Judge says DCF can't intervene in Terri Schiavo case

[kskiska]

Associated Press

TAMPA, Fla. - A judge ruled Thursday that the state's social services agency cannot delay the removal of the feeding tube keeping brain-damaged Terri Schiavo alive.

The Department of Children & Families had asked for a 60-day delay in the removal of the feeding tube, now scheduled March 18. The agency said it wanted time to investigate allegations of abuse and neglect by the woman's husband, Michael Schiavo.

But Circuit Judge George W. Greer ruled that the agency's attempt to get involved at this point was inappropriate and "appears to be brought for the purpose of circumventing the court's final judgment ... in violation of the separation of powers doctrine."

Michael Schiavo's attorney had criticized the last-minute attempt by DCF to get involved, saying that it was engineered by Gov. Jeb Bush and others in the state government who support the plight of her parents who are trying to keep her alive.

more…
http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/news/local/11101934.htm

[Dookus]

1. good

Judge Greer is doing the right thing - these constant nonsensical attempts to thrwart the court should be punished.

[Dr.Phool]

2. I wish

They would just let this poor woman die in dignity already.

[Warpy]

3. No parent wants to outlive a child

However, somebody needs to get through to the Schindlers that they already HAVE.

Keeping her corpse around indefinitely does no one any good, not even them.

[Shanty Oilish]

7. She is not a corpse.

Not a corpse, not a vegetable, not dying. Disabled. Human being.

[ldf]

24. right on cue.

i did so need to set my watch.

and your medical degree is in what area?

if i am not mistaken, the doctors involved in this case have already weighed in.

unless you have more expertise in the area, i believe your opinion is, how shall we say, irrelevant.

[Shanty Oilish]

6. She is not dying.

That is why they have to starve her to death. She is severely disabled, not dying.

[Bouncy Ball]

10. Severely disabled?

Yeah, I'd say so! No cerebral cortex is about as disabled as you can get and still be living (with a lot of technological help, of course).

[AZCat]

23. Here comes another 500+ post thread...

I am running out of popcorn.

[pacifictiger]

4. I've never understood

why people who profess to believe in God and Heaven would go to such extreme measures to prolong the life of another, under such dismal circumstances, here on earth. Seems to me it is the utmost display of lack of faith in the hereafter, and pure selfishness on the part of the parents.
And yet, these same types of people clamor for the death penalty as punishment for others as if they themselves were God, and have no hesitation at supporting nonsensical military slaughters.

[Frances]

5. Good point

nt

[Shanty Oilish]

8. Dismal circumstances

How dismal should your circumstances be, before someone starves you to death? She is severely disabled. When did that become a good reason to starve a person to death?

[onenote]

11. machines

So if someone's heart is kept beating only because of externally generated electrical pulses are they just "severely disabled" and not "dying" and would shutting off the machine be the equivalent of disconnecting the tubes that keep T Schiavo "alive." If someone's brain shows no activity (and I'm not suggesting that is the case with Schiavo) are they just "severely disabled" and not "dying" if they can be kept "alive" by feeding tubes, or other machinery? When does the state or someone other than their legal guardian get to decide to ignore a person's wish not to be kept alive in a "severely disabled" state?

onenote

[janx]

25. That is the most frightening part of this whole situation. n/t

[Dookus]

12. No

the good reason is because she's in a persistent vegetative state and her husband says she stated she didn't want to remain on life-support in such a case.

Do you oppose removing people from ventilators or other life-support systems when they're brain-dead?

[Bouncy Ball]

14. Oh and you can stop with the emotionalism of "starving you to death"

she can perceive NOTHING. She will not be in pain, she HAS NO cerebral cortex.

[pacifictiger]

26. If I understand

the argument correctly, isn't the key issue her brain function, or lack thereof?
To artificially sustain life for so many, many, years in such a circumstance as she has been in, is to deny that death is also part of a natural life process.
Who are we to know whether she would suffer more by being gently lead to the end of this life, ready to embrace her next life, or being forced to endure years more in a hospital, unable to move from her bed and interact with the world.

