Pro-Life Groups and Lawmakers Hope New Bill Can Save Terri's Life

by Bill Fancher, Jenni Parker, and Allie Martin
March 11, 2005

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(AgapePress) - Pro-life and pro-family advocates and groups are increasing their pressure on lawmakers to help save a Florida woman who is facing death by starvation and dehydration.

The imminent court-ordered starvation of the disabled Terri Schindler-Schiavo, which is scheduled to begin March 18, has motivated two Florida lawmakers to introduce the "Incapacitated Person's Legal Protection Act." On March 7, Florida Senator Mel Martinez introduced the bill, which is designed to protect the rights of incapacitated citizens like Terri Schiavo.

Florida Representative Dave Weldon, an M.D., introduced essentially the same bill in the House on March 8. Through the "Incapacitated Persons Legal Protection Act," the two U.S. lawmakers hope to clarify in explicit terms the fundamental due process rights for people who are incapacitated, are under court-ordered removal of nutrition and hydration, and have no written advanced medical directive in effect that communicates their wishes.

If passed, the act would guarantee that Terri and others like her will have their own legal counsel to represent their interests. And that, according to Ken Connor of the Center for a Just Society, is something Terri Schiavo has never had.

Terri "has never been afforded the opportunity through her counsel to marshal the evidence concerning her desires with respect to her healthcare," Connor asserts. "She has never once been afforded the opportunity to examine or cross-examine witnesses or test the credibility of the evidence that's been offered in this proceeding."

The proposed "Incapacitated Persons" act requires that, for any individual whose life-sustaining treatment is ordered withdrawn pursuant to a court order -- as in the case of Terri Schiavo -- that person has the right to habeas corpus relief to ensure that he or she receives fundamental due process and equal protection of the law before the court can order the person's death. A press release from the Center for a Just Society points out that, in effect, the act extends to incapacitated individuals the same due process rights that are already provided to death row inmates in the United States.

Of this fact, Connor remarks, "The sad irony is that, in Florida, death row inmates receive more due process protections than Terri Schiavo does."

While the Center for a Just Society continues to pressure the House and Senate to pass the Martinez-Weldon bill, other political and community leaders are speaking out in favor of the legislation. Pennsylvania Republican Congressman Joe Pitts is denouncing the court-ordered killing of Terri Schiavo as a moral tragedy.

"Despite what many say, Terri is alive," Pitts says. "She responds to people, she breathes on her own, her heart beats on its own. All she needs is a feeding tube, and -- with some therapy -- she can improve. Instead she's facing a death sentence."

Also, at a March 10 press conference, Republican Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas joined with representatives from such groups as Focus on the Family, the National Right to Life Committee, Concerned Women for America, the National Spinal Cord Injury Association, and the Family Research Council, in urging support for the Incapacitated Persons Legal Protection Act. These leaders and organizations are among the many pro-life advocates that have forged an outspoken activist coalition bent on preventing Terri Schiavo's court-ordered starvation.

Marcie Roth of the National Spinal Cord Injury Association addressed the news conference and leveled a serious charge against the mainstream press. "The media has ignored the disability interests in what has commonly and erroneously been referred to as a 'right-to-die' issue," she says. "Terri Schiavo and others like her deserve due process at least equal to that of convicted killers."

The coalition of Terri's supporters is holding an important event this weekend in Florida. Concerned citizens are being asked to turn out Sunday afternoon in Tallahassee for a rally aimed at saving the disabled woman's life. Groups sponsoring the event include the American Family Association, the Center for Reclaiming America, and Liberty Counsel. Speakers will gather at the Old Florida State Capitol to voice support for Terri and her family and to urge Congress to pass the Incapacitated Persons Legal Protection Act.

Mat Staver, president of Liberty Counsel, says Terri Schiavo should have the full protection of the law. "This rally is to call attention to the fact that we don't even treat our most brutal convicts who have committed capital crimes in this inhumane manner, he says. "If we were to do that, I'm sure the courts would rule such termination of life 'cruel and unusual punishment,' unconstitutional under the 18th amendment."

