Real Kato Blog: Terri Schiavo Update

So far Terri Schiavo's feeding tube has not been re-installed.

So much for smaller government.

Congressional Republicans, in their eternal quest to pander for support from the religious right, passed a last-minute act to give a federal court jurisdiction over Terri Schiavo's case. So now the case has been rushed to federal district court judge James Whittemore, to extend the fifteen years of litigation that this case has already been through.

The congressional act is ridiculous, by the way; you can read it here. I found this clause to be particularly egregious: "...the District Court shall determine de novo any claim of a violation of any right of Theresa Marie Schiavo within the scope of this Act, notwithstanding any prior State court determination and regardless of whether such a claim has previously been raised, considered, or decided in State court proceedings." Gaah. In other words, let's ignore all the arguments that have been raised before, and START ALL OVER AGAIN. Is that the way our legal system works now? If you don't get the result you want, you get a do-over? Oh, and by the way, is it safe to say now that Republicans are no longer in favor of states' rights (now that Republicans control the federal government, and those uppity states are not giving Republicans the results they want)?

A poll indicates that seventy percent of Americans were opposed to the actions of Congress, and that a majority believe that politicians were only acting for political gain. To that I say, NO DUH.

So far, Whittemore is skeptical; fortunately, it seems that he's got some sense. Terri Schiavo's feeding tube has not yet been re-inserted, raising some hope that she will finally be able to rest in peace soon, without having politicians continue to flog her body for their own political gain.

Let me ask another question... if Terri Schiavo were, say, a homeless middle-aged black man, would people care as much? Would we have the same sort of prayer vigils and desperate legal maneuvers? Bush said this: "This is a complex case with serious issues. But in extraordinary circumstances like this, it is wise to always err on the side of life." Does that apply to everyone? Like, say, folks on death row in Texas? (Did anyone watch "Boston Legal" this past Sunday?) Does it apply to the tens of thousands of civilians killed in Iraq, when we erred on the side of bombing the crap out of them?

To all politicians: Regardless of what you feel about euthanasia, please quit your pseudo-religious hypocritical posturing. It's making me sick.

Permalink 5 Comment

Posted by Ken in: commentary, politics

Comments

Comment #1 from Ken (realkato)
2005 Mar 22 - 9:44 am : #

Update: Judge Whittemore has denied the Schindlers' request to have the feeding tube re-inserted. The case is now on its way to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta.

Comment #2 from Nicholas (Guest)
2005 Mar 22 - 10:31 am : #

Appeal, after appeal, after appeal.

Comment #3 from MonoCerdo (Guest)
2005 Mar 22 - 1:24 pm : #

Nicely said. When Bush said that crap about erring on the side of life, I started screaming "TEXAS DEATH PENALTY!!!" repeatedly at my television set. You also raise a good point re: social status of Ms. Schiavo. It's the same, sad bias that made the Elizabeth Smart kidnapping and Jon Bonet Ramsey murder national news while countless other identical cases get no headline attention. I also think it's interesting that the eating disorder that (purportedly) caused her heart failure is rarely, if ever, mentioned.

Comment #4 from Nicholas (Guest)
2005 Mar 22 - 1:56 pm : #

I have some sympathy for people with eating disorders. They sued her doctor and won around a million dollars. What did the doctor do wrong? They did not diagnose her bulemia. We do not know what exactly happened. But it seems ridiculous to me that the doctor could be sued. Seems like if she was forth coming with information the doctors would have diagnosed it. People expect doctors to be mind readers and super-heros. But they are shmucks just like you and I.

http://abstractappeal.com/schiavo/infopage.html

Exerpt from the website; Also relevant to questions about the cause of Terri's collapse is the lawsuit that Michael brought on Terri's behalf against Terri's doctors. The premise of that early 1990s lawsuit was that the doctors committed malpractice by failing to diagnose Terri's bulimia and that her bulimia led to her cardiac arrest. The case was tried to a jury, which ruled in Michael's favor, finding that Terri had bulimia, that her bulimia caused her cardiac arrest, and that the doctors were negligent in failing to diagnose the situation. The verdict was appealed, and before the appellate court could rule, the parties settled, with Michael recovering approximately $750,000 for Terri and $300,000 for himself.

Comment #5 from Ken (realkato)
2005 Mar 23 - 5:37 pm : #

Updates:

- A 3-judge panel from the 11th Circuit Court rejected the appeal, 2-1.

- The full court declined to hear the case, 10-2.

- The Florida Senate turned down a new bill that would let them intervene in the case, 21-18. (That bill would probably have been ruled unconstitutional anyway.)

- The Bush administration and the U.S. Congress appear to be saying "we've done all we can".

The saga may be over soon.

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