March 22, 2005
Open Thread: Judge Won't Order Schiavo Tube ReinsertedA federal judge on Tuesday refused to order the reinsertion of Terri Schiavo's feeding tube, denying an emergency request from the brain-damaged woman's parents that had been debated in Congress and backed by the White House.U.S. District Judge James Whittemore said the 41-year-old woman's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, had not established a "substantial likelihood of success" at trial on the merits of their arguments.
Whittemore wrote that Schiavo's "life and liberty interests" had been protected by Florida courts. Despite "these difficult and time-strained circumstances," he wrote, "this court is constrained to apply the law to the issues before it."
Blogs For Terri reacts... Captain's Quarters, PoliPundit... Outside The Beltway, Ramblings' Journal, Hugh Hewitt, Michelle Malkin, Wizbang,
UPDATE: 1:52pm by Mark Noonan; I hear a lot of argument that we have to allow Judge Greer's ruling to stand in order to suppor the "rule of law"; since when it Congress passing a law and the President signing the law in violation of the rule of law?
Law is not just what a judge says it is, it is the result of the interplay of all three branches of government, acting within the strictures of the Constitution.
UPDATE: 11:41pm by Mark Noonan: From a bit over at National Review's The Corner:
AS WE PASS 100 HOURS OF STARVATION AND DEHYDRATION ... [Andy McCarthy] it is worth remembering that the excruciating slowness of the execution here, the incremental-ness of death, is designed by its champions to inure us to it. After the first hour, the second passes with far less fanfare, and the third less still. I've been following this closely, and I needed to remind myself today how many hours Terri Schiavo has actually been without sustenance by counting the days since Friday afternoon and multiplying by 24. How much more easily the time passes, and the world around us changes, for those following only fleetingly, or not at all.Why should we think this is intentional? Consider, say, a month ago, before Terri's plight took center stage, if you had asked someone in the abstract: "How would you feel about starving and dehydrating a defenseless, brain-damaged woman?" The answer is easy to imagine: "Outrageous, atrocious -- something that wouldn't be done to an animal and couldn't be done to the worst convicted murderer."
But then it actually happens ... slowly. You're powerless to stop it, and ... you find your life goes on. There are kids and jobs and triumphs and tragedies and everyday just-getting-by. An atrocity becomes yet another awful thing going on in the world. After a day, or maybe two, of initial flabbergast, we're talking again about social security reform, China, North Korea, Hezbollah, etc. A woman's snail-like, gradual torture goes from savagery to just one of those sad facts of life. As is the case with other depravities once believed unthinkable, it coarsens us. We slowly, and however reluctantly, accept it. We accept it. The New York Times no doubt soon "progresses" from something like "terminating life by starvation," to "the dignity of death by starvation," to "the medical procedure that opponents refer to as starvation." And so the culture of life slides a little more. The culture of death gains a firmer foothold.
Of course, the physical needs of the body are not limited to food and water. There is also air. But no judge, even in Florida, would ever have had the nerve in Terri's case to permit "the medical procedure that opponents refer to as asphyxiation." Too crude. Too quick. Too obviously murder of a vulnerable innocent. Brazen, instant savagery might wake us from our slumber. For the culture of death, better that we sleep.
The more this savagerly has continued over the past few days the more outraged and angered I have become; I can no longer even accord the title "human" to anyone who thinks that starving this woman to death is the right thing to do. For God's sake, if we're going to be barbarians, let us not pretend...shouldn't we just shoot this poor woman? What are we becoming when we watch a person slowly starve to death?
Posted by Matt Margolis on March 22, 2005 10:38 AM
Comments
The "Men in Black" close ranks to protect their power...I am just disgusted with the whole lot of them!
Posted by: Virginia ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.gopbloggers.org/nav-commenters.gif)
at March 22, 2005 10:55 AM
Very unfortunate. I feel for Terri's parents. They seem to be very loving people who love their daughter very much. Can't this judge see how loving they are?
Posted by: mike bertelsen at March 22, 2005 02:06 PM
Are judges going to get away with it? Governor Bush has a duty to uphold the law and keep the state judicial branch in check.
From a reader of the The Empire Journal to Gov. Bush:
As a point of focus, I ask you not to negate by omission the Separation of Powers Doctrine which permits you to act, as well as the Executive Authority as Chief Law Enforcement Officer when you were sworn in as the governor of Florida.
As Chief Law Enforcement Officer of Florida, please ENFORCE THE LAW.
As you know, euthanasia is being committed right now against Terri Schiavo, a disabled adult who cannot speak, in violation of the following statute:
FL.S.765.309 Mercy killing or euthanasia not authorized;(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 or omission to end life other than to permit the natural process of dying.
http://www.theempirejournal.com/03220502_reader_speaks_out_to_go.htm
Posted by: Virginia at March 22, 2005 02:33 PM
Furthermore, Congress just appears to sit on its collective hands and whine because the judges in Florida ignore that they have subpoenaed Terri. So DO something about it or become irrelevant.
