MITCH STACY
Husband's lawyer lashes out at Gov. Bush
Wed Oct 22 19:49:23 2003
64.140.158.110

Husband's lawyer lashes out at Gov. Bush

By MITCH STACY
The Associated Press
10/22/2003, 6:28 p.m. ET
http://pennlive.com/newsflash/lateststories/index.ssf?/base/national-0/1066862048325670.xml

CLEARWATER, Fla. (AP) — Legal scholars predicted Wednesday that Gov. Jeb Bush's intervention in a bitter right-to-die case involving a brain-damaged woman would be ruled unconstitutional, and the husband's lawyer angrily complained the woman was "abducted from her deathbed."

"It was just an absolute trampling of her personal rights and her dignity," George Felos, the attorney for Michael Schiavo, said on NBC's "Today." "We believe that a court sooner or later, we hope sooner, will find this law to be unconstitutional."

Legal scholars also decried the move as an extraordinary end run around the courts. "In my view the bill is plainly unconstitutional," said University of Florida law professor Joseph Little.

Terri Schiavo, 39, has been in a what doctors call a "persistent vegetative state" since 1990, when her heart stopped because of a chemical imbalance. Her eyes are open, but doctors say she has no consciousness.

Her parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, have fought to keep her alive and say she still could recover. Michael Schiavo contends that she had told him she would rather die than be kept alive artificially.

Her feeding tube was removed by court order last Wednesday at the insistence of her husband. The case is one of the nation's longest and most contentious right-to-die cases, pitting members of the same family against each other.

On Tuesday, the Legislature rushed through a bill designed to save Schiavo's life, and Bush quickly invoked the law and ordered the feeding tube reinserted. A hospital then began giving the woman fluids intravenously to prepare her body for the resumption of feeding.

A judge later rejected an initial request by Michael Schiavo to block Bush's order but said he would consider it again after both sides file briefs.

Felos said that Terri Schiavo suffered signs of organ failure Tuesday and the reintroduction of fluids after a week without food or water could just make her suffer more. A Morton Plant Hospital spokeswoman said Wednesday she could not release any information on Schiavo.

Family members complained Wednesday that they have not been allowed into the hospital to see her. Despite the state's intervention, Michael Schiavo is still her legal guardian and he has not allowed them to visit.

Felos did not return a call seeking comment Wednesday, but he told NBC that Michael Schiavo was "deeply troubled, angry and saddened that his wife's wishes have become a political pingpong."

He said it was "an absolute horrible tragedy for Terri Schiavo, literally being abducted from her deathbed and her death process."

The bill sent to Bush was designed to be as narrow as possible. It is limited to cases in which the patient left no living will, is in a persistent vegetative state and has had nutrition and hydration tubes removed, and where a family member has challenged the removal.

Legal experts widely agreed that the governor and Legislature went too far.

"This particular administration has not yet understood why we have separation of powers," said former Florida Supreme Court Justice Gerald Kogan. "They seem to believe that the governor and the Legislature can do whatever they want and the courts should not interfere and that's not right."

Harvard law professor Laurence Tribe said: "I've never seen a case in which the state legislature treats someone's life as a political football in quite the way this is being done."

Bush and the Republican-led Legislature have a reputation for being at odds with the courts. They have clashed over abortion and the death penalty.

Bush and lawmakers who supported the legislation said they had a legitimate reason to intervene in the case to save Schiavo's life.

"Let us err on the part of not condemning this woman to a painful death that she can feel," said GOP Sen. Anna Cowin.

During the years she has been in a vegetative state, her parents reported their daughter laughed, cried, smiled and responded to their voices. But the court-appointed doctor said the noises and facial expressions she made were reflexes.
===========================

Fla. Family Can't Visit Disabled Woman
By MITCH STACY
http://www.cumberlink.com/articles/2003/10/22/ap/Headlines/d7ubepr01.txt

CLEARWATER, Fla. - The family of a disabled woman now under treatment by orders of Gov. Jeb Bush is barred from seeing her because her husband won't allow it, the family's attorney said Tuesday.

Michael Schiavo is Terri Schiavo's official guardian, and can designate who is allowed to see his wife. She had gone without food and water for six days under a court order that allowed her husband to remove the feeding tube that kept her alive for more than a decade.

Gov. Jeb Bush on Tuesday, acting under a hastily approved law by the Florida Legislature, ordered Terri Schiavo taken to a hospital where doctors could begin the process of rehydrating and eventually feeding her.

Attorneys for parents Bob and Mary Schindler said Terri Schiavo's brother, Bob Schindler Jr., was turned away Tuesday night when he attempted to see his sister. It was not clear what condition Terri Schiavo was in Wednesday morning, about 12 hours after she was moved from a Pinellas Park hospice where she was dying to Morton Plant Hospital in nearby Clearwater.

