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Legal question about Terri Schiavo
Personal question | 03/27/05 | Jeffrey Smith

Posted on 03/27/2005 7:07:38 PM PST by jcsmonogram

I have a question for you regarding Terri Schiavo.

I understand that Judge Greer is apparently able to enforce the removal of the feeding tube at Michael Schiavo's request. I'm assuming that he cites the feeding tube as "medical treatment."

But how can she legally be denied ice chips on her lips or water in her mouth? This isn't "medical treatment." She swallows her own saliva, perhaps she could swallow water in small quantities.

I don't know if there's anything here that can help legally, but it's just something my wife and I thought of that didn't make sense to us. It seems that no one - not even Judge Greer or Michael Schiavo - can deny the oral administration of hydration.


TOPICS:
KEYWORDS: notheruselessvanity; schiavo; terri
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To: jcsmonogram

Judge Greer may have placed himself above man's laws but he is not above God's laws. There may not be justice in this world, but in the next Greer will face the fires of hell. Who then will be arrested trying to bring him a glass of water?


101 posted on 03/27/2005 9:11:04 PM PST by Natural Law
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To: null and void

Exactly!! I think people would accept the feeding tube taken out IF they at least offered her water. but the problem is, she would swallow...and if she swallows, their whole case falls apart. There is a reason they would not allow swallow tests and therapy....and why they won't allow ice chips. They would no longer be able to use the rationale that Terry didn't want to be "hooked to machines or tubes.." as a reason to starve her


102 posted on 03/27/2005 9:15:39 PM PST by t2buckeye
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To: P-Marlowe

The people who have physical and medical custody of Terri and who follow Greer's order will have their actions very carefully scrutinized.

I look forward to seeing the hospice and the country on the receiving end of a very large wrongful-death lawsuit.

And I look for an accounting into why Greer didn't follow the letter of the law w/r/t Michael Schiavo's guardianship filings.


103 posted on 03/27/2005 9:23:58 PM PST by Tax Government (Support the Senate's "Nuclear Option" -- a rules change to dislodge DEATHocrats. Contribute to FR.)
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To: speekinout

Let's see if I understand your logic here. The feeding tube must be removed so that she can die "naturally", but no one is allowed to offer her water or nutrition using "natural" methods because she might die. Yeah, that sounds right to me. (sarcasm off).


104 posted on 03/27/2005 9:28:45 PM PST by Binghamton_native
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To: jcsmonogram

Ever since the police were posted at her bedside, no one has been allowed to give her ice or water...hence the child, and others arrested for trying. People are trying, but the good 'ole judge thought of everything and no one can succeed. I think that even if Terri, herself, got the miraculous ability to ask for a drink of water, she'd be denied!


105 posted on 03/27/2005 9:45:26 PM PST by Shery (S. H. in APOland)
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To: org.whodat
Ok, I read the rant, now where is the legal question??

Wow, you have a funny view of what a "rant" is.

If you can't pick the question out of my 8 sentence post, I'll try to make it clearer:

Where does a judge - or anyone - get the legal authority to say another human being can't have a drink of water?
106 posted on 03/27/2005 10:17:07 PM PST by jcsmonogram (Pray for Terri)
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To: UCANSEE2

OK. I'm scared now.


107 posted on 03/27/2005 10:46:18 PM PST by ordinaryguy
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To: the invisib1e hand

Well said. It is easy to forget that, and start chasing something that isn't really there.


108 posted on 03/27/2005 10:47:18 PM PST by ordinaryguy
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To: speekinout
She never had a PET scan. That would show which areas of her brain are active under which conditions. If her brain responds differently to her mothers voice and the voice of a stranger, then we know she recognized her mother's voice.

The latest guardian ad litum seemed to thing she might be reacting specifically to her mother, so why not put it to the test?

109 posted on 03/27/2005 10:49:54 PM PST by ordinaryguy
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To: agrace
Bigamy laws wouldn't apply, since Michael isn't married to his girlfriend, either formally or by common-law (since Florida doesn't have any concept of common-law marriages).

