US District Court denies Schiavo appeal...

..breaking on CNN. Alan Dershowitz is saying (on CNN) the lawyers are unlikely to take this to the Court of Appeals, so this is the end of their legal options...

What happens next is anyone's guess...:shrug:

the Supreme Court has yet again refused to intervene in this case that their legal options dried up yesterday.

On what grounds do they keep filing appeals?

there were new claims, don't remember them all, but the two big ones that stick in my mind are:

- interference with religious expression

- cruel and unusual treatment

...to the "diagnosis" of the "world-renowned" Dr Cheshire (whom the Mayo Clinic dressed down yesterday):

Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville

Wednesday, March 23, 2005

Comment on Dr. William Cheshire's involvement with Department of Children and Families

Dr. William Cheshire was asked by the Florida Department of Children and Families to share his expertise related to potentially vulnerable adults. As part of this commitment, he was asked to render his professional opinion for the state of Florida in the case of Terri Schiavo. He observed the patient at her bedside and conducted a review of her medical history but did not conduct an examination.

Mayo Clinic recognizes that the standard of care for the evaluation of a comatose patient includes a detailed review of the patient’s history and previous evaluations as well as the performance of a comprehensive neurological examination. In some instances, electrophysiological and imaging studies may be used to establish a diagnosis.

The views expressed by Dr. Cheshire in the case of Terri Schiavo do not represent the opinion of the Mayo Clinic or its Departments of Neurology. The Mayo Clinic Departments of Neurology do not have opinions regarding the diagnosis of Terri Schiavo because they have not performed an evaluation as described above.
</snip>

Ouch!

when he was making the claim that the diagnosis was wrong and that terri should be placed in the custody of the state. the parents, at least in their court papers now, don't rely on is - at least not the parts that i've read.

either way, he's a quack and seems motivated more by ideology than science on this....

regardless of what dershowitz thinks....

they'll go to the 11th circuit and, assuming they uphold the lower court, they parents will go back to the Supreme Court.

or they'll end up having nervous breakdowns or something.

if i were in their position, i'd be spending more of time with my daughter than running around to courts or press conferences...

so that they can tell themselves that "they did everything they could". I wonder are they driven--along with a need to still control their daughter--by a secret sense of guilt that they contributed to her bulimic condition 15+ years ago. This pathological filing of suits, until there are no more suits that can be filed, will help them live with themselves afterward. JMO.

from his bench, shouldn't we be petitioning the Mayo Clinic to have this doctor removed from their staff?