Terri Schiavo: Judicial Murder

http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0513,hentoff,62489,6.html ^ | March 29, 2005 | Nat Hentoff

[firebrand]

For all the world to see, a 41-year-old woman, who has committed no crime, will die of dehydration and starvation in the longest public execution in American history.

She is not brain-dead or comatose, and breathes naturally on her own. Although brain-damaged, she is not in a persistent vegetative state, according to an increasing number of radiologists and neurologists.

Among many other violations of her due process rights, Terri Schiavo has never been allowed by the primary judge in her case—Florida Circuit Judge George Greer, whose conclusions have been robotically upheld by all the courts above him—to have her own lawyer represent her.

Greer has declared Terri Schiavo to be in a persistent vegetative state, but he has never gone to see her. His eyesight is very poor, but surely he could have visited her along with another member of his staff. Unlike people in a persistent vegetative state, Terri Schiavo is indeed responsive beyond mere reflexes.

While lawyers and judges have engaged in a minuet of death, the American Civil Liberties Union, which would be passionately criticizing state court decisions and demanding due process if Terri were a convict on death row, has shamefully served as co-counsel for her husband, Michael Schiavo, in his insistent desire to have her die.

Months ago, in discussing this case with ACLU executive director Anthony Romero, and later reading ACLU statements, I saw no sign that this bastion of the Bill of Rights has ever examined the facts concerning the egregious conflicts of interest of her husband and guardian Michael Schiavo, who has been living with another woman for years, with whom he has two children, and has violated a long list of his legal responsibilities as her guardian, some of them directly preventing her chances for improvement. Judge Greer has ignored all of them.

In February, Florida's Department of Children and Families presented Judge Greer with a 34-page document listing charges of neglect, abuse, and exploitation of Terri by her husband, with a request for 60 days to fully investigate the charges. Judge Greer, soon to remove Terri's feeding tube for the third time, rejected the 60-day extension. (The media have ignored these charges, and much of what follows in this article.)

Michael Schiavo, who says he loves and continues to be devoted to Terri, has provided no therapy or rehabilitation for his wife (the legal one) since 1993. He did have her tested for a time, but stopped all testing in 1993. He insists she once told him she didn't want to survive by artificial means, but he didn't mention her alleged wishes for years after her brain damage, while saying he would care for her for the rest of his life.

Terri Schiavo has never had an MRI or a PET scan, nor a thorough neurological examination. Republican Senate leader Bill Frist, a specialist in heart-lung transplant surgery, has, as The New York Times reported on March 23, "certified [in his practice] that patients were brain dead so that their organs could be transplanted." He is not just "playing doctor" on this case.

During a speech on the Senate floor on March 17, Frist, speaking of Judge Greer's denial of a request for new testing and examinations of Terri, said reasonably, "I would think you would want a complete neurological exam" before determining she must die.

Frist added: "The attorneys for Terri's parents have submitted 33 affidavits from doctors and other medical professionals,all of whom say that Terri should be re-evaluated."

In death penalty cases, defense counsel for retarded and otherwise mentally disabled clients submit extensive medical tests. Ignoring the absence of complete neurological exams, supporters of the deadly decisions by Judge Greer and the trail of appellate jurists keep reminding us how extensive the litigation in this case has been—19 judges in six courts is the mantra. And more have been added. So too in many death penalty cases, but increasingly, close to execution, inmates have been saved by DNA.

As David Gibbs, the lawyer for Terri's parents, has pointed out, there has been a manifest need for a new federal, Fourteenth Amendment review of the case because Terri's death sentence has been based on seven years of "fatally flawed" state court findings—all based on the invincible neglect of elementary due process by Judge George Greer.

I will be returning to the legacy of Terri Schiavo in the weeks ahead because there will certainly be long-term reverberations from this case and its fracturing of the rule of law in the Florida courts and then the federal courts—as well as the disgracefully ignorant coverage of the case by the great majority of the media, including such pillars of the trade as The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Miami Herald, and the Los Angeles Times as they copied each other's misinformation, like Terri Schiavo being "in a persistent vegetative state."

Do you know that nearly every major disability rights organization in the country has filed a legal brief in support of Terri's right to live?

But before I go back to other Liberty Beats—the CIA's torture renditions and the whitewashing of the landmark ACLU and Human Rights First's lawsuit against Donald Rumsfeld for his accountability in the widespread abuse of detainees, including evidence of torture—I must correct the media and various "qualified experts" on how a person dies of dehydration if he or she is sentient, as Terri Schiavo demonstrably is.

