Terri Schiavo's Parents Going All Out to Protect Daughter's Rights
by Jenni Parker and Bill Fancher
January 27, 2005
(AgapePress) - The battle over whether the court-ordered starvation of a young disabled woman in Florida should be allowed to proceed will be fought in an appeals courtroom Friday (January 28). Many watching the case closely are dismayed that the courts have already failed once to uphold Terri's most basic constitutional right -- the "inalienable" right to life.This week the Supreme Court of the United States denied the request of Florida Governor Jeb Bush's to reinstate a law that would prevent the intentional starvation of the brain-damaged Terri Schindler Schiavo by the removal of the feeding and hydration tube she depends on for life-sustaining fluid and nourishment. Her parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, will return to court tomorrow in another effort to save their daughter's life.
Barbara Weller is with the Seminole, Florida-based Gibbs Law Firm and represents the Schindlers. Their claim is simple, she says, and it argues in brief that "the 2000 order that Judge Greer issued authorizing Terri to be put to death is null and void because Terri's due process rights were not protected."
Due process is a constitutional concept describing rules and limits that protect a person's rights in legal proceedings and ensure that the government will not arbitrarily deprived that person of life, liberty, or property. As the very least, procedural due process includes an individual's right to be adequately informed of proceedings involving him or her, and the opportunity to be heard or represented at these proceedings.
According to Weller, through all the legal proceedings concerning her fate, Terri Schiavo has never once had due process of law -- not even during the case in which the court ruled that her life could be terminated. "When that trial in 2000 happened," the lawyer says, "Michael, Terri's guardian (her husband), had an attorney; her parents had their own attorney; and the two sides were in court contesting what Terri's wishes were and what she would want to have happen to her. And yet she, the very person who has the most to gain or lose by this, was never represented by an independent counsel in court."
The Schindlers' attorney says Terri has never been in any of the courtrooms during her case because her husband, who fought to have her feeding tube removed, will not allow it. "None of the judges who have ever ruled as to whether or not Terri Schiavo should live or die have ever seen her," the parents' counsel notes. "She's never been in the courtroom. They've never been able to assess her condition [while] looking at her face to face."
Bob and Mary Schindler have another legal action pending -- a request to have Michael Schiavo replaced as their daughter's guardian by Terri's brother and sister. The family's attorneys argue that Terri's husband should be disqualified from continuing as her guardian due to numerous conflicts of interest.
Also, the Schindlers have a petition pending in the Second District Court of Appeals in Lakeland, Florida, concerning Terri's right to the free exercise of her religion, which they contend has been violated. The parents are committed to exhausting all their legal avenues in the effort to keep their daughter from being starved to death.
