| Your Opinion |
| Agree with how she died |
|
33% |
[ 1 ] |
| She should have been euthanized |
|
33% |
[ 1 ] |
| She should have lived |
|
0% |
[ 0 ] |
| There wasn't enough hard evidence to make the case for removal of the feeding tube |
|
33% |
[ 1 ] |
|
| Total Votes : 3 |
|
| Author |
Message |
Starbuck
faster...
Joined: 19 Feb 2003
Posts: 8715
Location: between chaos and melody
|
 Tue Mar 29, 2005 2:28 pm |
|
believe me, when she dies, someone will put up an article on it.
|
|
|
Zeke Zabertini
Captain
Joined: 13 Sep 2002
Posts: 4832
|
| Tue Mar 29, 2005 11:20 pm |
|
No kidding. I'm sure we'll all know within the hour of the event.
|
|
|
Theresa
Lux Mihi Deus
Joined: 17 Jun 2001
Posts: 27256
Location: United States of America
|
| Tue Mar 29, 2005 11:33 pm |
|
Oh, the horror.
-------signature-------
Some of us fall by the wayside
And some of us soar to the stars
And some of us sail through our troubles
And some have to live with our scars
|
|
|
Zeke Zabertini
Captain
Joined: 13 Sep 2002
Posts: 4832
|
| Tue Mar 29, 2005 11:35 pm |
|
Beg pardon?
|
|
|
Puck
The Texan
Joined: 05 Jan 2004
Posts: 5596
|
| Wed Mar 30, 2005 12:55 am |
|
| Quote: | | Federal Appeals Court Agrees to Consider Schiavo Petition |
| Quote: |
Court Agrees to Consider Schiavo Petition
Wednesday, March 30, 2005
PINELLAS PARK, Fla. � Terri Schiavo's (search) parents won an eleventh hour victory on Wednesday when a federal appeals court agreed to consider a petition for a new hearing on whether to restore their daughter's feeding tube. But the ruling by 11th Circuit Court of Appeals (search) may be too late to save the severely brain damaged woman who is entering her 13th day without nourishment.
Bob and Mary Schindler received more high-profile support for their cause Tuesday as Rev. Jesse Jackson (search) visited them in Florida and urged their daughter's feeding tube be reinserted.
Jackson prayed with Bob and Mary Schindler at their daughter's hospice. The liberal crusader called Schiavo's impending death an "injustice" and said he would call state senators who opposed legislation that would have reinserted her feeding tube and ask them to reconsider.
"I feel so passionate about this injustice being done, how unnecessary it is to deny her a feeding tube, water, not even ice to be used for her parched lips," said Jackson, who has run for president as a Democrat. "This is a moral issue and it transcends politics and family disputes."
Also on Tuesday, first lady Laura Bush said she thought the government was right to try to step in.
"I just feel like the federal government has to be involved," Mrs. Bush said. "It is a life issue that really does require government to be involved."
Mrs. Bush said she has been encouraged to hear that the case has prompted more people to inquire about living wills.
"I think that is really good," she said. "The president and I have living wills and, of course, our parents do. They wanted us always to be aware of it. I think that it is important for families to have opportunities to talk about these issues."
President Bush and his brother, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, have both been outspoken supporters of Schiavo's parents.
University of South Florida political science professor Susan MacManus said Jackson's appearance showed that the life-and-death issues surrounding their daughter resonate beyond white, Christian conservatives.
"I wanted the Reverend Jackson here for moral support," said Mary Schindler, Terri Schiavo's mother. "I feel good with him here. Very strong. He gives me strength."
Jackson was invited by Schiavo's parents to meet with activists outside Schiavo's hospice. His arrival was greeted by some applause and cries of "This is about civil rights!"
"A person of faith, and not just a white, conservative person of faith will be seen as a welcomed change," MacManus said.
Jackson said he asked Michael Schiavo, Terri Schiavo's husband, for permission to see the brain-damaged woman but was denied. George Felos, Michael Schiavo's attorney, did not return phone messages seeking comment.
Michael Schiavo insists he is carrying out his wife's wishes by having the feeding tube pulled.
Terri Schiavo's father, Bob Schindler, said he visited his daughter Tuesday and said she was "failing."
"She still looks pretty darn good under the circumstances," Schindler said. "You can see the impact of no food and water for 12 days. Her bodily functions are still working. We still have her."
