New Guardian Urged for Terri Schiavo, More Evaluation of Her Condition Needed

LifeNews.com ^ | December 2, 2003 | Steven Ertelt

[msmagoo]

Felos must be working overtime to suppress Wolfson's comments about removing HINO as guardian. Intimidation is his specialty. Bush isn't afraid of him, though!

Bush's response to Wolfson's report here.

[msmagoo]

I wonder how much money it would be worth to the health insurance industry to have a pro-death judge such as Greer in their pocket? Think of all the money the insurance companies could save if they can kill off 'useless eaters' legally?

[Theodore R.]

I had not even thought about insurance companies wanting to kill off "useless eaters." You are on to something there. The more we study about poor Terri, the more the liberal horrors come to light.

[daylate-dollarshort]

If you wish to hit the abuse button feel free. However, since you are a relative newcomer, I would suggest you refer to the posting guidelines. You are the one indulging in personal attacks, not I.

As to a direct response to your assertion regarding the articles, court documents etc., I suggest that you should review them and the new GAL report to Governor Bush.

The GAL's report makes it very clear that the Dr's selected by Michael Shiavo did indeed physically examine Terri, as did the Dr's selected by the Schindlers as well as the physician selected by the Court.

Additionally, the GAL references the many treating physicians that agreed that Terri is non-cognizant and in PVS. Additionally he refers to the rehabilitation reports and the swallow tests and therapies administered.

Presumeably, testimony was taken from these many physicians and therapists, certainly during the malpractice proceedings and likely during the proceedings held in the probate court.

[atruelady]

I really don't care what the GAL says. He is reviewing information and records that were cleaned out by HINO and his supporters for 10 years. It created a snowball effect of everyone reading and making decisions based on altered information presenting a false image of her true condition. No GAL has the medical knowledge to examine her.

Personal attacks on you? No, they are not personal attacks, they are me venting my frustration after I have told you not to post to me anymore. This is you last warning.

[atruelady]

I meant "your" last warning.

[daylate-dollarshort]

Does this mean that you can provide no cites?

[FR_addict]

"Further, there is no claim or mention that anyone tried to starve her to death."

According to her husband the doctors tried to. He had to threaten to take the doctors to court to get them to back off.

First, you say there is no claim or mention that anyone tried to starve her to death, then in the next post to me you say you saw the interview where the husband claimed just that. Why did you post something you knew not to be true?

Each state is different and doctors will often have the ability to overrule family members. I believe her husband.

The doctors denied my father medical help abitrarily over the objections of our family. His chest cavity would fill up with fluids and they would drain the chest. One time however, they were going to let him die in this painful manner over our objections. It was like drowning slowly. He was in so much pain. I wouldn't wish it on my worse enemy. We had to make a scene before the doctors relented and drained his chest.

[FR_addict]

I wonder how much money it would be worth to the health insurance industry to have a pro-death judge such as Greer in their pocket? Think of all the money the insurance companies could save if they can kill off 'useless eaters' legally?

I never thought of this either. We just had an agent come out to the house to talk about long term health insurance.

[Ethan_Allen]

I've been way out of the loop lately; one personal crisis after another, but somewhere along the line I missed this:

"He is reviewing information and records that were cleaned out by HINO and his supporters for 10 years. It created a snowball effect of everyone reading and making decisions based on altered information presenting a false image of her true condition."

I've started following another nest of either mismanagement or malfeasance (or both) in Florida, and the falsification of documents, among other irregularities were an issue there as well, so much so that the Florida House started to take action to make it a criminal offense punishable by up to five years in prison. As bad as Terri's situation is, I believe she is the tip of an iceberg that's been growing for some time, one I think a lot of people in Florida, and possibly elsewhere, hope doesn't get noticed. Possibly God has other plans.

Have nothing to do with the evil deeds of darkness,
but rather expose them. Ephesians 5:11.

Keep up the good work FReepers.

[FR_addict]

did LifeNews.com let the cat out of the bag?

