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Activists demand action to save Terri
Schiavo
(Note: What is red and bolded below is Language Deception.)
March 28, 2005
CTV.ca News Staff
As brain-damaged Terri Schiavo survived an 11th day without food or
water, activists demanded something be done to keep her alive.
"She is fighting for her very life now. Are we to say that the
entire federal government is powerless to help her?" asked
Reverend Patrick Mahoney during a rally in Washington, D.C. on Monday.
But U.S. President George W. Bush and
his brother, Governor Jeb Bush of Florida -- both
considered conservative, pro-life politicians -- say
there is nothing they can do.
"I have not seen any means by which
the executive branch can get involved," Jeb Bush said.
Bob Schindler, Terri's father, held back tears as he pleaded for
politicians to do something to save his 41-year-old daughter.
He also made an extraordinary claim: "I have a grave concern that
they'll expedite the process to kill her with an overdose of morphine.
That's the process. She has to be saved."
The hospice in Pinellas Park, Florida,
where Terri now lies dying denied the allegation, with a spokesman
saying, "a fundamental part of hospice is that we would do
nothing to either hasten or postpone natural death."
George Felos -- lawyer for Michael Schiavo, Terri's husband and
guardian, the man who says his wife wouldn't have wanted to be kept
alive in [an alleged by him] vegetative state -- said Terri
had been given small doses of morphine twice in the last 10 days.
"We're talking two miniscule doses," he said.
While Felos said Terri was calm and
peaceful, her sister Suzanne Vitadamo said: "The
look on her face is 'please help me.' She's fighting. Does this sound
like someone who wants to die?"
The Schindler family believes Terri never wanted to her life ended by
the removal of her feeding tube.
On the weekend, they claimed
Terri said "AHHHHH" and "WAAAAAAA"
when asked to repeat the phrase "I want to live."
They used that as evidence
Terri was responsive and wanted to live. However, Pinellas
Circuit Judge George Greer denied their motion, accepting the view of
medical practitioners that people in Terri's state make involuntary
sounds.
Two more state appeals of the March 18 order allowing the feeding
tube's removal are pending, but they are before appeal courts where
they have previously lost.
Some of the 100 or so demonstrators seemed to accept that Schiavo
would probably not get her feeding tube reinserted.
One tried to be philosophical, saying: "God knows what he's doing
and he's using Terri as a martyr for the cause of life in a culture of
death."
Police have tightened security around the hospice, fearing a backlash
when Terri dies. She wasn't expected to survive longer than two weeks.
With all the controversy over whether Terri, who has been in [an
alleged] vegetative state since 1990, could have ever recovered,
Michael Schiavo has requested an autopsy after her death to show the
extent of her brain damage.
David Gibbs III, a lawyer for the Schindlers, say they welcomed an
autopsy.
Schiavo, suffered brain damage after her heart stopped briefly from
a chemical imbalance. The imbalance is believed to have been brought
on by an eating disorder.
Because she left no living will outlining her wishes, a bitter battle
developed between her parents and husband.
Later Monday, Jeb Bush told Associated
Press Television News that lawmakers should review the issue of
guardianship and feeding tube removal when where's no advance
directive such as a living will.
With a report from CTV's Joy Malbon and files from The Associated Press.
Copyright 2005, The Associated Press and CTV.
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