Posted on 04/20/2005 11:25:41 PM PDT by FairOpinion
Terri ping! If anyone would like to be added to or removed from my Terri ping list, please let me know by FReepmail!
The current silence of the President and The Congress who first tried to save her life speaks volumes.
Are they ashamed that they merely did their duty to protect every innocent American from murder???
This has changed my life.
It will NEVER be the same. I thank Terri for this, but am ashamed that she had to suffer in order for my life to change and for me to wake up...
I put up a media email list on the Baby Charlotte thread in case anyone is interested in helping the family alert the media about her....
Thanks- You Freepers are GREAT!
Unfortunately some hopitals are rewarding their medical staff with bonuses by saving money. What saves the most money?
Amazing - the Italians understand life and death issues far better than Americans.
Usually America is the shining star leading all the other countries in the right way. Now, some other country will need to lead America.
Tom Delay is not part of the death culture. Are you from DU?
When a person is dying (this is the difference you see - Terri was not dying), family often do not further the dying process IF IT IS ACCORDING TO THE WISHES OF THE DYING ONE.
I cannot imagine the heart ache of those of you who championed Terri Schiavo on the scene with so much personal devotion. You bought her a little more time, encouraged so many and importantly, you gave Terri Schiavo who had no voice a presence in the national consciousness.
Even though it is a change of course, it remains critical that the story of Terri Schiavo remains whole. In surfing for articles about her, I have found journalists wanting to parse her story to fit their own needs about living wills or bulimia, etc. The media wants to make it a conservative/liberal issue.
The circumstances of Terri Schiavo's life and death cut across a spectrum of beliefs and connected many disparate people. As you have time, continue to write or blog or call when her story is watered down.
Though I want changes in judges and representatives and laws and will continue to advocate for that, my biggest fear is that the story of Terri Schiavo will become distorted. I work the hardest at maintaining the issues surrounding her.
As I continue to send letters to media, journalists, bloggers, etc. I have narrowed the facts of what happened to Terri Schiavo to a few lines. I know there are more facts but sometimes people won't read the whole thing.
This is my primary body of a letter:
"1. She was awarded 1.4 million dollars by a jury for treatment and therapy. Court records indicate NONE of those funds were expended to that purpose. Court records indicate $350,000 of those funds were expended to litigate her death.
2. She was sentenced to death without representation. The closest representation was the guardians ad litem, both of whose recommendations for further investigation of her wishes were dismissed by the court.
3. She was placed in a hospice for five years without a terminal illness. Hospice laws, policies and procedures require a terminal diagnosis and short life expectancy prognosis. A hospice is equipped to assist the dying. It is not equipped or purposed to provide for the living – the disabled living.
4. Terri Schiavo was declared indigent at some point during that time. Taxpayers funded her stay at a facility not purposed to her needs.
Thus, there is now legal precedence to obtain a jury award on behalf of a disabled individual for one ostensible purpose and use it for another. Treatment and therapy to disabled individuals who have funds allocated for that purpose can be denied by guardianship powers in complete disregard of the disabled individuals entitlement to those treatments and therapies. Laws and guidelines regarding appropriate facility placement have been ignored, thus making them ineffective. Furthermore, erroneous placement can be at taxpayer expense.
Many disabled organizations, religious organizations and prominent Democratic party members intervened on Terri Schiavo’s behalf for these real and documented issues. The treatment of Terri Schiavo was unconscionable bordering on the illegal. Terri Schiavo could not speak for herself and her fate was in the hands of journalists and media who highlight the left wing/right wing feud and distort the core of issues surrounding Terri Schiavo that motivated hundreds of thousands of individuals from all ideological spectrums to activate en masse before it became a media event. Congress, Governor Bush and President Bush responded to activists informed and passionate about these issues despite a lack of organization and media coverage. "
I know it's cold language in light of our emotions but the strength of my emotions is a result of the fact filled list of wrongs and indignities visited on Terri.