I don't know if they did, but it is in Wolfson's report on page 4:

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/media/acrobat/2003-12/10455191.pdf

"Within the construct of the GAL's role, an additional recommendation is proferred to the court and to the Governor. During the more than nine years of adversarial relationships involving Theresa, no permanent Guardian Ad Litem has been appointed to stand exclusively in her shoes. It is the additional recommendation of the GAL that as long as controversy and an adversarial relationship exist in Theresa's case, a Guardian Ad Litem should be appointed to represent her exclusive interests. This in no way intended to detract from or impunge the role of Theresa's existing Guardian, Michael Schiavo."

[atruelady]

I don't have to...they are everywhere. Learn to research on your own. The rest of us know how to.

[Ethan_Allen]

I wonder how much money it would be worth to the health insurance industry to have a pro-death judge such as Greer in their pocket? Think of all the money the insurance companies could save if they can kill off 'useless eaters' legally?

We just had an agent come out to the house to talk about long term health insurance.

Well, wouldn't that be a boondoggle for an enterprising, unethical insurance company? Particularly if they could have them quietly slip away in some out-of-the-way hospice willing to reap profit$ to oblige? I've read enough of the statutes to believe there could have been a lot of premeditation and possibly collusion, on the part of a host of groups and agencies, who may have lobbied to have some of the more draconian measures passed, the food and water being 'life support', just one of them.

[Orlando]

The light is shining brighter more and MORE everyday
from Clearwater, Florida.

A little reminder for the forces of God and the light, who
find them selfs here, and feeling depress because of yesterday news from lifenews, we celebrated with joy, and
were filled with hope, but then the story changed and our
happiness turned to *^&%^)*# sadness(water-down).

Remember this, if it wasn't for YOU (YES YOU !!!) Theresa
would of been murdered back in October, but she is here
today and TODAY...December 3rd...We celebrate HER LIFE
, because today she is 40 years old, and her Mother, Father,Sister,Brother, and friends have her TODAY, because
of YOU !

The Demons (MS, Warlock mind-control Felos,Baird,Greer, and FAT$$$ State Sen. Jim Death King(R as for DemonRATS) think
they won yesterday.....okay they did , BUT it's NOT over yet !!

Death-King of Jacksonville, we the PEOPLE of the Florida,
and the United States will remember YOU in November 2004.

Judge Greer, you too...

---

All roads leads back to Clearwater, it's no wonder why the
HOLY MOTHER and JESUS images showed-up on @ December 3rd of
1997.....Is there a connection here , hmm ?...YES !
------
HAPPY BIRTHDAY Theresa (Terri) Schindler....

ps.....because of YOU....Don't worry.."BE HAPPY :)"

[atruelady]

Thank you. It amazes me how people ignore this one basic fact. Her medical records (such as they are) are still the MAJOR catalyst of how decisions are made about Terri.

[Ethan_Allen]

It is the additional recommendation of the GAL that as long as controversy and an adversarial relationship exist in Theresa's case, a Guardian Ad Litem should be appointed to represent her exclusive interests.

If I'm not mistaken, his recommendation is redundant, since I believe that it is THE LAW, but his recommendation is appreciated from this corner, nevertheless, since the only GAL who had Terri's exclusive interests at heart was FIRED by Greer, for just that reason.

[Theodore R.]

Do you think it would be possible to find a Republican primary opponent to Senator Jim King of Jacksonville? King is apparently the "big fish" in that part of FL. Beating the entrenched King will be nearly impossible, but saving Terri has been more impossible thus far.

[daylate-dollarshort]

"First, you say there is no claim or mention that anyone tried to starve her to death, then in the next post to me you say you saw the interview where the husband claimed just that. Why did you post something you knew not to be true?"

The statement "there is no claim or mention that anyone tried to starve her to death" was referring to Adamson's website.

Had you read all of the articles you would have found that the "starving to death" issue was not mentioned for the years prior to the Terri Schiavo case and "Adamson's 70 days in PVS" talk show tour.

Read the articles- in was a mattter of only two weeks in the ICU before the Dr's and nurses could communicate with her quite well. So much for the 70 days headlines.