Dr. Sean Morrision of the Mount Sinai Medical Center spoke with FOX News' Linda Vester Tuesday and said he often treats patients in a similar condition to that of Terri Schiavo. "It's rare for someone to be awake" in a persistent vegetative state, Morrision said.
During an interview on DaySide With Linda Vester, Morrision said the parts of the brain that feel are not working. "She does look awake, but she's not processing any of those feelings."
Jackson telephoned black legislators on Tuesday in a last-ditch effort to bring back a bill that would prohibit severely brain-damaged patients from being denied food and water if they didn't express their wishes in writing. Lawmakers rejected the legislation earlier this month and appeared unlikely to reconsider it.
One of those contacted by Jackson, Democratic state Sen. Gary Siplin, said he told Jackson the issue had been "thoroughly discussed." Senate Democratic leader Les Miller added, "I have voted. It's time to move on."
The chief sponsor of the measure, state Sen. Daniel Webster, said he knew of no changed votes and that Jackson's efforts may have come too late.
Webster told FOX that it would be difficult at this point to ask fellow lawmakers to consider voting in favor of the reinsertion. "I'm pretty optimistic ... but there comes a time when no one steps forward" and it's hard to say we can win, he said. "I don't believe we can."
Webster also defended Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (search), who has been criticized by some supporters of Terri Schiavo. "The governor is totally dedicated to this issue" and Terri would be dead if he hadn't stepped in a year ago, Webster said during an appearance on DaySide.
Schiavo's husband and guardian, Michael Schiavo (search), has insisted that he was carrying out her wishes by having her feeding tube pulled. His lawyer said Monday that an autopsy was planned to show the extent of Terri Schiavo's brain damage.
On Monday, George Felos, the attorney for husband and guardian Michael Schiavo, said that the chief medical examiner for Pinellas County, Dr. John Thogmartin, had agreed to perform an autopsy.
He said her husband wants definitive proof showing the extent of the brain damage.
An attorney for the Schindlers, David Gibbs III, said her family also wants an autopsy. "We would certainly support and encourage an autopsy to be done, with all the unanswered questions," Gibbs said.
Felos said he had visited Schiavo for more than an hour Monday and said she looked "very peaceful. She looked calm."
"I saw no evidence of any bodily discomfort whatsoever," Felos said, although he added her breathing seemed "a little on the rapid side" and her eyes were sunken.
Doctors have said Terri Schiavo, 41, would probably die within a week or two when the tube was removed on March 18. She suffered catastrophic brain damage in 1990 when her heart stopped for several minutes because of a chemical imbalance.
President Bush's aides have said they have run out of legal options.
At least two more appeals filed by the state seeking the feeding tube's reconnection were pending, but those challenges were before a Florida appeals court that had rejected the governor's previous efforts in the case.
Emotions were high among supporters. After Jackson's news conference, a man was tackled to the ground by officers when he tried to storm into the hospice, Pinellas Park police said.
Dow Pursley, 56, of Scranton, Pa., was shocked with a Taser stun gun and was arrested on charges of attempted burglary and resisting arrest without violence, police spokesman Sanfield Forseth said. The man had two bottles of water with him but did not reach the hospice door, police said. He is the 47th protester arrested.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
SEARCH
Click here for FOX News RSS Feeds
Advertise on FOX News Channel, FOXNews.com and FOX News Radio
Jobs at FOX News Channel.
Internships at FOX News Channel (Summer internship deadline March 1, 2005).
Terms of use. Privacy Statement. For FOXNews.com comments write to
[email protected]; For FOX News Channel comments write to
[email protected]
� Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Copyright � 2005 ComStock, Inc.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Copyright 2005 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved.
All market data delayed 20 minutes.
|
|
|
|
Valathous
The Canadian, eh
Joined: 31 Aug 2002
Posts: 19074
Location: Centre Bell
|
| Wed Mar 30, 2005 1:07 am |
|
| Toronto Star wrote: | What's going on in Schiavo's head?
OAKLAND ROSS
FEATURE WRITER
PINELLAS PARK, FLA.�For 15 years, Terri Schiavo has lived in a private purgatory that is neither life nor death, but something in between � eerier and more troubling.
Yesterday, the brain-damaged 41-year-old Florida woman entered her 11th day without food or water, the result of a court decision handed down on March 18.
