Cletus says he hates it when he is wrong and has to admit it, but he was wrong when he ranted about the Schiavo case last week. Mary Ruth jumped all over him about that and made him go read the court documents where he discovered that the judge had no choice about the decision he made. He followed the law. Cletus says he has been known to rant about "activist" judges who make up law out of whole cloth and he can't change direction and rant about a judge who follows the law. If the Florida legislature didn't want the outcome that we see in this case, then they could have rewritten the law in 2003 to preclude anyone having a feeding tube removed, but there doesn't seem to be a lot of people who want a law saying that.
Our friend Roy has terminal esophageal (sp?) cancer and has just had a feeding tube inserted. Should he be fed through the tube regardless of what happens otherwise? Roy is now in the hospital because he started coughing up blood.
Cletus says he is still bothered by the fact that Mr. Schiavo has refused to just allow the parents to take custody of Mrs. Schiavo, but the court documents and guardian ad litem reports consistently says that he has always been the person most solicitous of her needs.
Mary Ruth says she thinks too many people with their own agendas got involved in this and you really want to know the facts, you have to ignore what the media are saying and go look at the facts that the judge had before him when he made the decision.
By the way, under Florida law, the judge only makes two decisions: What were the patient's wishes and who is the legal guardian.
Mary Ruth says that if she is ever in similar condition, she wants the feeding tube removed and a bag of cheap red wine hooked to an IV.
posted by <"Billy Joe Bob"> at 6:16 AM
