Attorney: Terri Schiavo's feeding tube could be removed Feb. 22

[moobu2]

"TAMPA, Fla. (AP) -- The husband of a severely brain-damaged woman believes he can remove the feeding tube keeping her alive Feb. 22, but an attorney for her parents said Wednesday that pending legal issues likely will keep it from happening that soon.

Having suffered another round of losses at the state 2nd District Court of Appeal last week, Terri's Schiavo's parents now are focusing on issues pending in the state court to block their son-in-law, Michael Schiavo, from stopping the feedings.

Michael Schiavo's attorney, George Felos, said he believes the feeding tube can legally be removed for a third and final time Feb. 22. That's when the 2nd DCA is expected to issue its mandate or final order on last week's rulings and a stay by state Circuit Judge George W. Greer preventing the tube's removal will expire.

"Assuming the mandate does issue on Feb. 22, then the last stay in place automatically ends and Mr. Schiavo is authorized to direct the removal of the artificial life support," Felos said."
LINK

[Ganja Ninja]

1. Maybe if we all try really hard to ignore this story ...

it will go away and become a private matter handled by the family's involved. I'm sorry but I've seen this happen too many times in this case to believe it will turn into anything else but one more round of pointless legal maneuvering by both sides.

[OldLeftieLawyer]

10. I agree, absolutely

But, alas, those parents of hers, in thrall as they are to the rightwingnuts who think they know better than anyone, will do whatever they can to keep her husband from doing the right thing.

I don't know that any court - even one in Florida - would get involved at this point.

But, let's hope.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

2. What a nightmare...

I hope Terry Schiavo can finally find some peace...

[bullimiami]

3. sad damn story. sad for the family.

it should have been a private matter. it really sucks that people who care nothing for the family or life itself but only their agenda and desires had to stick their big nasty noses in.

[spunky]

4. The family made it a public matter by taking it to court.

Although I agree, this should be a private matter.

[superconnected]

6. they had to take it to court to get what they believed in

It should be a private matter, but as said above everyone with their own agendas stepped in and the family(with it's own agenda) and the husband(with his agenda)got all kinds of people calling them names an murders etc. from their agenda.

Big, ugly, public battle.

But, they had to go to court on either side to get what they believed in.

[moobu2]

9. Not really

The parents sold their daughter off to right to life political groups who were the real motivation behind all the legal battles. The husband was simply attempting to carry out his wife's wishes and didn't give in to these thugs.

Incidentally, in case anyone's interested and missed this yesterday, The propaganda foundation set up to disperse disinformation was fined $1,000 and given the option of filing proper papers with the state, which would require full financial disclosure, or shutting down.
We'll see what comes of this.

Florida Fines Charity Named for Schiavo

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) -- A charity that helps pay legal costs for the parents of a brain-damaged woman at the center of a high-profile right-to-die case has been fined $1,000 for failing to register with the state to solicit donations.

An administrative complaint filed Monday gave the Terri Schindler-Schiavo Foundation the option of paying the fine and registering properly with the state - or paying the fine and shutting down. It could also request an administrative hearing.

The 3-year-old foundation aims to help Schiavo's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, block Michael Schiavo's attempts to remove the feeding tube that has helped keep his wife alive since she suffered severe brain damage 15 years ago.
<snip>
Weller said she didn't know how much has been donated to the foundation, but it has never had more than $30,000 or $40,000 in its coffers. Dana Cody, executive director of the Life Legal Defense Fund, said her organization has spent at least $300,000 in the Schiavo case.
LINK

[OldLeftieLawyer]

12. No, that's not accurate at all

The only "agenda" was that of the rightwingnuts who have no connection with Mr. and Mrs. Schiavo, and who have manipulated her parents - who have no right to determine what happens to Mrs. Schiavo - for their own political and religious ends, caring not a whit for the damage they were doing to the parties actually involved.

Her husband has fought all these years to do the right thing by his wife.

That's not an agenda - that's love and loyalty and devotion.

And, please do not start that crap about his having another family. He's not braindead - she is. His life didn't end when hers did. I applaud him for believing in life enough to bring children into the world.

[Laceration5]

5. Finally

[superconnected]

7. I've never understood why the husband couldn't terminate the marriage

and walk away.

And why the family couldn't just have their daughter until she died of what ever she would die of without starving her to death.

Sure many people believe shes in an unrecoverable-coma and should be let to die immediately.

But her parents don't and I believe they should just speak for her in this. If they wanted it, I'd say go for it, pull the tube.

Instead the husband seems to be bent on not walking away, but pulling the tube and making sure shes dead. What's up with that?

And then these people who can't wait to see her die. What's up with THAT?

My opinion is I don't have any stake in the matter and it's fine to me if she lives or dies. But killing her when the family wants so much for her to live(they have the most emotional investment) sounds heinious.

[spunky]

8. I've thought about that too, and the only anser I can think of

is that he's doing it because he truly believes this is what she wanted.

Maybe he loves her enough to do his level best to live up to her wishes. Maybe he really thinks it is the right thing and would feel guilty if he just walked away and let her parents ignore what she wanted.

It is possible that her parents just can't let go and are thinking of themselves, not of Terri. In the end only she and her husband know whether or not she said she wouldn't want to be kept alive by such means.

[superconnected]

11. I hope that's the case here

and the motive.

[OldLeftieLawyer]

13. No, her parents should NOT speak for her

She was a grown woman who had entered into matrimony. At that point, her husband became the one who would speak for her, as she became the one who would speak for him.

Grow up. Parents raise kids, and then the kids go into their own lives. The kind of thinking you're displaying is on a par with the rightwingnuts who don't grasp the concept of "adulthood" and who spit on the sanctity of marriage.

She's not being "starved," by the way. Starving implies withholding food. Mrs. Schiavo hasn't had food since the day she fell to the ground. She's on a feeding tube, which is hardly food - it's sustenance, it's life support, and she is not to be starved.

She's braindead. They've been stuffing nutrients into a living corpse.

[moobu2]

14. The parents have very twisted right-to-life beliefs from what I've read

They don't care about the daughters wishes.

Why would anyone just divorce someone because an outsider wanted it? ....OK, I tell my spouse to -please not keep me alive after my higher brain has died. As soon as that happens though, my spouse immediately divorces me and gives me to people who hold extreme views of keeping peoples bodies alive with no person in them and have said they wouldn't care what I would want and it wouldn't matter at all. Gives me over to people who sell video's of me in that condition to sick disgusting humans who are willing to pay to gawk at me laying there. Gives me to people willing to sell me off to political groups wanting to use my image to rally the faithful for their RTL agenda...doesn't make any sense to me morally.

The truth is that the daughter said she didn't want to be kept alive as a vegetable and the parents could care less. They've said so in public. The husband is attempting to honor his wife's wishes.