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To: Sent: Wednesday, April 06, 2005 4:01 PM Subject: NewStarvingCaseinGeorgia.PressRelease.Mullinax(205)408-7598 Media Release For Immediate release! To: All media, and supporters of life. From: The Family of Mae Magouirk Date: April 6, 2005 Contact: Kenneth Mullinax Shiavo case revisited in Georgia Mae Magouirk…not comatose …not vegetative …not terminal Why is Hospice LaGrange, Ga. withholding nourishment? (LaGrange, Georgia) Mae Magouirk is being withheld nourishment and fluids and the provisions of her Living Will are not being honored at the Hospice-LaGrange, (1510 Vernon Street, LaGrange “Troup County” Georgia, 706-845-3905) a subsidiary of the LaGrange Hospital in LaGrange Georgia. Her family is desperately seeking...

Washington, DC: The White House will sponsor regional summits this spring to encourage middle and high-school officials to enact random, student drug testing in public schools. The taxpayer-funded summits will take place in Dallas, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, and Portland. The announcement of the summits comes just weeks after the White Houses' 2005 "National Drug Control Strategy" proposed increasing federal funding for student drug testing by more than 150 percent to a record $25.4 million annually. NORML Director Allen St. Pierre criticized the White Houses' push for the expanded use of suspicionless, student drug testing. "Random drug testing of students is...

I am convinced God uses trials like the Terri Schiavo case to test men. Pinellas County Circuit Court Judge George Greer was tested – and found wanting. He had seven years to consider this case and got it wrong every time. I don't know Greer personally, but I know many people like him. They go to church on Sunday and then between Monday and Friday lead lives with no seeming connection to what they hear preached in the pulpit, what they read in the Bible, what they claim to believe of the Christian faith. This may be the biggest single...

March 26, 2005 Whose Life Is Worth Living? By Orson Scott Card It wasn’t that many years ago when I happened to be in Raleigh at a gathering of literary folk who were quite full of their own superiority. They started talking about people who (gasp!) let years go by without reading a single book. “Why do they even bother being alive?” asked one of them. Almost everyone laughed. They went on and on about the worthlessness of the lives of non-intellectuals. Shopping in malls. Eating at McDonald’s. Driving their gas-guzzling cars. I did ask where they shopped, and which...

Are you being targeted for euthanasia? By Mary Therese Helmueller, R.N. In 1984, while working as charge nurse in the intensive care unit, a 20-year-old man asked, “Can you give my mother enough morphine to let her sleep away?” I was horrified. “I can not kill your mother,” I responded. That was only the beginning. Recently, an 80-year-old was admitted to the emergency room and the physician said, “LET’S DEHYDRATE HER”; one more patient was sentenced to die in hospice with NO TERMINAL DIAGNOSIS and once again, THE LIVING WILL determined the death of a 70-year-old man regardless of how...

Editor's Note: Since this column was written the federal appeals court has turned down the appeals of Terri Schiavo's family. --- Prospects for saving Terri Schiavo appear increasingly dim. Unless a federal appeals court acts immediately to instruct the district court to order a feeding tube re-inserted, she will die of dehydration and starvation in a matter of days. A surprising number of Americans believe this is a good thing, at least according to some polls taken over the last few weeks. An ABC poll taken this week showed that 63 percent of Americans favored the removal of Schiavo's feeding...

As an attorney and a former law professor, I have never been so disgusted with the legal process in my life. By that, let me be clear - I mean the court system. Throughout nearly twenty years of being an attorney, I have always defended "the process," even when I disagreed vehemently with the results. But that is because the process, to me, always seemed to have a certain basic integrity. The Terri Schiavo case has changed all of that. I have heard the most appalling lack of concern for basic legal procedures on the part of Judge Greer in...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x3286878 RememberTheCoup (1000+ posts) Thu Mar-17-05 08:06 AM Original message Why SHOULDN'T siblings be allowed to "marry" or enter civil unions? Why do we so often hear about such a situation as a "slippery slope" result of allowing same sex unions? Why does a marriage/civil union have to imply a sexual relationship? Almost all of the rights and responsibilities of marriage are economic or legal in nature and not sexual. "Right of consortium" is one of the few I can think of that are sexual in nature. What if a man with a wife and a couple of small children...