Doctors began administering morphine, not for the relief of pain but to ease her breathing � a sign that her death is likely no more than a day or two away.
Or did Terri Schiavo actually die upwards of a decade and a half ago?
Did her life effectively cease soon after that grim day in February 1990 when her heart briefly stopped beating, depriving her brain of oxygen so that she lapsed into a coma, from which she has never recovered?
Leon Prockop, a professor of neurology at the University of Southern Florida in Tampa, believes that this is exactly what happened, and he is not alone.
Prockop said he would "use the term `coma vigil,'" describing a condition that other neurologists have labelled a "persistent vegetative state."
"It's the state of being in a coma, but the person appears to be awake."
Prockop has looked at Schiavo's CAT scans, and he harbours no doubt whatsoever. "Her death occurred some time ago," he said in an interview yesterday. "That's my opinion."
It sure isn't everybody's.
According to Prockop and others, Schiavo's parents � the Schindlers � and family are seeing what they deeply want to see: a daughter and sister whom they love and who loves them back.
But they also say that the family are the victims of cruel illusion � the physical presence of a woman who is awake but not aware.
In this South Florida town, the debate about Terri Schiavo rages while the world watches, but really there is no debate at all.
Schiavo's sad plight has raised a welter of confounding moral and medical questions. But perhaps none of them is more troubling than the debate over what precisely is going on in that poor woman's head.
There are at least two sides to the story, and they are worlds apart.
Prockop may state his position more forcefully than others , but his view nonetheless coincides with the vast preponderance of expert medical opinion on the subject of Terri Schiavo.
She once was a woman with hopes and dreams, likes and dislikes, foibles and regrets, but she is not that way now, she hasn't been for years, and she never will be again.
"She has lost all frontal lobe functions," Prockop said. "In her case, there is a severe absence of brain tissue. This is not guesswork."
Understandably, there are those who wish fervently that it were not so.
Day after day, the woman's father, Bob Schindler, has appeared on camera, speaking about his daughter as if she were a thinking, communicating human being with feelings and opinions and a determination to live, even as she slowly sinks toward what yesterday seemed to be an inevitable, court-ordered death.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
`She has amazing endurance. Don't give up on her. We haven't given up on her.'
Bob Schindler
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"She's responsive, and she's responding to me," Schindler said early yesterday after visiting the woman at the Woodside Hospice in this Tampa-area suburb.
Again, he pleaded for someone to intervene and stop his daughter's death. "She has amazing endurance. ... Don't give up on her. We haven't given up on her, and she hasn't given up on us."
Lawyers and advisors associated with the Schindler family have used similar language in speaking of a woman whom they insist is conscious and aware of her surroundings. They say she communicates with gestures. They say she tries to speak.
Last week, a Florida neurologist named William Cheshire endorsed this view in an affidavit he swore out on behalf of the state's Department of Children and Family Services.
Cheshire, who is on staff at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, drew his conclusions after observing Terri Schiavo in person and reviewing her medical history. He said she was alert and possibly capable of recovery, although he did not conduct an examination of his own.
But the courts have concluded the very opposite and, on March 18, Judge George Greer of the Pinellas Circuit court declared that the woman's feeding tube could be removed, in accordance with what Michael Schiavo, her husband, maintains were her wishes, expressed before she lapsed into unconsciousness 15 years ago.Cheshire is not willing to talk to the media about the case, and the Mayo Clinic where he works has distanced itself from his opinion on the matter, declaring on its website that "the standard procedure for the evaluation of a comatose patient includes ... the performance of a comprehensive neurological examination."
Cheshire conducted no such examination before reaching his opinion.
"The problem is that this case is political," said Walter Bradley, chairman of the neurology department at the University of Miami, who flatly disagrees with Cheshire's conclusions, as apparently do most neurologists familiar with the case.
Still, the disparity between these two views has persisted, day after day, so it often seems the two sides are talking about two different women. Yet they are both talking about the same Terri Schiavo. Whether she should be allowed to live or to die � that is one question. Just who, or what, is doing the living or the dying � that is another question. "Families and friends want desperately to see something that is volitional," said Prockop.
And in Terri Schiavo, they genuinely believe that they do: Her eyes rove the room when they are present, and sometimes her gaze seems to fix itself on them. She starts at sounds. She responds to light. She moans, as if trying to speak. When they hold her hand, she tightens her grip. At night, she closes her eyes and falls asleep. With the morning light, she awakens again.
