Jolie Rouge

Terri Schiavo Allowed to Receive Communion
Mar 27, 8:57 PM (ET)
By MIKE SCHNEIDER

PINELLAS PARK, Fla. (AP) - With their hopes fading and legal options exhausted, Terri Schiavo's family appeared quietly resigned Sunday to watching her die as they arranged for the severely brain-damaged woman to receive Easter communion on her ninth day without food or water.

Outside the hospice where Schiavo is being cared for, protesters were not as calm. Five were arrested, and about a half-dozen people in wheelchairs got out of them and lay in the driveway, shouting "We're not dead yet!"

Schiavo's husband, who a day earlier denied a request from his wife's parents that she be given communion, granted permission Sunday to offer the sacrament.

The Rev. Thaddeus Malanowski said he gave Schiavo a drop of wine on her tongue but could not give her a fleck of bread because her tongue was dry.

The priest's announcement drew applause and cheers from the crowd, which spent most of the day heckling police and protesting loudly. The noise prompted Schiavo's brother, Bobby Schindler, to come out and ask protesters to tone down their behavior. "We are not going to solve the problem today by getting arrested," he told the restless crowd. "We can change laws, but we are not going to change them today ... You are not speaking for our family."

Schiavo's husband and parents have battled for years over whether the 41-year-old woman wanted to live or die. The two sides have given differing opinions of her status. Her parents have said she is declining rapidly and in her last hours. George Felos, an attorney for Schiavo's husband, Michael, argued Saturday that her condition is not yet that grave.

A spokesman for the Schindlers denied a report from David Gibbs III, their lead lawyer, who told CBS's "Face the Nation" Sunday that Schiavo has "passed where physically she would be able to recover."

That statement "was not made with the family's knowledge. In the family's opinion, that is absolutely not true," family spokesman Randall Terry told reporters.

Felos declined to comment on Schiavo's condition.

At Michael Schiavo's home in Clearwater, about three dozen protesters dropped roses and Easter lilies on his lawn in a peaceful demonstration. His fiancee's brother picked up the flowers and handed them to a bystander to take away.

Doctors have said Terri Schiavo would probably die within a week or two of the tube being removed March 18. She relied on the tube for 15 years after suffering catastrophic brain damage when her heart stopped beating and oxygen was cut off to her brain.

Schiavo's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, have maintained their daughter is not in a persistent vegetative state as court-appointed doctors have determined. Michael Schiavo has said his wife told him that she would not want to be kept alive artificially.

The Schindlers said they would stop asking courts to intervene after the Florida Supreme Court rejected their most recent appeal Saturday. The parents were rebuffed repeatedly by federal courts after Congress passed an extraordinary law last weekend allowing the case to be heard by federal judges.

About 100 protesters gathered at the hospice Sunday, ignoring the Schindlers' request that they spend Easter Sunday with their families. Bob Schindler told reporters the protesters were welcome back on Monday. "People are getting emotional," said the Rev. Patrick Mahoney of the Washington-based Christian Defense Coalition. "A woman is starving to death, but we want to focus on Terri, not on us." Mahoney said he planned to ask congressional leaders Monday to act to keep Schiavo alive.

Police have arrested 38 people in the past week, most for trying to bring Schiavo water.

At St. Michael the Archangel Catholic Church in Clearwater, Father Ted Costello scrupulously avoided mentioning the Schiavo case in Easter Mass. Parishioner Bill Youmans said that was a good thing. "I don't think that's got anything to do with Easter," the 76-year-old retiree from Michigan said. "I thought the church's teaching is not to take extraordinary measures to perpetuate life. ... I think all those people bleating in Schiavo's front yard give Jesus a bad name."

But down the road at Faith Lutheran Church in Dunedin, the Rev. Peter Kolb thought Schiavo's story was appropriate for an Easter sermon. "Imagine the young woman that's been trapped in a hospice for 15 years," he told his flock, without actually mentioning Schiavo's name. "One day we're all going to go through the valley. ... Some day, somehow, each of us are going to face that last enemy."

Supporters of the Schindlers continued their demands Sunday for Gov. Jeb Bush to intervene. "Terri is in effect on death row. ... We're asking the governor for a stay of execution on Easter Sunday," said Larry Klayman, founder of the conservative legal group Judicial Watch.

Bush told CNN on Sunday that he has done all he can in the case, as he has said for several days. "I cannot violate a court order," he said. "I don't have powers from the United States Constitution or, for that matter, from the Florida Constitution, that would allow me to intervene after a decision has been made."

Schindler attorney Gibbs told CBS the governor had done all he could to help the family. "He was legally blocked," Gibbs said, calling Bush "a real friend to the Schindler family."

At least two more appeals were pending by the state and Bush, but those challenges were before the state 2nd District Court of Appeal, which has rebuffed the governor's previous efforts in the case. It was unclear when the court would rule.

---

Associated Press writers Mark Long, Vickie Chachere, Fred Goodall and Allen Breed contributed to this report.

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20050328/D893M91O0.html

__________________
Laissez les bon temps rouler! Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.** a 4 day work week & sex slaves ~ I say Tyt for PRESIDENT! Not to be taken internally, literally or seriously ....Suki ebaynni IS THAT BETTER ?

Jolie Rouge

[b]Battle over corpse already underway [/i]
Husband wants Terri cremated, parents look for burial
RICHARD LUSCOMBE
IN PINELLAS PARK, FLORIDA [/i]


THE legal fight to keep brain-damaged Terri Schiavo alive appeared to be over last night, but a new row erupted between her husband and her parents over what will happen to her body after she dies.

