FORT LAUDERDALE, March 8, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Twelve pro-family organizations will stage a mass national rally for Terri Schiavo on Sunday, March 13, at 3 p.m. on the steps of the Florida state “old” capitol in the capitol courtyard.
The rally takes place just five days before a court order takes effect to remove food and water from the cognitively disabled but responsive 41-year-old woman. Rally participants will hold some 1,000 long-stemmed red roses that will be delivered Monday, March 14, to Florida lawmakers. The roses will bear a note: “No food or water” to symbolize what will be done to Terri Schiavo unless legislators intervene on her behalf.
Rose Rally for Terri speakers will include Ken Connor, a Florida attorney who defended Terri’s Law for Gov. Jeb Bush, and Dr. Gary Cass, executive director of the Center for Reclaiming America. Terri Schiavo’s parents, Robert and Mary Schindler, will also attend the rally and speak.
“This is both a life and death struggle for Terri Schiavo and a watershed fight for all disabled people,” said Dr. Cass. “The prospect of a long, painful death from starvation and dehydration that may commence for Terri Schiavo just 11 days from now sends an ominous signal to people with disabilities nationwide. No just society can allow such cruel and inhumane treatment to take place—especially on such a flimsy and ill-founded legal foundation.”
Meanwhile, lawyers for the Schindlers introduced a new motion in court Monday, asking that an attempt be made to feed her by mouth when her feeding tube is removed. Schindler attorney David Gibbs will return to court later today to urge that Terri undergo additional testing to confirm her diagnosis as a persistent vegetative state; Gibbs also plans to argue that Terri never had the end-of-life wish that Michael insists she had.
Also today, the Florida legislature will convene to debate possible legislative measures to save Terri. House Speaker Allan Bense said he does not want to rush any new laws through. “I want to be sure that what we do with anything in guardianship law is well thought out and planned,” Bense said, according to a Miami Herald report.
“Perhaps all their remedies have been exhausted,” he said. “Perhaps it’s time to move on. I understand there is a date looming, but let’s make sure we have the best legal minds look at this issue.”
On Monday, Judge George W. Greer denied two of the Schindler’s requests: that the media have access to Terri, and that Terri be allowed to die at home. Also today, Senator Mel Martinez (R-FL) and Congressman David Weldon (R-FL) introduced federal legislation to save Terri.
The Incapacitated Person’s Legal Protection Act will give Terri, and those in similar situations, the same Constitutional protection of due process as death row inmates.
Presently, the law does not explicitly recognize due process for an incapacitated individual and leaves the rights of disabled persons at the mercy of the courts instead of defended by the Constitution. The Act simply provides a final avenue of review of the case to insure that a disabled person’s Constitutional rights of due process are maintained and that justice is done.
“Dr. Weldon’s legislation would allow Terri to have her own counsel that can argue her case, a right given to any criminal in the United States, and Terri not a criminal but a woman truly fighting for her life,” said Tony Perkins, President of Family Research Council.
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