I don't mean to be presumptious, but I exhort everyone to continue to respond to the prayer requests, the calls to action and find opportunities to get Terri Schiavo's story out clearly to the media and public. As I have a few minutes everyday, I try to contact some government official, media source, blogger, journalist - anyone. I want to put some facts on their file.
Best wishes.
Yes, and her husband was determined she was going to die and totally disregarded the wishes of the family.
One could not help but question the motives. A man who was afraid of what his wife might say should she be able to communicate - would act exactly like MS.
A man who stood to gain financially if the unwanted wife was dead, might act the same.
And, is it fair for a woman to be given the death penalty based on what a man with ulterior motives would claim she said?
It just was not right from so many different points and will be so damaging for the future of others who happen to come after.
Where are the Florida freepers? First and foremost, there needs to be a huge outcry to the Florida legislators and demand that the laws be changed. Especially any end-of-life panel dreaming up revisions to who is expendable and what criteria is needed to do away with them.
Where is the outrage from Floridians? I don't see it on FR.
(From a post by mercyme)
"They also state that advanced directives providing for treatment should not carry the same weight as directives withdrawing care, and advanced directives should not compel the physican to provide them, regardless if the patient needs them (Doty). Doty is part of the Florida Bioethics Network as well as Project Grace. One of the changes in the law in CB/CB/SB 2228 includes the Bioethics Network as part of the process of withdrawing care. " Now, I would be outraged if my state was writing such garbage.
But, there is also NO PROOF that Terri told him she would not want to live like that and it meant that Terri was killed. Because of the law changes instigated by the Florida end-of-life panel allowing "hearsay" evidence to be accepted in these situations. I think I also read that one on that panel had ties to Felos' hospice where Terri was.
I would think that we should error on the side of life rather than death.
I'm basically not thinking about it.
Yes, and in Mae's case her granddaughter wanted her to die.
This is the problem.
How do we protect people from medical power of attorney in the hands of relatives that want them dead - for money, or other reasons?
How do we protect those without relatives from being at the mercy of medical facilities and death dealers?
What about preventing a medical facility from making a death decision without due recourse for the victim - such as a court review or having a court appointed representative give approval?
There has to be a solution to all of this that will be fair to all - we just have to find it. No way we stand by and allow any of us to be slaughtered at the whim of those who want us dead instead of alive for whatever reason.
Remember, we will be facing organ demands in the future and the profitability of an organ becoming more valuable to a medical facility than the life of someone.
What are the people of Florida doing with regard to the legislature that turned over lawmaking on end-of-life issues to an end-of-life panel?
Is there any expressed outrage that the Florida legislature was unable to save Terri? Is there a massive anger?
I would think the Florida people would be up-in-arms demanding that the laws allowing this travesty be changed.
Hopefully, the state will not murder me.
If I see the thread about the legislation, I'll ping you there.
Meanwhile, thousands of Americans and foreign nationals and foreigners are demanding an investigation of what happened to Terri and why.
The State of Florida is rearranging the chairs on the deck of the ship of state which is in sad condition except Fla had a surplus. Yay!
The trouble is that if you catch one bad guy, a whole row falls with them. Florida would have to start over to weed out everyone who was dereliect in their duties and they know who they are. They can do a law in Terri's name but she's not coming back and that's their fault. Senator Jim King should get voted out of office. He shares equal blame with J. Greer and the other judges.
It is going to take the Schindlers a LONG while to digest, let alone accept, what AMERICA LAND OF THE FREE AND HOME OF THE BRAVE did to their daughter/sister and thus to their family. It is going to take a long while for many of us as well.
I meant to say, "Terri's family" not "Terri and her family."
Where are the Florida freepers? Well, there were tons of them at the Vigils and ya think that because we're not posting, we have given up????? That will be the day. We will never forget having been witness to these dark days of American History. Shame on our leaders, not shame on the freepers. Our leaders could have saved Terri because they had executive authority to go in there and get her out of Hospice. THEY DID ZIP.
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