Michael Schiavo, who had his wife’s feeding tube removed by court order ten days ago, has made arrangements for her to be cremated and her ashes interred in his family’s plot in Pennsylvania.

But Bob and Mary Schindler want their daughter to have a Roman Catholic funeral service and to be buried near their home in Clearwater, Florida. They are also furious that her husband denied her an Easter communion.

The latest animosity in the bitterly contested right-to-die case emerged as Mrs Schiavo, 41, yesterday entered her ninth full day without food or water at a hospice in Pinellas Park, Florida. Doctors have said she could survive for up to two weeks.

Michael Schiavo’s lawyer, George Felos, said a judge had already backed the cremation plan. "My client will scrupulously follow the court order," he said. "Her ashes will be interred in the Schiavo family plot in Pennsylvania, where Terri and Michael grew up."

Brother Paul O’Donnell, the Schindlers’ spiritual adviser, said it was a further assault by Mr Schiavo on his wife’s rights as a Catholic after the rejection of her parents’ communion request. "She has been denied the precious body and blood of Christ in violation of her religious freedom," he said.

Mrs Schiavo’s brother, Bobby, said he had advised his parents not to make any further visits to the hospice because of her condition. "My mother has to experience her daughter dying in this fashion," he said. "It’s not painless and it’s not peaceful."

Mr Schiavo, backed by several court judgments during a 12-year legal campaign, has always insisted his wife had once told him she would not want to be kept alive artificially. His doctors say she is in a persistent vegetative state, leaving her awake but unable to swallow or talk.

Her parents say she could improve but that her husband has denied her treatment, despite winning a malpractice pay-out of more than $1 million for her care and rehabilitation in 1992. Mr Schiavo, who has two children with a woman he met ten years ago, has refused to surrender his status as his wife’s legal guardian.

Congress stepped into the row last week when President George Bush signed into law a bill that sent the case for federal court review. But the Schindlers’ efforts to have the feeding tube restored have been thwarted by a succession of state and federal judges and the US Supreme Court.

The latest setback came late on Saturday when the Florida Supreme Court rejected a claim that Mrs Schiavo had started to speak the words "I want to live" when she was told the tube was to come out.

Outside the hospice yesterday, about 30 protesters staged an Easter Sunday service. Three of them, including a pastor from a pro-life Christian group, were arrested as they tried to enter the hospice with bread and wine to administer communion to Mrs Schiavo.

Last night, half a dozen people in wheelchairs got out and lay in the hospice’s driveway, shouting: "We’re not dead yet." Police were loudly heckled, prompting Bobby Schindler to come out and ask protesters to tone down their behaviour. He told them: "You are not speaking for our family."

The Schindlers have pinned their last hopes on Florida’s governor, Jeb Bush, who, they say, has the authority to take Terri into the state’s protection.

http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=327962005

__________________
Laissez les bon temps rouler! Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.** a 4 day work week & sex slaves ~ I say Tyt for PRESIDENT! Not to be taken internally, literally or seriously ....Suki ebaynni IS THAT BETTER ?

Jolie Rouge

[b]Political corruption alleged in Schiavo case
Criminal probes reportedly shut down despite investigators' concerns
March 26, 2005
By Diana Lynne
© 2005 WorldNetDaily.com [/i]

As Terri Schiavo enters what are thought to be her last hours of life, allegations of political corruption and obstruction of justice on the part of state officials raise questions as to whether the brain-injured woman's court-ordered death by starvation might serve to cover up crimes committed against her.

Criminal probes launched by two Florida agencies looking into allegations the incapacitated woman was abused, neglected and exploited were shut down, despite investigators' concerns.

One investigation took place at the Department of Children and Families, or DCF, in late 2001. The other was conducted by agents with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, or FDLE, in August 2003.

Both agencies are mandated by Florida Statutes 415 and 825 to detect and correct the abuse, neglect, and exploitation of the elderly or disabled adults.

The individual whose 700-page anonymous complaint prompted the DCF to conduct a 60-day investigation into numerous alleged violations of state statutes protecting disabled and incapacitated people tells WND the DCF investigator gave him the impression he thought the allegations were credible and he was sorry the probe got aborted by his superiors.

The complainant, who wishes to remain unnamed, tells WND he spent numerous hours over a period of several weeks working with the DCF adult protective services investigator after filing his complaint in November 2001.

"It was clear to me that he found credibility in most, if not all, the charges," the complainant said of the investigator.

But when the investigator turned his report in to his superiors, he reportedly hit a brick wall. "It went up the ladder. It crashed. The report findings were marked 'Unfounded but With Recommendations,'" the complainant recalls the investigator telling him.

When the complainant expressed disbelief at the outcome and asked what "with recommendations" meant, he says the investigator became tight-lipped. "I've said too much. All I can say is keep up the fight," the investigator said.

At the time, DCF attorney Frank Nagatani publicly declared: "DCF is not going to get involved [in the Terri Schiavo case] until this is out of the court."

Florida Department of State Election records show Nagatani contributed to the 1998 election campaign of 6th Judicial Circuit Court Judge George Greer, the primary adjudicator in the Terri Schiavo case. While no records exist detailing the amount of Nagatani's total contribution, according to Greer's reported campaign expenditures, Nagatani was paid $18.75 on Aug. 11, 1998 for a "partial contribution refund."

