Lawyer in Fla. Woman Case Rips Gov. Bush

CLEARWATER, Fla. - Legal scholars predicted Wednesday that Gov. Jeb Bush's intervention in a bitter right-to-die case involving a brain-damaged woman would be ruled unconstitutional, and the husband's lawyer angrily complained the woman was "abducted from her deathbed."



"It was just an absolute trampling of her personal rights and her dignity," George Felos, the attorney for Michael Schiavo, said on NBC's "Today." "We believe that a court sooner or later, we hope sooner, will find this law to be unconstitutional."


Legal scholars also decried the move as an extraordinary end run around the courts. "In my view the bill is plainly unconstitutional," said University of Florida law professor Joseph Little.

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Harvard law professor Laurence Tribe said: "I've never seen a case in which the state legislature treats someone's life as a political football in quite the way this is being done."

more

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=541&e=1&u=/ap/brain_damaged_woman

Why is he wasting his time on this case, which is a private family matter. No matter which side is morally correct, it is a family decision, not for the state of Florida to be involved with. Shouldn't he be working on complying with the law the voters approved requiring smaller class sizes, rather than trying to evade it?

This issue is nobodys damn business other than the warring family members involved, and certainly not a hypocritical politician.

"Why is he wasting his time on this case, which is a private family matter."

He's wasting time on this case because he is a Republican, and we all know that Republicans want the government out of our private lives!

Cheers,

av8rdave

is able to work around laws they don't like! They had to support all of the religious right crazies that had to get involved. Jeb just ensured Chimpy his religious right votes in Fla. Who cares about a family's suffering, we have an election in one year!

I really effin hate the BFEE!

This case sounds fishy to me. I don't want to get into the long debate, but she didn't leave any DNR order/feeding tube removal instructions. Without anything in writing, and just going on the word of her husband, I don't feel comfortable with removing the tube. Also the husband stands to inherit money from her death and has a girlfriend with a child. To me this just seems like the man wants "to get rid of his wife".

How many of us who are young actually have DNR orders? I'm not even young and I admit I have been pretty sloppy about this. My husband knows how I feel. Today I reiterated it loud and clear with my son in the room, so he'd have a witness if I have a heart attack or some crisis that leaves me a vegetable.

Maybe the lesson learned is that no matter how young you are, put your wishes in writing. I look at that young woman in that horrible state and know I would never want to live like that. I would not care if hubby got to spend my money on a new girlfriend, I would not want to be kept alive just to prevent some transfer of money. Is that what her parents are doing?

MzPip
:dem:

But see I don't know how I feel about the DNR issue regarding me. I am conflicted.

If she had it in writing I would side with the husband. But I can't for the reasons I've already mentioned.

let's keep her alive for forty more years, force feeding her grool or intraveinously, most of her visits are for rolling her around in her bed to keep her from getting bedsores, cleaning up after she soils herself.

Oh for fuck's sake, do these people believe that she wants to continue to live like this?

Would you?

Without a hard document I have concerns about this.

Common decency? Her request to not be tortured? Her "do not wipe my ass for me for the next twenty-five years" hard document?

How long has she been like this?

That's my problem with this case. Plus the questionable motivations of the husband.

Not many. Furthermore, living wills for PVS only became a part of the standard drill following the Cruzan decision, which came down in 1990, after Schiavo had her "heart attack" (which was an arrhythmia from low potassium).

Let's say you were lingering in a vegetative state for 13 years, and your next of kin said they remembered you watching the TV and saying you'd never want to be kept alive like that. Would you want Jeb Bush making the decision for you?

I want. Not having it in writing means that I have to go on the word of her husband. And based on what I've seen his intentions may not be the most noble.

if it hadn't been THIRTEEN YEARS that he's dealt with this.

Day in, day out. He's married, but not married. He, for all intents and purposes, HAS NO WIFE.

And just how much $$ is involved Carlos?

