mar. 26, 2005


TERRI SCHIAVO CASE

Police 'showdown' averted

BY CAROL MARBIN MILLER

cmarbin@herald.com

Hours after a judge ordered that Terri Schiavo was not to be removed from her hospice, a team of state agents were en route to seize her and have her feeding tube reinserted -- but they stopped short when local police told them they would enforce the judge's order, The Herald has learned.

Agents of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement told police in Pinellas Park, the small town where Schiavo lies at Hospice Woodside, on Thursday that they were on the way to take her to a hospital to resume her feeding.

For a brief period, local police, who have officers at the hospice to keep protesters out, prepared for what sources called ``a showdown.''

In the end, the squad from the FDLE and the Department of Children & Families backed down, apparently concerned about confronting local police outside the hospice.

''We told them that unless they had the judge with them when they came, they were not going to get in,'' said a source with the local police.

''The FDLE called to say they were en route to the scene,'' said an official with the city police who requested anonymity. ``When the sheriff's department and our department told them they could not enforce their order, they backed off.''

The incident,known only to a few and related to The Herald by three different sources involved in Thursday's events, underscores the intense emotion and murky legal terrain that the Schiavo case has created. It also shows that agencies answering directly to Gov. Jeb Bush had planned to use a wrinkle in Florida law that would have allowed them to legally get around the judge's order. The exception in the law allows public agencies to freeze a judge's order whenever an agency appeals it.

CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS

Participants in the high-stakes test of wills, who spoke with The Herald on the condition of anonymity, said they believed the standoff could ultimately have led to a constitutional crisis and a confrontation between dueling lawmen.

''There were two sets of law enforcement officers facing off, waiting for the other to blink,'' said one official with knowledge of Thursday morning's activities.

In jest, one official said local police discussed ``whether we had enough officers to hold off the National Guard.''

''It was kind of a showdown on the part of the locals and the state police,'' the official said. ``It it was not too long after that Jeb Bush was on TV saying that, evidently, he doesn't have as much authority as people think.''

State officials on Friday vigorously denied the notion that any ''showdown'' occurred.

''DCF directed no such action,'' said agency spokeswoman Zoraya Suarez.

Said Bush spokesman Jacob DiPietre: ``There was no showdown. We were ready to go. We didn't want to break the law. There was a process in place and we were following the process. The judge had an order and we were following the order.''

Tim Caddell, a spokesman for the city of Pinellas Park, declined to discuss Thursday's events.

SHELTER FOR SCHIAVO

The developments that set Thursday morning's events in motion began the previous afternoon, when the governor and DCF chief Lucy Hadi held an impromptu news conference to announce they were considering sheltering Schiavo under the state's adult protection law. DCF has been besieged, officials say, by thousands of calls alleging Schiavo is the victim of abuse or neglect.

Alerted by the Bush administration that Schiavo might be on her way to their facility, officials at Morton Plant Hospital went to court themselves Wednesday, asking Circuit Judge George Greer, who ordered the removal of Schiavo's feeding tube last week, what to do.

''It's an extraordinary situation,'' said Beth Hardy, a hospital spokeswoman. ``I don't think any of us has seen anything like it. Ever.''

Greer signed an order Wednesday afternoon forbidding DCF from ''taking possession of Theresa Marie Schiavo or removing her'' from the hospice. He directed ''each and every and singular sheriff of the state of Florida'' to enforce his order.

But Thursday, at 8:15 a.m., DCF lawyers appealed Greer's order to judges at the Second District Court of Appeal in Lakeland.

That created the window of time to seize Schiavo. When DCF filed its appeal, it effectively froze the judge's Wednesday order. It took nearly three hours before the judge found out and canceled the automatic stay, shortly before 11 a.m.

Administrators of the 72-bed hospice, who have endured a withering siege of their facility by protesters since Greer ordered Schiavo's feeding tube removed on March 18, declined to discuss Thursday morning's events in any detail.

''I don't really know, or pretend to know, the specifics of what is going on behind the scenes,'' said Mike Bell, a spokesman for Hospice of the Florida Suncoast, which operates Woodside.

DCF INTENTIONS


According to sources, DCF intended to take Schiavo to Morton Plant Hospital, where her feeding tube had been reinserted in 2003 following a previous judicial order allowing its removal. But hospice officials were aware that the hospital was not likely to perform surgery to reinsert the tube without an order from Greer.

''People knew that taking [Schiavo] did not equate with immediate reinsertion of the feeding tube,'' a source said. ``Hospital officials were working with their legal counsel and their advisors, trying to figure out which order superseded which, and what action they should take.''

Hardy, the hospital spokeswoman, said she does not believe the hospital was made aware Thursday morning that DCF and state police planned to bring Schiavo in. ''We were not aware of that three-hour period,'' she said. ``It's not a discussion we even had, really.''

George Felos, Michael Schiavo's attorney, said he does not think DCF officials knew of the window of opportunity they had created until well after they filed their appeal.

''Frankly, I don't believe when they filed their notice of appeal they realized that that gave them an automatic stay,'' Felos said. ``When we filed our motion to vacate the automatic stay . . . they realized they had a short window of opportunity and they wanted to extend that as long as they could.

``I believe that as soon as DCF knew they had an opportunity, they were mobilizing to take advantage of it, without a doubt.''

Herald staff writers Phil Long and Marc Caputo contributed to this story.

[Martrae]

I love the morons that keep getting arrested for trying to bring her water. HELLO, she can't swallow!!!!

[araby]

I love the morons that keep getting arrested for trying to bring her water. HELLO, she can't swallow!!!!

Hey seriously, lol. On Fox last night they interviewed a girl whose father was a doctor that tested Terry Shaivo for whether or not she could swallow, and guess what. According to the doctor's daughter, she could swallow on her own.

I saw that on Fox News Channel.

[exploit]

http://www.foxblocker.com

[Narrock]

You idiot...how can it be attempted murder when it's court sanctioned and ordered?

I guess you missed the part about her husband injecting her with unnecessary insulin which put her in a state of profuse sweating and anxiety. Idiot.

[Narrock]

I still don't believe he isn't in it for the money. I can accept that it is her time to go, but I really feel that he will be bringing in the bank after her death.

He turned down millions to allow her to die with dignity. He's proven it's not solely about the money.

Call me colored, but I honestly think he believes this is what Terri would want. I can see your point of view, and I certainly empathise with the parents, but in my mind I believe this is what she would want.

Ugz, let me rephrase your wise words: "In your opnion, not fact."

Again, the fact that he turned down "millions" does not prove anything. If anything he was smart not to take the money so as not to appear to be only after money. Michael "the murderer" Schiavo is playing this out safe and smart.

[Rust]

I still don't believe he isn't in it for the money. I can accept that it is her time to go, but I really feel that he will be bringing in the bank after her death.

He turned down millions to allow her to die with dignity. He's proven it's not solely about the money.

Call me colored, but I honestly think he believes this is what Terri would want. I can see your point of view, and I certainly empathise with the parents, but in my mind I believe this is what she would want.

Ugz, let me rephrase your wise words: "In your opnion, not fact."

Again, the fact that he turned down "millions" does not prove anything. If anything he was smart not to take the money so as not to appear to be only after money. Michael "the murderer" Schiavo is playing this out safe and smart.

Mindia being one to never let actual facts interfere with his prejudices.

--R.