WorldNetDaily reported Michael Schiavo's attorney, George Felos, also donated to Greer's re-election campaign. The $250 contribution was made by Felos' law firm, Felos & Felos, on May 7, 2004 – one day after Pinellas County Circuit Court Judge Douglas Baird ruled "Terri's Law" unconstitutional.

Terri Schiavo's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, have been locked in a 7-year court battle with her estranged husband, Michael Schiavo, over her fate.

Michael Schiavo maintains he's carrying out Terri's wishes not to be kept alive artificially. "My aim is to carry out Terri's wishes," Schiavo told WND. "If Terri would even know that I had somebody taking care of her bodily functions, she'd kill us all in a heartbeat. She'd be so angry."

Terri is not hooked up to any life-support machines, but requires the feeding tube for nourishment. Doctors removed it March 18 per Greer's court order, after a flurry of eleventh-hour appeals by the Schindlers failed.

In February 2000, Greer ruled that statements Terri allegedly made to Michael Schiavo, his brother and his brother's wife a year before her injury that she didn't want to be kept alive artificially were "clear and confincing evidence" of her wishes.

The Schindlers reject their daughter, a devout Roman Catholic, would have made such statements.

After eight days of dehydration and starvation, Terri Schiavo is "still responsive" but is "weakening," according to Bob Schindler. "She's down to her last hours. Something has to be done and has to be done quick," he told reporters outside the hospice where Terri resides.

Michael Schiavo's brother, Brian Schiavo, told CNN Terri Schiavo "does look a little withdrawn," but said she was not in pain, calling starvation "part of the death process."

Shortly after the complainant was informed the DCF investigation was scrubbed, Pat Anderson, the attorney representing the Schindlers at the time issued a subpoena to the investigator to find out what went on at DCF.

During a hearing held by Greer on Jan. 23, 2002 over Felos' counter-motion to quash the subpoena, Greer is said to have indicated he knew about the DCF report. He ruled in favor of quashing the subpoena and nothing came of the DCF investigation.

Curiously, an anonymous person at DCF mailed a box, presumably containing the hefty complaint, back to the complainant in September 2003. The outside of the box was marked: "You may need this. It was scheduled for destruction."

The complainant was instructed by Schindler attorneys not to open the box for fear of damaging any fingerprints, and to keep it in a secure place for possible use as evidence later.

Off again, on again DCF

The DCF complainant suspects Nagatani's departure from the social services agency explains the recent attempted intervention in the ongoing court battle, contrary to his pledge to stay on the sidelines until its conclusion.

WND reported the DCF launched a new investigation late last month into 30 new complaints of "abuse, neglect or exploitation" the agency said came through its anonymous abuse hot line on Feb. 18 and Feb. 21.

DCF filed a petition to intervene in the case and requested a 60-day stay of Greer's ordered removal of the feeding tube while it conducts an investigation.

Among the allegations of abuse or neglect on the part of Michael Schiavo are:
Failure to file proper guardianship plan or report

Denial of access to legal counsel on different occasions

Failure to educate using certain therapies in violation of guardianship

Experimental procedures performed without proper medical and legal procedures observed

Current confinement issues at ward's residence

Lack of manipulation of the ward's arms, causing severe contractures

Lack of communication/visitation

The 11-page confidential document supplied to attorneys references the earlier investigation. "There are allegations that DCF has investigated that have been closed as unfounded. While the DCF stands by its past decisions, it nevertheless reserves its rights to review any updated or relevant information in the full fair and final determination of this matter given the totality of the circumstances," reads the court petition.

Anticipating Greer's repeated rulings since 2001 dismissing the allegations as old news, the petition states: "The court's determination that it has reviewed some or all of these facts does not relieve DCF from discharging its [statutory] investigative duties."

The motion is signed by Adult Protective Investigations Supervisor Michael Will and and DCF attorney Kelly McKibben.

Felos blasted the DCF's attempt to intervene in the case, saying it "reeks of political arm-twisting."

On Wednesday, Greer dismissed the DCF's motion for a 60-day stay of his court order to remove the feeding tube.


(continues ...)

__________________
Laissez les bon temps rouler! Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.** a 4 day work week & sex slaves ~ I say Tyt for PRESIDENT! Not to be taken internally, literally or seriously ....Suki ebaynni IS THAT BETTER ?

Jolie Rouge

FDLE's open-and-shut case

As first reported by the Empire Journal, two FDLE agents looked into accusations Terri Schiavo was battered by her husband prior to her mysterious collapse, and has been the victim of abuse and neglect at nursing homes and hospice ever since.

WorldNetDaily has obtained a heavily redacted copy of the FDLE report filed by special agent Terrell Rhodes that indicates an investigation was launched Aug. 10, 2003 after special agent Mark Dubina received information regarding a criminal complaint from Anderson.

The basis of Anderson's request, according to the report, was the discovery of a nuclear imaging bone scan performed on Terri Schiavo by Dr. W. Campbell Walker at Manatee Memorial Hospital on March 3, 1991 – 13 months after her collapse.

In February of 1990 at the age of 26, Terri Schiavo collapsed at home and oxygen was cut off to her brain for several minutes. The cause of the collapse is disputed. Michael Schiavo, Terri's husband, blames a cardiac arrest induced by a potassium imbalance associated with bulimia. The Schindlers suspect he tried to strangle her, based on court testimony by a neurologist that Terri had suffered a neck injury when she was admitted to the hospital.

