Posted on 03/19/2005 3:05:30 PM PST by FairOpinion
PINELLAS PARK, Fla., March 19 - The morning after Terri Schiavo's feeding tube was removed, supporters of her parents sought new avenues in their fight to keep the critically brain-damaged woman alive, while police arrested several of the protesters who gathered outside Ms. Schiavo's hospice when they tried to force their way inside.
At midmorning Saturday about 30 people prayed and waved signs outside the Woodside Hospice, and the Rev. Patrick Mahoney, director of the Christian Defense Coalition, said that later in the day that he would lead as many protesters as he could gather to Tallahassee, where they would spend the next few days lobbying the State Legislature and Gov. Jeb Bush to somehow force the feeding tube's reinsertion.
Just before 11 a.m. Saturday, three protesters were taken into custody when they tried to force their way past officers guarding the driveway to the hospice and to take bread and water to Ms. Schiavo. The three men - led by James (Bo) Gritz, a former Green Beret commander from Nevada - were arrested on misdemeanor trespassing charges, police officials said.
Ms. Schiavo cannot eat or drink without a feeding tube, but the protesters said the action was meant to be symbolic.
Shortly after the arrests, a man who described himself as a spiritual adviser to Ms. Schiavo's parents, Robert and Mary Schindler, emerged from the hospice to say they did not want any civil disobedience. The man, Paul O'Donnell, said the Schindlers were inside and wanted "everything to remain peaceful" adding that they were "devastated but hopeful."
Mary Schindler, who rarely addresses the news media, emerged from the hospice around lunchtime to say that Ms. Schiavo "is my life."
"I am begging Governor Bush and the politicians in Tallahassee, President Bush and the politicians in Washington, please, please, please save my little girl," she said.
Doctors removed the feeding tube from Ms. Schiavo on Friday afternoon. They said that the 41-year-old woman, who suffered extensive brain damage when her heart failed 15 years ago, could live up to two weeks without the liquid meals that were provided through a gastric tube.
She has been the focus of a seven-year fight between her husband, Michael, who is her legal guardian and says that he is fighting to protect her wish to die, and her parents, who reject court findings that she has no cognition and would not want to be kept alive artificially.
Mr. Mahoney, one of several conservative religious leaders trying to rally national protest of the tube removal on grounds that no life should end prematurely, said he hoped more people would travel here as Ms. Schiavo's condition deteriorated.
"We want a spiritual prayer witness sort of thing in Pinellas Park and a more political front in Tallahassee," Mr. Mahoney said.
He added that protesters would pressure Governor Bush to visit Ms. Schiavo at her bedside, as her husband has angrily invited him to do. Mr. Schiavo sued the governor in 2003 after the Legislature passed a law empowering the governor to order Ms. Schiavo's feeding tube reinserted six days after it had been removed.
Mr. Schiavo, appearing Saturday morning on the "Today" show on NBC, said that he was at his wife's side shortly after the tube was removed Friday afternoon and that he knew it was what she wanted.
"It felt like some peace was happening for Terri," Mr. Schiavo said in the television interview. "And I felt like she was finally going to get what she wants, and be at peace and be with the Lord."
Mr. Mahoney - who believes, as Ms. Schiavo's parents do, that she can think and feel and could improve with therapy even though the courts have accepted medical testimony that she cannot - said visiting Ms. Schiavo could prompt the governor to take drastic action.
"It's important for him as a chief executive to see what's being done to one of his residents," Mr. Mahoney said. "Governor Bush might be her last practical hope. We believe he could take her into protective custody or otherwise use his executive privileges."
Mr. Mahoney and Randall Terry, the founder of the antiabortion group Operation Rescue, said they would continue lobbying Congress to pass a bill that would require a federal court hearing in cases like Ms. Schiavo's to evaluate whether the state had followed all requirements for judicial due process. They also said they still hoped the Florida Legislature would pass a law requiring the tube's reinsertion or forcing the replacement of Mr. Schiavo as his wife's guardian.
Yeah, it is a death camp.....the machine gun nests and towers gave it away.
Nice stretch there.
I'm just curious, but did any of your ancestors work the ovens at Bergen?
I wouldn't be.
No, but I think several were tossed into them.
The Murder of the Handicapped in Nazi Germany
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1366289/posts
Wartime, Adolf Hitler suggested, "was the best time for the elimination of the incurably ill." Many Germans did not want to be reminded of individuals who did not measure up to their concept of a "master race." The physically and mentally handicapped were viewed as "useless" to society, a threat to Aryan genetic purity, and, ultimately, unworthy of life.
At the beginning of World War II, individuals who were mentally retarded, physically handicapped, or mentally ill were targeted for murder in what the Nazis called the "T-4," or "euthanasia," program.
Well, you seem to object to people trying to keep Terri alive "against the law", i.e. against the ruling of a judge who ignored the law and human decency.
LOL! You beat me to it!
Please believe me when I tell you that for all I care you could never eat or drink anything for the rest of your life and I wouldn't care.
I wonder how long Mike and the judge would last with out food and water
I don't feel like feeding is being kept alive artificialy.
With out water they would also die. It is beyond me how two sleazy men can ho;d up a whole state and/or/nation all by them selves. Many thing are wrong with this country.
This is a sad case, pitting husband against parents.
However, things like this happen in hospitals all the time, as technology keep people alive longer and longer.
Mary Schindler, who rarely addresses the news media, emerged from the hospice around lunchtime to say that Ms. Schiavo "is my life."
"I am begging Governor Bush and the politicians in Tallahassee, President Bush and the politicians in Washington, please, please, please save my little girl," she said.
My thoughts exactly. I just don't know enough about Executive Orders to know why it isn't being used at this point, or if it can be used for this purpose.
Taquito is one nasty troll....he's putting down any and everything regarding Terri and the posters supporting her. One thing this troll will NOT do is answer anyone who post back to him. I'm sick of him....
You got their name right.
Will you love her, comfort her, honor and keep her, in sickness and in health, for richer, for poorer, for better, for worse, in sadness and in joy, to cherish and continually bestow upon her your heart’s deepest devotion, forsaking all others, keep yourself only unto her as long as you both shall live?
I just recalled that Clinton wrote EOs for everything. In fact, he wrote so many that one of his pimps (forget his name…there were so many) said: “Stroke or the pen, law of the land.” Remember that?
Cool it.
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