.

what would be the point in keeping her breathing by artificial means? do you know ANYone who would wish to be quite such a burden on society? i sure as hell wouldn't. i just don't see the point. she's lying there breathing and that is all. meanwhile, paradoxically, death is part of life and this woman is being denied her right to die when her time has come, to get on with her destiny, tragic as it is. the fact that she is being kept alive by artificial means, means someone is playing god. it should be assumed that no one would want that; "living wills" should be a moot point. the burden of specifying a desire to be kept alive by artifical means should be on that tiny tiny fraction of the population that WOULD want to have all that resource and anguish lavished on them.

flame away, i'm going to bed.

You're seriously advocating that in cases where there is not a living will, we should assume they wouldn't want to live like that and just kill them? That's not a right-to-die, that's giving the state license to kill people it deems unworthy to society.

There's a fine line between a right-to-die and murder. That line is the positive proof of a living will. She did not have one, and she is not dying, therefore, for her to 'die with dignity' means someone has to take an active role and kill her by starving her. This is about the spouse's right to kill. Should that be allowed, merely because one is disabled? Don't the disabled have rights? What does it matter the level of disability? So what if she hasn't progressed any in thirteen years. Even setting aside the stories that her husband refused her therapy, does her mental state make her any less human?

This is not about the state interfering in a family's business, this is about the state intervening on behalf of a person's individual rights. The legislature screwed up in how it wrote the law concerning absence of a living will, as it contradicts itself concerning euthanasia.

I continually see people explain their view that she should be starved to death because they wouldn't want to live that way. We have no idea what she would have wanted. She may or may not want to live this way. But, do we take deadly guesses? If we, as a society, kill her when she might not want to die, we are in effect giving the state license to commit murder.

that you're hung up on the husband having moved on to an extent - in that he has a woman and child with whom it appears he would like to make a life. The money thing has been tossed about by some folks, but I can find no concrete proof that he has benefited from one dime or, indeed, that there's any of it left.

As brutal as it may sound, Terry's condition is about equal to that of a Betsey-Wetsy doll. Great dignified, superb quality of life, eh? I wouldn't wish it on anyone I loathed, much less someone I loved.

In my opinion, her parents are in total denial of mortality. I'd love to ask them just what they envision for Terry once they shed their earthly coils. Warehousing in a charity institution? Or would it be okay with them if the plug was pulled then?

When will we, as a society, stop letting the fundies play grab-ass with our emotions?

make a different decision if they didn't have the husband to fight with over it. I wonder if they would have come to acceptance of her plight if it was entirely up to them.

$750,000....she has been in this condition for thirteen years...How much of that $750,000 do you believe is actually going to go to the husband. Medical care is not cheap in Florida and legal fees are going to go through the roof.

I believe that should take the air out of any "monetary gains" the husband may recieve.

Heaven forbid...I would hate to be in the parents position in this matter, however I do believe I would not wish to see any of my children in that condition...but I do believe I could make that heart-wrenching decision knowing full well that their suffering would end.

For the record...in 1988 "Living Wills and DNR|DNi's" were the exception; not the rule.

P.S. Mentally impaired and thirteen year old African-American children in Florida can and do, recieve the death penalty.

What is so difficult to understand here. This case was litigated
for 10 years, the women is brain dead with no hope of recovery.

Let her die in peace.

try to solidify their appeal to the far right, which has been slipping for bush* recently. bush is playing political football with a woman's life and dignity, and bush* is preparing to sign a bill (partial birth abortion) that lets him control women's bodies. it's tag-team morality games, and meanwhile we ignore the issue of thousands of dead Iraqis in an immoral, unjustified invasion. just a little diversion, probably orchestrated by rove.

creeps don't care one damn bit about this woman, her family or anything else. They are only acting on this in the dispicable manner that they have for political expediency and political expediency only.

Gov. Bush did the right thing. No one is actually sure what the woman's wishes are, and she has a family that is willing to take care of her. There is a chance of improvement in her condition with physical therapy.

It seems to me very cruel to kill someone who is helpless by removing their feeding tube and letting them starve / dehydrate. Her life is not what is once was, but that doesn't mean is without value.

