Posted on 03/29/2005 10:47:53 AM PST by pwatson
My name is Andrew. I'm just a few months younger than your daughter. I was born with an autistic spectrum disorder called Asperger's Syndrome, which shares many traits with your daughter's form of classical autism. I won't claim to be as severe as her, but I can definitely empathize with some of the things she's undoubtedly gone through.
I'll try to keep my thoughts as brief as possible. In all honesty, there is a TREMENDOUS difference between autism and a persistent vegetative state. The CAT scans don't lie, I'm afraid. Even a layperson in the field of neurological sciences, such as myself (all those conversations my mom had with various therapists over the years rubbed off) can see that a vast portion of her brain is comprised of an atrophied cavity filled with spinal fluid. It's a fundamental scientific tenet that nerve tissue does not regenerate. Terri Schiavo was beyond any chance of leading any sort of productive life. She felt no happiness, or sadness, or pain, or hunger, or thirst. The parts of her brain that controlled all of those things had deteriorated. She spent fourteen long years as a lifeless husk, whose soul was bound to this earth by the cruel fetters of a feeding tube.
Meanwhile, autistics like your daughter are perfectly capable of feeling emotions. Their brains simply work differently (as opposed to Schiavo, whose brain simply didn't work at all). Schiavo wasn't disabled. She was simply dead inside, her body acting on pure motor reflex.
Michael Schiavo tried for years to get her the best care and therapy possible, and has been horribly misrepresented by protesting fundamentalist bullies and opportunistic GOP bureaucrats who haven't the slightest knowledge of the real circumstances of the situation. If I were ever in a persistent vegetative state, I wouldn't want to be kept alive on a feeding tube with no hope of recovery for fourteen years, and I certainly wouldn't want to become the center of a bonafide three-ring circus.
Best wishes to you and your family.
that part doesn't sound like brain damage. this article is so moving I still fight the reaction that it's fake. the lengths God goes to to teach us.
Absolutely awesome, thank you.
***
Please let it load -- it's 11 mb.
Have headphones or sound on.
special thanks to lafroste for generous technical and web assistance.
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.