November 28, 2003

By Steven Ertelt, LifeNews.com Editor

http://www.lifenews.com

news@lifenews.com

Pinellas Park, Florida (LifeNews.com) - On Tuesday, November 25, 2003, attorneys for Terri Schiavo's estranged husband Michael, filed a legal motion seeking to deny attorneys for Governor Jeb Bush the opportunity to depose witnesses. Bush's attorneys hope to obtain new and expanded information that can be used in a trial opposing Michael's lawsuit to overturn Terri's Law.

George Felos, the assisted suicide advocate who is Michael's lead attorney, and attorneys for the ACLU asked Circuit Court Judge Douglas Baird to disallow Bush's attorneys from taking depositions from seven people.

Michael Schiavo and Jodi Centonze, the woman with whom he lives and has one child and another one the way, are two of the people Bush attorneys want to question.

Felos claims the testimony would be irrelevant and that Judge Baird should only decide whether Terri's Law is constitutional and not reexamine the facts of the case.

Bush's attorneys hope to gain better insight into whether Michael's claims that Terri would not want to be kept alive are true.

Terri left no advanced directive indicating her preference for medical treatment. Michael claimed years after Terri's collapse that he vaguely remembered Terri saying she didn't want to be kept alive artificially.

However, a longtime friend of Terri vividly remembers a conversation they had concerning a woman who had been in a coma for six years. Terri's friend told a crude joke. It upset Terri and she responded by asking whether the doctors and lawyers could possible know what the woman wanted and said, "Where there's life, there's hope."

Judge Baird has been accused of being biased in the case by already saying Terri's Law is possibly unconstitutional, despite Bush not having yet made his case for it. He has refused to step down from the case.

Michael's attorneys have asked Baird to deny hearings and an ultimate trial and instead issue an summary judgment opinion. A December hearing date on the request has been set for mid-December.

This is the second time Michael has attempted to block depositions.

A judge previously rejected an attempt to block the discovery of new information that could be used to replace Michael as Terri's guardian. Terri's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, hope new information can be gathered to prove whether or not Terri was a victim of physical abuse that led to her collapse.

They want Terri's brother Bob Schindler, Jr., to replace Michael as her guardian.

The Schindlers are hoping to uncover new information pointing to the need to change guardianship -- including questioning the radiologist who conducted a bone scan on Terri in March 1991 that showed she was possibly a victim of physical abuse.

Felos claims Bush is attempting to intervene in the guardianship lawsuit by deposing witnesses in the lawsuit regarding Terri's Law.

 Related web sites: Terri's family - http://www.terrisfight.org

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