But, said Prockop, all these activities are merely mirages of sentience rather than the real thing. They are automatic reflexes to stimuli and are controlled by primitive portions of the brain.
For people in the Schindler's position, the result is agonizingly seductive, not only because they keenly want to see sense and feeling where, sadly, there is none � but because this is so very easy to do.
"This is exactly the difficulty," said Bradley. "Even trained medical people have real difficulty."
Prockop agreed: "The first time I saw a coma vigil, I, too, thought the patient was responding."
Prockop and Bradley have examined Schiavo's CAT scans � electronic readings that detail the physical condition of her brain � and they agree on what is there and on what is not.
"She has approximately 20 per cent of her (total) brain tissue left inside her skull, and the remaining tissue is damaged," said Prockop. "The tissue that controls the higher brain functions is gone. It's disappeared."
This, he said, is what typically happens in such cases.
After Schiavo suffered her heart attack 15 years ago, and her brain was starved of oxygen, much of her brain tissue became scarred and then necrotic � in other words, it died.
What remained was interpreted by her system as foreign matter, and it was slowly flushed away, to be replaced over time by cerebro-spinal fluid, which has the appearance of water.
According to Prockop, this is the same miserable fate suffered by elderly people in the advanced stages of Alzheimer's disease. In Schiavo's case, he said, the damage is severe and, as in all such cases, irreversible.
"Her CAT scan shows a greater degree of brain damage than I have ever seen in a living person," he said. "That brain tissue cannot come back. It never has, and it never will."
But neurologists do not rely only on high-technology tests to make their diagnoses. They also examine a brain-damaged patient, testing for a wide range of reflexes. The neurologists who have had the opportunity to examine Schiavo have concluded that she can neither think, nor remember, nor feel � and that, sadly, she never will. |
Toronto Star (Source)
|
|
|
Zeke Zabertini
Captain
Joined: 13 Sep 2002
Posts: 4832
|
| Wed Mar 30, 2005 4:48 pm |
|
About time someone posted the majority expert opinion.
|
|
|
Beta6
Commander
Joined: 02 Jan 2005
Posts: 475
Location: ~*City Of Angels*~
|
| Wed Mar 30, 2005 4:58 pm |
|
told ya she was not gonna be able to recover! hehehe
yeah, thanks
|
|
|
Starbuck
faster...
Joined: 19 Feb 2003
Posts: 8715
Location: between chaos and melody
|
| Thu Mar 31, 2005 11:51 am |
|
| Quote: | Terri Schiavo dies at 41
President Bush: 'Millions of Americans are saddened'
BREAKING NEWS
MSNBC staff and news service reports
Updated: 11:41 a.m. ET March 31, 2005
PINELLAS PARK, Fla. - Nearly two weeks after a court ordered her feeding tube removed, and after multiple, failed attempts by her parents to get the order lifted, Terri Schiavo passed away on Thursday at the age of 41.
Schiavo died at the Pinellas Park hospice where she lay for years while her husband and her parents fought over her fate in the nation�s most bitter � and most heavily litigated � right-to-die dispute.
The family battle over whether to keep her alive galvanized the nation over the last month, with President Bush and Congress weighing in on the side of her parents.
The president, for one, said "millions of Americans are saddened" by Schiavo's death. �The essence of civilization is that the strong have a duty to protect the weak,� he added. �In cases where there are serious doubts and questions, the presumption should be in favor of life.�
The case had spent seven years winding its way through the courts, with Terri Schiavo's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, repeatedly on the losing end.
They have been at odds with their son-in-law, Michael Schiavo, who consistently won legal battles by arguing that his wife would not have wanted to live in her condition. The case focused national attention on living wills, since Schiavo left no written instructions in case she became disabled.
Schiavo suffered severe brain damage in 1990 after her heart stopped because of a chemical imbalance that was believed to have been brought on an eating disorder. Court-appointed doctors ruled she was in a persistent vegetative state, with no real consciousness or chance of recovery.
