{"id":1422,"date":"2005-03-20T10:06:39","date_gmt":"2005-03-20T18:06:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.amptoons.com\/blog\/archives\/2005\/03\/20\/a-bunch-of-terri-schiavo-links\/"},"modified":"2005-03-20T10:06:39","modified_gmt":"2005-03-20T18:06:39","slug":"a-bunch-of-terri-schiavo-links","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=1422","title":{"rendered":"A Bunch Of Terri Schiavo Links"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Currently, it seems likely congress will pass a law allowing Terri Schiavo&#8217;s fate to be appealed to a Federal Court. Assuming the law passes, it seems likely that Ms. Schiavo&#8217;s feeding tube will be ordered re-inserted while the courts consider the matter. Watch <a href=\"http:\/\/abstractappeal.com\/\">Abstract Appeal<\/a> for ongoing legal analysis.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>CBS News&#8217; legal analysis Andrew Cohen is full of scorn for Congress&#8217; action. His analysis, in Q&#038;A form, is worth reading (via <a href=\"http:\/\/atrios.blogspot.com\/2005_03_20_atrios_archive.html#111133631465796651\">Eschaton<\/a>). Here&#8217;s a small sample, but <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/stories\/2005\/03\/20\/opinion\/courtwatch\/main681785.shtml\">read the whole thing<\/a>:<br \/>\n<blockquote><p>QUESTION: Let&#8217;s start first then with Michael Schiavo&#8217;s expected arguments. Does he stand a chance of getting this law declared unconstitutional?<\/p>\n<p>ANSWER: Absolutely he has a chance. There are plenty of serious constitutional issues raised by this law. First, it applies only to one family and thus may create equal protection problems&#8211; after all, why shouldn&#8217;t other people who want to keep their loved ones on life support over the objections of others not also received tailor-made legislation? Second, as Harvard Law School Professor Laurence Tribe points out, it arguably deprives Terri Schiavo herself of the constitutional right to &#8220;halt the unwanted bodily invasion by a tube&#8221; and does so without any due process to her (and her husband and guardian). Third, it raises big separation of powers problems and also federalism concerns&#8211; the Supreme Court in particular hasn&#8217;t been receptive to federal intrusion into matters normally resolved by the states&#8211; matters like guardianship laws.<\/p>\n<p>QUESTION: So you are saying that it is not a slam dunk that this effort by Congress ultimately will succeed even in getting another round of substantive hearings on the merits of Terri Schiavo&#8217;s rights?<\/p>\n<p>ANSWER: That is exactly what I am saying. And I will go a little further. I&#8217;m also saying that there are probably some smart folks on Capitol Hill who are supporting this legislation knowing that ultimately the courts will strike it down. That way, being the politicians that they are, they will be able to blame the heartless judiciary for the result and still will be able to say to their constituents that they tried their best. It is the politics of cynicism at its very best (or very worst).<\/p>\n<p>QUESTION: Okay, settle down. Now take me through the scenario if the law initially is declared constitutional. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>He also quotes Laurence Tribe referring to what Congress is trying to do as &#8220;trial by legislation,&#8221; which seems very apt.<\/li>\n<li>To no one&#8217;s surprise, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sptimes.com\/2005\/03\/20\/Tampabay\/Schiavo___Come_down__.shtml\">Michael Schiavo is angry<\/a> at Congress, too. (Via <a href=\"http:\/\/abstractappeal.com\/archives\/2005_03_01_abstractappeal_archive.html#111133716428757154\">Abstract Appeal<\/a>). He has a lot of good quotes, but here&#8217;s one:<br \/>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;To make comments that Terri would want to live, how do they know?&#8221; Schiavo said of the members of Congress who want to keep his wife alive.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Have they ever met her?&#8221; Schiavo said. &#8220;What color are her eyes? What&#8217;s her middle name? What&#8217;s her favorite color? They don&#8217;t have any clue who Terri is. They should all be ashamed of themselves.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/li>\n<li>A good article in the <em>Tampa Tribune<\/em> criticizes the <a href=\"http:\/\/news.tbo.com\/news\/MGBQ67CTI6E.html\">media&#8217;s misleading focus<\/a> on out-of-context video snippets of Terri. Via <a href=\"http:\/\/abstractappeal.com\/archives\/2005_03_01_abstractappeal_archive.html#111133716428757154\">Abstract Appeal<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>Knight Ridder has a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.realcities.com\/mld\/krwashington\/11175622.htm\">sympathetic article about Jay Wolfson<\/a>, the court-appointed <em>guardian ad litem<\/em> for Terri Schiavo, who spent hours with Terri and regretfully decided that Terri has no consciousness at all. (He has refused to take a public position either way on pulling Terri&#8217;s feeding tube).<br \/>\n<blockquote><p>Wolfson was dismayed to learn Friday that Barbara Weller, an attorney for the Schindlers, claimed that Schiavo tried to speak. &#8220;Terri does not speak,&#8221; he said. &#8220;To claim otherwise reduces her to a fiction.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>One thing Wolfson never doubted was that for all their intense, mutual antagonism, both Michael Schiavo and Terri&#8217;s parents love and adore her. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/li>\n<li>You can also read Jay Wolfson&#8217;s report to Jeb Bush (<a href=\"http:\/\/abstractappeal.com\/schiavo\/WolfsonReport.pdf\">pdf link<\/a>). <\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/respectfulofotters.blogspot.com\/2005_03_01_respectfulofotters_archive.html#111120735448873570\">Rivka at Respectful of Otters<\/a> has an excellent discussion of the medical issues involved in this case. There&#8217;s too much good stuff to quote, so go read the whole thing, but I was particularly struck by this quote, from one of the doctors hired by Terri&#8217;s parents:<br \/>\n<blockquote><p>Interestingly, some of the commands, such as close your eyes, open your eyes, etc. she tended to do several minutes after I gave her the command to do so. She had a delay in her processing of the action. However, when praised for the action, she would then continue to do the action repetitively for up to approximately 5 minutes. As we had moved on to other areas of the exam, at times she was continuing to do the previous command, then at inappropriate times since the focus of the exam had changed.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>As Rivka points out, Dr. Hammesfahr&#8217;s standards are &#8220;ludicrously low&#8221;: Even if Terri is closing and opening her eyes completely at random, he would still interpret her has having conscious intent.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.livejournal.com\/community\/currentevents\/44937.html\">Evil Genius<\/a> (and Mrs. Genius) has also written a good post on the medical issues.<\/li>\n<li>And, for yet more on the medical issues, there&#8217;s this <a href=\"http:\/\/www.newsday.com\/news\/health\/ny-hsveg194182499mar19,0,103377.story?coll=ny-health-headlines\"><em>Newsday <\/em>article<\/a> quoting several unaffiliated doctors. (Via <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mahablog.com\/2005.03.13_arch.html#1111237010525\">Mahablog<\/a>).<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.bioethics.net\/2005\/03\/caplan-on-msnbc-on-schiavo.html\">Bioethics.net<\/a> extensively quotes Art Caplan regarding the ethical issues involved. Via <a href=\"http:\/\/pharyngula.org\/index\/weblog\/comments\/schiavo_reconsidered\/\">P.Z. Myers<\/a>, who also comments briefly on the CT scan.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Currently, it seems likely congress will pass a law allowing Terri Schiavo&#8217;s fate to be appealed to a Federal Court. Assuming the law passes, it seems likely that Ms. Schiavo&#8217;s feeding tube will be ordered re-inserted while the courts consider &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=1422\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[114],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-terri-schiavo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1422"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1422\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}