I feel bad for these people, because most of them are probably decent people who really care about Terry Schiavo, and I don’t to demonize them because they care deeply about human life. This, however, is just too stupid to not comment on:
The morning after Terri Schiavo’s feeding tube was removed, lawyers for her parents sought new avenues to keep her alive and protesters faced arrest for trying to deliver bread and water to the door of the hospice where Ms. Schiavo, a critically brain-damaged woman who a judge has ruled would not want life-prolonging measures, lay in bed.
Terry Schiavo is a vegetable.
You could stack her room from floor to ceiling with crates of Evian and loaves of Earth Grains, and it will do her no good. Since this has become all about the Bible and not at all about the interests of Mr. and Mrs. Schiavo or medical science, you could even stack five loaves and two fishes and it won’t help. She can not swallow, let alone chew. She can not think. She can not experience emotions. She can not love, hate, feel or express pain, sorrow, interest, happiness. None of it. And she never will again.
But most of all, she can not drink or eat. Again, the usual suspects are behind this:
About 30 people prayed and waved signs outside the Woodside Hospice on Saturday morning, and the Rev. Patrick Mahoney, director of the Christian Defense Coalition, said that some would try to peacefully walk past the dozen or so police officers blocking the hospice driveway…
Mr. Mahoney and Randall Terry, the founder of the antiabortion group Operation Rescue, said they would continue lobbying Congress to pass a bill that would require a federal court hearing in cases like Ms. Schiavo’s to evaluate whether the state had followed all requirements for judicial due process. They also said they still hoped the Florida Legislature would pass a law requiring the tube’s reinsertion or forcing the replacement of Mr. Schiavo as his wife’s guardian.
There are millions billions of people across the Earth who could stand to benefit from clean water and food. Focus on them, and leave this family alone.
ron
you need to look more closely into this case. it definitely involves more than meets the eye. she deserves more than the casual die with dignity bs you casually tossed out. think about it. if you are getting your info from the msm how would you think they would spin it?
Sav
“and leave this family alone.”
The Schiavo’s are really a family in name only. Michael has lived with a woman for 10 years and they have two kids together. Her parents are much more her family than he is at this point, and they’ve said they’re willing to take care of her. But Michael won’t even talk to her parents. Sounds like the regular course of action in these situtations…
TnTexas
My understanding is that we don’t know whether she could eat or drink since her husband has refused therapy that would attempt to reteach her to do it, and the judge refuses to order it done because she might choke and die. I find it interesting that she can apparently swallow her own saliva.
John Cole
She has had repeated swallow tests and the third was so conclusive they decided to no longer test her…
Sandi
Yes some have over-reacted. And no she cannot eat or drink, but whether she is a vegetable or not, or whether she can think is not a given. Nor is it agreed upon in the medical community. You go too far too, just as these people outside the hospital with food and drink.
What bothers me just as much is the reaction of congress. The precidents now being set for the federal government geting involved in private lives. It is for a good cause, but can we live with the consequences.
steve talbert
This is so sad. Her higher brain has liquified and basically she is now similiar to a plant. (note to uneducated religious zealots.. that is why it is called ‘vegetative state’). Where is the outrage over cutting carpet grass or weeding? We eat animals with higher brain function (cows, lamb and sheep). This exposes the hypocrasy that hides behind ‘religion’.
Tammy in Texas
She has had repeated swallow tests and the third was so conclusive they decided to no longer test her…
This is the first time I’ve heard this. Mind sharing where you got that information from?
John Cole
I forget where I read it, Tammy, but she had threee swallow tests and failed trhem all. This was all prior to 1993, so of course thew Shindler’s are ridiculously claiming that these tests are being denied to Terry and that she could recover if she was given some rehab.
John Cole
abstractappeal.com/schiavo/trialctorder0300.pdf
There is the PDF of the court document denying additional swallow tests, because they are nothing more than a delaying tactic.
Spoons
You’re listening to some bad information here, John. Michael Schiavo, with the help of the Florida courts, has denied many of the most basic tests to dtermine exactly what sort of brain function Terri has.
Saying she’s “a vegetable” is a completely misleading term. A so-called “persistent vegetative state” is a medical term which does not mean what lay people commonly believe it to mean. There’s no quetion that Terry Schiavo is severely brain damaged, and has very limited ability to communicate with the outside world. Saying she’s all gone is simply not supported by the facts. And claiming that this is “all about the Bible,” is (and I hesitate to hurl this charge), is rather bigoted of you. There are plenty of agnostics (myself included) who are horrified at the thought of painfully starving this woman to death on the order of a man who abandoned her years ago, expecially when the woman’s parents are desperately trying to fight to save her life.
If I were Terry’s father, and my “son in law” tried to do this to my daughter….
I don’t think I’ll finish that sentence.
Ben Lange
Whether Terry is a vegetable or not is no longer meaningful, as years of neglect have certainly destroyed whatever chance she may have once had for recovery. I am therefore not one who believes she can recover with the proper therapy.
However…she was diagnosed as PVS by a doctor with a history of (to put it generously) overdiagnosing PVS, including once in a man who responded to commands to pick up objects by picking them up. Even the state of California was not fooled by that.
Terry has no living will, so the decision to remove the tube is based upon Michael’s claim that she once told him she did not want to be kept alive like that. The Florida judge has accepted the word of a man with $1.2 million reasons to lie.
In re your earlier post, John, I am not convinced of Michael’s responsibility for his wife’s state, but you are wrong about the money. Michael publicly promised to dedicate the malpractice award to therapy for Terri. Not a penny of it has actually been spent that way. Terri cannot even get a simple shot of antibiotics for a urinary tract infection. Michael does intend to take the money and run.
It is simply monstrous that the courts would conspire to help a man kill his wife, take the money and marry his mistress. We expect our judicial system to prevent such outrages.
John Cole
THERE… IS… NO… MONEY… LEFT…
ron
she has life insurance.
Max M
He offered any inheritance to charity in return for an end to legal action but the Shiavos turned it down. Hardly the actions of a money-grubber. And a pretty serios allegatoin to make in haste….