WorldNetDaily reported the bone scan describes what are known as "hot spots" suggestive of multiple fractures in her ribs, first lumbar vertebra, several thoracic vertebrae, both sacroiliac joints, and both knees and ankles, all deemed "presumably traumatic" by Walker. "The patient has a history of trauma," writes Walker in the report. "The presumption is that the other multiple areas of abnormal activity ["hot spots"] also relate to previous trauma."

WND reported Felos called the implication of abuse "garbage." Citing medical records, he told WND a follow-up X-ray done to verify the cause of the "hot spots" showed "degenerative bone disease, not multiple fractures ... and only showed a minor fracture in the femur."

The Empire Journal, quoting anonymous sources, reports that when Dubina opened a file into the case, he was called into his supervisor's office and told to shut down the investigation not once, but twice.

Dubina and another agent have reportedly contacted the current attorneys representing the Schindlers and given statements detailing the "cover up" by FDLE superiors, which they suspect, according to Empire Journal, was ordered by Bernie McCabe, state attorney for Pinellas and Pasco County.

Calls to Dubina and the Clearwater office of FDLE where the investigation was initiated were not returned.

The report indicates the findings of the investigation were reviewed by Regional Director Lance Newman, Investigative Chief Moses Jordan and Special Agent Supervisor Troy Walker.

A final decision was made that FDLE would not continue the investigation primarily because "any criminal violation that might have occurred would have been within the city of St. Petersburg" and therefore out of FDLE's jurisdiction.

The other reasons cited were:

"No indisputable evidence was identified that could justify a case for charging Michael Schiavo with physical, domestic abuse"

"It would not be possible to prosecute Michael Schiavo of a crime if the allegation could be proven due to the statute of limitations of criminal proceedings under Florida State Statute 775.15."

Sources told the Empire Journal indictments have come out of cases with less evidence than was presented in this probe.

The Bradenton Herald reports McCabe reviewed some of Terri Schiavo's medical records but found no evidence of abuse. He also noted that even if there was abuse, the statute of limitations had expired.

The Tallahassee-based Advocacy Center for Persons with Disabilities, the state-appointed group that monitors the treatment of disabled adults also attempted to investigate the abuse allegations but said it was blocked by Michael Schiavo when he denied permission to examine his wife.

The allegations probed by DCF, FDLE and McCabe mirror those raised repeatedly – and unsuccessfully – in motions filed by the Schindlers seeking the removal of Michael Schiavo as their daughter's legal guardian.

Among the Schindlers neglect and abuse complaints is that Michael Schiavo:

Has not allowed therapy or rehabilitation since late 1992.

Has prevented swallowing tests or swallowing therapy since 1993.

Ordered caretakers not to clean Terri's teeth since 1995, resulting in removal of five teeth in April 2004.

Placed Terri in hospice in 2000, despite the fact she is not terminally ill.

Refuses to allow Terri to leave her room. She has not been outside since 2000.

Ordered doctors not to treat Terri when she had a life threatening infection in 1993 and 1995.

Former caregivers filed affidavits with the court claiming Michael Schiavo withheld medical care and rehabilitative therapy from his wife and indicated he wanted her to die.

In her sworn deposition, certified nursing assistant Heidi Law said she and a co-worker secretly disobeyed Michael Schiavo's orders and gave Terri range of motion therapy behind closed doors. "We knew we were endangering our jobs by doing so," Law wrote. "We usually did this behind closed doors, we were so fearful of being caught. Our hearts would race and we were always looking out for Michael, because we knew that, not only would Michael take his anger out on us, but he would take it out more on Terri. We spoke of this many times."

Law, who cared for Terri Schiavo at the nursing home where she resided from March to mid- 1997, also detailed instances when Terri swallowed liquids and Jello. "At least three times during any shift where I took care of Terri, I made sure to give Terri a wet washcloth filled with ice chips, to keep her mouth moistened. I personally saw her swallow the ice water and never saw her gag," Law wrote. "On three or four occasions I personally fed Terri small mouthfuls of Jello, which she was able to swallow and enjoyed immensely. I did not do it more often only because I was so afraid of being caught by Michael."

The caregivers reported hearing Terri Schiavo say "mommy," "pain," and "help me," and say the notes they kept of her progress were consistently deleted from her file.

Michael Schiavo says Terri Schiavo has not said a word since 1990.

He has repeatedly and strenously denied allegations of abuse and neglect.

Felos called the caregivers' testimony "a bunch of garbage" and said their accounts of Terri Schiavo talking were "total fabrication."


http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/ar...TICLE_ID=43509

__________________
Laissez les bon temps rouler! Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.** a 4 day work week & sex slaves ~ I say Tyt for PRESIDENT! Not to be taken internally, literally or seriously ....Suki ebaynni IS THAT BETTER ?

Jolie Rouge

Doctors debate Schiavo's condition
Friday, March 25, 2005


(AP) -- An affidavit filed this week that questions whether Terri Schiavo is in a persistent vegetative state is not the first time that diagnosis has been challenged in court. But the last time doctors fought it out in front of a judge, the diagnosis was upheld.

The issue arose again this week when a neurologist, Dr. William Cheshire of the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida, said in a court document that he believed it's more likely that Schiavo is in a "minimally conscious state."

In a persistent vegetative state, a person is awake but not aware of himself or his environment, and making only reflex movements. In a minimally conscious state, a person's behavior shows inconsistent but reproducible signs of consciousness. For example, a patient can occasionally follow simple commands -- scratch his nose if it itches -- or try to use an object such as a comb correctly.

The Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville said in a statement that Cheshire, at the request of the state of Florida, observed Schiavo at her bedside and reviewed her medical history but did not conduct an extensive examination of her.

