Posted on 02/27/2009 5:47:09 AM PST by BykrBayb
DOCUMENTARY REVEALS NEW DETAILS IN TERRI SCHIAVO CASE
By Gina Adams
Story Published: Feb 25, 2009 at 5:31 PM CST
Story Updated: Feb 25, 2009 at 5:34 PM CST
The story of Terri Schiavo caused a nationwide uproar that garnered the attention of the worldwide media, the U.S. Congress, and even the office of the President of the United States.
The ethical and cultural implications of her case are still being felt throughout society and continue to spark debate.
In the newly-released documentary, The Terri Schiavo Story (Franklin Springs Family Media), previously unexplored facts of the case are revealed through in-depth interviews with participants on both sides of the issue.
Hosted by author and speaker Joni Eareckson Tada, who became personally involved in the case in 2005, The Terri Schiavo Story sheds new light on the controversial decision that led to the death of a 41-year-old disabled woman.
In 1990, at the age of 26, Terri Schindler Schiavo suffered a mysterious cardio-respiratory arrest for which no cause has ever been determined.
She was diagnosed with hypoxic encephalopathy - a neurological injury caused by lack of oxygen to the brain. Terri was placed on a ventilator, but was soon able to breathe on her own and maintain vital function.
She remained in a severely compromised neurological state and was provided a PEG tube to ensure the safe delivery of nourishment and hydration.
On March 31, 2005, Terri Schindler Schiavo died of marked dehydration following more than 13 days without nutrition or hydration under the order of Circuit Court Judge, George W. Greer of the Pinellas-Pasco's Sixth Judicial Court.
Veteran producer and director Ken Carpenter felt the story deserved to be re-told, but he did not anticipate the amount of new information that would come to light.
"Working on this project made clear to me that we need to keep Terri's story alive. Our children need to know the lines were drawn when our government and court system let Terri die. Knowing the full story - not just what we heard in the media - equips us to address new challenges to our faith."
Joni Eareckson Tada, herself disabled after a diving accident which left her a quadriplegic in a wheelchair and unable to use her hands, says what happened to Terri continues to affect disabled citizens.
"The story remains relevant because there are countless people like Terri Schiavo whose lives are in grave danger because of unclear custody and guardianship laws," says Tada. "Plus, more states (under futile care policy directives) are quietly removing the feeding tubes from brain-injured people when families abandon their responsibilities. Feeding tubes are providing basic care, not medical treatment."
Terri's brother, Bobby Schindler, was interviewed at length in the documentary and is now involved in helping families in similar circumstances through The Terri Schindler Schiavo Foundation.
Schindler believes the truth about his sister's death has been distorted and hidden - until now.
"Our hope is that people will learn the truth about what happened to Terri," says Schindler, "and realize the atrocity that it was and that anyone who claims that her death was 'peaceful' and 'painless' is lying. It is because of the truly inhumane nature of death by dehydration that when people are killed this way it is always done behind closed doors in the strictest secrecy. I wholeheartedly believe that if the public had been allowed to witness Terri's suffering first hand, the outcry would have deafened Florida and the world."
Tada was on the front lines with Terri's family in 2005, helping lead the protests that eventually landed in the halls of the U.S. Congress. "I hope that people understand that Terri Schiavo's story is really our story," says Tada.
"We have a special obligation to protect the weak and vulnerable in our society. We have a responsibility to uphold their human dignity -- because we are of equal dignity, we are not at each other's disposal. The weak and the vulnerable need their rights safeguarded and protected... we must not allow them to become eroded. For when we do, we are jeopardizing the rights of us all."
Originally produced as an episode for the Joni & Friends television series, Franklin Springs Family Media felt the story was compelling enough to produce as a stand-alone project.
Their decision was recently justified when The Terri Schiavo Story won the Jubliee Award for Best Documentary at the San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival.
Franklin Springs Family Media founder Ken Carpenter believes the documentary should be seen by every church and organization that cares about policies related to the disabled and pro-life issues.
"I hope this film helps us see that our understanding of complex situations such as Terri's should not be rooted in popular opinion, but in biblical standards."
Carpenter took home the Dove Award for Long Form Video in 2007 for Amy Grant's Time Again, and in 2006 for Mark Schultz' A Night of Story and Songs.
Carpenter also recently produced and directed the latest John Tesh television special - John Tesh Alive.
Through his Franklin Films production company, Carpenter has produced projects for many of the leading names in Christian entertainment and ministry, including Michael W. Smith, Compassion International, Steven Curtis Chapman, The Gideons, Jeremy Camp, eHarmony, dcTalk, Integrity Publishers, Mercy Me, Big Idea Productions, Casting Crowns, and many others.
Carpenter launched Franklin Springs Family Media in 2005.
For more information and to view a trailer for the new documentary, click here: www.TheSchiavoStory.com.
For more information on Franklin Springs Family Media,visit: www.FranklinSprings.com.
