The Death Watch begins... Schiavo's feeding tube removed

In an action sure to bring about pain and torture on an innocent woman, Terri Schiavo's feeding tube was removed in the presence of her husband:

Michael Schiavo has been living for 10 years with his fiance, Jodi Centonze, with whom he has two children. He has said he will marry her after his wife's death.

The move came after a Florida judge blocked an eleventh-hour end-run around the court-ordered removal, waged by members of House and Senate panels, ruling the device can be removed immediately.

Early this morning, the House Government Reform Committee decided to launch an investigation into the case and issued subpoenas which order doctors and the administrator at the hospice facility in Pinellas Park, Fla., where the severely brain-damaged woman resides not to remove her feeding tube and keep her alive until the investigation is complete.

At the same time, the Senate Health Committee requested Terri Schiavo and her husband appear at an official committee hearing on March 28.

As a result, minutes before the 1 p.m. EST deadline for the tube removal passed Pinellas Circuit Court Judge David Demers ordered the feeding tube remain in place while presiding Judge George Greer addresses the matter of the congressional subpoenas in a court hearing.

But an hour later, Greer disregarded the subpoenas and again ordered the feeding tube pulled.

In the opinion of the Ice Palace, Judge Greer will have some 'splainin' to do, both now and in the hereafter:

The subpoenas direct the recipients to appear at the hospice facility to give testimony to House committee members on March 25 at 10 a.m. EST.

"No things including those things reflecting data, information, or records called for by this request shall be destroyed, modified, transferred, disconnected, discontinued, or otherwise made inaccessible to the Committee," the subpoenas read, according to Fox, which means the feeding tube must stay in place for another week.

Ignoring the subpoenas would amount to being in contempt of Congress and would incur penalties of fines and/or imprisonment. It is unclear, however, if such penalties would hold in the face of a conflicting court order.

The Culture of Death is smiling in Florida right now. Currently, it is the judge and Mr. Schiavo, who are doing the "end around" a congressional subpoena. Mr. Schiavo has two children and is currently living with his fiancee, the mother of his two children. He states that he will be married as soon as Terri dies. Has Mr. Schiavo ever heard of a divorce? Terri's parents have been taking care of her and have every stated intention of continuing to do so. A businessman has offered Mr. Schiavo a million dollars to walk away and let Terri live. Why do Mr. Schiavo and Judge Greer have such an obsession with seeing this woman die. Right now?? If this truly does come to pass, and Terri dies the painful, grisly death that starvation and dehydration entails, Judge Greer not only needs to be charged with contempt of Congress. He needs to be charged with murder.

*****UPDATE*****

Congress has reportedly come up with a deal that will set the stage for Terri's case to be reviewed by a federal court, and in doing so buy some time for Terri while her case is again reviewed. To my understanding, as of yesterday, the House version of the legislation contained the verbiage "shall" be reviewed by a federal court, while the Senate version contained the verbiage "may". It will be interesting to see what this latest compromise entails.