JUSTICE FOR TERRI SCHIAVO

In the article, "Schiavo, Cruzan Cases Yield Valuable Lessons in Caring," author Paul Kleyman relates a story told by Mary Labyak, director of The Hospice of the Florida Suncoast, where Terri Schiavo spent the last five years of her life. Labyak, whose father died six years earlier in the same room and bed as Schiavo, sees herself as an advocate for honoring people's end-of-life wishes but could not prevent her father from being "one of the most overtreated, extraordinarily treated elderly men in America." The decision to treat him rested with Labyak's mother who insisted on treatment.

Did Labyak's determination to keep Terri Schiavo under her control [by-way of her hospice]until she was forced to die have anything to do with the death of her own father?

Did Mary Labyak appoint herself Terri's "Angel of Death"? Was Schiavo forced to die " in the same room and bed" as Labyak's father for some demented purpose known only to Labyak? 

Would Mary Labyak have peferred forcing her father's death over giving him every chance to live? Apparently, not being able to overrule her own mother's decisions [concerning her father] Mary Labyak found some kind of pleasure out of being able to overrule Terri Schiavo's mother Mary Schindler. 

Many people have asked the question "why was Terri Schiavo's case more important than the other cases where life support is removed?" I can only speak for myself but Terri's case was a 'first' for me. For years I had been under the impression that nursing homes and hospice facilities were getting my tax dollars so they could provide care to the old and disabled. Since the Terri Schiavo case, I have dug deeper into what really takes place to some unsuspecting souls who spend the last months and sometimes years of their lives under hospice care.  

Death Angels in Hospice

One common method of hospice style euthanasia is to sedate the patient into a medically-induced coma and then either shut down the breathing through the over-administration of a narcotic like morphine or let the patient die of dehydration while in the prolonged coma (known as "terminal sedation")....

 Involuntary Euthanasia Case 1
Lucid, Poor, Elderly Veteran Euthanized Against His Will

Involuntary Euthanasia Case 2
HMO Commits Medicare Fraud, Kills Patient and Falsifies Death Certificate

Involuntary Euthanasia Case 3
Hospice Kills Family's Mother with Morphine Overdose

Involuntary Euthanasia Case 4
Hospice Kills Parkinson's Patient by Dehydration, Terminal Sedation
and Morphine Overdose

 http://www.hospicepatients.org/1-17-01-press-rel.html

 On January 30,2008, I was notified that my aunt was dying and if I wanted to see her before she did I needed to come right then. I got dressed and drove the thirty or so miles to my cousin's home where my aunt had been living. I cannot tell you the feeling that overcome me looking at the 55 pound form of my aunt laying in that bed. I set in a chair next to her bed holding her hands. She was burning up with a fever. I watched her as she tried to open her eyes. It was as if she was trying to tell me something. She was under hospice. But the hospice nurse wasn't there. My cousin gave her liquid morphine through a syringe. She said the hospice nurse told her to give the morphine to my aunt every 4-6 hours. I thought it strange that my aunt who was showing no signs of being in pain would be given so much morphine. Before I left my aunt's bedside she managed  to open her eyes but could not speak. Her breathing was labored. Having lost my own mother without getting the chance to say my goodbyes I left my aunt surrounded by her children. I got a phone call that my aunt had died the next day.

I saw no dignity in the way my aunt was dying. And I'm sure my aunt was fighting to stay alive. The sad thing is hospices don't exist to help a person to live. They exist to help them die....But of course once the deed is done they can always blame a family member for the "morphine overdose" that killed their loved one.

   765.309 Florida Statute:  Mercy Killing of Euthanasia Not Authorized; Suicide Distinguished. -- (1) Nothing in this chapter shall be construed to condone, authorize, or approve mercy killing or euthanasia, or to permit any affirmative or deliberate act of omission to end the life other than to permit the natural process of dying. (2) The withholding or withdrawal of life-prolonging procedures from a patient in accordance with any provision of this chapter does not, for any purpose, constitute a suicide.

458.326 Florida Statute: Intractable Pain; Authorized Treatment. -- (4) Nothing in this section shall be construed to condone, authorize, or approve mercy killing or euthanasia, and no treatment authorized by this section may be used for such purpose.

782.08 Florida Statute: Assisting Self-Murder. -- Every person deliberately assisting another in the commission of self-murder shall be guilty of manslaughter, a felony of the second degree, punishable as provided in s.775.082, s. 775.083 or s.775.084.

http://www.flsenate.gov/Statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&Search_String=&URL=Ch0744/SEC3145.HTM&Title=->2003->Ch0744->Section%203145 

Mercy killing ain't legal. Euthanasia is not legal. So why are the self appointed 'death angels' still walking free to force death on unsuspecting Americans?  

A few years ago, if someone had told me that disabled Americans were being euthanized against their will- without their knowledge,  I would have flat-out-and-out called them "a liar." Back then, I had never heard the name Terri Schiavo.

Now, if someone were to walk up to me and say "hospice over doses people for the purpose of forcing them to die," I would believe them.

Before you sign your life away~ read the fine print. Before you give your loved one that morphine-check with a doctor who is not associated with any hospice.