Parents weren't present
Brother Paul O�Donnell, an adviser to the Schindlers, said the parents and their two other children �were denied access at the moment of her death. They�ve been requesting, as you know, for the last hour to try to be in there and they were denied access by Michael Schiavo. They are in there now, praying at her bedside.�
Another Schindler adviser, the Rev. Frank Pavone, added that "and so his heartless cruelty continues until this very last moment ... This is not only a death, with all the sadness that brings, but this is a killing, and for that we not only grieve that Terri has passed but we grieve that our nation has allowed such an atrocity as this and we pray that it will never happen again.�
After the tube that supplied a nutrient solution was disconnected on March 18, protesters streamed into Pinellas Park to keep vigil outside her hospice, with many arrested as they tried to bring her food and water. The Vatican likened the removal of her feeding tube to capital punishment for an innocent woman.
The Schindlers pleaded for their daughter�s life, calling the removal of the tube �judicial homicide.�
Dawn Kozsey, a musician who was among those outside Schiavo�s hospice, wept when she learned of the woman�s death. �Words cannot express the rage I feel,� she said. �Is my heart broken for this? Yes.�
Politicians and courts
Although several right-to-die cases have been fought in the courts across the nation in recent years, none had been this public, drawn-out and bitter.
Gov. Jeb Bush, whose repeated attempts to get the tube reconnected failed, said that millions of people around the state and world will be �deeply grieved� by Schiavo's death but that the debate over her fate could help others grapple with end-of-life issues.
�After an extraordinarily difficult and tragic journey, Terri Schiavo is at rest,� Bush said. �I remain convinced, however, that Terri�s death is a window through which we can see the many issues left unresolved in our families and in our society. For that, we can be thankful for all that the life of Terri Schiavo has taught us.�
Six times, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to intervene. Schiavo�s fate was debated on the floor of Congress and by President Bush, who signed an extraordinary bill on March 21 that let federal judges review her case.
�In extraordinary circumstances like this, it is wise to always err on the side of life,� the president said.
But federal courts refused again and again to overturn the central ruling by Pinellas County Circuit Judge George Greer, who said Michael Schiavo had convinced him that Terri Schiavo would not have wanted to be kept alive by extraordinary means.
At a federal appeals court in Atlanta, one judge rebuked the White House and lawmakers Wednesday for acting �in a manner demonstrably at odds with our Founding Fathers� blueprint for the governance of a free people � our Constitution.�
�Any further action by our court or the district court would be improper,� wrote Judge Stanley Birch Jr., appointed by President Bush�s father.
Relatives at war
Because Terri Schiavo did not leave written wishes on her care, Florida law gave preference to Michael Schiavo over her parents. But the law also recognizes parents as having crucial opinions in the care of an incapacitated person.
A court-appointed physician testified her brain damage was so severe that there was no hope she would ever have any cognitive abilities.
Still, her parents, who visited her nearly every day, reported their daughter responded to their voices. Video showing the dark-haired woman appearing to interact with her family was televised nationally. But the court-appointed doctor said the noises and facial expressions were reflexes.
Both sides also accused each other of being motivated by greed over a $1 million medical malpractice award from doctors who failed to diagnose the chemical imbalance.
However, that money, which Michael Schiavo received in 1993, has all but evaporated, spent on his wife�s care and the court fight. Just $40,000 to $50,000 remained as of mid-March.
Money issue
Michael Schiavo�s lawyers suggested the Schindlers wanted to get some of the money. And the Schindlers questioned their son-in-law�s sincerity, saying he never mentioned his wife�s wishes until winning the malpractice case.
The parents tried to have Michael Schiavo removed as his wife�s guardian because he lives with another woman and has two children with her. Michael Schiavo refused to divorce his wife, saying he feared the Schindlers would ignore her desire to die.
Schiavo lived in her brain-damaged state longer than two other young women whose cases brought right-to-die issues to the forefront of public attention.
Karen Quinlan lived for more than a decade in a vegetative state � brought on by alcohol and drugs in 1975 when she was 21; New Jersey courts let her parents take her off a respirator a year after her injury. Nancy Cruzan, who was 25 when a 1983 car crash placed her in a vegetative state, lived nearly eight years before the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that her parents could withdraw her feeding tube.
Schiavo�s feeding tube was briefly removed in 2001. It was reinserted after two days when a court intervened. In October 2003, the tube was removed again, but Gov. Jeb Bush rushed �Terri�s Law� through the Legislature, allowing the state to have the feeding tube reinserted after six days. The Florida Supreme Court later ruled that law was an unconstitutional interference in the judicial system.
