Thomas More Society Takes Action While Miami Dade County D.A. Refuses -- At Least So Far -- To File Criminal Charges
Funeral Set Tomorrow – Two Years after Death of Infant Survivor of Abortion
Contact: Tom Brejcha, President & Chief Counsel, Thomas More Society, 312-782-1680, 312-590-3408 (cell); Tom Ciesielka, TC Public Relations, 312-422-1333, tc@tcpr.net
CHICAGO, October 13 /Christian Newswire/ -- Tomorrow, Tuesday, October 14, 2008, Shanice Denise Osbourne will be laid to rest nearly 27 months after she was killed quickly, heartlessly and lethally. Shanice was stuffed into a medical waste bag filled with chlorine bleach just after she was delivered alive by abortion clinic owner Belkis Gozalez at A Gyn Diagnostics Center in Hialeah, Fla. This all took place without any licensed medical personnel (doctors or even nurses) in attendance. While the Miami-Dade County medical examiner determined that Shanice was born alive, he concluded her death was "natural," resulting merely from her "extreme prematurity." Then so-called "experts" publicly claimed that unless an infant could be proved to be "viable" – able to live on her own – her killing could not be condemned as "homicide" or otherwise culpable as a matter of law.
However, Tom Brejcha, President & Chief Counsel of the Thomas More Society, Pro-Life Law Center in Chicago, has denounced that claim as a "transparent cover for infanticide." He stated: "Just because a human being is feeble or disabled and supposedly can't live independently, on his or her own, doesn't mean that anybody has the right to kill him or her. If you suffocate a dying elder with a pillow, you're guilty of homicide. If you fail to examine, or aid, or treat an infant – once born – who is struggling for breath and who – with proper care – has any chance to survive to live a healthy life, you should be held equally guilty."
Not only Shanice's mother, who was shocked to see her infant born, gasping for breath, and then disposed of before her eyes, but also a clinic worker witnessed what took place. The clinic worker called police who came with a search warrant, whereupon the clinic owner put the baby's corpse on the building's tin roof where it decayed for days under the hot Florida sun. But police were called again. This time they found the body but the coroner ignored the eyewitnesses, found the death "natural," and prosecutors delayed so that no charges have been brought for more than two years, even though the Department of Health restricted the license to practice medicine of the abortionist, Dr. Paul Renelique, and set a further disciplinary hearing for November 19, 2008.
Brejcha and Thomas More Society decided to intervene last year. They hired an investigator, dug up more facts and witnesses, kept consulting with police, prodded prosecutors, and retained an expert pathologist who critiqued the coroner's botched findings and found that A Gyn Diagnostics' unlicensed staff did play a causative role in the infant's death. Thomas More Society also retained expert Miami counsel, Tom Pennekamp, Jr., former president of the Dade County Bar Ass'n and an expert and very accomplished lawyer in major personal injury cases, as its co-counsel for the purpose of bringing a lawsuit for "wrongful death" of Baby Shanice – already in process. Clinic owners shut down A Gyn but simply moved their operation a few blocks away where they continue to put human beings at risk. Indeed, despite restrictions on his license to practice medicine, Dr. Pierre Renelique may still be performing abortions.
A funeral service will be held for Shanice tomorrow, Tuesday, October 14, 2008, at 10:00 a.m. at The Worldwide Christian Center Church located at 450 North Powerline Road, Pompano Beach, FL 33069. Thereafter, at approximately 11:00 a.m., Shanice will be buried at Queen of Heaven Cemetery, 1500 South State Road 7 in Fort Lauderdale.
"To date, the Miami Dade district attorney has not filed criminal charges against Gonzalez," said Tom Brejcha. "Killing a baby born alive is still infanticide, and those responsible must be held to account civilly if not also criminally. Medical advances have made it possible to successfully treat even the tiniest of premature babies. Despicably low end 'medical care' facilities like A Gyn Diagnostics Center are getting away with murder."
Both Tom Brejcha and Tom Pennekamp will be available tomorrow for questions and comment after the funeral service at Worldwide Christian Center Church.
About the Thomas More Society, Chicago
The Thomas More Society, based in Chicago, is a public interest law firm that counsels and defends those who work to protect innocent human life, defends those who proclaim faith-based values in our nation's public square, and strives to protect the institution of marriage as a union of man and woman formed to beget, bear and nurture new human lives. Thomas More Society successfully defended the nationwide class action lawsuit, NOW v. Scheidler, winning successive U.S. Supreme Court victories (8-1, 2003; 8-0, 2006). For more information, please visit: www.thomasmoresociety.org.
