With most other avenues for potential salvation exhausted, Florida governor Jeb Bush is looking to take formal custody of Terri Schiavo as soon as this evening to get a feeding tube back into her.
This is on the heels of the Florida Senate voting down a measure to have the state Department of Families and Children to forcibly remove her from the hospice where she's presently ensconced in order to save her life.
The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals declined to grant a full review to the appeal brought by Terri's parents earlier in the day.
As of Wednesday afternoon, Schiavo had gone five full days without food or water; doctors have said she could survive one to two weeks.The spectre of the Elian Gonzales saga looms mightily over the entire situation.Supporters of Schiavo's parents grew increasingly dismayed, and 10 protesters were arrested outside her hospice for trying to bring her water.
Refusing to give up, Gov. Jeb Bush sought court permission to take custody of Schiavo.
The desperate flurry of activity came as President Bush suggested that Congress and the White House had done all they could to keep the severely brain-damaged woman alive.
If everyone remembers, the government intervigned to remove little Elian from Miami relatives after he was found adrift. His mother had died trying to get him to America, while his father remained in Cuba. The father, backed up by Fidel Castro, demanded his return, while Miami relatives insisted on keeping him.
The ensuing philosophical battle of wills divided people across America.
This case looks to be doing the same thing.
Polls by newspapers and television stations across the nation point toward most Americans wanting Terri to be released from her torment and allowed to die peacefully, while many others wish for her to receive additional treatment that very well may speed her on the road to recovery.
President Bush has stated that in a case like this, we ought to err on the side of life.
I can't argue that point, though I'm seeing plenty of grandstanding on both sides of this equation that truly has no winners.
that isnt a peaceful death! is there something the matter with you America? how about we give you no food or water and let you starve to death! do you call that a peaceful death? come on let this poor woman live. will it hurt to take a few weeks to be completeley 100 percent sure?
Posted by: chris smith at March 23, 2005 11:47 PMPeacefull? Of course it is, she is medicated.
Letting someone die that is in a persistan vegitative state by removing the force feeding is not the same as taking a perfectly healthy person, and starving them. Whats with a few more weeks? Don't you think over 15 years is long enough to realize that this woman is not coming back?
Let me give you some advice, go and help in a nursing home a few day, so that you can educate your self about this issue instead of talking out of your rear end. What bothers me is all you right to live morons going hog wild over a person that will never come back, but have no problem with bombing the crap out of civilians in places like Iraq, where are your cries over the 100.000 civilians that are dead in Iraq?
if the government really wanted to help this poor woman, they could have. but political grandstanding is better. to really help would cause sacrifice, it. national guard troops protecting her and moving her to a doctor who will care for her. this is sad. someone will give an accounting for this, they truly will. everyone just live right.
Posted by: shari at March 24, 2005 03:45 AMThere is a world of difference between this case and Elian Gonzales. Elian had a father who loved and cared for him. Just because the father wanted to live in a country we don't agree with or have relations with doesn't change the right of a father to have his child and raise him how he deems best. Now, if Terri had a loving husband who was faithful to her and the wedding vows they took, I would say he has the right to decide her fait. More and more testimony is surfacing that this guy withheld medical and therapy treatment from her, expecially after he got the money. When he moved in with another woman and fathered two kids by her, he gave up the right of a loving faithful husband. Elian's father is a good man although misguided in his loyalty to Fidel and wanting to remain in Cuba, but then who are we to tell a man which country he should live in.
Posted by: RJF at March 24, 2005 07:39 AMLet me ask you; would you take a feeding tube out or stop feeding a child with severe cerebral palsey just because he could not feed himself? Should their parents let them starve just because they are basically in a vegetative state also? If it were someone on death row, these same people would be FIGHTING to save this person! What is wrong with this Country?
Posted by: Jenny at March 24, 2005 12:57 PMwould you take a feeding tube out or stop feeding a child with severe cerebral palsey just because he could not feed himself?That happened in Texas just last week under a law that The President signed while he was Governor.
will it hurt to take a few weeks to be completely 100 percent sure?17 Years isn't long enough ?
More and more testimony is surfacing that this guy withheld medical and therapy treatment from her, especially after he got the money.My understanding is that all of the money was went to Terri's medical bills. That angle does seem to jive, paying the Medical Bills and defending the Legal challenges has got to be costing him a mint. If He want to just leave his wife he could have done so easily. I can't see any financial advantage to him pressing for this. Posted by: BH at March 25, 2005 05:17 PM
Hello? People have their feeding tubes removed daily around the world. This isn't new or rare or unusual in any way.
There isn't any higher brain function in this shell of a human. An ant or a spider has more higher brain activity than this body. No, this body is not Terri Schiavo. Terri Schiavo died 15 years ago when her brain hemorrhaged and did not receive enough oxygen.
Your compassions and energies are misplaced.
Hello? People have their feeding tubes removed daily around the world. This isn't new or rare or unusual in any way.
There isn't any higher brain function in this shell of a human. An ant or a spider has more higher brain activity than this body. No, this body is not Terri Schiavo. Terri Schiavo died 15 years ago when her brain hemorrhaged and did not receive enough oxygen.
Your compassions and energies are misplaced.
I agree with Chris Smith
Posted by: Someone at March 27, 2005 07:51 PM