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Right-to-life-proponents
will stage a protest Friday outside the Hyatt Regency Hotel in
Minneapolis, MN, where Michael Schiavo will be among the speakers at a
bioethics conference when euthanasia advocate Dr. Ronald Cranford will
be honored.
The
conference is being sponsored by the Hennepin County Medical Center was
Dr. Cranford is senior physician and assistant chief of the Department
of Neurology before his retirement. The conference theme is “33
Years of Clinical Ethics in Minnesota: Ron Cranford’s Stories of
Heroes and Courage”.
Cranford
was the neurologist chosen by Michael Schiavo and his attorney, George
Felos, as a medical witness in proceedings before Pinellas County
probate court judge George W. Greer, declaring that there was no hope
for recovery for brain damaged Terri Schindler-Schiavo and that she was
in a persistent vegetative state.
Greer
declared that the disabled woman was PVS and ordered her death by
removal of her nutrition and hydration. She died March 31.
Cranford
told reporters in 1991 that he wanted to be known as “Doctor
Humane Death”. He has also publicly claimed to have facilitated
the deaths of between 25 and 50 disabled patients by removing feeding
tubes.
He
has been a member of the board of directors of the Choice in Dying
Society, an organization created when the Society for the Right to Die
and Concern for Dying merged in 1991.
Brother
Paul O’Donnell, a Roman Catholic Franciscan monk and spokesperson
for the Schindler family, said that a Remember Terri Prayer rally will
be held from 8:30 a.m. to l p.m., Central Time, on Friday, Sept. 23.
The hotel is located at 1300 Nicolette St., Minneapolis. Schiavo is
scheduled to speak about 10:15 a.m.
“We
believe what happened to Terri Schiavo was immoral”, Brother Paul
said. “It’s morally unacceptable to deliberately withhold
food and water to cause a person’s death”.
Several
physicians who dispute Greer’s determination that the disabled
woman was in a persistent vegetative state will be attending the event
on the inside to protest the honoring of Schiavo as a hero and
“man of courage”.
In
an interview with the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Brian Gibson, executive
director of the Pro-Life Action Ministries said that “Ron
Cranford is trying to make heroes out of people who have done some
really evil things. The whole conference needs to be opposed.
It’s a morbid and sadistic thing they’re promoting”.
Schiavo
and Cranford will be joined at the conference by Dr. Jay Wolfson,
professor of the Department of Environmental and Occupation Health,
College of Public Health at the University of Southern Florida.
Wolfson had been appointed Terri’s guardian ad litem by the
Florida Legislature in October, 2003 under Terri’s Law to make a
report and recommendations to Gov. Jeb Bush about Terri’s
prognosis. Wolfson recommended that she receive additional swallowing
tests and should undergo new examinations by independent medical
experts to determine if there was any chance of recovery. However, he
stipulated that before the tests be done that both Schiavo and her
parents would have to stop the legal battle in favor of whatever side
the medical evidence support.
Schiavo
is billed on the program as a “pivotal figure in ethics”
and identified as a “family representative”. The program
indicates that Wolfson and Schiavo will speak on “Terri Schiavo
in Florida”.
This
will be one of the first times that Schiavo, estranged husband and
guardian of Terri Schiavo, has spoken publicly since he removed his
wife’s feeding tube on March 18 and stood by to watch her die.
According
to the Tribune, he said he agreed to speak at the conference because
Cranford is a “very close family friend” who had helped him
during his legal battle with the Schindler family who were trying to
save their daughter’s life. June Maxam 9-22-05
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