I don't know what their adultry laws are.

110 posted on 03/27/2005 10:52:10 PM PST by ordinaryguy
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To: Pinetop

He didn't learn sensory deprivation on his own. Felos the death merchant helped, and Greer happily went along with everything they fed him.


111 posted on 03/27/2005 11:49:41 PM PST by Kryptonite
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To: Emmett McCarthy

"fools in black robes"

Despots, no, tyrants, no, royalty.


112 posted on 03/28/2005 3:54:20 AM PST by combat_boots (Dug in and not budging an inch.)
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To: Tax Government

Wouldn't you just love to consider going into Greer's court from now on for some reason for a decision of guardianship or life and death? Well, death anyway. I am actually not being sarcastic here. I would take myself out of Dodge 10 seconds ago.


113 posted on 03/28/2005 3:58:51 AM PST by combat_boots (Dug in and not budging an inch.)
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To: Fantasywriter

There's only $50,000 left in Terri's trust fund, so it's way past time for her to shuffle off this mortal coil. Felos has probably racked up that much in fees in the last week....He is on the board of this hospice and supposedly wangled a deal where she was able to stay (when all other patients are terminal), perhaps at no cost. This entire, horrible case smells to high heaven.


114 posted on 03/28/2005 4:10:35 AM PST by hershey
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To: jcsmonogram

Isn't there a life insurance policy involved? Why couldn't the police have intervened...if they suspected she was abused, perhaps strangled, and that the motive had always been money? A Catch 22? Because they didn't have enough proof to convince a judge? And once it landed in a judge's lap, they had to follow Fla. law...which meant Michael the husband's wishes were paramount. This has probably already been discussed to death, but you'd think Fla. legislators would wonder if their laws didn't need changing. If Kill on Demand/Euthanasia becomes legal, we're no better than the Netherlands, where doctors have been allowed to murder the ailing and elderly at their discretion. There have been problems with doctors paid off handsomely when sizable life insurance/inheritances were involved.


115 posted on 03/28/2005 4:22:40 AM PST by hershey
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To: deport

Felos was behind getting feeding tubes classified as a life-prolonging procedure in 1999. After that law passed (and I assume Jeb signed the bill into law), the lawyers went back to Greer and asked for Terri's feeding tube to be removed.


116 posted on 03/28/2005 6:11:04 AM PST by TenthAmendmentChampion (Click on my name to see what readers have said about my Christian novels!)
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To: RedBloodedAmerican

Before MS hit the jackpot with the money from the malpractice lawsuit, he was in and out of jobs in the restaurant industry. Sheesh, if you can't hold a job at Denny's...


117 posted on 03/28/2005 6:14:27 AM PST by TenthAmendmentChampion (Click on my name to see what readers have said about my Christian novels!)
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To: dagnabbit
God I'm slow. I just noticed your nic.

*blush* sorry...

118 posted on 03/28/2005 6:22:03 AM PST by null and void (innocent, incapacitated, inconvenient, and insured - a lethal combination for Terri...)
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To: McGavin999
My courage wavered. His look of anguish and my inability to administer oral pain medication had me call for a nurse to administer pain medication by injection. The nurse advised me that doing so could allow any of my family to sue me. We discussed this, and I said I didn't care. I didn't want my Dad in pain. I don't know he was in pain. The look on his face was painful.

My Dad was also comatose, yet I believe he was still aware of certain things. I say this because he passed away while I was talking on the phone about the pain medication. To this day I feel he took the decision out of my hands. To me my Dad took care of me to the end. I wavered.
119 posted on 03/28/2005 10:27:30 AM PST by backtothestreets
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To: Kennard

It's puzzling that the SCOTUS didn't see any reason to review this case. Does anyone know what their reasoning was?


120 posted on 03/28/2005 12:39:00 PM PST by mblaise
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