On March 15's Nightline, in an appallingly one-sided, distorted account of the Schiavo case, Terri's husband, Michael—who'd like to marry the woman he's now living with—said that once Terri's feeding tube is removed at his insistent command, Terri "will drift off into a nice little sleep and eventually pass on and be with God."

As an atheist, I cannot speak to what he describes as his abandoned wife's ultimate destination, but I can tell how Wesley Smith (consultant to the Center for Bioethics and Culture)—whom I often consult on these bitterly controversial cases because of his carefully researched books and articles—describes death by dehydration.

In his book Forced Exit (Times Books), Wesley quotes neurologist William Burke: "A conscious person would feel it [dehydration] just as you and I would. . . . Their skin cracks, their tongue cracks, their lips crack. They may have nosebleeds because of the drying of the mucous membranes, and heaving and vomiting might ensue because of the drying out of the stomach lining.

"They feel the pangs of hunger and thirst. Imagine going one day without a glass of water! . . . It is an extremely agonizing death."

On March 23, outside the hospice where Terri Schiavo was growing steadily weaker, her mother, Mary, said to the courts and to anyone who would listen and maybe somehow save her daughter:

"Please stop this cruelty!"

While this cruelty was going on in the hospice, Michael Schiavo's serpentine lawyer, George Felos, said to one and all: "Terri is stable, peaceful, and calm. . . . She looked beautiful."

During the March 21 hearing before Federal Judge James D. Whittemore, who was soon to be another accomplice in the dehydration of Terri, the relentless Mr. Felos, anticipating the end of the deathwatch, said to the judge:

"Yes, life is sacred, but so is liberty, your honor, especially in this country."

It would be useless, but nonetheless, I would like to inform George Felos that, as Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas said: "The history of liberty is the history of due process"—fundamental fairness.

Contrary to what you've read and seen in most of the media, due process has been lethally absent in Terri Schiavo's long merciless journey through the American court system.

"As to legal concerns," writes William Anderson—a senior psychiatrist at Massachusetts General Hospital and a lecturer at Harvard University—"a guardian may refuse any medical treatment, but drinking water is not such a procedure. It is not within the power of a guardian to withhold, and not in the power of a rational court to prohibit."

Ralph Nader agrees. In a statement on March 24, he and Wesley Smith (author of, among other books, Culture of Death: The Assault of Medical Ethics in America) said: "The court is imposing process over justice. After the first trial [before Judge Greer], much evidence has been produced that should allow for a new trial—which was the point of the hasty federal legislation.

"If this were a death penalty case, this evidence would demand reconsideration. Yet, an innocent, disabled woman is receiving less justice. . . . This case is rife with doubt. Justice demands that Terri be permitted to live." (Emphasis added.)

But the polls around the country cried out that a considerable majority of Americans wanted her to die without Congress butting in.

A March 20 ABC poll showed that 60 percent of the 501 adults consulted opposed the ultimately unsuccessful federal legislation, and only 35 percent approved. Moreover, 70 percent felt strongly that it was wrong for Congress to get into such personal, private matters—and interfere with what some advocates of euthanasia call "death with dignity." (So much for the Fourteenth Amendment's guarantee of due process and equal protection of the laws.)

But, as Cathy Cleaver Ruse of the Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops pointed out:

"The poll [questions] say she's 'on life support,' which is not true [since all she needs is water], and that she has 'no consciousness,' which her family and dozens of doctors dispute in sworn affidavits."

Many readers of this column are pro-choice, pro-abortion rights. But what choice did Terri Schiavo have under our vaunted rule of law—which the president is eagerly trying to export to the rest of the world? She had not left a living will or a durable power of attorney, and so could not speak for herself. But the American system of justice would not slake her thirst as she, on television, was dying in front of us all.

What kind of a nation are we becoming? The CIA outsources torture—in violation of American and international law—in the name of the freedoms we are fighting to protect against terrorism. And we have watched as this woman, whose only crime is that she is disabled, is tortured to death by judges, all the way to the Supreme Court.

And keep in mind from the Ralph Nader-Wesley Smith report: "The courts . . . have [also] ordered that no attempts be made to provide her water or food by mouth. Terri swallows her own saliva. Spoon feeding is not medical treatment. This outrageous order proves that the courts are not merely permitting medical treatment to be withheld, they have ordered her to be made dead."

In this country, even condemned serial killers are not executed in this way.

