MATTERS OF LIFE AND DEATH
Doctors: Terri case not 'death with dignity' issue
Removal of feeding tube called 'state-sponsored euthanasia'


------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted: October 22, 2003
4:24 p.m. Eastern


By Diana Lynne
© 2003 WorldNetDaily.com

A physicians' group has added its voice to the din of reaction to
Florida Gov. Jeb Bush's intervention in the case of Terri
Schindler-Schiavo, the brain-disabled woman whose life-sustaining
feeding tube was removed last week at the request of Terri's
husband and guardian, Michael Schiavo.

Schiavo, who maintains his wife is in a persistent vegetative
state and would want to be allowed to die with dignity, has been
locked in a 13-year legal battle with Terri's parents and
siblings who argue Terri is alert, wants to live and, given
appropriate therapy, can be rehabilitated. Terri left no written
directive.

Within hours of the state legislature's historic passage of a
measure, known as Terri's Bill, which empowered the governor to
take executive action in the matter, Bush ordered the feeding
tube reinserted last night.

While hailed as a "miracle" by Terri's sister and other
supporters, the surprise development-- coming on Day 7 of Terri's
judge-ordered starvation-- angered right-to-die attorney George
Felos, who represents Michael Schiavo.

Felos called the eleventh-hour law and Bush's subsequent
intervention "absurdly unconstitutional" and maintains Terri has
a right under the Florida Constitution not to be kept alive
artificially.

"The governor of the state of Florida does not have the right to
trump a patient's personal choice," he said at a press
conference. "The citizens of Florida should be alarmed by what is
happening. What is happening here is a gross and illegal
intrusion into the private liberty of citizens. ... This is not
the former Soviet Bloc where you don't have the liberty to
control your own body."

Following two unsuccessful attempts by Felos to get circuit
judges to block the reinsertion of the feeding tube, Terri was
transferred from the hospice where she has been a patient for
three years to a local hospital and rehydration efforts were
reportedly launched.

"She was literally absconded from her death bed in the middle of
her dying process," Felos told ABC's "Good Morning America" this
morning, calling the rehydration efforts "cruel."

But Dr. Jane Orient with the Association of American Physicians
and Surgeons, or AAPS, claims the opposite is true: "Dehydration
is a cruel, painful death."

"It is unconscionable that the state ordered removal of her
feeding tube in the first place-- it's nothing less than
state-sponsored euthanasia," maintains Orient. "She is not
dependent on advanced medical interventions. Nothing is
mechanically pumping her blood, or forcing oxygen into her lungs.
She is simply being fed through a gastrostomy tube."

Last week the General Assembly of the Catholic Medical
Association passed a resolution that concurred with Orient's
view. It declared removal of Terri's feeding tube "without first
undertaking rehabilitation therapy to ascertain her ability to
swallow and digest nourishment" constitutes "depriving her of
life without due process of law," according to Florida Statutes
Section 744, 3211.

Would we allow a retarded child to be starved to death?" queries
Orient. "Where are the 'compassionate end-of-life' groups such as
the Robert Wood Johnson 'Last Acts' initiative, and why aren't
they weighing in on this?"

Multiple physicians solicited by the Schindlers believe Terri,
who vocalizes, laughs and appears to respond to her parents,
could be rehabilitated to some extent. Some have even offered pro
bono treatment, even though Michael Schiavo was awarded nearly
$1.5 million dollars in malpractice suits to pay for Terri's
rehabilitation and nursing expenses shortly after her mysterious
collapse at home in 1990 during which oxygen was cut off to her
brain for several minutes.

WorldNetDaily has reported that during court testimony last year,
Victor Gambone, Terri's attending physician hired by Michael
Schiavo in 1998, testified he was unsure whether his patient had
even had her teeth cleaned in recent years and said she hadn't
received therapy. He said he accepted Michael Schiavo's word that
therapy had been deemed unnecessary.

"Although severely disabled, some believe that she does have the
capacity to communicate a desire to live. The husband has
obstructed efforts at rehabilitation or independent assessments
of his wife's true state," continues Orient.