"They have been told Terri can have no visitors under Michael's order," said Tom Brodersen, a paralegal who is a member of the Schindler's legal team that has waged a years-long court battle to keep Terri Schiavo alive.

George Felos, the attorney for Michael Schiavo, did not immediately return a call for comment Wednesday morning.

The fight over Terri Schiavo's life took a dramatic twist Tuesday with Bush's intervention in the decade-long legal battle between the Schindlers and their son-in-law.

Michael Schiavo says his wife never wanted to be kept alive artificially and doctors have testified she is in a persistent vegetative state. The Schindlers dispute she had such wishes and say their daughter has enough functioning ability to laugh, cry and react to them.

Felos called the reinsertion of the tube "an absolute horrible tragedy for Terri Schiavo."

"The governor of the state of Florida does not have the right to trump a patient's personal choice," he said.

Felos said that on Tuesday, Terri was showing signs of massive organ failure and that the reinsertion of the tube is just prolonging her death. He said he did not know her condition Wednesday.

"She was literally absconded from her death bed in the middle of her dying process," he told ABC's "Good Morning America."

Observers wondered whether the Legislature and the governor overstepped constitutional boundaries by ramming through legislation that overruled the courts.

"It presents a new legal issue that I've never heard of," said former Florida Supreme Court Justice Stephen Grimes.

The feeding tube was removed last Wednesday after a court refused to intervene. Doctors said the 39-year-old woman would die within a week to 10 days without nutrition and water.

On Tuesday, an ambulance took Schiavo from a Pinellas Park hospice to Morton Plant Hospital after Bush issued his order to resume feeding her. A crowd cheered outside as she left. A hospital spokeswoman on Wednesday said she could not release any information on Schiavo.

Hours earlier, the Senate voted 23-15 for legislation to save Schiavo. Within minutes, the House voted 73-24 to send the bill to Bush. The governor signed it into law and issued his order about an hour later.

"It's restored my belief in God," said Schiavo's father, Bob Schindler.

Michael Schiavo, meanwhile, was "deeply troubled, angry and saddened that his wife's wishes have become a political pingpong," Felos said. "He, as many others, is absolutely stunned at the course of events."

Suzanne Carr, the woman's sister, called the lawmakers' action "a miracle, an absolute miracle."

Felos scrambled to try to stop Bush's order. He filed a request for an injunction, but Pinellas Circuit Court Judge George Greer denied it on technical grounds. Felos refiled the request and State Circuit Judge W. Douglas Baird also refused to grant it.

"We won. Terri won," her father said after the ruling.

Felos said he believes the legislation is unconstitutional. It is Terri Schiavo's right under the Florida Constitution to not be kept alive artificially, and the courts have affirmed that, he said.

Harvard law professor Laurence Tribe said the action by Bush and the Legislature "violates the core principles" of a 1990 U.S. Supreme Court decision.

The court ruled in a Missouri case that Nancy Cruzan, who had been fed through a tube for seven years, could be permitted to die if "clear and convincing evidence" proved that was what she wanted. Her parents had fought for the right to remove the tube.

Schiavo never signed a living will, which lets people exercise their right to die should they become comatose. But her husband says she told him she would never want to be kept alive artificially; her parents said she never told them of the wish.

"I've never seen a case in which the state legislature treats someone's life as a political football in quite the way this is being done," said Tribe.

Felos will have five days to file additional arguments with the judge and the state will have five days after that to respond. The judge will then hold another hearing.

"It is simply inhumane and barbaric to interrupt her death process," Felos said. "Just because Terri Schiavo is not conscious doesn't mean she doesn't have dignity."

Court-appointed doctors have described Schiavo as being in a vegetative state, caused when her heart stopped in 1990 from a suspected chemical imbalance.
-----------------------------

Hospice Patients Alliance Blasts Hospice Agencies
That Terrorize the Chronically Disabled
by Ron Panzer, President HPA

http://www.hospicepatients.org/Terri-Schiavo-10-12-02-press-rel.html

A Willingness to Kill the Disabled: the Hospice of the Florida Suncoast disaster
Hospice of the Florida Suncoast in the news: hospice willing to kill disabled Terri Schiavo, questions about possible misappropriation of funds, and its hospice data management software company: Hospice ...
http://www.hospicepatients.org/A-willingness-to-kill.html - 34k - 2003-04-07

Letters to the Editor from hospice employees who seek Terri Schiavo's Death ... the Hospice of the Florida Suncoast disaster
Hospice of the Florida Suncoast: hospice employees seek Terri Schiavo's death
http://www.hospicepatients.org/letters-to-the-editor-from-hospice-employees-whowishtokillTerri.html - 23k - 2003-10-04

Hospice Conspiring to Murder Terri Schiavo - father pleads for medical care to treat infection
Hospice of the Florida Suncoast conspires to killTerri Schiavo: Terri is not terminal, not in a coma, but chronically disabled; efforts to end her life intentionally violate hospice mission.
http://www.hospicepatients.org/hosp-conspires-to-kill-terri---father-s-plea-for-treatment-3-18-03-ltr.html - 8k - 2003-05-23