The Liberty Counsel president says rally sponsors and participants will be asking the lawmakers in Florida and in the national legislature to intervene on Terri's behalf. He points out that there are measures already before these lawmaking bodies that could possibly save the vulnerable Florida woman, if only those who have the power to enact them will do so.

"Right now there's legislation on the table in Florida that's working it's way through the Florida House and Senate, as well as through our Congress, to intervene and save Terri Schiavo's life -- and to prevent this kind of tragedy from occurring in the future," Staver says.

Michael Schiavo, Terri's husband, claims removing the feeding tube is in accordance with his wife's wishes; however, her parents disagree and have been fighting for more than 12 years to keep their daughter alive. Meanwhile, Terri has other supporters around the country exerting efforts on her behalf. LifeNews.com reports that Robert Herring, a California businessman, has offered Michael Schiavo $1 million to forego starving his estranged wife to death and to transfer legal guardianship of her to her family.

Herring, a 30-year veteran of the electronics industry, lives in San Diego and is the founder of WEALTHTV, a lifestyle and entertainment television channel. After viewing video of Terri on television, he contacted attorney Gloria Allred in order to make the million-dollar offer to the husband of the disabled Florida woman. Upon seeing the video of Terri, the California entrepreneur came to believe there was hope for her; but he says it soon became clear to him that if something was not done for her, "all hope would be lost."

Worried that the Florida courts might not rescind their decision to allow the disabled woman to be killed by, Herring says he "felt compelled to act." Allred confirmed the urgency of the situation. "It now appears that the court process is ending," she recently noted, "and the legislative process has failed to stop the removal of the feeding tube."

The $1 million from Herring has already been placed in a trust account and is being handled by Allred. However, there is no word as yet on whether Michael Schiavo will accept the businessman's offer. And, even if Terri's husband does agree to the terms and take the money, the courts will still have to sign off on changing legal guardianship for Terri.

So far, however, the court in Florida has not proven itself a friend to Terri Schiavo -- at least, not in the case of the Sixth Circuit Court of Judge George W. Greer. In fact, according to Pamela Hennessy, media director for the Terri Schindler-Schiavo Foundation, Judge Greer has actually ignored the laws of the State of Florida in ordering the premeditated killing of the disabled Terri Schiavo by her husband.

Hennessy says the three orders the Sixth Circuit Court judge issued on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week all but assure Terri's death by slow starvation and dehydration beginning on March 18 -- one week from today. First of all, she notes, Judge Greer ordered that Terri's family may not introduce oral nutrition and fluids after Terri's gastric feeding tube has been removed.

Members of the Terri Schindler-Schiavo Foundation feel that order clearly violates a Florida law stating that incapacitated persons cannot be deprived of necessary services, including food and water.

Also, the judge has refused to allow updated medical tests on Terri to determine her true medical condition. Such tests could help clarify whether the disabled woman's court-ordered starvation might be viewed as a mercy killing or assisted suicide, terminal actions that are both illegal in Florida. And another court orders from Greer denies Terri relief from a judgment based on his own error in dismissing pertinent testimony in 2000 -- testimony that would have assisted the court in determining the Florida woman's true "end of life" wishes.

The only testimony in support of removing Terri's feeding tube includes the self-serving testimony of her guardian, Michael Schiavo (which, according to the Foundation, is inadmissible under state law), and hearsay from members of his immediate family.

The Foundation's media director says the failure of the federal circuit court jurist to consider all the evidence of Terri's attitudes toward life pro-longing measures is, in the Foundation's opinion, a clear violation of Florida statutes. And she feels the judge should be held accountable to the law for his actions.

"If there is a single person following this who doesn't believe Judge Greer has legislated from the bench, trampled Florida's laws, and deprived Terri Schiavo of her retained rights, they are simply not paying attention," Hennessy says. She contends that citizens, Disability and Eldercare advocates especially, need to be calling for Greer's immediate impeachment.