WorldNetDaily reports the family has been blocked by Michael
Schiavo from visiting Terri at Morton Plant Hospital in
Clearwater, Fla., where she was transferred. Their inability to
verify she is being rehydrated per Bush's order concerns them. As
of yesterday morning, they reported she was awake and appeared
alert, although shrunken.

Felos told reporters yesterday Terri was showing signs of massive
organ failure and said the reinsertion of the feeding tube was
just prolonging her death.

AAPS, a non-partisan, professional association of physicians
dedicated to protecting the sanctity of the patient-physician
relationship put out a warning to colleagues: "The ethical
question for her nurses and physicians is whether they will
cooperate in carrying out a death warrant.

"And the ethical question for all of us is whether we will allow
the state to obstruct the efforts of people who want to provide
medical care to a patient who wants to receive it," said Orient.
"If we go down that path, who's to say what treatment the state
will prevent you from getting?"

Updates and other information about Terri's fight for life are
posted on the family's website.
http://www.terrisfight.org/

[Some] Previous stories:

Terri Schiavo's family not allowed to visit her
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=35211

Terri lives!
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=35197

Florida House votes to save Terri Schiavo
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=35175

Will 'Terri's Bill' save her life now?
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=35161

Terri Schiavo denied Last Rites
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=35156

Jeb Bush 'fails' Terri
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=35152

Abuse report filed for Terri Schiavo
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=35149

Desperate parents plead to Jeb Bush
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=35145

Lawyers: Bush can step in for Terri
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=35120

Starvation begins for Terri Schiavo
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=35095

Husband protests video showing alert Terri
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=35085

Terri Schiavo wants to live
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=35077

No intervention for Schiavo
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=35076

Joni Eareckson Tada joins vigil for Terri Schiavo
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=35055

Removal of guardian sought in right-to-die case
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=29703



----------------------------------------------------------------

Diana Lynne is a news editor for WorldNetDaily.com.


This article's URL is:
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=35216

MATTERS OF LIFE AND DEATH
Doctors: Terri case not 'death with dignity' issue
Removal of feeding tube called 'state-sponsored euthanasia'


------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted: October 22, 2003
4:24 p.m. Eastern


By Diana Lynne
© 2003 WorldNetDaily.com

A physicians' group has added its voice to the din of reaction to
Florida Gov. Jeb Bush's intervention in the case of Terri
Schindler-Schiavo, the brain-disabled woman whose life-sustaining
feeding tube was removed last week at the request of Terri's
husband and guardian, Michael Schiavo.

Schiavo, who maintains his wife is in a persistent vegetative
state and would want to be allowed to die with dignity, has been
locked in a 13-year legal battle with Terri's parents and
siblings who argue Terri is alert, wants to live and, given
appropriate therapy, can be rehabilitated. Terri left no written
directive.

Within hours of the state legislature's historic passage of a
measure, known as Terri's Bill, which empowered the governor to
take executive action in the matter, Bush ordered the feeding
tube reinserted last night.

While hailed as a "miracle" by Terri's sister and other
supporters, the surprise development-- coming on Day 7 of Terri's
judge-ordered starvation-- angered right-to-die attorney George
Felos, who represents Michael Schiavo.

Felos called the eleventh-hour law and Bush's subsequent
intervention "absurdly unconstitutional" and maintains Terri has
a right under the Florida Constitution not to be kept alive
artificially.

"The governor of the state of Florida does not have the right to
trump a patient's personal choice," he said at a press
conference. "The citizens of Florida should be alarmed by what is
happening. What is happening here is a gross and illegal
intrusion into the private liberty of citizens. ... This is not
the former Soviet Bloc where you don't have the liberty to
control your own body."

Following two unsuccessful attempts by Felos to get circuit
judges to block the reinsertion of the feeding tube, Terri was
transferred from the hospice where she has been a patient for
three years to a local hospital and rehydration efforts were
reportedly launched.