Schiavo in 48 hour window By: Bill McGinty Video Story Supporters like the Rev. Patrick Mahoney of the Christian Defense Coalition say they expect people to try to enter the Woodside Hospice to “rescue” Terri Schiavo if her feeding tube is removed. The Pinellas Park Police has officers stationed in the parking lot and inside the front doors of the hospice in case those threats are attempted. The Florida Legislature is now working on a bill that Governor Bush says he will sign into law that would prevent the removal of Terri Schiavo’s feeding tube. The bill should be on...

Unless there is a last minute intervention from Florida's Legislature or Congress, Terri Schiavo will stop being fed on Tuesday, and within days will be starved to death...

OFFICE FOR COMMUNICATIONS News Release March 14, 2005 CARDINAL RIGALI'S STATEMENT REGARDING THE CASE OF TERRI SCHINDLER SCHIAVO "Americans are watching with concern the plight of Terri Schindler Schiavo in Florida. It is a tragic situation that has grave implications for the future treatment of those who are vulnerable and reliant upon someone else to provide their sustenance and decide the level of medical care they receive. In the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, where Terri Schindler was a parishioner and a graduate of one of our high schools, we watch and pray with particular interest in her case. I urge most...

Terri Schiavo supporters fight to keep her alive Terri Schiavo Video Story This week will be a critical one for the parents and supporters of Terri Schiavo. A judge cleared the way for Schiavo’s feeding tube to be removed on Friday. Terri Schiavo is the brain-damaged woman at the center of a “Right to Die” battle. She suffered brain damage in 1990, after her heart stopped, now her supporters hope to keep her alive. People prayed outside a hospice facility where Terri Schiavo’s staying. Sil Olding says, praying is not enough to keep Schiavo alive. Sil Olding / Schiavo Supporter:“I...

St. Maximilian Kolbe VOLUNTEERED To Be Starved To Death; Terri Schiavo Did NOT By Michael J. GaynorMichNews.com Mar 13, 2005 Michael Schiavo wants to starve his wife Terri to death as soon as possible. Michael claims he is fulfilling Terri's wish. And turned down $1,000,000 to let Terri be cared for by her loving parents instead of starved to death and cremated. Judge Greer claims to believe Michael. He supposedly doesn't suspect that Michael is determined to cover up something that is more important for him to cover up than $1,000,000. If Michael succeeds, he will go down in history...

With time growing short, activists rally to save Terri Schiavo PINELLAS PARK, Fla. (AP) - Buoyed by encouragement from actor Mel Gibson, the family of Terri Schiavo joined a rally today pleading for her life, just days before the court-ordered removal of her feeding tube. Video Story About 200 people prayed and sang outside the hospice where the 41-year-old brain-damaged woman lives. Schiavo can breathe on her own, but depends on a tube in her abdomen for food and water. She has been at the center of a long and bitter court battle: Her husband says she wouldn't want to...

(CNSNews.com) - The family of Terri Schindler Schiavo says the judge who ordered her starvation and dehydration -- a process that will begin on March 18 unless a higher court intervenes -- is "afraid of the truth," and is denying Terri's due process rights under state and federal law. "Never in my life have I seen a judge so afraid of the truth," said Pamela Hennessy, media representative for the Terri Schindler Schiavo Foundation in a statement Tuesday morning. "Why is it that admitted criminals are protected to every reasonable measure of the law," Hennessy asked, "while our disabled and...

"The Bottom Line" : Money Trumps Life With Northeast "RINOS" By Doug Wrenn Feb 27, 2005, 22:51 It never fails. I guess I just have one of those faces. Everywhere I go, total strangers just feel the need to come up and talk to me. Working long hours on the road, lunch, when I can get it, is often catch as catch can. I usually enjoy the solitude of eating in my car, often overlooking a scenic area if possible, and listening to the radio. One day last week, I had a little extra time and decided to eat like...

