PINELLAS PARK, Florida, January 5, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The parents of brain-disabled Terri Schiavo filed a new court motion Thursday, asking that Terri’s feeding tube not be removed, as ordered by a judge in November, arguing that their daughter has been denied due legal process.
“In reviewing the many boxes of court filings,” said Attorney David Gibbs III, who is now representing the parents, Mr. and Mrs. Schindler, “we cannot find a single instance where Terri was afforded the right of every American to have a lawyer who would represent her own interests. Her parents have an attorney. Her husband has an attorney; but Terri has never had an attorney who could attempt to communicate with her and could represent her interests while her parents and husband battle over whether she should live or die.”
Gibbs and associate Barbara Weller visited Schiavo Christmas eve with the Schindler’s, commenting that Schiavo was “very much alive and responsive,” as reported by LifeSiteNews.com Wednesday.
The new motion also argues that the courts have applied the wrong law to statements Terri allegedly made in the mid-1980s that she would not want to live on life support. Her parents vehemently deny that Terri ever made such statements.
However, says Gibbs, “even if she did, in the 1980s under Florida law, assisted feeding was not considered to be life support.” Therefore, the motion argues, whatever Terri may or may not have said about not wanting life support, she could never have meant that she would now want to have her assisted feeding discontinued.
Finally, the Schindlers’ motion argues that the courts in this case have violated the constitutional separation of powers. By acting as judge, law-maker, and proxy-guardian, the Schindler’s emphasize, the court is intruding into the roles of the legislative and executive branches of the Florida government. In so doing, they conclude, it has shed the neutral and objective judicial function to which Mrs. Schiavo is entitled and which is required by law.
See previous LifeSiteNews.com coverage: Terri Schiavo “Very Much Alive and Responsive” according to Schindler Attorneys