As to her lawyer husband, upon examination his claim makes no sense. He claims he was the one that discovered his wife could communicate. Furthermore, read the articles, Adamson herself relates that she communicated with her Dr while still in the ICU regarding whether or not she was going to die, to which he responded no.

Based upon the content of the articles Adamson herself posted to her own webpage, I find the "starve to death" claims incredible.

[pickyourpoison]

bump

[msmagoo]

Part of the problem is the support for the withdrawal of feeding tubes received from the certain priest and ethicists representing the Catholic Church, who did not speak out for the rights of Terri Schiavo, instead siding with the Right-to-Die movement:

The following is excerpted from Enforcing the "Right to Die" by Nancy Valko, RN

This statement was particularly discouraging since Father Gerard Murphy, a pastor and former hospital chaplain, had already testified for Terri's husband that withdrawing Terri's tube feedings "would be consistent with the teaching of the Catholic church".6

Unfortunately, there is a long history of Catholic priests and ethicists who have given similar testimony in other public "right to die" cases without rebuttal by the local bishop, despite Church documents and a 1998 statement by Pope John Paul II emphasizing that "the omission of nutrition and hydration intended to cause a patient's death must be rejected".7 Instead, these priests and ethicists uniformly mischaracterize people like Terri Schiavo as "gravely ill" and simple feeding tubes as "prolonging death".

Unfortunately, these ethicists have often held prominent positions in Catholic health care and education for years. It has now become harder and harder to find a Catholic health facility that does more than provide mere lip service to principle on this crucial issue. It is telling that when Archbishop Justin Rigali of St. Louis issued a statement quoting Church teaching during the Steven Becker "right to die" case in 2000, many Catholic priests and ethicists from around the country criticized him for taking such an uninformed and "extreme" position in defense of life.8

Therefore, it is welcome news that Catholic groups are now challenging such misrepresentations in the Terri Schiavo case. Women for Faith & Family president Helen Hitchcock sent a letter to Florida Governor Jeb Bush asking him to "review Terri Schiavo's case and to intercede on her behalf", noting that Women for Faith & Family has filed amicus briefs in the similar Cruzan and Busalacchi cases.9 A Catholic media coalition sent a public letter to all the Florida bishops calling for them "to publicly condemn the injustice and moral evil of this deliberate act of euthanasia and to issue a plea for mercy to the Florida courts and to Governor Jeb Bush".10 The Catholic Medical Association issued a statement that "discontinuing nutrition and hydration in this circumstance violates in its intention the distinction between 'causing death' and 'allowing death'" and quotes the 1989 pastoral statement of the Bishops of Florida that states "We can never justify the withdrawal of sustenance on the basis of the quality of life of the patient".11

The National Catholic Partnership on Disability, which includes Cardinal Francis George on its board, has highlighted the differences between Terry Wallis, a man who recently regained full consciousness after 19 years when his family refused to give up, and Terri Schiavo, whose husband is seeking to end her life. In their press release, Mary Jane Owen, executive director of the partnership, states, "those of us who live with assorted disabilities are aware that when any of us is deprived of their essential dignity and worth, each of us face that same discounting by the judgments of the culture of death".12

A Precedent-Setting Case
The importance of saving Terri cannot be overestimated, not only for her right to live but also to apply a brake to the current "right to die" movement that seems bent on terminating people with severe brain injuries or conditions. It is no accident that people like Terri are put into hospices and cases like hers are included in "end of life" education programs for health care professionals and the public. It is no coincidence that withdrawal of treatment decisions have become the justification for the new non-heartbeating organ donation policies.13 And it is the ultimate irony that even families and patients who choose to live can now be overruled by medical futility policies being instituted at hospitals throughout the country.

Terri's family has put up a courageous fight to save their daughter's life and, if they finally lose, a terrible precedent will be set for coercing other families to give up fighting for their loved ones. If evidence of Terri's responsiveness, as well as questions of possible perjury and bias, continue to be ignored by the courts, no one with a disability is ultimately safe from medical or legal discrimination. Bob Schindler, Terri's father, poignantly observes, "We pay great lip service in this country to disability rights, but as the degree of a person's disability increases, the level of legal protection that person receives decreases".