For all of those who have called me every imaginable name because I dare to suggest that there are some things worse than death...I don't wish you on you anything that poor woman goes through on a minute by minute basis. Because you know so much, and are so sure that you are right because you are all so freakin self-righteous...I'm leaving FreeRepublic because I no longer want to be a part of something that has become so twisted. Hannity is right, this website has been hijacked. It was a good run...but we'll find another place. Save your jabs, I...

On the radio as breaking so far!

Children's Health Parents, doctors, ethicists and politicians in Holland and in Belgium are discussing making euthanasia legal for children suffering from terminal illnesses. Although the issue has been polarizing, legislation has already been introduced in the Belgian Parliament that would enable individuals under 18 years to ask for euthanasia.

OMERVILLE, N.J., Dec. 15 — A former nurse who told prosecutors he had killed 30 to 40 patients since 1987 was charged today with murdering a priest who had been in his care at a hospital here. Prosecutors also charged the suspect, Charles Cullen, with the attempted murder of another patient at the same hospital.Mr. Cullen, who was arrested last Friday, told prosecutors he had administered excessive doses of drugs to those two patients and to dozens of others to "alleviate patient pain and suffering," according to an affidavit released today.In an attempt to validate Mr. Cullen's stunning claims, investigators...

For more than ten years, conscious and unconscious cognitively disabled people who use feeding tubes have been legally dehydrated to death in the United States. This intentional life-ending act-clamping feeding tubes and denying all sustenance-has become so ubiquitous that, generally, little attention is paid. This public indifference was shattered by the Terri Schiavo litigation, an epic legal, political, and media struggle that pitted Terri's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, against her quasi-estranged husband, Michael Schiavo. At stake was whether Terri would live, as fervently desired by her parents, or die by dehydration as demanded by her husband. (I shall explain...

What a world! At one-and-the-same time, we argue issues of life and death under euphemisms of pro-choice, pro-life, the right to choose, the right to die. First, we have the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the legalization of what has come to be abortion on demand at virtually any time during the nine months of pregnancy. It ranges from days-old fetuses to fully developed, near-term babies. We still argue about it, but it has diminished the value of human life and was a kick down the slippery slope. Can there be any doubt when I can look at today's newspaper...

WASHINGTON - With no fanfare, the U.S. House has passed a controversial doomsday provision that would allow a handful of lawmakers to run Congress if a terrorist attack or major disaster killed or incapacitated large numbers of congressmen.      ``I think (the new rule) is terrible in a whole host of ways - first, I think it's unconstitutional,'' said Norm Ornstein, a counselor to the independent Continuity of Government Commission, a bipartisan panel created to study the issue. ``It's a very foolish thing to do, I believe, and the way in which it was done was more foolish.'' But supporters say...

Officials from the Dutch Ministry of Justice say the legislature of the Netherlands is preparing a new protocol designed to protect doctors who euthanize newborns with severe disabilities, according to Dr. Eduard Verhagen, the head of pediatrics at Groningen Hospital. Verhagen is an outspoken advocate for killing seriously deformed babies, a procedure he admits he's performed four times in the past 16 months. "There is a small group of children for whom no treatment is possible for the congenital disease and malformations they are born with," Verhagen told the London Telegraph, explaining why he had chosen to break the law....

Sen. Kennedy Says Opponents of “Gay Marriage” Are Bigots Sen. Edward Kennedy has told A.P. that opponents of “gay marriage” are bigots. The news service reported last week: “Meanwhile, Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy criticized supporters of a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage, saying that would be a civil rights setback. “Kennedy said bigotry should not be written into the federal constitution, and constitutional amendments should be about expanding rights and liberties.” Unitarians Confirm Our Forecast that Group Sex Will be Next The Unitarian Church is now welcoming those who believe in group relationships including the practice of “romantic love.”...

