STOP PRESS

Friday 12th May 12 a.m.

Rally to oppose Lord Joffe's "Assisted Dying for the Terminally Ill" Bill opposite the House of Lords in Old Palace Yard near to the statue of George V.

Nearest Underground Westminster

PLEASE COME!

Dear friends:

As we come up to the 1st anniversary of the killing of Terri Schiavo, CNN revisited the story last night. Larry King gave Michael Schiavo (Terri's killer) a half hour of international air time while Anderson Cooper gave the Schindlers five minutes (I timed it). Apparently the folks at CNN considered that arrangement equal time. Many of you saw the CNN interviews.

Michael Schiavo accused Terri's father of caring only about getting his hands on the money from the malpractice settlement and not a whit about his daughter. That is a vicious lie! I know Bob and Mary Schindler. They are personal friends. The are salt of the earth, honest people. Their family is what is important to them, not money. The Schindlers were prepared to use all they saved for retirement to save their daughter. (And that;s exactly what they did!). Hardly the mark of people who care more for money than their daughter. That peaceful death that Michael and George Felos (Michael's lawyer) described was a lie too. Mary told my wife and me about Terri's agony. Father Pavone describes a terrible death in his open letter to Michael.

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By Brian DeBose, The Washington Times, March 31, 2006

Family members of the late Terri Shindler Schiavo commemorated the anniversary of her death, which is today, and announced the creation of a foundation in her name to combat euthanasia.

Read the full story here.

By Jacqui Goddard, Sunday Telegraph 19 March 2006. Read the original article here.

For 15 years they argued through the media, courts, state legislatures and Congress over the fate of Terri Schiavo. Now the two sides in America's most divisive end-of-life case are taking their feud to the nation's bookshelves.

In one corner are Mrs Schiavo's parents and her brother and sister, who have penned a book, A Life That Matters, recounting their failed legal struggle to keep the brain-damaged woman alive against the wishes of her husband and presenting accounts of his alleged violent temper.

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Sunday Times (London)
May 15, 2005, Sunday

Sarah-Kate Templeton

A MAN who suffers from a degenerative brain condition will this week go to the High Court over the right to be kept alive by being fed artificially.

Leslie Burke, 45, who was diagnosed with cerebellar ataxia in 1983, believes that doctors must be obliged to continue feeding him regardless of how far his condition may have deteriorated.

However, doctors want to retain the discretion to withhold an artificial supply of food and water from patients if they believe that this would be in their best interests.

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A spokesman for Andrew Lansley Conservative Shadow Minister, said

"We believe that all patients, no matter what their status, should be treated according to clinical needs, at all times."

Background Information

Dr. Reid alleges that the cost of giving nutrition and hydration in all cases where it is needed and wanted would be too great.

Daily Mail
Sunday Mail
Times
5th-6th February 05

DAILY MAIL (London)
February 5, 2005

STEVE DOUGHTY

HOSPITAL patients with little hope of recovery should be allowed to die in some cases because it costs so much to keep them alive, leaked Government papers suggest.

They should be denied the right to food and water if they fall into a coma or become too ill to speak for themselves, say the documents, which set out the views of Health Secretary John Reid.

The papers suggest the need to keep hospital costs down comes before the need to preserve the lives of patients.

The leak follows deep anxiety among MPs over the Government's attitude to euthanasia.

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For immediate release

24th February 2004

"No criticism of individual doctors, it's the system they work under"

In a landmark case to be held at the High Court on Thursday and Friday (26th/27th February 2004) Mr Leslie Burke of Lancaster is challenging the General Medical Council's guidelines on withholding and withdrawing fluid and nutrition from patients.

Mr Burke has Cerebellar Ataxia. As his condition progresses, although not dying, he may need food and fluid through artificial means. He fears that, under the present guidelines, doctors may be able to withdraw this even though he wishes to continue to receive this.

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