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Michael Schiavo, the Florida man who killed his wife last year by removing her feeding tube by order of Pinellas County probate court judge George Greer, is scheduled to be the lead speaker Sunday afternoon at the University of Pennsylvania's Center for Bioethics in Philadelphia.
Schiavo, Greer and others involved in the decade long battle to kill disabled Terri Schiavo will be speakers for the 10th anniversary symposium of UPenn titled "The Legacy of the Terri Schiavo Case: Why Is It So Hard To Die In America?"
Schiavo's appearance, scheduled on the program from 3:15 to 5 p.m., will be met with protests led by pro-family and pro-life groups. The first protest will be Sunday afternoon at 3 p.m. at the University of Pennsylvania Biomedical Research Building which is located at 421 Curie Blvd. in Philadelphia.
Schiavo's topic Sunday will be "Personal Experiences with Death and Dying" and panel members will be Julia Duane Quinlan, mother of Karen Ann Quinlan and owner of the Karen Ann Quinlan Hospice; Mary J. Labyak, CEO of the Hospice of Florida Suncoast; Dr. David Casarett and Rabbi Gerald Wolpe, both of the University of Pennsylvania.
On Monday, May 1,at 10:30 a.m. outside the research building, Bobby Schindler, brother of Terri Schiavo and advocate with the Terri Schindler Schiavo Foundation Center for Health Care Ethics, will lead a protest of Judge Greer's presence on the panel.
According to the program, Greer is scheduled to speak Monday during a presentation from 10:30 a.m. to noon. The moderator of the segment entitled "Who Should Decide: Courts/Legislators? will be bioethicist Arthur L. Caplan of the UPenn. Other panel members will be a retired judge of the Common Pleas Court of Bucks County, Hon. Leonard B. Sokolove and Nora Dowd Eisenhower, Secretary of Aging for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. http://www.bioethics.upenn.edu/symposium/
Program speakers will also include Jay Wolfson, guardian ad litem in the Schiavo case and Dr. Humane Death, Ronald Cranford of the University of Minnesota.
The Rev. Patrick J. Mahoney, director of the Christian Defense Coalition and one of the organizers of rallies and vigils in support of Terri comments, "Sadly, there has been much revisionism going on since Terri died suggesting the American public supported the removing of the feeding tube. The reality is a nationwide Zogby Poll taken right after Terri died showed 80% of the public did not support the removal of the feeding tube from a disabled person if they were not terminally ill, or in a coma, or being kept alive on life support and there left no written directive. The American public understands, that as a nation, we must offer those who are disabled support and compassion not dehydration and starvation."
Brandi Swindell, national director of Generation Life who stood in solidarity with Terri by entering a 15-day hunger strike in Florida, states, "We are going to this symposium to say that Terri Schiavo did not die with dignity. Rather, she died a barbaric death that if she were an animal would have been against the law. The lesson we must learn from Terri's tragic death is that as a nation we must learn to treat the weakest of our society with compassion and justice."
"It is a total outrage that the University of Pennsylvania is celebrating the cruel murder of Terri Schiavo, an inspirational and courageous woman" Edel Finnegan, a spokesperson for the Pro-life Union, says,. The 10th Anniversary Symposium is a one-sided event that attempts to give credibility to the murderous actions of Michael Schiavo and Judge Greer. We are standing witness to remember Terri and all the other disabled Americans whose lives are threatened by activist judges like George Greer and selfish family members like Michael Schiavo."
Terri Schindler Schiavo died last March at age 41 in a hospice that's part of Labyak's network. Terri wasn't terminal, she wasn't comatose, she was brain injured as the result of suspicious circumstances 15 years before her death. Within 90 days of her incapacitation, her husband submitted an application to the Pinellas County Court for guardianship----except he lied under penalty of perjury about several things on the application, including his academic credentials.
Michael Schiavo claimed that he had received an Associate of Science degree from Bucks County Community College in Pennsylvania. He didn't. Michael Schiavo lied to the court assisted by his former employer, attorney Daniel Grieco, in order to obtain guardianship, in order to kill his wife. The fraud on the court began on May 21, 1990, the day the fraudulent guardianship application was submitted to the court.
Terri's surviving family members are expressing their alarm at the participation of Greer at the symposium.
"Judge Geer's presence at the University of Pennsylvania's bioethics conference is not only outright offensive and inappropriate but it is indicative of his own biases against the disabled, and may well be in violation of Florida's judicial canons as prescribed by the Supreme Court of the State of Florida," says Bobby Schindler.
"We are entitled to a fair and unbiased judiciary. Judge Greer is confirming exactly what my family has maintained from the beginning of Terri's case - that he has a disposition against the vulnerable people whose cases he controls", he said.
"Judges are duty-bound to be an unbiased, fair finder of fact, not an advocate of the 'right-to-die' movement. Judge Geer is not retired. He is a seated judge who still hears guardianship and life/death cases in the probate court. Do you want him sitting in judgment of you or your loved ones' life?" 4-29-06
© 2006 North
Country Gazette
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