"She was literally absconded from her death bed in the middle of
her dying process," Felos told ABC's "Good Morning America" this
morning, calling the rehydration efforts "cruel."

But Dr. Jane Orient with the Association of American Physicians
and Surgeons, or AAPS, claims the opposite is true: "Dehydration
is a cruel, painful death."

"It is unconscionable that the state ordered removal of her
feeding tube in the first place-- it's nothing less than
state-sponsored euthanasia," maintains Orient. "She is not
dependent on advanced medical interventions. Nothing is
mechanically pumping her blood, or forcing oxygen into her lungs.
She is simply being fed through a gastrostomy tube."

Last week the General Assembly of the Catholic Medical
Association passed a resolution that concurred with Orient's
view. It declared removal of Terri's feeding tube "without first
undertaking rehabilitation therapy to ascertain her ability to
swallow and digest nourishment" constitutes "depriving her of
life without due process of law," according to Florida Statutes
Section 744, 3211.

Would we allow a retarded child to be starved to death?" queries
Orient. "Where are the 'compassionate end-of-life' groups such as
the Robert Wood Johnson 'Last Acts' initiative, and why aren't
they weighing in on this?"

Multiple physicians solicited by the Schindlers believe Terri,
who vocalizes, laughs and appears to respond to her parents,
could be rehabilitated to some extent. Some have even offered pro
bono treatment, even though Michael Schiavo was awarded nearly
$1.5 million dollars in malpractice suits to pay for Terri's
rehabilitation and nursing expenses shortly after her mysterious
collapse at home in 1990 during which oxygen was cut off to her
brain for several minutes.

WorldNetDaily has reported that during court testimony last year,
Victor Gambone, Terri's attending physician hired by Michael
Schiavo in 1998, testified he was unsure whether his patient had
even had her teeth cleaned in recent years and said she hadn't
received therapy. He said he accepted Michael Schiavo's word that
therapy had been deemed unnecessary.

"Although severely disabled, some believe that she does have the
capacity to communicate a desire to live. The husband has
obstructed efforts at rehabilitation or independent assessments
of his wife's true state," continues Orient.

WorldNetDaily reports the family has been blocked by Michael
Schiavo from visiting Terri at Morton Plant Hospital in
Clearwater, Fla., where she was transferred. Their inability to
verify she is being rehydrated per Bush's order concerns them. As
of yesterday morning, they reported she was awake and appeared
alert, although shrunken.

Felos told reporters yesterday Terri was showing signs of massive
organ failure and said the reinsertion of the feeding tube was
just prolonging her death.

AAPS, a non-partisan, professional association of physicians
dedicated to protecting the sanctity of the patient-physician
relationship put out a warning to colleagues: "The ethical
question for her nurses and physicians is whether they will
cooperate in carrying out a death warrant.

"And the ethical question for all of us is whether we will allow
the state to obstruct the efforts of people who want to provide
medical care to a patient who wants to receive it," said Orient.
"If we go down that path, who's to say what treatment the state
will prevent you from getting?"

Updates and other information about Terri's fight for life are
posted on the family's website.
http://www.terrisfight.org/

[Some] Previous stories:

Terri Schiavo's family not allowed to visit her
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=35211

Terri lives!
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=35197

Florida House votes to save Terri Schiavo
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=35175

Will 'Terri's Bill' save her life now?
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=35161

Terri Schiavo denied Last Rites
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=35156

Jeb Bush 'fails' Terri
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=35152

Abuse report filed for Terri Schiavo
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=35149

Desperate parents plead to Jeb Bush
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=35145

Lawyers: Bush can step in for Terri
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=35120

Starvation begins for Terri Schiavo
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=35095

Husband protests video showing alert Terri
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=35085

Terri Schiavo wants to live
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=35077

No intervention for Schiavo
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=35076

Joni Eareckson Tada joins vigil for Terri Schiavo
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=35055

Removal of guardian sought in right-to-die case
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=29703



----------------------------------------------------------------

Diana Lynne is a news editor for WorldNetDaily.com.


This article's URL is:
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=35216