New Schiavo-Inspired Law in Louisiana
The first of what I hope will be an outpouring of state laws to prevent future Terri Schiavo cases just passed in Louisiana. This law prevents spouses living with another love interest, or who has been convicted of a violent crime, from making the medical decision to end life-sustaining treatment on behalf of their disabled husband or wife. As readers will recall, Michael Schiavo was allowed to remain as Terri's guardian despite the intense personal conflict of interest of living with another woman and having two children by her.
posted by Wesley J. Smith @ 8:41 PM
5 Comments
5 Comments:
I have noticed that Lousiana has been at the front of every good piece of legislation that is needed to protect the rights of the disabled. This is an indication that not all politicians are as corrupt as the politicians in Florida.
Considering some of the things that I learned about the Clintons, I am surprised that they came from Little Rock Arkansas instead of Clearwater Florida.
One thing that strikes me, though is that there are corrupt politicians on both sides of the political spectrum.
Some members of the liberal left wing have attempted to politicise the issues that were involved in the Schiavo case; this was an effort to try and make a false claim regarding the people who saw right through Michael Schiavo and had pin pointed the real issue - that he was using the situation in order to get legal approval to finish off the job of killing his wife. This was necessary because she refused to give in to all of his unsuccessful efforts to commit murder by stealth.
On the other hand, I am pleased to know that Nat Hentoff, a man with liberal left leanings has the ability to see right through all of that crap and has accurately pin pointed the truth, that Michael Schiavo had a hand in his wife's condition and he wanted her dead.
Maggie: I suggest you not overstate the case. "Finish off the job of killing his wife," which is not supported by the evidence. I have read the police report written the night Terri collapsed. It explicitly states that there was nothing to indicate foul play. The only reason the police were called by the paramedics, according to the report, was that it was odd for a woman so young to go into cardiac arrest. Nor does Hentoff go there. His focus is on the injustice of the dehydration, not the cause of Terri's disability.
No one takes a front seat to me in my utter disdain and disrespect for Michael Schiavo. But we can't accuse him of trying to murder Terri when there is no solid evidence to back such a charge.
Thanks for your support of my Web Log and your continuing contributions to it.
Another correction: Murder is an unlawful homicide. This was a lawful homicide. Alas. Thanks for contributing.
Wesley, like you I have studied that police report. It is deficient in some fo the detail.
It should be noted that the original police report no longer exists and that the report that both of us have read is a document created in the year 2000.
It is wrong to say that Terri went into cardiac arrest (or at least imply that she had a heart attack). My reading of the autopsy report happens to be that she did not have a heart attack, that she did not have low potassium levels at the time of collapse and that she did not have bulimia. That means that there was an outside event that caused her injuries.
The report mentions that Terri was found face down with her hands near her throat. A throw away line in the report is the response given to a question: That Terri had no reason to try and commit suicide. She had no medications that indicated that she collapsed from an incorrect dose of medicine. It is to be noted that the medication in the house mostly belonged to Michael including Valium.
I am not satisfied with a lot of aspects of this case. As I have read through the details, the witnesses who have come forward from the nursing homes where Terri was a resident and a lot of the other detail, I remain highly suspicious about the cause of the original collapse.
When Terri was admitted to the hospital she had a very stiff neck. The autopsy report indicated that she had muscle atrophy on one side of her neck only. That indicates that the side with the atrophy was damaged on the morning of the collapse.
A big deal is being made about the lack of evidence concerning the claim that there was an attempted strangulation. The people who are claiming that the reports indicated that there were no evidence are ignorant concerning the statistics relating to attempted strangulation. Over 62 per cent of cases of attempted strangulation never make it to the courts because of the lack of evidence. It requires people who are expert in looking for the other signs to pin point the attempted strangulation.
There is an excellent report released by a nurse educator regarding the test results on Terri at admission. She points out a lot of the errors that have been made in the mainstream media regarding the facts of this case and how the results do in fact point to an attempt to strangle or asphyxiate Terri on the morning she collapsed.
The release of the McCabe report regarding the irregularities in the timing of the collapse and the call to 911 has done nothing to change my mind that there was foul play that morning. If there was a 70 minute gap as indicated by all of the contradictions in evidence then that was long enough for the signs of a struggle to have been eliminated from the apartment.
Also, the tests that were taken on Terri at the time of hospital admission indicate that there was blood in the urine. This could be interpreted as an indication that she was punched in the stomach and that she was bleeding internally as a result of the physical violence either that morning or on the day before, when they had a fight over her the cost of her hairdo.
So far what I am thinking and saying is circumstantial. However, since the bulimia has been absolutely ruled out then one must look to the fact that there was possible violence and that an attempted strangulation has been covered up.
This is a case where there has been a series of cover-ups. There has been no prosecution of the Florida Suncoast over the admittance of Terri as a patient when in fact she was not terminal. That is against the rules of medicare to admit her to hospice. There has been no attempt to investigate the conflict of interest regarding George Felos being chairman of the board of Florida suncoast at the time that Terri was admitted to Woodside.
No one has screamed about the guards that were posted at the door of her room in order to prevent anyone taking the woman into the fresh air and to prevent the taking of photographs or film that would have proved to the world that she was not in a comatose condition as the MSM had claimed.
Then there is the issue of Michael living with another woman and having children with that woman. In Florida that is a crime. Yet he was never prosecuted under that statute for committing an offence.
We only think of physical abuse when we look at abuse victims. What we do not understand is that the psychological component of any abuse is far more damaging. This is why I have stated outright that Michael had many failed attempts to kill Terri. He used a method that is proposed by L Ron Hubbard to try and cause Terri to lose hope and to just die. It did not work on her, and she maintained her desire to live. (I am referring to the fact that he attempted to take away all forms of stimulation from her and he prevented her family from visiting her). He also attemtpted to kill her on at least two occasions through the denial of antibiotics. On the first occasion the Sable Palms nursing home told him that he could not do it and he had to allow the antibiotic treatment. He admitted that he wanted her to get blood sepsis and die. This is in his deposition. The second occasion has been glossed over by all and sundry. It happened in 2003 and was reported to DCF by staff at Morton Plant Hospital. The investigation, like all investigations in this case was stymied. The trite reason given that she was not a high category risk happened to be that the case was under litigation. That to my mind is a disgrace for a reason to allow the situation to continue without regard to the vulnerable adult and her civil rights. This occurred in 2003.
The most damning evidence against Michael Schiavo happens to be that he told his girlfriends who have spoken out that he did not know what Terri wanted prior to his consultation with George Felos. It was only after that consultation that he came up with his sudden memory of more than 15 years that "Terri did not want to live that way" and that "She made me promise...." Then there is the very suspicious coming forward of Michael's brother and sister in law to make similar claims, only after there was doubt expressed about what Michael was suddenly claiming.
Everything in this case points to collusion and protection of a man who did in fact attempt to strangle his wife when she collapsed. I am certain that something along those lines happened because the policeman's chokehold could have been used, and that would mean that there would be no outward signs of attempted strangulation. I offer as further proof to this theory that Terri's neck was injured on one side. I am not offering the bone scan as proof of anything because that could indicate later injuries when she was at home for 3 months.
I agree with Mia regarding the definition of murder. I do think that what happened to Terri qualifies as murder. At the same time I agree that it is going to be difficult for justice to prevail because of the fact that Michael Schiavo used the court system to legally justify the killing of his wife.
It is the use of the judicial system that makes this whole episode a travesty of justice.
I will try to post a link of some new reports that I have seen recently that will, I hope clear up some of the misconceptions that were prevalent in the mainstream media.
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