On March 18, the tube was removed for a third and final time.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7293186/ |
|
|
|
Theresa
Lux Mihi Deus
Joined: 17 Jun 2001
Posts: 27256
Location: United States of America
|
| Thu Mar 31, 2005 12:06 pm |
|
| Beta6 wrote: | told ya she was not gonna be able to recover! hehehe
yeah, thanks |
Don't post in WN again.
An opposing opinion is one thing. This is quite another.
-------signature-------
Some of us fall by the wayside
And some of us soar to the stars
And some of us sail through our troubles
And some have to live with our scars
|
|
|
Lord Borg
Fleet Admiral
Joined: 27 May 2003
Posts: 11214
Location: Vulcan Capital City, Vulcan
|
| Thu Mar 31, 2005 12:15 pm |
|
The world is now emptyer with out terrie. may she rest in peace
|
|
|
Leo Wyatt
Sweetest Angel
Joined: 25 Feb 2004
Posts: 19045
Location: Investigating A Crime Scene. What did Quark do this time?
|
| Thu Mar 31, 2005 12:18 pm |
|
This is so sad  Court systems are really screwed up and everything really in my opinion. Seems like noone has a heart. May she rest in peace. Praying for her parents.
|
|
|
Birdy
Socialist
Joined: 20 Sep 2004
Posts: 13502
Location: Here.
|
| Thu Mar 31, 2005 12:40 pm |
|
May she have the peace in the afterlife that she didn't have in this life.
-------signature-------
Nosce te ipsum
|
|
|
Zeke Zabertini
Captain
Joined: 13 Sep 2002
Posts: 4832
|
| Thu Mar 31, 2005 1:29 pm |
|
May the Universe free her spirit.
|
|
|
B'Elanna Torres 7 of 9
Ballet Babe
Joined: 20 Aug 2001
Posts: 3642
Location: DISNEY WORLD
|
| Thu Mar 31, 2005 1:36 pm |
|
God bless Terri and her family. A very sad day . Think of it this way though (I always have to look to a brighter side of deaths b/c they just kill me) Terri, after not being able to for 15 years, is now dancing in the hands of her father. I don't think it's a coincident at all that this sad event happens to fall just days after Easter! May she rest in peace.
-------signature-------
"...I want so much more than they've got planned."*Belle Reprise* Beauty and the Beast
|
|
|
Dirt
Exercise Boy
Joined: 19 May 2003
Posts: 2086
Location: a tree
|
| Thu Mar 31, 2005 4:11 pm |
|
R.I.P Terri and all the others that died today, yesterday and tommorow!
|
|
|
Puck
The Texan
Joined: 05 Jan 2004
Posts: 5596
|
| Thu Mar 31, 2005 6:43 pm |
|
May God bless Terri's soul. Pray that she may now live in peace and joy in the kingdom of God. I hope that her family, and all those affected by her may come to peace with what has happened, and may God forgive us that we did not save her.
|
|
|
Link, the Hero of Time
Vice Admiral
Joined: 15 Sep 2001
Posts: 5581
Location: Kokori Forest, Hyrule
|
| Thu Mar 31, 2005 7:02 pm |
|
Rest in peace Terri Schiavo, you have finally found peace.
-------signature-------
"Dissent is the highest form of patriotism." President Thomas Jefferson
"A man's respect for law and order exists in precise relationship to the size of his paycheck." Adam Clayton Powell Jr.
|
|
|
sabertooth1217
UPN Boycotter
Joined: 21 Jun 2003
Posts: 11484
Location: Texas
|
| Thu Mar 31, 2005 7:31 pm |
|
RIP
|
|
|
Puck
The Texan
Joined: 05 Jan 2004
Posts: 5596
|
| Thu Mar 31, 2005 7:42 pm GOP Blasts Judiciary |
|
| Quote: |
GOP Blasts Judiciary
Thursday, March 31, 2005
By Liza Porteus
Republicans, many of whom led the charge to focus federal attention on Terri Schiavo (search), are vowing to hold the judiciary system responsible for rulings in the case that some believe were tantamount to murder.
"This loss happened because our legal system did not protect the people who need protection most, and that will change," House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (search) said Thursday after receiving news of Schiavo's death.
"The time will come for the men responsible for this to answer for their behavior, but not today. Today we grieve, we pray, and we hope to God this fate never befalls another."