In his affidavit, Cheshire said Schiavo showed several behaviors "that I believe cast a reasonable doubt on the prior diagnosis" of persistent vegetative state. For example, he said, her face brightens and she smiles in response to familiar voices such as those of her parents. Her eyes don't track moving objects consistently, but "she does fixate her gaze on colorful objects or human faces for some 15 seconds at a time," he said.

"Although Terri did not demonstrate during our 90-minute visit compelling evidence of verbalization, conscious awareness or volitional behavior, yet the visitor has the distinct sense of the presence of a living human being who seems at some level to be aware of some things around her," Cheshire said in the affidavit.

But the first part of that sentence, in fact, "starts to meet the criteria for vegetative state," said Dr. Gene Sung, director of the neurocritical care and stroke section of the University of Southern California.

Sung, who has not been involved with the case, said of Cheshire that "unfortunately his feelings, and possibly his religious beliefs, are affecting his medical decision." Cheshire is listed as director of biotech ethics for the Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity, which notes on its Web site that it was founded by Christian bioethicists.

Sung said the original diagnosis was based on repeated examinations by "very distinguished neurologists" and he said he is as comfortable with that diagnosis as he can be without examining Schiavo himself.

Dr. Roger Albin, a professor of neurology at the University of Michigan who also was not involved in the Schiavo case, agreed. "I don't think there's any reason to doubt the diagnosis. ...I don't think her evaluation could have been done better."

He also said he's not aware of any evidence that a person could emerge from years in a persistent vegetative state and enter a minimally conscious state, especially in a case such as Schiavo's, where blood flow to the brain had been temporarily cut off in 1990.

The diagnosis has been a court matter, both in 2000 and in 2002. In the latter year, a Florida judge agreed with four neurologists that Schiavo was in a persistent vegetative state. Brain scans and examinations were conducted in 2002, but no new neurological evaluation has been ordered since, and the medical record has been closed.

Testimony in those cases included statements from Schiavo's treating physician, Dr. Victor Gambone, who said in 2000 that he agreed with the diagnosis. He said Schiavo's daily caregivers told him they could not get any response indicating an appreciation of her surroundings.

In 2002, Dr. Ronald Cranford, an expert on persistent vegetative states who was brought into the case by Schiavo's husband, testified that key centers of Schiavo's brain probably had no viable neurons left. She was not actually fixing her gaze on her mother, as had been suggested, but rather showing a reflex action seen in patients in the a vegetative state.

Cranford said Thursday he still has no doubt the diagnosis is correct and that Cheshire is "flat-out wrong."

Two other neurologists also agreed with the diagnosis, including one appointed by the court to examine and evaluate Schiavo.

But doctors representing Schiavo's parents at the 2002 hearing had a different conclusion. Dr. William Hammesfahr, a Florida neurologist, said his examination of Schiavo found she is "definitely aware of her mother" and communicating by following instructions and in looking at people. And a radiologist said a brain scan in 2002 showed more normal appearance than one in 1996 and said there was a "significant probability that she would improve" with certain treatments.

But the court was not given any objective data to support that latter assertion, said Dr. Timothy Quill, director of the Center for Palliative Care and Clinical Ethics of the University of Rochester Medical Center, writing in a commentary published online this week by the New England Journal of Medicine.

Hammesfahr has been a figure of controversy. In 2001, the Florida Department of Health accused him of falsely advertising a neurological treatment and exploiting a patient for financial gain. The treatment is "contrary to current neurological knowledge," the department said. Hammesfahr denied the accusations, and in an interview Thursday he said the probation and fine against him were overturned on appeal.

On Thursday, Dr. Lawrence J. Schneiderman of the University of California, San Diego, a specialist in bioethics of medical futility and end-of-life care, said in an interview, "He's a quack, to put it the politest way I can."

Hammesfahr said he believes Schiavo can be helped by treatment and that numerous other neurologists, some of whom actually examined Schiavo, agreed. "I'm not the only person who has said she can be rehabilitated," he said. "Are we all quacks?

http://www.cnn.com/2005/HEALTH/03/25....ap/index.html

__________________
Laissez les bon temps rouler! Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.** a 4 day work week & sex slaves ~ I say Tyt for PRESIDENT! Not to be taken internally, literally or seriously ....Suki ebaynni IS THAT BETTER ?

Jolie Rouge

Disability groups on Schiavo
David Shuster


This week, we've all been following the twists and turns in the Terri Schiavo dispute as well as the effort by Congress to change the outcome in federal court. My previous blogs make it quite clear what I think of the horrifying political opportunism displayed by our lawmakers.

However, one can disagree with what Congress did and still believe that Terri Schiavo should be protected. To that end, I'd like to turn over the rest of this blog to a group of people who deal with these issues every day. "The Arc of the United States" is a leading advocacy group for disabled americans. Steve Eidelman is their executive director and has submitted an op-ed to newspapers across the country. He writes, in part:

"For people with disabilities and their families, the Schiavo case represents a slippery slope and raises the possibility that the right to life of people with significant intellectual and or physical disabilities might one day be questioned...

"... Today, there are thousands of people with various physical and cognitive disabilities who use feeding tubes as their normal means of getting food and water. For these people, a feeding tube is not life support or heroic intervention. It is a simple way of getting hydration and nourishment. When they are hospitalized for any reason – however minor – they risk having their normal means of eating and drinking be classified as as “extraordinary treatment” or “life support.”

