While both the US and Florida Houses got their acts together, the two Senates did not. Last night the US Senate did pass a bill protecting just Terri, but not until the House had already adjourned for Easter break. Now some last-ditch efforts have the US House shoving subpoenas into the spokes and the Schindlers trying to file for habeas corpus.
Meanwhile, I see many editorials about "letting" Terri die. She has no underlying disease that is being staved off. She is just a brain-damaged woman. If someone were to lock any one of you in a room with no food or water, you would die. As I've read so frequently lately, "nature would take its course", and you would "be at peace."
I wonder at some people's inability to distinguish between allowing someone to die and causing someone to die.
Since she left no written instructions as to her wishes, I'm with President Bush on the subject:
"The case of Terri Schiavo raises complex issues," he said in a statement. "Yet in instances like this one, where there are serious questions and substantial doubts, our society, our laws and our courts should have a presumption in favor of life. Those who live at the mercy of others deserve our special care and concern."
How we treat the most vulnerable among us shows a great deal about who we are as a people. That is, unless you decide to reclassify those individuals as no longer really being persons. Then what you do to them doesn't matter.
You can even tell yourself that when they die of thirst and hunger, they don't feel it a bit.
UPDATE:
Lawyers for the US House of Representatives are indeed winging their way down to Florida with a basket of subpoenas, compelling all and sundry to come to Washington to testify later this month, including, according to some reports, Terri herself.
Much more over at Blogs for Terri.
UPDATE II:
Holy crap. This isn't something I wanted to come home to.
Of course, it would have to be Judge Greer.
Despite Terri being given protection as a Congressional witness, he has said his orders should be followed "forthwith":
In a stunning turn of events, a judge Friday rebuffed extraordinary efforts by congressional Republicans to intervene in the contentious battle over Terri Schiavo and once again ordered her feeding tube removed.
Minutes later, a spokeswoman for Schiavo's parents, who are seeking to block the removal, said the family was asked to leave Schiavo's hospice room. Observers noted that a similar situation occurred in 2003, when Schiavo's feeding tube was removed for six days before it was ordered reinserted.
Republican leaders in Congress, with the support of President Bush, early Friday had said they'd summon the brain-damaged woman to Washington to testify before them and open a congressional investigation, effectively postponing the 1 p.m. scheduled removal of the feeding tube.
But at a brief hearing in Pinellas County, Circuit Judge George Greer refused a request from U.S. House of Representatives attorneys to delay the removal, saying his order should be complied with ``forthwith.''
UPDATE III:
They have indeed "forthwithed" Terri.
UPDATE IV:
They didn't even spare her pain by capping the tube. They removed it entirely.
Florida, you refer to Terri as "brain-damaged"? But isn't she also in a 'persistent vegetative state' with most of her cerebral cortex gone?
The courts have listened to hundreds of hours of testimony. It's very arrogant to not at least look at that testimony and evidence, from doctors and others representing both sides.
Here's a source to look at that evidence http://abstractappeal.com/
Posted by: Listening at March 18, 2005 05:01 PMI have read the testimony and evidence. I've looked at Abstract Appeal many times.
It's rather ignorant to presuppose someone arrogant, isn't it?
Now, since you did not pick up on it the first time, in someone's comments you post a link and not the text. You dig?
When someone's brain is damaged the technical term applied is "brain damage." My neighbor's son was born with only a speck of cerebellum. He just graduated from high school. Think he wants to be whacked because his brains are scrambled?
Posted by: Donnah at March 18, 2005 05:24 PMDonnah: I still know far too little about this case. Have they cut off food and water or just food?
It's so strange that so many people seem to have an impression that pulling out that tube is just like turning off a light switch.
People seem to really want to believe that "just like a fish" she is incapable of feeling pain and that this kind of death is somehow dignified and "humane". Maybe they should ask themselves to assume, just for a moment, that their favorite pet is terminally ill or injured. Would these folks be willing to lock Fido in, say, a box (or even a room) withoout any food or water until he dies of starvation or thirst? How about even their pet iguana or hermit crab?
I've posed this to my "progressive" law partner and he gets around it by saying he wouldn't do it unless his cat was in a "PVS" like Terri supposedly is. I asked him how he can be so sure Terri has no consciousness at all (or less than a dog or cat or crab. I asked him to imagine being unable to communicate with anyone and being starved or dehydrated to death because that's what he's currently selected under the stautorily-approved "death with dignity" choices in Georgia living wills. He admits this case does give him pause, and he likes my idea of spelling out the death options in plain simple, even brutal language ( i.e., "...stop feeding me and allow me to die from starvation, which I acknowlege can be very painful and take up to eight weeks" instead of "...withold nourishment and allow me to die"... But he still thinks they are right to "unplug" Terri. I don't, but idf they're going to kill her at least give her a morphine ride!
This case stirs up a lot of emotions for me; some I didn't even know I had! God help her (and all of us). Sorry to take up so much of your space.
Posted by: Carl in Atlanta at March 18, 2005 06:53 PM