Schiavo died Thursday after going almost 14 days without food, water or nutrients following the removal of her feeding tube on March 18. Her husband, Michael Schiavo (search), had argued for years that his wife would not want to continue in the persistent vegetative state that court-appointed doctors said she was in. But Terri Schiavo's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler (search), had maintained their daughter would want to live and that she could get better with therapy.
While Democrats on Thursday lamented Congress' intervention in the ordeal, some Republicans vowed to cure what they considered to be a moral injustice.
"This is almost a declaration of war from conservatives against the judiciary," said Washington Times reporter Bill Sammon.
Sen. Rick Santorum (search), R-Pa., said Schiavo not only was a daughter and a sister but "most importantly, an innocent person was penalized by a court system that grants convicted murderers fair treatment under the law, but not a woman whose only crime was not filing a living will."
He added: "The actions on the part of the Florida court and the U.S. Supreme Court are unconscionable. In California, Scott Peterson, a convicted murderer, was sentenced to death, yet his constitutional rights were upheld to ensure that he received due process and fair consideration in court. Terri Schiavo was given a death sentence, and passed away without the right to due process."
In a later conference call with reporters, Santorum said the courts had practiced nothing less than "judicial tyranny" in this case and took aim at those who say Congress overstepped its bounds.
"[This is] routinely done by the courts � deciding they are now a super-legislature," Santorum said. "I'm not sure if the press realizes how serious this conflict is between the branches of government and how gravely concerned members of Congress are with [the] kinds of judicial tyranny we've seen. ...
"To suggest Congress has exceeded power shows you there are judges who simply ignore written law and substitute their own judgments."
Democratic Sen. Edward Kennedy didn't let comments like that slide, however.
"I believed that the courts are the fairest forum to do what is right in this case. I intend to do all I can to see that any action Congress takes is constructive and free from partisan politics, and does not make a tragic situation worse by exploiting this terrible tragedy," said the senior senator from Massachusetts.
"Mr. DeLay's comments today were irresponsible and reprehensible. I'm not sure what Mr. DeLay meant when he said 'the time will come for the men responsible for this to answer for their behavior.' But at a time when emotions are running high, Mr. DeLay needs to make clear that he is not advocating violence against anyone ... it is time for mourning and healing not for more inflammatory rhetoric, and responsible national leaders should understand that and stop this exploitation."
Democrats generally have argued that the federal government should not intervene in such a personal issue and agreed that the decision whether to reinsert Schiavo's feeding tube rested rightfully with the Florida state courts. But a few, including Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin (search), joined Republicans in pushing through Congress a bill on the weekend the feeding tube was removed that called for a federal review of the case.
As court after court � at both the state and federal level � denied Schiavo's parents' requests to have the tube reinserted, GOP calls for judicial reform grew louder, even in the face of polls showing the American people wanted Congress to stay out of their personal lives.
Democrats conceded that although the judges' decisions to essentially let Schiavo die didn't sit well with many Americans, those decisions were made in accordance with the law and not with emotion.
"This also really tested our system of government," said former Democratic Rep. Martin Frost of Texas. "We are a nation of laws. The most conservative court in history � the 11th Circuit ... said that this matter was handled appropriately according to the laws of the United States � you don't make special exceptions just for one person. This was a family matter and it needed to be decided in accordance with the laws of the state in which she lives."
Lawmakers and congressional observers said there's no doubt the role of the judiciary and how judges approach such touchy subjects as death and dying will likely be reviewed by Congress when lawmakers return from their Easter recess.
"Congress must right this wrong by ensuring that incapacitated Americans may not be deprived of their inalienable right to life without the assurance of the due process of law that our federal courts were established to protect," said Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind. "This will be Terri Schiavo's legacy."
Former Solicitor General Kenneth Starr said the court system doesn't necessarily have to be reformed based on decisions made in the Schiavo case.
But "we want to make sure the laws the judiciary is there to interpret and apply are good and humane laws," Starr said.
Speaking with reporters later in Houston, DeLay said lawmakers "will look at an arrogant and out of control judiciary that thumbs its nose at Congress and the president."
He added: "I never thought I'd see the day when a U.S. judge stopped feeding a living American so that they took 14 days to die."
White House press secretary Scott McClellan declined to join in the judicial criticism. "We would have preferred a different decision from the courts ... but ultimately we have to follow our laws and abide by the courts," he said.
Some Republicans have said at the very least, judges should have allowed guardianship of Schiavo to be transferred from her husband to her parents.
