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Subject: Terri Schiavo turns 41; governor’s lawyers file appeal with U.S. Supreme Court
Time: 5:30:00 PM EST
Author: shjusticeforall
Terri Schiavo turns 41; governor’s lawyers file appeal with U.S. Supreme Court
Published December 9, 2004
TALLAHASSEE (BP/FBW)--The U.S. Supreme Court may have the final say as to whether Terri Schiavo, a disabled woman living in Florida, lives or dies.
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Lawyers for Florida Gov. Jeb Bush filed an appeal with the high court Dec. 1, asking the justices to take the case and overturn a ruling by the Florida Supreme Court that could lead to her death.
Legal briefs were filed with the U.S. Supreme Court just two days before Schiavo's 41st birthday, Dec. 3. Lawyers argue that if Schiavo dies, her constitutional right of equal treatment under the law will have been violated.
"It has taken our nation many years to make good on its commitment to equal justice for persons with profound cognitive disabilities," the brief states, in part. "Unless the State of Florida retains the power to protect the rights of its most vulnerable citizens to due process and equal protection of the laws, the Fourteenth Amendment's guarantees will apply only to those who are capable of defending them on their own."
The woman at the center of the legal debate, Schiavo has been in what some doctors consider a persistent vegetative state since 1990, when she collapsed in her home. Her husband and legal guardian, Michael Schiavo -- who has fathered two children with his live-in girlfriend -- has sought the removal of his wife's feeding tube for nearly a decade, saying it is what she would have wanted. However, no written request from Terri Schiavo exists.
Terri Schiavo's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, have long maintained their daughter has not received the rehabilitation and care she requires.
Schiavo's feeding tube was removed in October 2003, but the Florida legislature passed a law giving Bush the authority to order re-insertion of the tube. He did so, and Michael Schiavo challenged the constitutionality of the law.
But in September of this year the Florida Supreme Court ruled the law violated the Florida Constitution. Bush's attorneys are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold the law.
The U.S. Supreme Court does not have to take the case; it could decline to hear it and let the Florida high court's ruling stand.
In related news, Terri Schiavo supporters will hold a special birthday party for her Dec. 12 at Helen Howarth Park, 6301 94th Ave. N. in Pinellas Park.
Terri Schiavo resides at the Woodside Hospice in Pinellas Park, which has recently undergone renovation.
According to Terri’s parents, Terri is kept inside and allowed only limited access to visitors, on the orders of Michael Schiavo.
According to a release from the Terri Schindler-Schiavo Foundation, friends and family will assemble at the park from 2-6 p.m. in order to celebrate her 41st birthday.
Wayne Galley, a Christian musician from Calif., at the party will perform pro-life songs he has recorded about Terri’s situation, and the family’s priest will lead in prayer for Terri Schiavo at 5 p.m., according to the release
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I'M GLAD SHES DEAD
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I can't believe that they took tha word of that unfaithful "husband", the one that didn't use the law suit money for her care like he said he would. The minute that he laid down with that other women his marriage contract should have been voided!!!
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I am attending university for a degree in psychology. Ms. Schiavo's cerebral cortex is filled with fluid and can no longer function. This means that she can't feel or think. That is how the brain works. Yes her body is still moving, because the lower part of the brain that controls motor function. We have startle reflexes that were put in place to have us react to movement, thus she blinks at things and such. But there is no one there seeing it. I can blow a piece of paper and it will move. I think it is difficult for parents to bury children. They don't want to grieve, which is understandable. However, their daughter is gone. Her body is still there, yes. I feel that their desire to have her body and face move about without a person governing it is a desire that comes from not understanding the brain. Before this era we wouldn't have been able to keep alive a body that was not being governed by a person. So it's even more difficult for them to know that there have been no documented cases where people that have lost this much of their higher brain gone have come back. I'm sorry for them for loosing their daughter.
As humanity moves forward scientifically and medically we all have to understand how the brain works, and how it makes us who we are. So that when the parts of it that make us human beings are gone we know. It is fascinating stuff -- that's why I study it! -
The only thing these Judges and other lawmakers should do is put a clause in the law to allow Terri's husband (and other spouses in this predicament) to divorce her and give up all rights of a husband - "troth" Terri back to her flesh and blood family" who want to assume responsibility for her regardless of whether the parents will hand over responsibility to Terri's brother due to their own ages.
The fact that Terri's husband has already moved on with his life, living common-law with another woman with whom he has two children, strongly supports the fact that he has already divorced himself from Terri emotionally and psychologically; and Terri can no longer fulfill her role as his wife. So, he should be allowed a divorce and take NONE of Terri's money with him for him, his other woman and their children to live it up on at Terri's expense. He should just GO! The money in Terri's name should go for provision of her care.
Granted, Terri's husband made a vow to her when he married her "...to love, have and to hold, for better or worse; for richer or poorer; in SICKNESS and in health TILL DEATH US DO PART (not ...MURDER US DO PART) ..."; and the law won't let him divorce her because Terri is not of sound mind and competence to agree or disagree with the idea of divorce. However, people make those same vows and get divorced everyday, so, WHY NOT an escape clause for Terri's husband to divorce. He is human; and 15 years is a long time to have one's life be held in limbo. But he should give up all husbandly claims and rights including to any money she has and any and insurance claims.
c8herub
11/8/06 1:18 PM