"...The disability community has grappled with these issues in the past and has come to the conclusion that in such cases, it is best to assume that life is preferable over death. Is that not what the Schiavo case is all about? Laws governing surrogate decision-making vary among states and are often the result of well-funded advocacy from a narrow group of professionals. In most cases, disability organizations were not included in changes of statutes on the state level, and the drafters of those statues did not take into account the views of those with disabilities..."

"...Our society must stop using the term “persistent vegetative state.” Too many people with significant disabilities have been called “vegetables,” and this must stop. It is beyond demeaning; it is dehumanizing. In fact, some of the people who use the term most freely are doctors, and what comes next is a discussion of the death or warehousing of the individual labeled that way."

"...When a person has serious disabilities, the debate should not be about whether or not they are going to “get better” some day. For millions of Americans, disability is a fact of life,every day of our lives. People with disabilities have wonderful lives. And some have lousy lives. In that way, they are just like other Americans. Just because a person has a significant disability does not mean that they do not love their life. It does not mean that they should be assumed to be better off dead."

"...It is time for a call to conscience to both the Right and the Left. Guardianship should not be a death ship. People like Terri Schiavo are persons under the law, and they deserve constitutional protection."

"...The disability community is grateful that so many in Congress supported Terri Schiavo’s right to live, even though we are concerned about the precedent they set. We would like to see them follow up with the same level of concern for making sure we can provide care and support for the millions of Americans with disabilities by supporting Medicaid Community Attendant Services and Supports Act, which would allow people receiving Medicaid funding to have a life, not just stay to alive.– We call on them to ensure continued appropriate funding of Medicaid and other programs that people need..."

"...Terri Schiavo’s case is every family’s nightmare. Disability doesn’t have to be a nightmare. Even if our nation disagrees on how we define compassion, we must certainly agree that all lives are equal under the law."

Amen. Thank you Steve Eidelman from "Arc of the United States" for your group's articulate and thought provoking op-ed.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7287283/#050325a

(( looking for the whole & entire piece ... ))

__________________
Laissez les bon temps rouler! Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.** a 4 day work week & sex slaves ~ I say Tyt for PRESIDENT! Not to be taken internally, literally or seriously ....Suki ebaynni IS THAT BETTER ?

Jolie Rouge

SCHIAVO SCANDAL INDICATES LOW STATE OF BIOETHICS
Sun Mar 27, 2005
By John Leo

Think of the Terri Schiavo case as another red-vs.-blue issue. Congress, Republican-dominated and therefore mostly red, asked the federal courts to take a fresh look. The federal judiciary, in its customary imperial blue, contemptuously told Congress to take a hike. It wouldn't delay the execution for even a few days. For that, you need to be a convicted cop killer.

Color the mainstream media blue. Photos of pro-lifers usually show people who seem to be unbalanced, waving Bibles, rolling their eyes crazily -- right out of the playbook for anti-abortion coverage. The nearly identical headlines in several papers saying, "How the Personal Became the Political," reflect a media consensus that the anti-death side is intruding where it doesn't belong.

The verb "placate" is overused to indicate that this is just politics, and Republicans are humoring those zany evangelicals. ABC and CBS are under fire from red bloggers for conducting what critics consider "push polls," i.e., public-opinion surveys constructed to achieve the correct pro-death result. Disability-rights activists are an important constituency defending Schiavo's right to live, but since journalists cannot afford to depict them as unbalanced or foolish, they have been rendered almost invisible.

The underlying red-blue issue involves the current state of bioethics. Many of the founders of this relatively new field were religiously motivated. Daniel Callahan, a former colleague of mine at the Catholic magazine Commonweal, cofounded the Hastings Center. Sargent Shriver and the Kennedy family launched the Kennedy Institute of Ethics at Georgetown University. But the bioethics world turned rigorously secular and veered sharply to the blue section of the color spectrum.

A key factor in the rise of bioethics, Callahan wrote, was the "emergence ideologically of a form of bioethics that dovetailed nicely with the reigning political liberalism of the educated classes in America." Instead of the traditional emphasis on the sanctity of life, bioethics began to stress the quality of life, meaning that many damaged humans, young and old, don't qualify for personhood because their lives have lost value. The nonpersons should be allowed to die and in some cases be killed.

This explains why so few bioethicists have protested what the state and her husband planned for Terri Schiavo, who is severely damaged, but not in pain or dying, not brain-dead, and in no position to protest her own execution on grounds that other people consider it best for her.

Bioethics has hardened into an activist ideology that pervades the medical world, the schools and government. This explains why Leon Kass, a moderate conservative who heads the president's committee on bioethics, is under such fierce attack and why Princeton University picked Peter Singer as its first scholar in bioethics. Singer thinks parents should be able to kill disabled newborns.

Among bioethicists, Kass says, "there is a kind of condescension toward the views of the general public (and) a very real danger that what constitutes meaningful life among the intellectual elite will be imposed on people as the only standard by which the value of human life is measured."

Under pressure from bioethicists, norms have been collapsing. Fifteen years ago, as author Wesley Smith writes in his 2002 book "The Culture of Death," legally assisted suicide was unthinkable. So was harvesting the organs of terminally ill patients, which is done today and approved by bioethicists.

Pushing the culture toward outcomes previously considered immoral is routine in bioethics. The Rev. Richard Neuhaus, editor in chief of the nation's best religious journal (First Things), wrote: "Thousands of ethicists and bioethicists, as they are called, professionally guide the unthinkable on its passage through the debatable on its way to becoming the justifiable, until it is finally established as the unexceptional."