A Willingness to Kill the Disabled: the Hospice of the Florida Suncoast disaster
Hospice of the Florida Suncoast in the news: hospice willing to kill disabled Terri Schiavo, questions about possible misappropriation of funds, and its hospice data management software company: Hospice ...
http://www.hospicepatients.org/ruscooperdowdaobservesappealhearing.html - 16k - 2003-04-07

Hospice Patients Alliance Blasts Hospice Agencies that Enroll Non-Terminal Patients
Terri Schiavo: not terminal, but chronically disabled; efforts to end her life intentionally violate hospice mission.
http://www.hospicepatients.org/Terri-Schiavo-10-12-02-press-rel.html - 18k - 2003-04-07

Hospice Patients Alliance Blasts Hospice Agencies that Enroll Non-Terminal Patients
Terri Schiavo: not terminal, but chronically disabled; efforts to end her life intentionally violate hospice mission.
http://www.hospicepatients.org/oldbrowsers/Terri-Schiavo-10-12-02-press-rel.html - 16k - 2002-11-28

Hospice of the Florida $uncoast in the News
Hospice of the Florida Suncoast in the news: hospice willing to kill disabled Terri, questions about possible misappropriation of funds, and its hospice data management software company: Hospice Systems ...
http://www.hospicepatients.org/Hosp-FL-Suncoast-entrypage.html - 55k - 2003-10-07

Saving Hospice: the Hospice of the Florida Suncoast disaster
Hospice of the Florida Suncoast in the news: hospice willing to kill disabled Terri Schiavo, questions about possible misappropriation of funds, and its hospice data management software company: Hospice ...
http://www.hospicepatients.org/Saving-Hospice-from-Hospice-Extremists.html - 35k - 2003-04-18

Having Second Thoughts About Working at HFSC? ... the Hospice of the Florida Suncoast disaster
Hospice of the Florida Suncoast in the news: hospice willing to kill disabled Terri Schiavo, questions about possible misappropriation of funds, and its hospice data management software company: Hospice ...
http://www.hospicepatients.org/having-second-thoughts-about-working-at-HFSC.html - 16k - 2003-05-02

Euthanasia and Hospice Information Center + articles - How to Stop Involuntary Euthanasia - Hospice Patients Alliance
Patients are being killed in hospices. Malpractice can result in death of patient, and involuntary euthanasia can be used to cover up malpractice and negligence. Uninformed families can be used by hospice ...
http://www.hospicepatients.org/euth-center.html - 53k - 2003-09-22

Euthanasia and Hospice Information Center + articles - How to Stop Involuntary Euthanasia - Hospice Patients Alliance
Patients are being killed in hospices. Malpractice can result in death of patient, and involuntary euthanasia can be used to cover up malpractice and negligence. Uninformed families can be used by hospice ...
http://www.hospicepatients.org/oldbrowsers/euth-center.html - 56k - 2003-09-22

Having Second - Second Thoughts About Working at HFSC? ... the Hospice of the Florida Suncoast disaster
Hospice of the Florida Suncoast in the news: hospice willing to kill disabled Terri Schiavo, questions about possible misappropriation of funds, and its hospice data management software company: Hospice ...
http://www.hospicepatients.org/having-second-thoughts-about-working-at-HFSC-2.html - 18k - 2003-09-18

Hospice Patients Alliance: Consumer Advocates
Hospice Patients Alliance is a consumer advocacy resource center for hospice patients, families, caregivers; promoting hospice patient rights, revealing what NO hospice will tell you; providing information ...
http://www.hospicepatients.org/ - 54k - 2003-10-07

Lynching the Elderly and Disabled: Why We need to act Now! Why we need an elder justice act!
Victimization of the elderly, disabled and other patients in health care settings occurs primarily due to the utilitarian vision of health care sweeping the industry, displacing the service oriented caring ...
http://www.hospicepatients.org/Lynching-the-Elderly-and-Disabled.html - 141k - 2003-04-22

Lynching the Elderly and Disabled: Why We need to act Now! Why we need an elder justice act!
Victimization of the elderly, disabled and other patients in health care settings occurs primarily due to the utilitarian vision of health care sweeping the industry, displacing the service oriented caring ...
http://www.hospicepatients.org/oldbrowsers/Lynching-the-Elderly-and-Disabled.html - 141k - 2003-04-22

Hospice Industry Shoots Itself In the Foot
Hospice Industry efforts to incorporate killing into hospice services jeopardizes patient enrollment in hospice
http://www.hospicepatients.org/Hosp-Industry-shoots-self-in-foot.html - 11k - 2003-07-22

Hospice Industry Shoots Itself In the Foot
Hospice Industry efforts to incorporate killing into hospice services jeopardizes patient enrollment in hospice
http://www.hosp