For more information on The Terri Schindler Schiavo Foundation, visit: www.TerrisFight.org.
For more information on Joni Eareckson Tada, visit: www.JoniandFriends.org.
You are so right. Her brutal and cruel THIRTEEN DAY EXECUTION was a result of the most shallow and unsubstantiated garbage in the history of a corrupt judge ordering a death sentence. Judge Greer joins the ranks of mike schiavo the monster and george felos the vampire as judge greer the executioner.
Four Years Ago Today, March 21, 2005
Today was Day 4 of Judge George W. Greer's court ordered slow death by starvation and dehydration of Terri Schindler Schiavo. Over the next 18 days we will post stories of the events that occurred on each of those days. We offer this not only in respect for Terri's memory, but a reminder that in this moment countless people are suffering slow, agonizing deaths in hospice, nursing homes, and hospitals in America and around the world.
-----------------------------
House Passes Schiavo Bill
From March 21, 2005 (CNN)
Bush signs bill into law
Following more than three hours of passionate debate on Capitol Hill, the U.S. House early Monday passed a bill on 203 to 58 vote that transfers jurisdiction of the Terri Schiavo case to a U.S. district court for a federal judge to review.
Although highly partisan, 47 Democrats joined 156 Republicans in voting for the bill.
President Bush put his signature on the bill within an hour of passage, and an attorney for Schiavo's parents raced to district court to file a lawsuit and restraining order under the new law.
(continue reading . . .)
Thread by SolidWood.
LONDON (AFP) — A seriously ill British baby boy died on Saturday, the day after his parents lost a legal battle to force doctors to keep him alive.
The parents wanted medics to keep treating their son -- who had a rare metabolic disorder, was brain damaged and had suffered respiratory failure -- but doctors said he had no prospect of recovery and was in intolerable pain.
A hearing at the Court of Appeal on Friday to resolve the dispute backed the doctors although judges voiced the "deepest sympathy" for the mother and father of the nine-month-old boy. . .
"We will not be silent.
We are your bad conscience.
The White Rose will give you no rest."
Thanks for the ping!
Four Years Ago Today, March 22, 2005
Today was Day 5 of Judge George W. Greer's court ordered slow death by starvation and dehydration of Terri Schindler Schiavo. Over the next 18 days we will post stories of the events that occurred on each of those days. We offer this not only in respect for Terri's memory, but a reminder that in this moment countless people are suffering slow, agonizing deaths in hospice, nursing homes, and hospitals in America and around the world.-----------------------------
ABC, CBS and NBC Evening News Coverage Favors Those Who Would Stop Feeding Disabled Woman
From March 22, 2005 (Media Research Center)
Slanting the News Against Terri Schiavo
A new Media Research Center study finds the three broadcast network evening newscasts have tilted their recent coverage of the Terri Schiavo case in ways that bolster her husband Michael’s arguments that the severely disabled woman is in an irreversible vegetative state and had clearly expressed a desire to die. But network reporters have attempted to debunk arguments made by her parents — namely that some doctors believe she could be helped and that Mrs. Schiavo, a Catholic, would not want her feeding tube disconnected.
MRC analysts looked at all 31 evening news stories aired from Thursday, March 17, when the impending removal of Mrs. Schiavo’s feeding tube put her case back in the news, through Monday, March 21.
(continue reading . . .)
Thread by me.
ROME, MARCH 22, 2009 (Zenit.org).- The election of President Barack Obama in the United States was preceded by an acrimonious debate over whether Catholics could support who some regarded as an anti-life candidate, but whom others defended as being essentially pro-life.
Political campaigns aside, the first weeks of the new administration are revealing a worrying anti-life pattern. Shortly after taking office, Obama repealed an executive order that denied federal government funds to organizations that promote abortion overseas, reported the New York Times on Jan. 24.
The so-called Mexico City policy came into force in 1984 when President Ronald Reagan imposed the ban. President Bill Clinton lifted it a couple of days after taking office in 1993, and then President George W. Bush restored it after he took office in 2001.
Subsequently the nomination of Governor Kathleen Sebelius as head the Department of Health and Human Services raised a storm of controversy. Sebelius, a Catholic, was requested to abstain from presenting herself from receiving Communion last year by Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City due to her support for abortion, reported the KansasCity.com site on May 9, last year.
In his March 6 column for the weekly Catholic newspaper, the Leaven, Archbishop Naumann said that, while recognizing the positive contributions of Sebelius, she "has been an outspoken advocate for legalized abortion."
. . .
I remember seeing the movie Soylent Green in the early 70s. One of the shocks of the film has E.G. Robinson's character leaving a note to Charlton Heston that he was "going home," which turned out to be death via a euthanasia clinic. As I recall, the idea that society would become so crass and abandoning as to permit clinics where people would go to be killed was seen as beyond the pale.
Well, in the 1990s, Kevorkian urged the establishment of suicide/euthanasia clinics. Many laughed that off as advocacy from a fringe kook--even though he had better poll numbers than Barack Obama does today. . .