The Schiavo case is a breakthrough for persuading the public to lower the bar on moral constraints. Once we had a bright line between pulling the plug on patients kept alive by life-support systems and killing people like Terri Schiavo, who are not on life support but merely being fed through a tube. Requiring clear evidence of consent is no longer required. In the Schiavo case, we have vaguely remembered consent from a party with a vested interest (the husband) some eight years after the patient was stricken.


Though the medical and media people seem to agree that Schiavo is in a persistent vegetative state (PVS), there is some doubt that this is so. She has never been given a PET scan, one of the most sophisticated tests used to diagnose PVS, apparently because her husband refused to allow it. The killing of Schiavo is a scandal successfully redefined as unexceptional and therefore moral.



http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...ateofbioethics

__________________
Laissez les bon temps rouler! Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.** a 4 day work week & sex slaves ~ I say Tyt for PRESIDENT! Not to be taken internally, literally or seriously ....Suki ebaynni IS THAT BETTER ?

Jolie Rouge

I love the Star Trek quote : "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few ... or the one"


STARVED FOR JUSTICE
Thu Mar 24, 2005

Democrats have called out armed federal agents in order to:
(1) prevent black children from attending a public school in Little Rock, Ark. (National Guard);
(2) investigate an alleged violation of federal gun laws in Waco, Texas (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms);
and
(3) deport a small boy to Cuba (Immigration and Naturalization Service).

So how about a Republican governor sending in the National Guard to stop an innocent American woman from being starved to death in Florida? Republicans like the military. Democrats get excited about the use of military force only when it's against Americans.


In two of the three cases mentioned above, the Democrats' use of force was in direct contravention of court rulings. Admittedly, this was a very long time ago -- back in U.S. history when the judiciary was only one of the three branches of our government. Democratic Gov. Orval Faubus called out the Arkansas National Guard expressly for purposes of defying rulings of the U.S. Supreme Court and lower federal courts.

The Democrat Bill Clinton sent armed agents from the INS to seize a small boy from an American family -- despite rulings by the majestic and infallible Florida courts granting custody of the boy to that very family.

None of these exercises of military force has gone down in history as a noble moment, but that's because of the underlying purpose of the force, not the fact that force was used.

To the contrary, what has gone down in history as a glorious moment for the republic was when President Dwight Eisenhower (Republican) called out military force of his own. In response to Gov. Faubus' abuse of the National Guard, Eisenhower simultaneously revoked Faubus' control of the National Guard and ordered the 101st Airborne Division to escort black students to school. (Minutes later, Democrats pronounced the Arkansas public schools a "hopeless quagmire" and demanded to know what Ike's exit strategy was.)


As important as it was to enforce the constitutional right to desegregated schools, isn't it also important to enforce Terri Schiavo's right to due process before she is killed by starvation?


Liberals' newfound respect for "federalism" is completely disingenuous. People who support a national policy on abortion are prohibited from ever using the word "federalism."

I note that whenever liberals talk about "federalism" or "states' rights," they are never talking about a state referendum or a law passed by the duly elected members of a state legislature -- or anything voted on by the actual citizens of a state. What liberals mean by "federalism" is: a state court ruling. Just as "choice" refers to only one choice, "the rule of law" refers only to "the law as determined by a court."

As a practical matter, courts will generally have the last word in interpreting the law because courts decide cases. But that's a pragmatic point. There is nothing in the law, the Constitution or the concept of "federalism" that mandates giving courts the last word. Other public officials, including governors and presidents, are sworn to uphold the law, too.


It would be chaotic if public officials made a habit of disregarding court rulings simply because they disagreed with them. But a practice borne of practicality has led the courts to greater and greater flights of arrogance. Sublimely confident that no one will ever call their bluff, courts are now regularly discovering secret legal provisions requiring abortion and gay marriage and prohibiting public prayer and Ten Commandments displays.


Just once, we need an elected official to stand up to a clearly incorrect ruling by a court. Any incorrect ruling will do, but my vote is for a state court that has ordered a disabled woman to be starved to death at the request of her adulterous husband.


Florida state court judge George Greer -- last heard from when he denied an order of protection to a woman weeks before her husband stabbed her to death -- determined that Terri would have wanted to be starved to death based on the testimony of her husband, who was then living with another woman. (The judge also took judicial notice of the positions of O.J. Simpson, Scott Peterson and Robert Blake.) The husband also happened to be the only person present when the oxygen was cut off to Terri's brain in the first place. He now has two children with another woman.


Greer has refused to order the most basic medical tests for brain damage before condemning a woman to death. Despite all those years of important, searching litigation we keep hearing about, Terri has yet to receive either an MRI or a PET scan -- although she may be allowed to join a support group for women whose husbands are trying to kill them.


Greer has cut off the legal rights of Terri's real family and made her husband (now with a different family) her sole guardian, citing as precedent the landmark "Fox v. Henhouse" ruling of 1893. Throughout the process that would result in her death sentence, Terri was never permitted her own legal counsel. Evidently, they were all tied up defending the right to life of child-molesting murderers.


Given the country's fetishism about court rulings, this may be a rash assumption, but I presume if Greer had ordered that Terri Schiavo be shot at her husband's request -- a more humane death, by the way -- the whole country would not sit idly by, claiming to be bound by the court's ruling because of the "rule of law" and "federalism." President Bush would order the FBI to protect her and Gov. Bush would send in the state police.


