The following comes from Toronto Free Press:
by Judi McLeod, Editor
Thursday, March 31, 2005
Every time a rock is lifted in the Terri Schiavo tragedy, another conflict of interest comes slithering out.
The conflict-of-interest potential in the right-to-die connections among current figures involved in the case are only outdone by the Woodside Hospice board of director’s conflict of interest reality.
There’s the death-is-beautiful, right-to-die activist Michael Schiavo attorney George Felos.
Don’t make eye contact with Felos, who claims he can ascertain a person’s desire to die by “looking into their eyes” and letting their spirits speak directly to him.
A jumped-up volunteer at Woodside Hospice, Felos became chairman of the Hospice of the Florida Suncoast, which runs Woodside, and only came off the board about a year after Michael Schiavo placed his estranged wife there.
Then there’s Dr. Ronald Cranford, handpicked by Michael Schiavo to examine Terri and on whose say-so Terri was categorized in “persistent vegetative state”. Cranford is the MD who officially ordered Terri’s feeding tube removed on March 18. A neurologist, Cranford testifies in cases such as Terri’s around the country, always pumping the dehydration and starvation side. He was 1992’s featured speaker for the pro-euthanasia Hemlock Society, which was renamed The Choice in Dying Society. (WorldNetDaily).
Cranford nicknamed himself, “Dr. Humane Death”.
A bioethicist, and a pioneer in euthanasia and right-to-die issues, Dr. Humane Death is a fully-fledged member of The Choice in Dying Society.
At least Cranford is not a board member of the Hospice of the Florida Suncoast.
Mary Labyak, CEO of Woodside Hospice has direct ties to the Euthanasia Society of America and Hemlock for Hospice, described by Hyscience.com as “an organization that seeks to accelerate the dying process.”
Everett Rice, former Pinellas County Sheriff (1988-204) endorsed Judge George Greer for reelection in campaign ads. Rice, a former board member for the Hospice of the Florida Suncoast, hired Michael Schiavo while Schiavo’s guardianship proceedings were being heard in the courtroom of his longtime friend, Judge George Greer.
Senator Jim King, who originally upheld the passage of “Terri’s Law”, was a board member of Woodside.
Then there’s Gus Michael Bilirikis, Florida State representative 1998-2000 and between 2001-2003, who was on the Hospice of the Florida Suncoast board of directors.
As a county commissioner, Judge Greer was a working colleague of Barbara Sheen Todd (county commissioner) for eight consecutive years. Sheen Todd is also on the board of the hospice where Terri lingers.
Judge Greer’s fellow judge, Judge John Lenderman is the brother of Martha Lenderman, on the same board.
The mainline media has not reported on the myriad conflicts of interest connected to the Terri Schiavo tragedy, although any one interested can read about them on the Internet.
2 Comments
If I were Schiavo sleeping in my own piss night after night I’d pray for death….maybe you imagine living in poo as a vegetable is some mystic calling…but really wake the @#$% up. Try reading something beyond the big book you oh so seem to think justifies keeping this poor girl alive in a sickening state for over 15 years. spookyoptics
Hi, Janie.
I have an aunt who is not much above Terri’s state. It’s been horrible.
Having seen it all first-hand, I can say that I couldn’t think of ONE thing on this planet that would make me disrespect my uncle more than if he did what MS did to Terri.
It’s despicable.
I am sad for my country today. You know, if folks think Terri’s cognition was on the level of an animal’s, why not starve or dehydrate their animals to death?
Not one person that advocated Terri’s murder has the right to defend an animal’s life, IMO. Not one. But I would, and I at least, have the constancy to defend life on its many levels. Heck, I shrink at killing flies and mosquitoes, sometimes (but for considering my own, or my children’s, health and safety).
This reminds me of Baby Doe, and I can’t think of enough creative words to describe what Terri’s death is to me.
I can imagine the burden that having someone who is so disabled can have on a family. It’s been terribly difficult for my uncle. But there is love and life. There is a testament about life’s fragility in these folks.
I could never be a lawyer. I’m glad there are some really good folks out there who are, though. May God bless them, and you.
But I could never be a lawyer because it’s seemingly so restricted. My mercy, my love gets in the way. My desire to “make it all better” is just too difficult to overcome sometimes. I see the bridge between what is and what must be. I see both sides of the issues, in most cases, but I do not see how Terri could have been treated so innocuously. There is more to this story that the courts SHOULD have found out.
I think I’ll close for now. I’m normally very rational and sanitary, but right now, I’m too heartbroken.
RG, Florida