====== FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ======
America First Party
1630 A 30th Street #111
Boulder, Colorado 80301
http://www.AmericaFirstParty.org
Thursday, March 17, 2005
Congress, FL Legislature Must Stop Schiavo Murder
Boulder, CO - With less than 24 hours to go before the court ordered murder by starvation of Terri Schiavo, America First Party National Chairman Dan Charles issued the following statement:
"Tomorrow, with the help of a corrupt court system enamored with a culture of death, the estranged husband of Terri Schiavo will murder his wife by starvation and dehydration when he has her feeding tubes removed. The America First Party calls upon both the US Congress and the Florida Legislature to enact immediately the legislation currently before them, which would prevent this heinous crime from being committed.
"If you are responsible for a dog or a cat, it is illegal to kill that animal by starvation and dehydration. Such an act is rightly deemed cruel and inhumane. Terri Schiavo and all other human beings should be due at least the same consideration.
"The doctor-patient relationship is a necessarily special one that ought to be protected by law, and interfered with as little as possible by government or insurance companies. Patients do and should have the right to direct their own care, including the right to refuse or terminate care.
"When patients are unable to direct their own care, it should rightly fall upon their guardian to direct such care, not courts or other branches of government. However, that principle is premised on the assumption that the guardian is acting in the best interest and in accordance with the wishes of the patient unable to speak for him or her self. From his own actions, it is clear that Michael Schiavo is not acting in his estranged wife's best interests, and there is no evidence he is acting in accordance with her wishes.
"Terri Schiavo is brain damaged. Her condition may or may not improve with therapy. She requires no additional help to live than to be provided with food and water and some assistance in swallowing. She is not on a respirator or attached to any other life support machine.
"But the overriding fact is that at no time prior to her injury had she made a verifiable declaration that she would want food and water withheld should she become incapacitated--to allow her to die a slow and painful death. We only have the word of her husband, who began this fight to kill her after he started living with the mother of his two out-of-wedlock children, the result of his committing adultery against the woman he now wants to murder.
"Terri Schiavo's parents have sought to remove the burden of guardianship from Mr. Schiavo, yet he has fought them. They have sought a divorce on their daughter's behalf, which would allow Mr. Schiavo to get on with his life and marry his mistress. But he has fought them on that as well.
"If Michael Schiavo will not act in the best interests of his charge, will not allow others to do so, and if there is no documentation as to his wife's true wishes, state and federal authorities must act to protect her and afford her the same courtesy shown a barnyard animal or a pet."
Contacts:
Dan Charles, National Chairman, 1-866-SOS-USA1, ext. 4
Romelle Winters, Press Secretary, 1-866-SOS-USA1, ext. 2
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