Posted by: Virginia at March 22, 2005 02:40 PM
Reading this morning that Terri wouldn't get her feeding tube back today literally made me put my head down on my desk and cry. That poor woman is on Day 5 of no food or water. How must she feel right now? How must her family feel? What kind of hell is Terri going through, being denied not only daily sustenance, but the company of those who love her the most throughout all this?
Even if we believe that this is a "private" matter between warring family members (which I don't), this is still inexcusable. I could see a point, perhaps, if Terri was on a ventilator or other actual "Life support" mechanisms that would render her body dead after a few moments. I could stand the situation, even though I disagree with it, if Terri was considered "brain dead".
But we're talking about someone who is alive, functional on basic levels. We're talking about the fact that she has been starved for the last 5 days, and will take perhaps another WEEK to die. ANYONE would die if denied food and water long enough.
I refuse to give up hope; refuse to stop praying and believing in miracles. But the light at the end of the tunnel suddenly seems so far away. For Terri, time is about as short as it can get.
Posted by: Kit Lange at March 22, 2005 05:19 PM
Virginia-
Over a month ago i e-mailed gov Bush approx. stating the same thing HE is the chief law enforcement officer of the state and asked him to not let this woman be executed by HEARSAY evidence from a totally discreded husband.
I got the usual form letter ya de ya answer.
It is amazing how timid the republicans really are.
We let the minority party hold up judges with imagined threats and take no action.
We pass statutes which judges ignore.
why have the republicans in control????? they seem to control NOTHING except the majority.
Klintoon didnt blink to attack with tanks and paramilitary units in waco and burn 80 some women and children to death.
he didnt hesitate to send in commandos to grab elian gonzalaz in the face of opposition.
But does the republican LED?? congress arrest these two judges?? and charge them with contempt???
Does the govenor send in the state police to save a disabled citizen from being euthenized??
Are the US marshales sent to enforce a congressional mandate???
Many friends may never vote republican again if these elected officials fail to do their constitutional duties.
Posted by: exmarine1 at March 22, 2005 05:33 PM
TERRI'S HOSPICE NURSE LET GO AFTER VOICING WHAT THEY WERE DOING TO TERRI WAS WRONG!
"SHE IS A NURSE WHO HAS COME FORWARD FROM WOODSIDE HOSPICE AND HAS TOLD ME SHE IS APPALLED THAT THEY ARE DOING THIS TO TERRI. SHE TOLD ME TERRI LAUGHS WHEN SHE HAS TOLD HER JOKES."
http://straightupwsherri.blogspot.com/2005/03/terris-hospice-nurse-let-go-after.html
Posted by: Virginia at March 22, 2005 06:02 PM
Michael s. lawyer is connected to this "hospice"
imagine that.
This "hospice" is getting medicare to pay for the care of this "dying" lady (hospice is = 6 mos or less to live) She has been there 5 YEARS.
the 1.5 million for her care is being p!$$ed away on HIS lawyers fees.
Why no investigation for medicare fraud??
Posted by: exmarine1 at March 22, 2005 06:34 PM
Here's for some enlightening (or terrifying) reading. A medical blog where they are discussing Terri's original CT Scan:
http://codeblueblog.blogs.com/codeblueblog/2005/03/csi_medblogs_co.html
Posted by: Virginia at March 22, 2005 06:55 PM
This Murderous actions that these judges and Michael have taken on this poor innocent lady is barbaric. These people should be thrown in jail themselves. If they wanted her dead they could have just given her a lethal injection and it would have been over with. To watch this poor innocent lady have to suffer without food or water is one of the most cruel in humane things I have ever heard of. And to make her parents have to suffer through all this. As someone else wrote Michael should no longer be validated as her husband for he deserted her and moved on with another woman and had children with her. With New medical procedures happening all the time and with this lady still breathing on her own. You have taken away her rights to live. They have the RIGHT TO DIE LAW. Well WHAT ABOUT THE RIGHT TO LIVE LAW? If this woman dies because of these idiots then how many more innocent disabled people will be treated the same way? This is a Hell On Earth when people want to kill someone like this. It saddens me deaply that we live in a country with such mean unconcerning people that would do this. May GOD have mercy on our souls.
Thank You
Posted by: Julie at March 24, 2005 12:10 AM
BOSTON (Reuters) - The death of a child can cause not only devastating grief, but later serious mental illness as well, researchers reported on Wednesday.
The study of more than a million Danish parents showed that losing a child under the age of 18 raised the risk of serious mental crisis, requiring hospitalization, by 67 percent.
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Posted by: Cathy at March 24, 2005 09:47 AM
You can bet that the decisions by the courts would of been different if Terry Schiavo's name had been Christopher Reed.
Posted by: Penny Morrison at March 24, 2005 11:27 PM
