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Petition: Schiavo tried to say ‘I want to live’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A petition to a federal appeals court in Atlanta today claims that Terri Schiavo tried to tell her lawyer and her family “I want to live” the day her feeding tube was removed.
The petition, filed this afternoon in the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, said that on March 18, Schiavo said “Ahhhhhhh” and then followed that by “summoning] all the strength that she had” and added, “Waaaaaaa.”
“At that point, Terri had a look of anguish on her face that I had never seen before and she seemed to be struggling hard, but was unable to finish the sentence,” attorney Barbara J. Weller said in an affidavit filed with the petition asking that the severely brain-damaged woman’s feeding tube be re-inserted.
Weller’s statement also claims that Schiavo “laughed out loud” when she heard Jesus’s name after being told that “Jesus would stay right by [your]side.”
The petition, filed on behalf of her parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, represents the second time the appeals court has heard the case this week. Early Wednesday, the court, by a 2-1 vote declined to order a federal judge in Tampa to hear evidence in the case.
Today’s filing calls removal of food and hydration to Schiavo an illegal “mercy killing” which violates Florida law. The petition also claims that Schiavo’s constitutional rights are being violated because the courts are not hearing new evidence that the woman has some cognitive functions.
A response filed by Schiavo’s husband and guardian, Michael, called those arguments “a naked emotional appeal.”
“As demonstrated by appellants’ brief, they have abandoned all pretense of arguing law,” his petition states. “Appellants now literally throw themselves on the mercy of the court with ‘new’ evidence about Mrs. Schiavo’s medical condition, including a doctor who sat in her room but never examined her and two individuals who suddenly have remembered that they saw Mrs. Schiavo respond to them.”
The husband’s petition says the parents are “flagrantly propandiz(ing) this matter by describing it a ‘mercy killing‘ case.” and are “repackage the same arguments rejected by the district court and this court two days ago.”
The appeals court was reviewing the arguments late Friday afternoon.
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