Posted on 02/17/2005 5:54:30 PM PST by amdgmary
On February 14, 2005, disability advocates with Not Dead Yet issued a call for moratorium on the withholding of assisted sustenance and hydration from people diagnosed to be in a persistent vegetative or minimally conscious state.
Citing study findings published in a recent edition of Neurology Magazine, Not Dead Yet’s Stephen Drake stated: "Given the current research regarding brain activity and misdiagnosis, it's a virtual certainty that countless people have been helpless to prevent their own deaths through starvation and dehydration."
The study Drake refers to was reported in the February 8, 2005 edition of the New York Times. The Times noted that: “Thousands of brain-damaged people who are treated as if they are almost completely unaware may in fact hear and register what is going on around them but be unable to respond, a new brain-imaging study suggests.”
The research was conducted with significantly brain-injured (or “minimally conscious”) patients by a team of neuroscientists from New York, New Jersey and Washington, DC. With the use of imaging technology and audio tapes of the patients’ loved ones, scientists were able to record brain activity similar to that of otherwise healthy patients. They reported that the specificity and intricacy of the brain patterns eliminated the possibility of coincidence.
For rather obvious reasons, this has sparked much attention from disability advocates from across the nation.
Indeed, Not Dead Yet has directly called for the same types of testing to be made available to those patients in danger of having assisted nourishment and hydration removed – causing death over the course of many days. In their February press release, they state: “State-of-the-art testing for cognitive activity should be a minimum standard to be applied when someone's death is proposed.”
While all of this may sound reasonable enough to most people, there is a group that would prefer you think it rubbish. They don black robes and, with gavels swinging, have the power to exact a forced death upon the weakest members of our society.
Judges in Florida, specifically Pinellas-Pasco’s Sixth Judicial Circuit, have granted the husband of Terri Schiavo the authority to remove her tube-provided food and fluids in order to terminate her life. The process could take as long as 20 days and will subject the disabled woman (whose true condition is the subject of great dispute) to a ghastly demise. Ms. Schiavo’s husband asserts she is in a persistent vegetative state and would have refused artificial life support based on casual statements he claims she made some 20 years ago.
Disability advocates have long supported Ms. Schiavo’s retained right to receive ordinary care and have argued that labeling a simple gastronomy tube “artificial life support” would immediately and dramatically endanger entire groups of people within the disabled community.
They’re right, of course. But is anyone listening?
Time and again, the parents of Terri Schiavo (Bob and Mary Schindler) have petitioned the courts for the authority to provide her with rehabilitation and therapy. Such measures have been denied for years by Terri’s husband and guardian, Michael Schiavo.
Time and again, the court has refused, steadfast in its opinion that Terri Schiavo exists in a persistent vegetative state with no hope of regaining consciousness or meaningful behavior.
Terri’s parents have given the court evidence in the form of testimony and sworn statements from a number of credible doctors that persistent vegetative state is not a correct diagnosis of their daughter’s condition. At every turn, the court has denied taking such things into consideration. Instead, it relied on the testimony of doctors, who don’t even treat cognitively disabled patients, that Terri just isn’t “in there”.
The court also reviewed videos of Terri, appearing to react quite purposefully to her family and responding to directives, as inconsistent and irreproducible. The doctors who testified on behalf of Terri’s family explained to the court how such behaviors are not consistent with medical and statutory definitions of persistent vegetative state. Sadly, the court chose not to listen.
The consistent failure of the court to remind itself that it is not a body of healthcare practitioners, but a finder of fact, has all but sentenced Terri Schiavo to death. With her, countless others are at immediate risk.
Also in February of 2005, a woman by the name of Sarah Scantlin immerged from a “minimally conscious state” and began speaking with loved ones and caregivers. Though her story is unusual and somewhat bewildering to physicians and laypeople alike, it is not altogether unheard of. Over the years, many individuals thought to be in a coma or a “coma-like” condition have emerged and regained some – if not all - of their abilities. Kate Adamson, Patricia Whitebull and Terry Wallis are only a few of the names we now associate with such medical mysteries. All were diagnosed as comatose or vegetative and all shocked those around them by becoming one with their lives, minds and bodies again.
It is not unreasonable to assume that for each Kate Adamson, Patricia Whitebull or Terry Wallis, there are hosts of other patients in similar states – locked into a bodies that won’t allow them to communicate effectively. Of these incapacitated but aware people, there are many who are in danger of having their lives terminated by a willful act of deprivation.
According to a British medical journal, persistent vegetative state is misdiagnosed nearly 43% of the time. Are we so studiously attempting to enforce someone’s “right to die” that we are neglecting to first ensure that they are still very much among the living?
Imagine being unable to protect yourself and facing a death by the slow and agonizing process of dehydration and starvation. Do we honestly believe that doing such things to others is a humane and compassionate course of action?
With the ongoing progress of image testing and diagnosis procedures for brain-injured patients, there will surely come a day of reckoning when all of us will have to live with the knowledge that living, knowing and feeling human beings were put to their death in the name of some perceived personal dignity. That burden will come to bear most significantly on Florida’s courts and lawmakers as well as those of who accepted the notion that cognitively disabled people are no longer worthy of protection. However, if we sit idly by, we’ll all be just as guilty in the process.
When will WE wake up?
There is much we don't understand about how the human brain works. We understand less about the nature of life itself.
EVERY innocent human being should be treated with the respect they deserve.
Euthanasia would be pumping her full of morphine. This denial of food & water is torture & criminal neglect.
Are they denying her "food" AND water, or just "food"? Of course, denying her either is wrong.
Both.
Goodnight prayer for Terri!
I watched a video of Terri laughing when her dad talked about Terri's "lazy eye," and Terri would tease and upset her mother by rolling the eye around.
I forgot where I found the link to that video. Does anyone have it?
Pinging one who has it handy. Could you post it again, please, bjs1779?
Terri ping to 29! If anyone would like to be added to or removed from my Terri ping list, please let me know by FReepmail!
**Terri has not had due process.**
Very important words.
June Maxam picked up the Ward Churchill and Greer ball and
ran with it on the Empire Journal!
Thank you!!
That's my favorite video of Terri that I've seen so far, because she is laughing - responding to humor. :)
This video makes me both smile and tear up at the same time.
I wish the entire country could see that video. I think if they did, there would be more outrage.
Question: what fraction of Florida judges and officials have filed the paperwork correctly.
If Greer is one of very few that haven't, that would be a basis for Jeb Bush to act. If, however, failure to file were common I could see significant problems with this line of pursuit (though if that's the case I'd suggest the legislature draft some new legislation restating the requirement and providing a means by which anyone may challenge violators).
Any idea how to resolve the current feud between The Empire Journal
and FR?
Seems like a terrible time to be restricting information which
might make a difference in saving Terri's life.
Tuesday is the deadline folks!
All the Empire Journal wants is proper attribution - that shouldn't be a problem.
Now you've made my blood pressure go up. This is a form of blackmail!
I said a prayer for both Scoop and Jim that they become allies again.
We're all on the same side here.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.