Whether or not her cognitive abilities will improve are irrelevant to the question of her basic human right to live.
Guardianship cannot include crimes against the person, such as prevention of feeding or drinking.
Posted on 03/24/2005 6:20:01 PM PST by J. Neil Schulman
My friends:
It does not take a court order to save Terri Schiavo from dehydration and starvation.
It does not require an order from Governor Jeb Bush or the Florida DCF to place her under protection.
It does not require permission of Terri Schiavo's husband and legal guardian, Michael Schiavo, to give her food and water.
Michael Schiavo's legal guardianship only extends to medical and financial decisions, not basic human rights such as feeding or water given by mouth, since eating and drinking are basic human rights necessary to survive.
Terri Schiavo has the basic right to eat and drink by mouth if she is capable of doing so. Her consent to live is implicit in her swallowing the food and water and negates any presumption that in the absence of a legal document that she wishes to die.
Her cognitive handicaps are medically and legally irrelevant. Her medical prognosis is irrelevant to her basic himan rights. Whether or not her cognitive abilities will improve are irrelevant to the question of her asic human right to live.
Guardianship cannot include crimes against the person, such as prevention of feeding or drinking. Denial of water and food is not a medical issue. It is beyond the legal scope of a guardianship since it is a basic human-rights issue. No judge's authority extends to denying the basic right to life, except for those convicted of a crime. Being handicapped does not diminish human rights. In fact, under the Americans with Disabilities Act, the handicapped are entitled to special protections from attempts to deny them access to basic human necessities.
Nobody is denying that Terri is being denied food and water -- there is no legal controversy on this fact -- so there is no need for a legal finding by Florida DCF in order to protect her human right to be fed or given water by mouth. Police can arrest anyone who has been denying Terri Schiavo food and water by mouth since it is a felony in progress, and no court order is necessary to prevent a felony in progress.
Prevention of giving food and water to someone capable of eating and drinking is contrary to Florida law, and is a felony. This includes actionsby judges who commit a felony under color of authority by issuing an order beyond the scope of their legal authority. It is beyond the power of a judge to order someone to be denied food and water if they are capable of eating and drinking.
Governor Jeb Bush has duty to enforce the law, which is not related to the judge or his court order. The court's jurisdiction only extended to the question of guardianship. No guardian may deny a human being under their charge basic human rights, and to do so is a felony, regardless of a judge's granting a right to make a medical decision regarding a feeding tube's removal. The judge may allow the guardian to remove the gastric feeding tube. The judge may not go beyond this medical question and forbid the patient to be fed and given water by mouth. The medical question of whether or not Terri Schiavo's guardian may remove her feeding tube is the only question the court had the right to rule on. No court has the right to go beyond the medical decision and deny Terri Schiavo her basic human right to eat and drink, if she is able to do so,
Police and citizens have a right and duty to stop the crime of starvation by unlawful imprisonment. Any representative of the police, sheriff, or attorney general can enforce this Florida law without any court order, because there is a felony in progress.
Anyone who attempts to prevent feeding or giving a drink of water or ice chips is committing a felony, and legal force can be used against them and they can be arrested and charged as co-conspirators. This includes any lawyer, bailiff, police officer, sheriff, security guard, or law enforcement officer who is complicit in preventing attempts to feed Terri Schiavo and give her water or ice by mouth.
If anyone is hurt during the attempt to stop the commission of that felony, that may be a compounding felony.
All statutes regarding police failure to protect are irrelevant because the police authority is being used under color of authority to commit a felony crime.
Judge Greer's order to prevent Terri Schiavo from being given food or water by mouth is an illegal abuse of judicial authority, and he may be held personally liable (civilly and criminally) for each act which denies Terri Schiavo food or water.
Judge Greer's authority -- the question the judge had the authority to decide -- extended only to the question of who was rightfully authorized to make medical decisions for Terri Schiavo and specifically whether the gastric tube could legally be removed by order of her legal guardian. Anything preventing her well-being beyond that medical decision is abuse of power under color of authority and is felonious.
If Judge Greer attempts to prevent Terri's rescue, the judge is compounding the felonies and may be arrested for it and may be held criminally and civilly liable.
Because Terri Schiavo's life has been placed in danger by this crime of denying any attempt to give her food or water by mouth, the use of a gastric tube to rehydrate her and give her nutrition until she is stable and may again eat and drink on her own may be done by any duly constituted authority, and does not require the consent of her guardian. In other words, if six days ago when the gastric tube was removed, which was a medical decision within the scope of her legal guardian, hospice personnel and Terri's family had been permitted to attempt to give her food and water orally, no crime would have been committed. Since Terri Schiavo has been placed in danger of death by forbidding her being offered food or water by mouth, a crime is in progress and any medical means to stabilize her are called form including the reinsertion of a gastric feeding tube.
