Schiavo dies 14 days after tube removed
Death comes after courts repeatedly ruled against parents
BREAKING NEWS
MSNBC staff and news service reports
Updated: 9:59 a.m. ET March 31, 2005
PINELLAS PARK, Fla. - Fourteen days after a court ordered her feeding tube removed, and after multiple attempts by her parents to get the order lifted, Terri Schiavo passed away on Thursday.
The family battle over whether to keep her alive galvanized the nation.
The case had spent seven years winding its way through the courts, with the parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, repeatedly on the losing end.
The nation"s high court on Wednesday declined to intervene for the sixth time. Hours earlier in an 9-2 ruling, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta declined to grant a new hearing in the case " the fourth time since last week that it ruled against the Schindlers.
Judge critical of Bush, Congress
One of the appeals court judges rebuked the White House and lawmakers Wednesday for acting "in a manner demonstrably at odds with our Founding Fathers" blueprint for the governance of a free people " our Constitution."
"Any further action by our court or the district court would be improper," wrote Judge Stanley Birch Jr., appointed by President Bush"s father.
Federal courts were given jurisdiction to review Schiavo"s case after Republicans in Congress pushed through unprecedented emergency legislation aimed at prolonging her life. But federal courts at three levels have rebuffed her parents.
The Schindlers had asked the 11th Circuit and the Supreme Court to order the reinsertion of their daughter"s feeding tube immediately so a federal district court can review the case from its beginning, including whether there was enough "clear and convincing" evidence that she would have chosen to die in her current condition.
The Schindlers" motion included arguments that the 11th Circuit in its earlier rulings did not consider whether there was enough evidence that Terri Schiavo would have chosen to die.
But appeals court judges Gerald Tjoflat and Charles Wilson, the same two judges who also issued dissenting opinions last week when the full court considered the case for the first time, said the harried pace of appeals made it impossible to determine if state courts properly considered the evidence.
The two dissenters said Wednesday "it is fully within Congress"s power to dictate standards of review" for federal courts. "Indeed, if Congress cannot do so, the fate of hundreds of federal statutes would be called into question."
Now we wait for the legislative push from the ultra-conservative pro-lifers.
Not that I think anything will really change. The vast majority of voters are not interested in allowing the federal government to involve themselves in what has traditionally been a personal matter mediated by the various states.
If someone lost a limb, say, in an accident -- a piano player, maybe lost his or her arm -- and in their depression, they assert that their quality of life is such that they would rather be dead, should they be able to check into a hospital and starve to death?
Shiavo wasn't dying. She was living in a state that she (allegedly) did not want to live. So it was her choice, based on her condition to die. Should the same apply to the piano player?
If someone lost a limb, say, in an accident -- a piano player, maybe lost his or her arm -- and in their depression, they assert that their quality of life is such that they would rather be dead, should they be able to check into a hospital and starve to death?
Shiavo wasn't dying. She was living in a state that she (allegedly) did not want to live. So it was her choice, based on her condition to die. Should the same apply to the piano player?
and in their depression, they assert that their quality of life is such that they would rather be dead, should they be able to check into a hospital and starve to death?
they enacted such a law recently in Sweden. And the people in this country applaud the lefty members of SCOTUS when they look to europe for guidance?
Schiavo Dies
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