What was supposed to be the "least dangerous" branch has become the most dangerous -- literally to the point of ordering an innocent American woman to die, and willfully disregarding congressional subpoenas. They can't be stopped -- solely because the entire country has agreed to treat the pronouncements of former ambulance-chasers as the word of God. The only power courts have is that everyone jumps when they say "jump." (Also, people seem a little intimidated by the black robes. From now on we should make all judges wear lime-green leisure suits.)


President Andrew Jackson is supposed to have said of a Supreme Court ruling he opposed: "Well, John Marshall has made his decision, now let him enforce it." The court's ruling was ignored. And yet, somehow, the republic survived.

If Gov. Jeb Bush doesn't say something similar to the Florida courts that have ordered Terri Schiavo to die, he'll be the second Republican governor disgraced by the illiterate ramblings of a state judiciary. Gov. Mitt Romney will never recover from his acquiescence to the Massachusetts Supreme Court's miraculous discovery of a right to gay marriage. Neither will Gov. Bush if he doesn't stop the torture and murder of Terri Schiavo.


http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...rvedforjustice

__________________
Laissez les bon temps rouler! Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.** a 4 day work week & sex slaves ~ I say Tyt for PRESIDENT! Not to be taken internally, literally or seriously ....Suki ebaynni IS THAT BETTER ?

Jolie Rouge

THE RIGHT TO KILL TERRI SCHIAVO
Tue Mar 22, 2005

Terri Schiavo must die. A federal judge refused to order the tube bringing her food and water reinserted. As you read this, Terri Schiavo is dying of thirst, deliberately induced.

Michael Schiavo, her legal husband, who lives with another woman (the mother of his two children), still claims a husband's right to direct Terri's medical care. And so she must die. He says she would have wanted it that way.

Sixty percent of Americans in the latest Gallup poll apparently agree with Michael Schiavo.

The hope of Terri's parents -- that widespread media coverage including pictures of their smiling, grimacing, moaning, gazing daughter, looking distinctly un-vegetablelike, will save her -- has apparently backfired. We look on their beloved daughter Terri and are mostly appalled and repulsed. Who would want to live like that? Terri herself, in watching the similar decline of beloved relatives, allegedly expressed horror at the prospect, saying (according to court depositions) she wouldn't want to live like that. Well, who would?

So the desperate pleadings of a mother for the life of her child fall on deaf ears. So sorry, Mom, but Terri must die the long, slow, agonizing death of dehydration. It is in her interests, see? Her husband (who has lived for 10 years with another woman) says so. And frankly, we gotta agree with him.

George Felos, an attorney for Michael Schiavo, argued in federal court: "Yes, life is sacred. So is liberty, particularly in this country."

The liberty of a patient to refuse medical treatment, when the treatment is overly intrusive or futile, is well-established. Are we honoring Terri's right to refuse medical care (expressed now by proxy through the man who claims the rights of a husband while he lives with and has children by another woman)? Or are we asserting a right to kill her? Is food and water medical care?

"Persistent vegetative state" was a diagnosis invented in order to cope with patients who are not brain-dead, but severely mentally disabled. The claim is that such people have no cognition, no self-awareness at all, but of course we cannot know for sure what such patients experience. The fact that a number of patients have emerged from persistent vegetative states after many years ought to be a flashing warning sign: There's still someone there, even if that person is unable to communicate. Does that person have a right to life? Is her life sacred too? Or if we find her condition sufficiently repulsive, do we have the right to kill her?

Nor is there agreement that Terri is in a vegetative state right now. Her family disputes it, saying she sometimes responds to their loving gestures and words. Their perceptions are dismissed as wishful thinking. But a neurologist who was nominated for the Nobel Prize in 1999 (and who examined Terri Schiavo several years ago) told BP News (www.bpnews.net/bpnews.asp?ID=20400) that Terri is not in a vegetative state. She sometimes responds. Terri (he says) has been able to swallow pudding in the past, and can swallow her own saliva right now. With therapy, she might not even need the feeding tube. "They are truly withholding food from a person who is awake, alert, and can eat and swallow."

Does that matter?

If Terri were capable of drinking water right now, would we be justified in withholding it from her? Are we celebrating her autonomy or her death?


When does the "right to die" become the right to kill?

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...llterrischiavo

__________________
Laissez les bon temps rouler! Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.** a 4 day work week & sex slaves ~ I say Tyt for PRESIDENT! Not to be taken internally, literally or seriously ....Suki ebaynni IS THAT BETTER ?

nightrider127

He was nominated for the Nobel Peace prize by Rep. Mike Bilirakis (R-FL) who is not qualified to make Nobel Prize nominations. http://mediamatters.org/items/200503220009

In 2001 Dr. Hammesfahr was cited by the Florida Medical Board for fraud and 'bilking' his patients for money.You can read his appeal here http://www.2dca.org/opinion/March%2...4/2D03-1109.pdf
He's also listed on quackwatch.org
http://www.quackwatch.org/11Ind/index.html
http://www.quackwatch.org/01Quacker.../Tests/tcd.html
I wouldn't be putting much stock in anything Dr. Hammesfahr has to say.

This was posted by another member in another forum here at BBS. And like her, I wouldn't put too much stock in what this doctor has to say either.

__________________
Missing Mommy and Daddy.
Missing my Lady,Dingo, Mitzi and Spud.
Missing my Aunt Ann.

FetishKtn

All these people camped out outside the hospice, how come they aren't trying to save all the other people dying in the hospice? Guess the other patients aren't controversial enough to make the hypocrites give a d@mn.