No court order or permission is necessary to save Terri Schiavo. Any sworn state, county, or local law enforcement officer or judicial officer in the State of Florida may stop the felony in progress of denying Terri Schiavo the offer of food and water by mouth, or to reintroduce her feeding tube until she is medically stable and capable of eating and drinking by mouth, and bring whatever legal force necessary to rescue her from those illegally holding her captive in a hospice.
________________________
J. Neil Schulman &
Randall Herrst, JD
With the bullying and intimidation that Greer has put out no one will help. I hope he has not intimidated Jeb Bush. I know I would not allow it if I were in Jebs position.
Jeb Bush needs to have an Executive Order stating that any person that intervenes with the state agency fulfilling it's legal obligation to protect Terri will immediately no longer be employed by the state of Florida and therefore will not have any capacity legal capacity to act as a law enforcement officer.
this whole thing seems simple for Jeb Bush to act. He has the authority to do so....whats he waiting on if he is intending to take her into protective custody ??????
The point is, any Florida sworn police or judicial officer has the power. It does not fall only on the governor. Any of thousands of Florida LEO's are legally empowered to do it.
It just takes the decision to do the right thing. That's what God's testing in us.
That's quite a point. Have you sent it to anyone with influence?
I hope someone goes in to save her now.
Time must surely be running out.
I agree! He needs to stand up now for what is right! He needs to understand that she will be murdered if he does not.
JEB!... BE A HERO!
Someone with some physical courage needs to do something. I can't believe they're going to let this poore woman die a slow agonizing death of starvation and thirst!! The police needs to go in and save her!
I understand! But I hear that Micheal's mom works for the police or the sheriffs department and that he did at one time also. The police stationed outside of the door escorted the attorney out when Terri attempted to yell I want to live.
They are nothing but cowards! They are afraid of Judge Greer!
What wimps they are but that is the way that it is! It really gives one a sense that there is no justice or law! I bet many more people will not attempt to go through the justice system or to law after seeing this. More and more people will take the law into their own hands. I had few tell me today that they would either hire a hit on Micheal or kill him themselves if they were in the same position.
expatpat wrote:
That's quite a point. Have you sent it to anyone with influence?
Yes. But spread this widely anyway, please. If you have a way of getting it to the Schindler family attorneys or Randall Terry, please do!
Whether or not her cognitive abilities will improve are irrelevant to the question of her basic human right to live.
Guardianship cannot include crimes against the person, such as prevention of feeding or drinking.
If he does not take a stand knowing what he knows about Terri, he will never forget it. He will have many problems sleeping many nights for the rest of his life.
He needs to do the right thing. Terri will thank him one day!
And the world will see after a little therapy how right he was to step in!
MSCASEY wrote:
"I had few tell me today that they would either hire a hit on Micheal or kill him themselves if they were in the same position."
If anyone wishes to engage in direct action, they should follow the successful tactics used by Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. If several thousand of Terri's supporters -- unarmed -- nonviolently took over the hospice and a qualified volunteer reconnected her feeding tube, justice and life might be served.
Those in the front will of course be arrested. But if there are thousands more behind them, they can take over the hospice without weapons or violence. The object will be to enforce Terri's legal right to life. The judges will call that illegal. Real Americans will applaud.
Do so at your own risk. Understand that I'm not advocating anything. I'm 3,000 miles away and talk is cheap.
Alan Keyes laid it out for Governor Bush and explained to him that he has the authority and he urged him to exercise that authority. So does he have the courage to do it? So far, no.
I was talking about it being their own child, and not going to the courts.
If Jeb Bush would take a stand he could end it all without anyone being arrested or physical hurt. As stated earlier he need to intact an Executive Order stating that any law enforcement person attempting to restrain or stop the CPS from fulfilling its legal obligation and duty shall immediately be terminated and will no longer have employment as an agent of the state.
I think he is feeling a little intimadated by Greer. He does't want to have cops start arresting CPS workers! But he can fix that!
Can this be put in breaking news?
BUMP!
Reportedly, Jeb and his staff and lawyers are working tonight looking for a way to do it. Anyone, have any good in, down there in Tallahassee?
The cops are county cops and Jeb may not have any simple means of firing them.
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