[MineralMan]

Wow! First it's Jesse Jackson, and now the "Village Voice." What's the world coming to?

[yellowdoghunter]

And yet, we have a group here at FR committed to seeing her killed by a slow death. And they will justify that claim by any means.

End in the end, when I stand before God, I want to say I was on the side of life.

[lilylangtree]

The judicial system along with ole Mikey are determined to see this woman dead as a door nail. Why? Mikey's got plenty to hide but why isn't his guardianship in question. He's living with another woman and has two children by her. A guardian has fiduciary responsibility and it's quite apparent that Mikey's got a conflict of interest when it comes to guardianship of his wife.

[Diogenesis]

Subhuman Pinella County Florida Judgenfuhrer Greer: "She could get up and speak for all I care.
Don't you get it? She will die soon. She should have last week.
Then she burns. Frankly, I get off on the prolonged and painful suffering of innocents.
Attorney Felos gets off on it, too, and our god who instructed him,
"You are more powerful than you realize.(*)
Imagine that. I get to to kill AND serve our new god at the same time
with a stroke of my pen and flash of my cool black-Mullah robe."

(*) pg 182, George Felos's book, "Litigation as Spiritual Practice" (Blue Dolphin Publishing, 2002)

Official flag of Pinella county, Florida - The State of Human Torture and Prolonged Starvation

HEALTHFUL DRINKS WITH WARM MEALS SINCE THE ORDER-TO-MURDER-AN-INVALID BY JUDGE GREER
Subhuman scumbag Torturer and Murderer-At-Will Pinella County Judgenfuhrer Greer ..... 55
..................................................................... Terri Shiavo 0
...................................................................... Lee Malvo 48
................................................................. Scott Peterson 47

[xsmommy]

nat henthoff, while a liberal, is consistently prolife.

[MineralMan]

And you posted that to me for what reason, exactly?

Your inflammatory posting of this same post, with minor inflammatory changes, in every thread is darned annoying.

It adds nothing to the discussion, but serves only to polarize the situation further.

Personally, I'd appreciate it very much if you stopped doing that.

[ken5050]

You know, since tomorrow is April Fool's Day, I fully expect to see this posted somewhere..

"Three days after her death, the US Court of Appeals ordered that Terri Schiavo's body be exhumed, and the feeding tube reinserted, while they finally decided to get off their fat judicial asses and consider the merits of her case"

[MineralMan]

"HEALTHFUL DRINKS WITH WARM MEALS SINCE THE ORDER-TO-MURDER-AN-INVALID BY JUDGE GREER
Subhuman scumbag Torturer and Murderer-At-Will Pinella County Judgenfuhrer Greer ..... 55
..................................................................... Terri Shiavo 0
...................................................................... Lee Malvo 48
................................................................. Scott Peterson 47

---

And what's the count for Diogenesis? Are you fasting?

Frankly mindless posting of the same post in every thread is spamming, as far as I'm concerned.

But, I'll stop complaining if you're fasting.

[The Spirit Of Allegiance]

The Village Voice slams the ACLU for not standing up for Terri Schiavo. Wow. Just Wow.

THAT'S NEWS.

[TenthAmendmentChampion]

I have a question for all the people who say, "Terri is/was a vegetable" and "Terri wouldn't have wanted to live this way."

Imagine Terri was your mother. Would you do to her what Michael Schiavo has done to Terri?

[Diogenesis]

I'm counting so its not spamming.

What mineral are you taking, MM?
Its effecting either your frontal or temporal lobes.

[68 grunt]

Is this the kookooburger thread? Where opposing FReepers are DeathSquad and Nazi's and all that claptrap?

I've denied my pet rock water now for two weeks and its still struggling to survive.

Was that ugly enough to satisfy the kooks?

[griswold3]

http://www.theempirejournal.com/53209_schiavo_case_tangled_web_o.htm

[TenthAmendmentChampion]

Dio, please ignore MineralMan. He hates Terri and wants her to die.

[lilylangtree]

What galls me is that all these judicial idiots after Terri's dead and buried will say "how unfortunate but my hands were tied."

[Zack Nguyen]

This is the best article that I have read on the case, period. Fantastic post.

[Norman Bates]

I completely agree with you. You have the zeal to express your moral outrage. Many, including me, feel that same outrage. Call Evil, Evil.

[conserv13]

Uh, that is a *little* over the top, I'd say.

[AlbionGirl]

I have to confess to really being a Nat Hentoff Democrat. I've been voting Republican for a quite a few seasons now, but that's only because the Dems have drifted so far from their moorings.

