 | This article possibly contains original research .(September 2011) |
The case of Terri Schiavo became the subject of intense public debate and activism.
| This article possibly contains original research .(September 2011) |
The case of Terri Schiavo became the subject of intense public debate and activism.
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| Terri Schiavo case |
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Two polls conducted in the days following the removal of Schiavo's feeding tube on March 18, 2005, showed that a large majority of Americans believed that Michael Schiavo should have had the authority to make decisions on behalf of his wife, Terri Schiavo, and that the United States Congress overstepped its bounds with its intervention in the case. [1]
According to an ABC News poll from March 21, 2005, 70% of Americans believed that Schiavo's death should not be a federal matter, and were opposed to the legislation transferring the case to federal court. In the same poll, when ABC said "Terri suffered brain damage and has been on life support for 15 years. Doctors say she has no consciousness and her condition is irreversible", 63% said that they support the removal of Schiavo's feeding tube. Sixty-seven percent agreed with the statement that "elected officials trying to keep Schiavo alive are doing so more for political advantage than out of concern for her or for the principles involved". [2]
A poll by CBS News reported on March 23 showed that 82% of respondents believed Congress and the President should stay out of the matter, while 74% thought it was "all about politics". Only 13% thought Congress acted out of concern for Schiavo. Furthermore, the approval ratings of Congress sank to 34%, its lowest since 1997. [3]
Two CNN/ USA Today /Gallup polls on the case also showed public support for removing Schiavo's feeding tube, but by smaller margins. In response to the question, "Based on what you have heard or read about the case, do you think that the feeding tube should or should not have been removed?", 56% of respondents agreed and 31% disagreed when polled between March 18–20. When respondents were asked the same question on an April 1–2 poll, conducted after Schiavo's death, 53% agreed with the feeding tube's removal while 41% disagreed. [4] Gallup concluded that "These poll results, obtained after Schiavo's death on March 31, reflect an increase in opposition to the removal of the tube compared to mid-March data." The poll also showed continued strong disapproval for Congress's involvement in the case. [5]
U.S. President George W. Bush, Governor of Florida Jeb Bush, many Republicans, several Democrats in the Florida Legislature and U.S. Congress, and Vatican officials sided with Schiavo's parents. Other groups and individuals, including the American Civil Liberties Union as well as many Democratic and several Republican legislators, expressed support for the position of Michael Schiavo. One individual activist even filed a pro se appeal with the Florida State Supreme Court. [6]
Various Christian organizations, mostly affiliated with the Christian right, demanded that Schiavo's feeding tube be reinserted. Consumer activist Ralph Nader and the Reverend Jesse Jackson, a Democrat and civil rights activist, also called for Schiavo's feeding tube to be reinserted. On March 29, 2005, Jackson prayed with the Schindler family outside of Schiavo's Florida hospice. Some groups, such as Not Dead Yet, also protested the removal of the feeding tube because they felt it violated the rights of the disabled.
Forty-seven protesters, including many children, were arrested outside the hospice where Schiavo was located. Most of these were non-violent, staged arrests for trespassing, made when protestors crossed a police line in a symbolic attempt to bring water to Schiavo. The last arrest occurred after Jackson's press conference on March 29, 2005, when a family therapist from Scranton, Pennsylvania, named Dow Pursley slipped past the police cordon and headed for the hospice's main entrance, carrying two bottles of water for Schiavo. Police officers stunned Pursley with a Taser and apprehended him. Pursley was charged with attempted burglary and resisting arrest without violence. [7] [8]
Richard Alan Meywes of North Carolina was accused of offering $250,000 over the Internet for the murder of Michael Schiavo and $50,000 for the murder of Judge George Greer. Because of the nature of his crimes, the Federal Bureau of Investigation was involved in the case, and Meywes was charged under Federal law. Meywes's lawyer claimed he was "not serious" about his offers. [9] [10]
In another case, Michael Mitchell, of Rockford, Illinois, attempted to rob a Florida gun store as part of an attempt to rescue Terri Schiavo. He selected Randall's Firearms, which was located near Schiavo's hospice in Seminole, Florida. Mitchell first entered the store and spoke with owner Randy McKenzie, and then departed. He returned twenty minutes later, drew a folding knife on McKenzie, and smashed a glass display case in an attempt to seize an aluminum gun case which contained a .454 Casull revolver and ammunition. McKenzie drew his own revolver in response, and Mitchell fled to his van and drove off, only to be quickly apprehended. "I honor his strength of conviction," Russell Mitchell said of his son, "but two wrongs don't make a right. They were wrong for starving [Schiavo], but he was wrong for committing another immoral act trying to get her loose." Mitchell was charged with attempted armed robbery, aggravated assault and criminal mischief. [10] [11]
Michael Schiavo's live-in girlfriend Jodi Centonze received hate mail letters. [12] Additionally, the wife of one of Michael Schiavo's brothers was targeted; a white car drove by her home three times over the course of several hours, and on the last pass the driver shouted to her, "If Terri dies, I'm coming back to shoot you and your family." Another one of Michael Schiavo's brothers said he received death threats every time the case was in the news. [10]
On the day Schiavo died, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay criticized the legal system and said, "The time will come for the men responsible [the judges] for this to answer for their behavior." He also threatened to impeach the judges who refused to intervene on Schiavo's behalf. "We will look at an unaccountable, arrogant, out-of-control judiciary that thumbed their nose at Congress and the president," DeLay said. On April 14, 2005, DeLay held a news conference and issued an apology for the tone of his comments. He stated, "I said something in an inartful way, and I shouldn't have said it that way, and I apologize for saying it that way."