I have slowly been nearing a sad conclusion about CMT (Country Music Television) recently, which was all but confirmed yesterday with a show that I found quite disturbing. I cannot help but wonder anymore: is CMT's agenda to make Country music “politically correct”? Taking a break from war coverage (necessary to maintain one’s sanity, as we all know!) I tuned into CMT yesterday as they were running a documentary on controversial Country songs. Intrigued, I eagerly anticipated a good look at such musical heroes of mine as Charlie Daniels, Toby Keith or Darryl Worley—with their conscience-raising songs filled with patriotism...

LONDON, December 2, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) - London's High Court said Tuesday, that it was not a matter for a judge to decide if a man has a right to have his critically ill wife euthanized in a Switzerland 'clinic.' "I have decided to discharge the injunction," Justice Hedley said in his ruling. The ruling is the culmination of a legal battle waged by "Mr. Z." to be allowed to transport his wife to a country where she could be legally put to death. "Mrs. Z." suffers from a terminal degenerative brain disease. The judge said that it was for police...

California College Republicans Chairman Michael P. Davidson issued the following statement on the use of the draft by MTV’s Rock the Vote and the KerryCampaign as a scare tactic this election year: "MTV and the Kerry campaign's use of the draft to scare young voters into voting is pathetic and disgusting. "While our servicemen are fighting for our country and the freedom of millions, military service should not be used as an instrument of fear. Military service is one of the most honorable deeds and any suggestion otherwise is grossly insulting. "In this campaign, there is only one person that...

[editor's note - my apologies for the repost. I forgot to click the "excerpt" box the first time...] In "A Deafening Silence" I discussed the unusually low amount of support rank-and-file Christians seem to have for outlawing homosexual marriages. While state initiatives in Missouri and Louisiana have overwhelmingly trounced the idea, US Congressmen are not hearing much from their constituents on the matter. Now, USA Today has weighed in on the subject, or at least, weighed in on one aspect of the subject. The October 4, 2004 issue saw an article by Jonathan Turley, Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law...

If Texas cannot criminalize sodomy, Utah should not be able to criminalize polygamy, argued the attorney for three adults who want to live together as husband and wives. The three filed a lawsuit after they were denied a marriage license by the Salt Lake County Clerk’s Office in December. They ask that the county clerk be required to issue the marriage license, and they seek a declaration that the state’s criminal and civil bans of polygamy are unconstitutional. “What my clients want is to be able to enter into that relationship without the stigma of being branded as criminals,” civil-rights...

WICHITA, Kan. – A federal judge ruled Monday that doctors, nurses and other health care professionals in Kansas cannot be forced to report instances of underage sex to authorities. U.S. District Judge J. Thomas Marten issued a preliminary injunction blocking Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline's interpretation of a state law. Sex involving someone under 16 is illegal in Kansas, even if it involves willing same-age partners. Last July, Kline said the 1982 law requires doctors, nurses, psychiatrists, social workers and others to report such illegal underage sex to law enforcement officials or the state. Kline said such reporting is required...

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Cher, Scottish actor Alan Cumming and comedian Kathy Griffin are among the stars who have come aboard the new gay-themed digital cable channel, Logo, which is scheduled to launch in as many as 15 million homes in February. Cher and her daughter, Chastity Bono, will executive produce "Family Outing," a chronicle of "coming-out" stories based on Chastity's book of the same name. Chastity will also host. "We're thrilled that Cher's first foray into television production is with Logo," said Matt Farber, who is expected to be named general manager of the Viacom-owned channel. Among the...

"What's next?" Braves pitcher John Smoltz said, when asked his opinion about gay marriage. "Marrying an animal?" It's fascinating how often that happens. Time and time again, when opponents of gay marriage and gay unions are asked to explain their position, their real underlying concern turns out to be a rather odd fear of bestiality. That same obsession seems to have afflicted Timothy Dailey, a stern opponent of gay marriage and a senior fellow at the Family Research Council, a national conservative group. In an FRC brochure titled "The Slippery Slope of Same-Sex Marriage," Dailey brings up an obscure case...

