As Schiavo debate rages, others play their hands
 MELONE E-mail: Click here Archive |
Published September 28, 2003
Death hovers like a bird over Florence Lessac, waiting to land on the St. Petersburg woman's shoulder.
She is 90 years old. Already, she has begun to go through her possessions, sorting out what should be saved, what should be tossed when she's gone.
Already, she has planned for her cremation. She has her living will, wants no special measures used to keep her alive.
The nearness of her own death has led Lessac to pay close attention to the Terri Schiavo case.
"Those parents are crazy," Lessac said. "And I'm Catholic. I'm for life."
I wrote again about this melodrama last Thursday. With another order to remove Schiavo's feeding tube pending, I described how death would occur. Medical experts told me that denying food and water is a common and painless way to die.
I struck quite a nerve. The proof was in the deluge of phone messages and e-mail.
I expected to hear from the well-organized army of supporters of Schiavo's parents, and I did.
The most thoughtful comment came from Dr. Diane Gowski of Clearwater, who said that because Schiavo is not terminally ill, it would be immoral to deny her food and water. "I don't think you should end someone's life because she's severely disabled," Dr. Gowski said.
Other readers were off the wall. I was called an abortion fanatic, an atheist, a backer of Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean. Don't ask me to explain what Dean has to do with this.
Such is the tenor of the save-Terri campaign.
On a Web site dedicated to her, you can find court records and other information. There is a report of a bone scan that the lawyer for Schiavo's parents uses to claim Schiavo was asswebfeedalso affidavits from a few nursing assistants who cared for Schiavo who said her husband purposely mistreated her or withheld treatment.
Read those things and you get the impression they're facts. Nowhere does it say the state judge in the case agreed with the testimony of doctors for Schiavo's husband. The doctors said the bone breaks were the result of Schiavo being immobile for so long.
Nowhere does it say that when Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney Bernie McCabe and Pinellas Sheriff Everett Rice were asked to investigate, they declined. They told me last week they saw no evidence of a crime. Even if there had been evidence, the statute of limitations passed long ago.
Are Rice and McCabe part of the conspiracy, too?
Yeah.
So is Howard Dean.
The court case is about to move to a new arena. The lawyer for Schiavo's parents, Pat Anderson, has sued in federal court. She had no choice. There is no place left in state court. She has lost there four times.
You can see this thing stretching into perpetuity - political perpetuity.
Gov. Jeb Bush already has asked that a guardian other than her husband be named for Terri Schiavo. The judge, Pinellas Circuit Judge George Greer - who has had this case since its beginning - wisely said no.
The federal judge now involved, U.S. District Judge Richard Lazzara, invited state Attorney General Charlie Crist to participate because Schiavo's parents are challenging the constitutionality of the state law covering the right to die.
I can't wait. There would be no better way for a man like Crist to play to religiously minded, conservative voters.
I heard from other people after that last column. They were not pushing politics, nor calling names. These people saw in Schiavo's story some of their own struggles - in which they finally ended medical treatment and nutrition for relatives, typically elderly parents, who were never going to get better, even in cases where there was no living will.
"My father had Alzheimer's and in 1991, unable to speak, one day simply refused food," wrote Jackie Owen of New Port Richey. She followed what she guessed were his wishes. "He died peacefully," she said.
- You can reach Mary Jo Melone at mjmelone@sptimes.com or 813 226-3402.