Judge Greer and his family were placed under protection by the U.S. Marshals due to death threats for having ruled against restoring Schiavo's feeding tube. Additionally, he was asked to leave his Southern Baptist congregation, Calvary Baptist Church, in Clearwater. [13]
During the final stages of the court battle in March 2005, around 30 individuals made a variety of complaints to the DCF, alleging various abuses. [14] These included Terri Schiavo being in pain from recent dental work, although she had not had any dental work for years prior to that, and sensory deprivation. DCF investigators found the claims to be groundless, stating that there were "no indicators" of abuse in any of the cases and concluding that "the preponderance of the evidence shows that Michael Schiavo followed doctors' orders regarding Ms. Schiavo's diagnosis of being in a persistent vegetative state and that he provided her with appropriate care." [15]
The Schindler family and their supporters hold that this is a landmark case where a guardian's judgment was disputed, but ended with a court order to remove nutrition and hydration.
People on the other side of this issue, including the ACLU hold this was a private matter and the actions of the Schindlers interfered with the guardianship authority of her husband Michael Schiavo and the privacy rights of Terri Schiavo.
Advocates indicate that the rate of living will creation has increased since Terri Schiavo died. [16] [17] An alternate mechanism is for a person to name a close relative or one whom they trust to speak for them, granting him or her power of attorney for medical issues.
Paul Schenck's organization, NPLAC, has commissioned a sculpture to Terri Schiavo entitled Compassion. [18]
The case prompted bishop William Skylstad, president of the USCCB, to ask the Vatican Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith some questions as to the moral theology in such cases. The Vatican's reply, on September 14, 2007, stated that their position was that life support could not be removed from a patient in a permanent vegetative state. [19]
The United States public's opinion on the invasion of Iraq has changed significantly since the years preceding the incursion. For various reasons, mostly related to the unexpected consequences of the invasion, as well as misinformation provided by US authorities, the US public's perspective on its government's choice to initiate an offensive is increasingly negative. Before the invasion in March 2003, polls showed 47–60% of the US public supported an invasion, dependent on U.N. approval. According to the same poll retaken in April 2007, 58% of the participants stated that the initial attack was a mistake. In May 2007, the New York Times and CBS News released similar results of a poll in which 61% of participants believed the U.S. "should have stayed out" of Iraq.
The right to die is a concept based on the opinion that human beings are entitled to end their life or undergo voluntary euthanasia. Possession of the right to die is often bestowed with the understanding that a person with a terminal illness, incurable pain, or without the will to continue living should be allowed to end their own life, use assisted suicide, or decline life-prolonging treatment. The question of who, if anyone, may be empowered to make this decision is often the subject of debate.
David Joseph Weldon is an American politician and physician. He was a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives, representing Florida's 15th congressional district, and was an unsuccessful candidate for the Republican nomination in Florida's 2012 U.S. Senate race.
The Terri Schiavo case was a series of court and legislative actions in the United States from 1998 to 2005, regarding the care of Theresa Marie Schiavo, a woman in an irreversible persistent vegetative state. Schiavo's husband and legal guardian argued that Schiavo would not have wanted prolonged artificial life support without the prospect of recovery, and in 1998, he elected to remove her feeding tube. Schiavo's parents disputed her husband's assertions and challenged Schiavo's medical diagnosis, arguing in favor of continuing artificial nutrition and hydration. The highly publicized and prolonged series of legal challenges presented by her parents, which ultimately involved state and federal politicians up to the level of George W. Bush, the then U.S. president, caused a seven-year delay before Schiavo's feeding tube was ultimately removed.
Deborah Wasserman Schultz is an American politician serving as the U.S. representative for Florida's 25th congressional district, first elected to Congress in 2004. A member of the Democratic Party, she is a former chair of the Democratic National Committee.
George W. Greer is a retired Florida circuit judge who served in Florida's Sixth Circuit Court, family law division, in Clearwater, Florida. He received national attention in 2005 when he presided over the Terri Schiavo case.
The case of Sun Hudson concerned Wanda Hudson and her infant son, who was allowed to die via removal of his breathing tube, contrary to her wishes.
James David Whittemore is a senior United States district judge serving in the Tampa division of the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida. He was previously a Florida state trial court judge, a federal public defender, and an attorney in private practice who won a criminal case before the United States Supreme Court. As a federal judge, Whittemore presided over a number of high-profile cases, including a lawsuit against Major League Baseball to challenge its draft procedure, and the Terri Schiavo case, after the United States Congress had specifically given the Middle District of Florida jurisdiction to hear the seven-year-long fight over whether the brain-damaged Schiavo should be taken off life support.