"Because of this, I think you're going to see much more acrimonious consideration of federal judges," said former Ohio Rep. John Kasich, a Republican who also hosts FOX News' "Heartland."
"I can't for the life of me figure out why they didn't let the mother and father be in a position to take care of their daughter."
Judge Andrew Napolitano, senior judicial analyst for FOX News, said one move states could make to alleviate similar situations in the future is "if legislatures write laws that give courts guidance on how to address these situations, that will help make it clearer and fairer for people who unfortunately get trapped" in such physical states.
Richard Lessner, executive director of the American Conservative Union, said states and Congress should try to make the courts more beholden to the people and the elected representatives chosen by the people.
"I think it has once again cast a light on the need to address the role of courts and judges in our society. The people's representatives ought to have some say in this and the idea that we're sort of beholden to the role of judges" is ridiculous, Lessner said. "I think that's problematic to most conservatives and I think this case has done the most to highlight that."
President Bush has in the past blasted what he calls "activist judges" who he says have acted more in accordance with their own personal reinterpretation of the law rather than abiding strictly by the Constitution. The gay-marriage issue, when several state judges ruled that prohibiting gay and lesbian couples to marry was unconstitutional, was one issue where these judges were targeted by Republicans.
The Senate continues to be deadlocked on some judicial nominees sent to the chamber by President Bush. The Schiavo case is just the latest in a string of cases that may be in the back of lawmakers' minds when these judges come to the floor for a vote.
"As you look at the judges who are activists in the manner I've suggested, those judges are not conservative, but liberal and not [following] the law," said Santorum, chairman of the Senate Republican Conference. "To suggest this was unimportant is a judicial creation ... not how the law is intended to be interpreted. President Bush is putting forward judges who don't do that."
SEARCH
Click here for FOX News RSS Feeds
Advertise on FOX News Channel, FOXNews.com and FOX News Radio
Jobs at FOX News Channel.
Internships at FOX News Channel (Summer internship deadline March 1, 2005).
Terms of use. Privacy Statement. For FOXNews.com comments write to
[email protected]; For FOX News Channel comments write to
[email protected]
� Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Copyright � 2005 ComStock, Inc.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Copyright 2005 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved.
All market data delayed 20 minutes.
|
|
|
|
Zeke Zabertini
Captain
Joined: 13 Sep 2002
Posts: 4832
|
| Thu Mar 31, 2005 9:45 pm |
|
The GOP, despite its apparent belief to the contrary, is not the moral authority of the world.
|
|
|
Captain Patrick
Commodore
Joined: 06 Mar 2005
Posts: 2421
|
| Thu Mar 31, 2005 9:46 pm |
|
Terry RIP
|
|
|
Theresa
Lux Mihi Deus
Joined: 17 Jun 2001
Posts: 27256
Location: United States of America
|
| Thu Mar 31, 2005 10:34 pm |
|
Please repeat the condolence posts here.
-------signature-------
Some of us fall by the wayside
And some of us soar to the stars
And some of us sail through our troubles
And some have to live with our scars
|
|
|
AndrewBullock
The Misguided One
Joined: 04 Jun 2004
Posts: 2112
Location: Kentucky. (North America)
|
| Thu Mar 31, 2005 10:37 pm |
|
Rest in peace, Terri. For you are in our hearts as we we're once in yours.
"Stay outta trouble, ya here.."
God bless everyone,
~Andrew J. Bullock
-------signature-------
"Our integrity sells for so little, but it is all we really have. It is the very last inch of us. But within that inch we are free"
|
|
|
Theresa
Lux Mihi Deus
Joined: 17 Jun 2001
Posts: 27256
Location: United States of America
|
| Thu Mar 31, 2005 10:42 pm |
|
| Theresa wrote: | | Please repeat the condolence posts here. |
The word "here" is actually a link to the appropriate topic.
-------signature-------
Some of us fall by the wayside
And some of us soar to the stars
And some of us sail through our troubles
And some have to live with our scars
|
|
|
|
|
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
|
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2002 phpBB Group
Star Trek �, in all its various forms, are trademarks & copyrights of Paramount Pictures
This site has no official connection with Star Trek or Paramount Pictures
Site content/Site design elements owned by Morphy and is meant to only be an archive/Tribute to STV.com
|
Search
FAQ
Log in
