Agreed. If we can't be civilized and allow her a less painful active deliverance, then morphine should be provided to relieve the agony--at whatever dosage is needed, even if that ultimately makes her unable to survive. Unless some Catholics or others wish to argue that there's some merit inherent in suffering and Mrs. Schiavo would have wanted it that way (yes, I've heard some do so).
Mike Thomas
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/state/orl-locmiket25022505feb25,0,566960.column?coll=orl-home-headlines
I received an avalanche of e-mail about Terri Schiavo. The bad information going out on this case is amazing.
What is real and what is not?
For answers, I turned to University of South Florida professor Jay Wolfson. He was appointed as a guardian ad litem for Terri in 2003 and prepared a report on her for Jeb Bush.
After a judge dismissed him in December of that year, Bush and Terri's parents -- Bob and Mary Schindler -- requested he stay on as Terri's guardian. Terri's husband, Michael Schiavo, opposed the request.
Wolfson's report is based on court files, depositions, medical records and interviews with everyone involved.
That said, I begin with the most explosive allegation:
Did Michael try to kill Terri?
Wolfson laughs. "No!"
In 1990, Terri went into cardiac arrest, which shut off oxygen to her brain. A potassium imbalance, perhaps caused by an eating disorder, triggered the attack.
Has Michael withheld treatment?
Wolfson's report states that in the four years after her collapse, Michael "had insistently held to the premise that Theresa could recover and the evidence is incontrovertible that he gave his heart and soul to her treatment and care . . . In late autumn of 1990, following months of therapy and testing and formal diagnoses of persistent vegetative state with no evidence of improvement, Michael took Theresa to California, where she received an experimental thalamic stimulator implant in her brain. Michael remained in California caring for Theresa during a period of several months."
Says Wolfson now: "Michael was adoring of her. One nursing home complained he was hostile and abusive of the staff in championing her care. She was immaculately kept. In 13 years, she never had one bedsore."
Is Michael after her insurance settlement?
Wolfson's report says that early on, Michael "formally offered to divest himself entirely of his financial interests in the guardianship estate."
Why doesn't Michael simply turn Terri over to her family?
From the report: "Testimony provided by members of the Schindler family included very personal statements about their desire and intention to ensure that Theresa remain alive . . . at any and all costs. Nearly gruesome examples were given, eliciting agreement by family members that in the event Theresa should contract diabetes and subsequent gangrene in each of her limbs, they would agree to amputate each limb and would then, were she to be diagnosed with heart disease, perform open-heart surgery. Within the testimony, as part of the hypothetical presented, Schindler family members stated that even if Theresa had told them of her intention to have artificial nutrition withdrawn, they would not do it."
Wolfson told me that when Michael heard this, he said: "That's it. I'm never going to let that happen to her."
Wolfson says the Schindlers later recanted their testimony.
Can Terri recover?
"Theresa's neurological tests and CT scans indicate objective measures of the persistent vegetative state," the report says. "These data indicate that Theresa's cerebral cortex is principally liquid, having shrunken due to the severe anoxic trauma experienced 13 years ago."
To read the entire report online, go to OrlandoSentinel.com/schiavo