[Shanty Oilish]

9. Link

If anybody is interested in hearing the parents' side of the story.

www.terrisfight.org

[Bouncy Ball]

13. Um, I've heard the parent's side, plenty.

I've also heard Michael's side.

I also see that there is a woman who has NO cerebral cortex, which means she has NO chance of recovery. None. She is only kept alive through constant 24/7 medical life support.

I read the testimony of her parents in court when they answered yes to questions like:

"If Terry needed open heart surgery, would you agree to that?"

"If Terry needed to have a limb amputated, would you agree to that?"

They went on to ask them if she needed ALL four limbs amputated, would they agree, and they said yes.

What the HELL? So they would have her lie in that bed, a torso with no hope, no chance of recovery, until she what? died of old age?

Why? We treat animals better than that. Poor woman.

[Dookus]

15. we hear Terri's parents

side of this story in every thread. They're being backed and funded by right-wing fundy nutcases. They have lied. They have broken the law. They have court-shopped repeatedly, and have lost at EVERY STEP OF THE WAY.

[Dave Reynolds]

16. Sound like a good call,

DCF was a bit of a stretch.

They should just let the poor woman go.

[Bouncy Ball]

17. No kidding.

She's been just hanging in limbo for what, 20 years now? And no chance of recovery.

If they believe in souls, they should want hers to have some rest. Some peace, for crying out loud.

She's the reason my husband and I both have living wills. If anyone ever tried to do that to me, I swear after they finally LET me die, I'd come back and haunt their asses for years.

And if anyone tried to overstep my husband as the authority for all medical decisions in the case of incapacity, I'd haunt their asses, too. When I married him, he became my life partner.

[Dave Reynolds]

19. I feel for the parents, but damn

they gave up their little girl when she got married. Her husband would know what she wanted, I doubt they know anything but what they want.

And I've heard folks say that he just wants "to move on with his life". Quite honestly, he must love her more than anything to have stuck through this.

This case shows that living wills, or anything in writing or on video stating a person's wishes is necessary.

[janx]

20. This is very funny:

"I'd haunt their asses too" !!

[Rainscents]

18. If this happen 50 years ago, she would had been dead naturally.

I sometime think the modern medicine goes over board trying to keep someone alive when they are brain dead.

[CornField]

21. DCF?! Don't they have a few dozen foster children to locate?

Isn't that the same state department that was responsible for checking up on the children who were wards of the state? The same state department that lost several dozen children?

[janx]

22. Yep. n/t

[moobu2]

27. The Vatican is attempting to influence the Terri Schiavo case

"Vatican: Pulling Schaivo's tube would be 'pitiless' way to die"

VATICAN CITY (AP) -- Removing the feeding tube from a brain-damaged woman in Florida would be "a pitiless way to kill," a prominent Holy See official said Friday, breaking with what he called the Vatican's usual practice of not weighing in on individual cases.

The fate of Terri Schiavo, who doctors say is in a persistent vegetative state, has galvanized many in the United States as it has in her family. Her husband contends his wife has said she wouldn't want to be kept alive artificially, while her parents have battled their son-in-law's efforts to have the tube removed.

The Vatican's point man on bioethical issues, Monsignor Elio Sgreccia, said on Vatican Radio that the Holy See's Pontifical Academy for Life generally doesn't intervene in specific cases.

"Still, the case of Mrs. Terri Schiavo goes beyond the individual situation because of its exemplary character and of the importance that the media have rightly given it," Sgreccia said."
The rest of it

[moobu2]

28. OMG the Vatican say's we cant disconnect reporators anymore

from the article in my previous post

Vatican teaching holds that "extraordinary" means of care are not required but that "ordinary means," including providing nutrition and aiding respiration, must be provided.

[Fenris]

29. The Florida DCF? Oh for fuck's sake...

[Dulcinea]

30. Hasn't she suffered enough?

Please, for the love of God, quit using this poor woman as a political football & let her go already!

Give her soul some rest!

[mcar]

31. Amen to that

I'm so sick of these people using this poor woman to advance their sick agendas. Let her go with some dignity, for pity's sake.