BUMP
Thanks for the update.
Thanks for the ping!
Four Years Ago Today, March 23, 2005
Today was Day 6 of Judge George W. Greer's court ordered slow death by starvation and dehydration of Terri Schindler Schiavo. Over the next two weeks we will post stories of the events that occurred on each of those days. We offer this not only in respect for Terri's memory, but a reminder that in this moment countless people are suffering slow, agonizing deaths in hospice, nursing homes, and hospitals in America and around the world.-----------------------------
U.S. Judge Rejects Feeding-Tube Appeal in Schiavo Case
From March 23, 2005 (International Herald Tribune)
A federal judge refused Tuesday to order the re-insertion of Terri Schiavo's feeding tube, denying an emergency request from the brain-damaged Florida woman's parents.
The ruling by U.S. District Judge James Whittemore (pictured) came after feverish action by President George W. Bush and Congress on legislation allowing her contentious case to be reviewed by federal courts.
The judge said the 41-year-old woman's parents had not established a "substantial likelihood of success" at trial on the merits of their arguments.
The tube was disconnected Friday on the orders of a state judge in Florida.
(continue reading . . .)
_____________________________________________________________
Also, I have posted a thread of a LifeNews article on Wesley Smith's weekend blog regarding Terri.
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- New York Times health columnist Jane Brody is coming under fire for referring to Terri Schiavo as a vegetable in a recent interview. The comment has one bioethicist upset -- saying the term neither confers the dignity and humanity patients deserve nor is medically accurate.
Speaking the need for elderly people and terminally ill patients to begin planning for death, Brody told the Times that it is never to early to begin considering end-of-life plans.
"You don't have to be old. If you recall, Terri Schiavo was 26 when she suffered a heart attack that deprived her brain of oxygen and left her a living vegetable for 15 years, at great cost and trauma to her family," she said.
But Wesley J. Smith, a noted author and attorney, considers the comments a catachresis and that the term "vegetable" is an offense similar to racial slurs. . .
Thread by Sub-Driver.
The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, in a 52-page ruling, said its order to make Plan B available to 17-year-olds under the same conditions it is currently available to older women must be complied with within 30 days. . .
Thread by laotzu.
A measure introduced in the Legislature would make Texas the first state in the country to essentially allow women to kill their newborn babies, and face relatively minor punishment for it.
State Rep Jessica Farrar (D-Houston), has introduced a bill to create a new crime called 'infanticide.'
It would allow postpartum mental disorder to be sued as an affirmative defense against a murder charge, if a mother murders a child 12 months old or less.
Under Farrar's bill, if jurors find a mother guilty of murder, they could take testimony about postpartum issues into consideration during the punishment phase of the trial.
If jurors find that the mother's 'judgment was impaired because of childbirth of lactation,' they could then judge her guilty not of murder but of 'infanticide,' which would carry a punishment of no more than two years in a state jail.
Murder is a Class A felony, punishable by up to 99 years in prison. In the case of a mother who kills a child, that time is now spent in the state's maximum security prison for women in Gatesville.
Farrar says postpartum depression is recognized as a legal defense in 29 nations worldwide.
Thanks for the ping!
The depravity that exists in the human mind is terrifying, sickening, and embarrassing.
Lord, please forgive us.
Four Years Ago Today, March 24, 2005
Today was Day 7 of Judge George W. Greer's court ordered slow death by starvation and dehydration of Terri Schindler Schiavo. Over the next two weeks we will post stories of the events that occurred on each of those days. We offer this not only in respect for Terri's memory, but a reminder that in this moment countless people are suffering slow, agonizing deaths in hospice, nursing homes, and hospitals in America and around the world.
-----------------------------Schiavo Parents Appeal to U.S. Supreme Court
From March 24, 2005 (CNN)
Gov. Bush's effort returns to court that ordered tube removal
A lawyer for Mary and Bob Schindler -- who are fighting to have their daughter Terri Schiavo's feeding tube reinserted -- filed an appeal late Wednesday with the U.S. Supreme Court, which in the past has refused to hear the case.
The parents' appeal to the nation's highest court came hours after a federal court in Atlanta twice rejected appeals seeking reinsertion of the brain-damaged woman's feeding tube.
(continue reading . . .)
Thread by me.
Jefferson City, MO (LifeNews.com) -- Former Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee compared abortion to slavery during a speaking engagement at a recent pro-life event. However, his comments are drawing criticism from a leader of the NAACP, the nation's largest civil rights group.
During a Monday speech for the Missouri-based Vitae Caring Foundation, which creates and sponsors pro-life television advertisements across the country, Huckabee made the remarks.
Huckabee said that, when the United States abolished slavery, it got rid of the concept that one person had the powerful life and death decision over another. he said such a decision was wrong when it came to slavery and equally wrong with regard to abortion.
"What are we saying to the generation coming after us when we tell them that it is perfectly OK for one person to own another human being?" Huckabee said. . .
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