VANCOUVER, June 23, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Critics of Svend Robinson's Bill C-250 were right - the undefined term of "Sexual Orientation," if included into Section 318 and 319 of the Criminal Code, would offer protection for a whole host of deviant "sexual lifestyles," warns the Citizen's Research Institute (CRI). Opponents to the Bill repeatedly asked if "pedophilia" and other "sexual orientations" would be protected under Bill C-250. These critics were ridiculed and mocked because they could foresee the problems that would result from the ill-conceived and undefined term "sexual orientation." CRI notes that on December 18, 2003, Judge Romilly of...

STRANGE how some people behave! She is in love with a man more than twice her age – which could be usual. She had a ten-year affair with the same man from the age of 15 – that is unusual. But most unusual of all – she has declared her undying love for the same man, but he is her own paternal father! But, that’s not all. The couple sired two siblings from the incestuous affair. This did not take place in one of those Saturday evening African movies but in Harare, the magistrates’ court heard Tuesday. Statement Gamara (52)...

I disagree that society's march toward sanctioning homosexual marriage represents enlightened thinking. I also strongly reject the notion that our movement in this direction is no big deal. The homosexual lobby casually dismisses that heterosexual marriage has been established for thousands of years, saying human beings have evolved from the bigoted thinking of the past, just like with slavery. No offense, but the comparisons to slavery and the civil rights movement are off base, cynical and exploitive. There is no legitimate comparison between denying people basic civil rights because of their skin color and the refusal to redefine the institution...

These comments drew howls from gay-rights advocates, most of whom, we suspect, were objecting to the implication that homosexuality was comparable to practices like incest and bestiality, which most everyone still agrees are deviant. But Lithwick thinks the slippery-slope argument itself is fundamentally flawed: "The problem with the slippery slope argument is that it depends on inexact, and sometimes hysterical, comparisons," she writes. Also: "Slippery slopes are only metaphors. They are not intrinsic principles of law." Yet the way American constitutional law works, slippery slopes are almost inevitable--a point that is more easily understood if we think of same-sex marriage...

Cultural tsunamis, like those that begin under oceans, are caused by something deep within. When high water hits the shore, it is the result of a subterranean earthquake. When the state of Massachusetts last Monday began offering marriage to people of the same sex, this ‘‘wave’’ was preceded by a seismic shift in the moral tectonic plates.The Old Testament Book of Judges — part of a wisdom and truth long discarded by the ‘‘In Dow Jones we trust’’ crowd — said it best: ‘‘In those days there were no kings and everyone did what was right in his own eyes.’’...

(CNSNews.com) - The same-sex marriages taking place in Massachusetts can happen in other states, too - even states that bar homosexual "marriage," some lawmakers and conservative groups are warning their constituents. "Many North Carolinians are under the impression that what's happening in Massachusetts has no relevance to them because North Carolina passed legislation prohibiting homosexual marriage," said Rep. Walter B. Jones (R-N.C.) in a press release issued Monday. "Unfortunately, this couldn't be farther from the truth," Jones said. Jones said liberal activists have made it clear they will use the Massachusetts court ruling legalizing same-sex marriage to "overthrow" the...

WASHINGTON -- Lam Nguyen's job is to sit for hours in a chilly, quiet room devoid of any color but gray and look at pornography. This job, which Nguyen does earnestly from 9 to 5, surrounded by a half-dozen other "computer forensic specialists" like him, has become the focal point of the Justice Department's operation to rid the world of porn. In this field office in Washington, 32 prosecutors, investigators and a handful of FBI agents are spending millions of dollars to bring anti-obscenity cases to courthouses across the country for the first time in 10 years. Nothing is off...

NEW ORLEANS- A federal appeals court has opened the door for police officers in three states to search homes and buildings for evidence without a warrant - a ruling that two dissenting judges called "the road to hell." Acting on a Baton Rouge case, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that police do not need an arrest or search warrant to conduct a swift sweep of private property to ensure their safety. Any evidence discovered during that search is admissable in court as long as the search is a "cursory inspection," and if police entered the site for...

