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[Tvoivozhd <tvoivozd AT infionline.net>]

More accurately a Jeb BushScam keeping a brain-dead woman alive for 14 
goddamned years, exhausting all her husbands funds and spending millions 
upon millions of taxpayer money he gleefully denies to children and 
adults with some possibility of recovery.

Tuesday, August 31
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Florida Supreme Court Hears Arguments Over Right-to-Die Case

*By Jackie Hallifax* Associated Press Writer
Published: Aug 31, 2004

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TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - Florida's Supreme Court justices Tuesday 
questioned whether the Legislature tried to do an end run around the 
court system by passing a law that let Gov. Jeb Bush order the 
reinsertion of a brain-damaged woman's feeding tube.

The high court heard arguments in the case of Terri Schiavo, who is at 
the center of one of the nation's longest and most bitter right-to-die 
battles. This is the first time the Florida Supreme Court has agreed to 
take up any aspect of the 14-year-old case.

Justice Charles Wells said he was troubled because he had to conclude 
that "Terri's Law," passed last October, was designed to sidestep a 
trial court ruling that found "clear and convincing evidence" Schiavo 
would not want to be kept alive artificially.

Bush attorney Robert Destro, a law professor at Washington's Catholic 
University of America, said the Legislature was simply trying to protect 
the woman.

"The Legislature gave this power to the governor because the governor 
... is the ultimate defender of people's civil rights in the state," 
Destro said.

Another Bush lawyer, Ken Connor, said the courts do not have the 
"exclusive domain" of protecting the rights of disabled people.

The high court did not indicate when it would rule on the case.

Schiavo, 40, suffered brain damage in 1990 when her heart stopped 
beating, a condition brought on by an eating disorder. She left no 
written instructions in the event she became incapacitated. Some medical 
experts have declared she is in a persistent vegetative state with no 
hope of recovery.

Her husband, Michael, has argued that she would not want to be kept 
alive in this way. But her parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, dispute that 
and argue that she could someday regain some of her faculties.

Last year, her feeding tube was removed with court approval at the 
request of her husband. But six days later, the governor ordered the 
feeding to resume, invoking a law that was drafted specifically to apply 
to the Schiavo case and rushed through the Legislature.

Michael Schiavo has challenged the constitutionality of the law. The 
feeding tube remains in place in the meantime.

"The violation here is taking from the patient and giving to the state 
the power to make medical treatment choices," said George Felos, Michael 
Schiavo's attorney.

Felos also said the role of the courts was trampled on, calling it 
"absolutely extraordinary for the governor to argue that the Legislature 
in 18 hours and the governor in a matter of hours somehow possess some 
wisdom regarding the matter of Terri Schiavo that could not have been 
ascertained by the justices of this state in six years."

AP-ES-08-3