If the Dems ever get back to those moorings, I'll be back as well. I respect the Republicans, but they've never been where my heart is.

[najida]

I am remembering that my mom was witness in a case that was brought before Judge Greer years and years ago.

She really came away disliking the man....something to the effect that it was apparent he had already made up his mind and had clear contempt for those testifying on the other side.

(but gee, I am remembering this years later, a la MS).

[Cecily]

Lanny Davis also supports Terri and her parents.

[Diogenesis]

Maybe a femtometer. Registered?

[Gimme]

Good article. Thanks for posting it.

Now the parents are the "bad guys" and the "Fanatics" supposedly represent those with opposing thoughts, like LIFE. Labels. Thank you media. Thanks for all the polls too and the cleverly worded questions. I am not particularly religious but I know right from wrong. Good vs. Evil. This is totally Evil, imo.

[Darkwolf377]

Actually it's not news--Hentoff is being consistent here; he's a minority opinion on the Vocie staff where life is concerned, and has been for years.

Hentoff wrote my favorite book on free speech, called "Free Speech for Me But Not for Thee", which you can still get used. It's a collection of essays on various frist amendment issues; my favorite is the one about the pro-life artist who...well, it's pretty graphic, but I'll just say she outwitted those who support the idea that a fetus is not human.

[thomas16]

"Our goal is a Christian nation. ... We have a biblical duty, we are called by God to conquer this country. We don't want equal time. We don't want pluralism. ... Theocracy means God rules. I've got a hot flash. God rules."

~ Terry Randall

http://tvbb.zap2it.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=198239&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=&fpart=1

[grassboots.org]

This is the video that should be shown on the news everynight - it is even more powerful than the balloon video.

http://web.tampabay.rr.com/ccb/videos/Terri_Big_Eyes.rm

You need Real Player to watch this, available free on the internet.

This is not reflex action - she heard the doctor, she opened her eyes as wide as she could to impress him.

Even Fox news has ignored this clip.

[Major Matt Mason]

But the polls around the country cried out that a considerable majority of Americans wanted her to die without Congress butting in.

The reason for this is simply that most people are reading the misleading accounts presented in the "mainstream" media. Most people don't want to take the time to find out all the facts in this case (including the media), and so we end up with troubling poll results like we have seen over the past couple of weeks.

[jpsb]

Bump, this is a must read!

[DBeers]

"Our goal is a Christian nation. ... We have a biblical duty, we are called by God to conquer this country. We don't want equal time. We don't want pluralism. ... Theocracy means God rules. I've got a hot flash. God rules."

I notice you have posted this on several threads -what gives --are you infatuated with this quote? Myself, I don't 'get' the meaning or relevance. Of course, I assume you are not just attempting to Christian bash but may actually be attempting to communicate something intelligent in a unique fashion...

[monkeywrench]

What's your point? Are those in favor of saving a disabled woman from starvation, all randall terry followers? Hardly. Are all those opposed to be painted as aclu followers? Are those your rules?

[planekT]

...Many, including me, feel that same outrage. Call Evil, Evil...

It is evil. There is NO doubt about it.

Good thread this morning asking the question would a person who could speak for themselves deny themselves food and water as a means to end their life?

Of course they wouldn't. How then does one assume that this is what Terri wanted?

Nazi crap. I thought we put a stop to that back in World War II.

[TAdams8591]

"The courts . . . have [also] ordered that no attempts be made to provide her water or food by mouth. Terri swallows her own saliva. Spoon feeding is not medical treatment. This outrageous order proves that the courts are not merely permitting medical treatment to be withheld, they have ordered her to be made dead."

Spoon feeding is not medical treatment. GREER, FELOS, SCHIAVO and OTHERS want Terri dead so bad they can taste it!

[mpowers]

The bearded lady, the Siamese twins and the geek cannot be far behind once Jessie joins your troupe. Another in the line of many fast talkers who claim to have a direct line to some form of intelligent design. If we can just eliminate peoples creation myths from the discussion the whole issue comes into focus quite simply, be humane. Not to Michael, not the parents and not to the false prophets and their hordes. Be humane to Terri. And one more thought if I may. We had all better hope that Terri is PVS. How would you like to wake up everyday for 15 years being aware (to any extent) and not being able to express yourself in any manner. Truly a fate worse than death.