NEW ORLEANS -- It's a groundbreaking court decision that legal experts say will affect everyone: Police officers in Louisiana no longer need a search or arrest warrant to conduct a brief search of your home or business.Leaders in law enforcement say it will provide safety to officers, but others argue it's a privilege that could be abused.The decision was made by the New Orleans-based 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. Two dissenting judges called it the "road to Hell."The ruiling stems from a lawsuit filed in Denham Springs in 2000.New Orleans Police Department spokesman Capt. Marlon Defillo said the new power...

Massachusetts burning: 'Gay marriage' leads to incest Posted: March 26, 20041:00 a.m. Eastern © 2004 WorldNetDaily.com Attention parents: "Do you know where your children are?" How about your spouse? If you have any doubts about the relationship between your children and a step parent and if you live in the state of Massachusetts, you have even more reason to worry now. In a case determined on Tuesday of this last week, the Massachusetts high court nullified six indictments against a 60-year-old male for having had sexual intercourse with his step-daughter from the time she was 15 and 16 years of age....

<p>The state Supreme Judicial Court ruled yesterday that the Massachusetts law against incest does not apply to stepparents and said it was up to the Legislature to change the law.</p> <p>In a 4-to-3 ruling in a case involving a 60-year-old Dorchester man accused of having sex with his teenage stepdaughter, the court said the incest statute prohibits intercourse only between people related by blood or through adoption.</p>

I've never had sex with a dog. He wouldn't respect me in the morning. But I have lusted in my heart for certain canines, and apparently I'm not alone. Lots of people yearn to marry their best friend, or so many opponents of gay marriage seem to believe. "Why can't we have marriages between people and pets?" the bishop of Brooklyn recently remarked. "I mean, pets really love their masters"—and, let's face it, the feeling is usually mutual. Was the bishop being fanciful or does he really think America will go to the dogs if gays are allowed to wed?...

<p>The state Supreme Judicial Court ruled yesterday that the Massachusetts law against incest does not apply to stepparents and said it was up to the Legislature to change the law.</p> <p>In a 4-to-3 ruling in a case involving a 60-year-old Dorchester man accused of having sex with his teenage stepdaughter, the court said the incest statute prohibits intercourse only between people related by blood or through adoption.</p>

Gay couples all across North America are getting married. What a great symbol of tolerance. In the name of that same tolerance, however, I believe we should go further and allow brothers and sisters to marry. In other words, incest should be not only allowed but recognized and affirmed by the state. If you're not tolerant of this, quite clearly you should not be tolerated. Those of you who are shocked at first glance should take some time to consider what I'm saying. Remember, there were at one time frightened and reactionary people who objected to marriage between homosexuals. Sometimes...

Next." Good morning. We want to apply for a marriage license." "Names?" Tim and Jim Jones." "Jones? Are you related? I see a resemblance." "Yes, we're brothers." "Brothers? You can't get married." "Why not? Aren't you giving marriage licenses to same gender couples?" "Yes, thousands. But we haven't had any siblings. That's incest!" "Incest?" No, we are not gay." "Not gay? Then why do you want to get married?" "For the financial benefits, of course. And we do love each other. Besides, we don't have any other prospects." "But we're issuing marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples who've been...

I love my grandmother very much, and I think it’s time to ask for her hand in marriage. Since I live in San Francisco, I think there’s a pretty good chance we can get the license approved. If banning same-sex marriage violates California’s equal protection clause in the constitution, then certainly banning incest marriage also violates that equal protection clause. I know, most of you out there are saying ''dude, that’s pretty freakin’ gross!'' Whatever. That’s really not your concern. How many people think same-sex marriage is gross? That shouldn’t be the measure of whether or not we allow people...

It has to happen: ...After gay marriage is commonplace, before some justice-of-the-peace somewhere there will come this happy scene of the newly betrothed...