The Palm Sunday Compromise, formally known as the Act for the relief of the parents of Theresa Marie Schiavo, is an Act of Congress passed on March 21, 2005, to allow the case of Terri Schiavo to be moved into a federal court. The name "Palm Sunday Compromise" was coined by House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, referring to it having been passed on Palm Sunday.
"Best Friends Forever" is the fourth episode in the ninth season of the American animated television series South Park. The 129th episode overall, it was written and directed by co-creator Trey Parker and first aired on Comedy Central in the United States on March 30, 2005. In the episode, Kenny is deliberately killed by heaven's occupants after becoming master of the PSP in order for him to save them. However, the town brings him back to life, leaving him in a persistent vegetative state.
Brian Darling is the president and founder of the firm Liberty Government Affairs. He was Senior Communications Director and Counsel for Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) and a former senior fellow in government studies at The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think-tank based in Washington, D.C. Darling has been involved in U.S. politics since the early 1990s, in roles as a congressional aide, lobbyist and legal counsel. Darling resigned as legal counsel to Republican Senator Mel Martinez of Florida after admitting he was the author of the Schiavo memo.
The legislative, executive, and judicial branches, of both the United States federal government and the State of Florida, were involved in the case of Terri Schiavo. In November 1998 Michael Schiavo, husband of Terri Schiavo, first sought permission to remove his wife's feeding tube. Schiavo had suffered brain damage in February 1990, and in February 2000 had been ruled by a Florida circuit court to be in a persistent vegetative state. Her feeding tube was removed first on April 26, 2001, but was reinserted two days later on an appeal by her parents, Bob and Mary Schindler.
Frank Anthony Pavone is an American anti-abortion activist and former Catholic priest. He is the national director of Priests for Life and the chairman and pastoral director of its Rachel's Vineyard project. He is also the president of the National Pro-Life Religious Council, an umbrella group of various anti-abortion Christian denominations, and the pastoral director of the Silent No More campaign.
Haleigh Poutre is an American woman who became the subject of a legal controversy regarding the removal of life support for patients in persistent vegetative states. In 2006, eleven-year-old Poutre awoke from a coma shortly before she was scheduled to be removed from life support. Poutre had a severe brain injury thought to be caused by abuse by her adoptive mother. The case brought about many changes in the Massachusetts Department of Social Services, both in the way they handle reports of child abuse as well as their policies on end-of-life care for children in their custody.
Eluana Englaro was an Italian woman from Lecco, who entered a persistent vegetative state on 18 January 1992, following a car accident, and subsequently became the focus of a court battle between supporters and opponents of euthanasia. Shortly after her accident, medical staff began feeding Englaro with a feeding tube, but her father "fought to have her feeding tube removed, saying it would be a dignified end to his daughter's life. He said that before the crash his daughter visited a friend who was in a coma and told him she didn't want the same thing to happen to her if she were ever in the same state." The authorities refused his request, but the decision was finally reversed in 2009, and she died after her nutrition was withheld after she had spent seventeen years in the persistent vegetative state.
The Joseph Maraachli case refers to an international controversy over the life of Joseph Maraachli, commonly known as Baby Joseph, a Canadian infant who was diagnosed with a rare progressive and incurable neurological disorder called Leigh's disease. After Canadian doctors refused to perform a tracheotomy, calling the procedure invasive and futile, Joseph's parents fought to have him transferred to the United States, arguing that while Joseph's disease was terminal, a tracheotomy would extend his life and allow him to die at home. After several months and efforts by American anti-abortion groups, Joseph was transferred to a Catholic hospital in St. Louis, Missouri, where the procedure was performed.
George James Felos is an American lawyer specializing in right-to-die cases. He is best known for representing Terri Schiavo's husband Michael.
George Euripedes Tragos is a Criminal Defense and Personal Injury attorney located in Clearwater, Florida. He has participated in a number of cases that have received national attention; these include the Terri Schiavo case, a civil suit against Nick Hogan, and the Stephen Coffeen case in which he successfully argued what has been dubbed the "Red Bull defense". He is senior partner at the personal injury law firm Tragos, Sartes & Tragos, PA.
Jahi McMath was a thirteen-year-old girl who was declared brain dead in California following surgery in 2013. This led to a bioethical debate engendered by her family's rejection of the medicolegal findings of death in the case, and their efforts to maintain her body using mechanical ventilation and other measures. Her parents considered these measures to constitute life support, while her doctors considered this to be futile treatment of a deceased person. In October 2014, the McMath family attorney made the unprecedented request that Jahi McMath's brain death declaration be overturned. The attorney later withdrew this request, saying he wanted time for the court-appointed medical expert and his own medical experts to confer. In March 2015, McMath's family filed a malpractice lawsuit against Children's Hospital Oakland and against the surgeon who performed McMath's surgery, indicating they were prepared to argue as part of the lawsuit that McMath was not dead, but profoundly disabled. The family lawyer stated that a preliminary second death certificate was issued on June 22, 2018, listing extensive bleeding relating to liver failure as the cause of death.
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