[katana]

Reagan had the same problem as you. The political party he grew up with no longer really existed and he was about 30 years ahead of his time in realizing it. I'm old enough to remember when a Republican like me could have a decent civil conversation and good friendships with staunch Democrats but that no longer seems even possible. Harry Truman and Scoop Jackson have been dead a long time and it will take a complete schism in the Democratic Party for the part you remember to ever again surface. How many Joe Lieberman's (and even he was willing to sell his soul as Gore's running mate) or Nat Hentoffs are really out there?

[mpowers]

Yes. In a heart beat.

[MineralMan]

"What mineral are you taking, MM?
Its effecting either your frontal or temporal lobes."

I take zinc, daily, thanks.

The correct word is "affecting," not "effecting."

That's beside the point however. Your postings are spams in these threads. They do nothing to advance the discussion.

I'm still waiting for your answer regarding the number of drinks and meals YOU have had. Would that be embarrassing to you?

[MineralMan]

"Dio, please ignore MineralMan. He hates Terri and wants her to die."

If you are going to refer to me in a post, please do me the courtesy of including my name in the To: line.

I do not hate Terri, nor do I want her do die. You have written an untruth, there. You cannot point to a single post where I have said either thing.

Please do not write things about me that are untrue. It's unseemly of you.

[becker]

I think you hit the nail on the head with the topic of MS guardianship of Terri.Without his being appointed her legal guardian he would not be able to control the situation the way has and most importantly he would not be able to control the MONEY!!!!As her guardian he controls all of the money from the malpractice settlement which was over 1 million dollars.
The kicker is MS is not even paying for her medical expenses!!!!!He had her declared indigent which means the taxpayers are paying for her care.Maybe now you can understand why MS paid $385,000 from Terri's portion of the settlement to Felos as "a benefit to Terri" after he was declared her guardian.
So in essence Terri is paying for her own murder.... only in America

[lilylangtree]

Bottom line: GREED

Would speculate that if the guardianship can be taken away and a professional audit done on Terri's money that Mikey has already spent there would be some ppprreeetttyyy interesting expenditures.

[firebrand]

Thank you. That's what I thought. It sticks to the law and the Constitution. Hentoff is always on the side of liberty.

[becker]

I 'm sure if an audit were done on MS it would show many
payments to the Schindlers for all the financial help they gave Micheal and Terri over the years.
When MS and TS were first married they lived in the Schindlers basement in Pa. and then when MS and TS moved to FLA. the Schindlers payed their rent for them.
Now Mickey doesn't forget help like that because he is such a "Great Guy". Funny the Estrangement with the Schindlers
began almost immediately after the Med. Mal. Practice
MONEY was received...........go figure......

[firebrand]

Thought you might like to see this, if you haven't already.

[Tabi Katz]

Great article. Thank you! The pro-death forces in this country are out of control.

[CyberAnt]

I'm standing with you!

This paragraph is so telling: "Months ago, in discussing this case with ACLU executive director Anthony Romero, and later reading ACLU statements, I saw no sign that this bastion of the Bill of Rights has ever examined the facts concerning the egregious conflicts of interest of her husband and guardian Michael Schiavo, who has been living with another woman for years, with whom he has two children, and has violated a long list of his legal responsibilities as her guardian, some of them directly preventing her chances for improvement. Judge Greer has ignored all of them."

It proves to me that the FACTS never mattered in this case. The only goal was to get rid of Terri. And .. I still believe he wanted to get rid of her because he feared that if she got better she would tell on him - how he had attacked her and tried to kill her.

By a vote of 3-2 she was condenmed to die - while 33 other medical professionals said she was NOT PVS. All of these people were ignored by Judge Greer.

One other thing that I find interesting - Scott - Michael's brother contends that he and his wife both heard Terri say that she did not want to live like this - but when she was first injured and Michael was providing the care she needed - neither Scott nor his wife ever mentioned to Michael that Terri "didn't want to live like this" - it was only after the money settlement that Michael suddenly remembered that little detail.

It's so obvious - anyone associated with this case had to be tripping over that information and ignoring it on purpose. I believe the real losers of this case will be - the judiciary and the ACLU - and ultimately the democrats.

Our job - to tell our legislators to get off their blessed assurance and change these laws and reign in the judiciary - NOW! And we must remind them that WE ELECT THEM - NOT THE DEMOCRATS - and they better stop being afraid of what these OUT OF CONTROL dems will be saying - and instead listen to what WE ARE SAYING.

And .. it won't hurt to remind the repubs that 47 democrats voted with them for the new legislation to help Terri.

[yankeedog]

Why?