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The monk who serves as a spiritual adviser to the Schindlers, Brother Paul O’Donnell, was interviewed on Fox News last night.

When people are dying, it is not at all unusual for them to stop eating and drinking as their body gradually shuts down. Their mouth is routinely swabbed out by their caregivers. It’s called “palliative care” and is a way of making the patient more comfortable and avoid the pain caused when their lips and tongue dry out and crack. Ice chips are also given to patients at this time. One of my friends told me that watching the developments in Terri’s case “brings back memories of my father as he was dying and swabbing out his mouth with a mint flavored swab.”

Brother O’Donnell reported that he is not allowed to see Terri, so she is being forced to die without the comfort (at least for her parents, if Terri is unaware) of having a spiritual adviser with her.

Brother O’Donnell further described that an armed police officer has been posted at her bedside to make sure that her mother doesn’t even give her a drop of water. In his ruling, Florida Judge George Greer — a purported “born-again Christian” who is legally blind — ordered that only a dry q-tip be used to swab out Terri’s mouth as she lays dying. She is to receive no hydration of any sort, not even a few drops of water.

NOTE that Judge Greer, a disabled person, has sentenced a disabled person to die.

Shockingly, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals has voted 2-1 against granting injunctive relief to her parents (re-inserting the feeding tube). The Court stated:

There is no denying the absolute tragedy that has befallen Mrs. Schiavo. We all have our own family, our own loved ones, and our own children. However, we are called upon to make a collective, objective decision concerning a question of law.

Under any rational analysis, analysis of the “question of law” leads to the undeniable conclusion that Terri is being subjected to cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth Amendment, despite the fact that she has committed no crime, and her Fourteenth Amendment rights to life and due process have been and are being repeatedly trampled.

In California, convicted murderers are no longer put to death in the gas chamber. They are given a lethal injection because use of the gas chamber was deemed cruel and unusual punishment.

Death in a gas chamber comes within a few minutes.

As I write this, Terri has been dying from a lack of food or even a drop of water since last Friday — 5 full days.

Again, the words and images of Holy Week are inescapable: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

Author

JHSiess successfully represented the late Florence Wendland and Rebekah Vinson in the landmark California case, Conservatorship of Wendland. Her writings here are dedicated to revealing her unique perspective. Siess is quick to point out that she felt from the case's inception that she was called to handle it as a matter and test of her commitment to the law and specific principles of social justice. Accordingly, she makes no pretense about being objective here and stresses that objectivity is not the goal. Rather, it is her hope that all who read about the protracted litigation that ended with a victory in the California Supreme Court for her clients, but Robert Wendland's death before the win was assured, will resolve never to let their family members speculate about their desires in the event of catastrophic illness or injury -- and not only talk in detail with their loved ones about their wishes, but also commit them to writing. Siess says she is confident you will, after learning what Robert Wendland's family members, caregivers and friends, in addition to the attorneys, judges and justices involved in this case endured, resolve never to permit your loved ones to become embroiled in such a battle. Questions may be addressed to jhsiess@comcast.net.

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