<I>There is a chance of improvement in her condition with physical therapy. </I>

No there is not. After 3 months in a vegetative state there is little chance for recovery. After one year almost none. After 13 years, el zipo. Her brain has atrophied, and has actually shrank. This is a vegetative state, not a coma. Her brain only funtions in the most primative areas. All doctors, except for the ones who are paid by the parents, have said there is no hope of recovery. While people who are in a vegetative state can have reactions to outside stimuli, they are not cognitive. They cannot think. They are mentally dead.

The family keeps saying that with physical therapy they can teach her to eat. Well, they have had 13 years to do just that, and they have not. The law says the spouse makes this decision. The courts have agreed. Let the poor lady die, and let everyone get on with their life.

and it will be MORE PROFITABLE for lawyers now that this is going on in Florida.

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/ny-bzwill1023,0,4203757.story?coll=ny-nationalnews-headlines

A Second Look at Living Wills
By James Bernstein
Staff Writer
October 22, 2003, 9:44 PM EDT


Frances Mancini intended Wednesday only to draw up an ordinary will instructing how her estate should be split up. But then she and her lawyer talked about what happened in Florida to Terri Schiavo. Late Tuesday, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush ordered doctors to continue feeding the comatose woman over the objections of her husband.

Mancini, 81, a widow from Valley Stream, decided she did not want that to happen to her if she become incapacitated and unable to communicate what she wanted. So Mancini also drew up a living will, expressing the wish to "just let me go" without being kept alive by hospital machinery. "I always used to joke with the kids, 'If I get that bad, step on the hose.'"

Mancini wasn't the only one confronting that question Wednesday. Lawyers in the New York region said they were fielding calls from clients worried about whether their final wishes to die without extraordinary medical care would be carried out if they fell ill in Florida or other states.

Lawyers said many of their clients have drawn up only New York health care proxies, which allow for the appointment of an "agent" to decide about treatment if they cannot decide for themselves. But New York proxies may not be valid outside of this state, the lawyers said, adding that a "living will" that explicitly spells out a person's wishes would have more legal force.
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im Gayles niece i just want to say this i work with handicap individuals from high functioning to profound as i watch all this it blows my mind if people think she should be starved to death then what happens to those i work with that have feeding tubes too we are not God and this is a human being we eat everyday and she should to this is not artificial support to me it is a thing we do everyday (eat) to live i think the husband wants the money if he is worried about moral issues or quality of life maybe he should take a look at himself and how he is living and give her a divorce and let her family take care of her obviously they actually love her....

sheri

and my best to your Aunt Gayle...:hi:

and proper grammer. It will go a long way in butressing your argument.

Buttressing :spank:

:D

funny no one mentions another key player in this issue and the one who funds candidates on the basis of how they vote on these issues. people in persistent vegistative states are tidy profit centers for the nursing home industry. the nursing home industry lobbies heavily against any right to die legislation.

I would add that the parallel possibility exists that the vehement demand that all pregnancies go full term will also insure the profitability of privatised prisons. (Can you spell Halliburton?). After all, who stands the most chance of going afoul of the law? A child who is denied proper health care and education; a roof over it's head and food for it's tummy. The right doesn't give a damn about anything above fetus status as far as I can see.

We are ruled by wing-nuts.

They used to have an advertising motto "The rules are different here"

No doubt

I have a brother who lives there, and he wouldn't like this.

...by his attacks on education, environment and health care, tries to grandstand in one tragic case to prove some phony image that he cares about human life.

better than their spouse (or significant other)? You parents will always see you as their little girl/boy. Your partner in life knows you as an adult and knows your thoughts on a daily basis about life and death regardless of whether there is a living will or not.

The government has absolutely no right intervening. I don't know or care what the cirumstances are in this case. There should be no law allowing the state to keep my body alive like a sideshow freak for what? The shallow religious ponderings of another person who feels good knowing my body is laying there?

Enough of this shit. And yes, euthanasia is HONORABLE AND HUMANE. I'm sick of people equating it with Nazis.

Years from now, when this poor woman is STILL hooked up to a tube so food can be forced into her, her parents will die. What happens then? Will anybody care when the media spotlight dies and she is no longer politically important? This is a human being, dammit.

You can download these free.


http://www.peopleslawyer.net/deathdying.html