The judge in this case. Bobby McNatt, is a friend of mine - over 30 years. A more intelligent, fair, and compassionate person I have never known. We could use him on the SCOTUS.
Excerpt from Calif paper:
In cases where other doctors don’t see it, Dr. Cranford seems to have a knack for finding PVS. Cranford also diagnosed Robert Wendland as PVS. He did so in spite of the fact that Wendland could pick up specifically colored pegs or blocks and hand them to a therapy assistant on request. He did so in spite of the fact that Wendland could operate and maneuver an ordinary wheelchair with his left hand and foot, and an electric wheelchair with a joystick, of the kind that many disabled persons (most famously Dr. Stephen Hawking) use. Dr. Cranford dismissed these abilities as meaningless.etc
See what Judge McNatt - now Presiding Judge of San Joaquin County Superior Court - had to say in his ruling on this site:
http://www.angelfire.com/ca7/robertsangels/WendlandToLive.html
and this from Robert's Legacy blog:
http://robertslegacy.blogspot.com/
"Then there’s Dr. Ronald Cranford, handpicked by Michael Schiavo to examine Terri and on whose say-so Terri was categorized in "persistent vegetative state". Cranford testifies in cases such as Terri’s around the country, always pumping the dehydration and starvation side. He was 1992’s featured speaker for the pro-euthanasia Hemlock Society, which was renamed The Choice in Dying Society. (WorldNetDaily).
Cranford nicknamed himself, "Dr. Humane Death".
A bioethicist, and a pioneer in euthanasia and right-to-die issues, Dr. Humane Death is a fully-fledged member of The Choice in Dying Society."
and on FOX news in 2001, (http://www.angelfire.com/ca7/robertsangels/BurdenOfProof.html#)
"Dr. Cranford, you are a neurologist, and you had the ability actually to look at Robert. Your opinion on this matter is that the feeding tube should be removed; is that correct?
DR. RONALD CRANFORD, NEUROLOGIST: Yes.
COSSACK: Why is that?
CRANFORD: Well, first of all, he's not in a coma, he's not vegetative, he is not unconscious, he is what we call minimally conscious. He does have some definite, but minimal, interaction with the environment. In that situation, he is so severely brain damaged that I think the one that is the most caring and most interested, which seems to be the wife and the children, should be allowed to make that decision....
(COSSACK:)Dr. Cranford, I want to ask you this, how would you respond to this criticism, that what this really represents, since Mr. Wendland really isn't in a complete coma, that the notion of pulling his feeding tube really represents a step by society of going in a direction where this kind of action, that is the death of a patient, is a form of treatment for economic and insurance reasons? And where do you stop between somebody who has Alzheimer's or someone who has dementia, who perhaps would be in the same kind of situation that Mr. Wendland would be in?
Dr. C.: CRANFORD: That is a legitimate questions because, prior to this. all the cases have been vegetative states. This is one of the first few cases of minimally conscious, or profoundly demented. So one of the legitimate questions in these case, where do you draw the line? There are thousands and thousands of patients with Alzheimer's who may be in the same condition.
Where do you draw the line? And there is no line. There was line with vegetative, but there is no line here.
On the other hand, I think that 90 percent of Americans would find a condition like Robert Wendland, where he may be aware to some degree, only minimally aware, absolutely horrifying and worse than being vegetative. On the one hand, you have what most of us would think; on the other hand, you have the genuine concerns of people about the slippery slope on where you draw the line, and that is why this case has such controversy because he's not vegetative, he is minimally conscious. Where do you draw the line on patients who are severely brain damage, where you want to stop treatment? Of course, one line to stop is if they are in a feeding tube, that means they are medically dependent; if you stop the feeding tube, he dies.
That's one line to be drawn right there.
SIESS answers: They should look at the statute itself, which is unconstitutional, and strike it down.
And I do need to make another point here. You know, they are describing Robert as minimally conscious. What the public needs to know is that there really is no such thing. That is a term that was made up by Dr. Cranford and some of his colleagues in order to move the line over where you can start killing people like Robert.<
WOW!
THIS IS GREAT WORK!!
CAN I POST IT???
YOU will get the credit-- OF COURSE!!
DO you have a link to this:
Excerpt from Calif paper:
In cases where other doctors don’t see it, Dr. Cranford seems to have a knack for finding PVS. Cranford also diagnosed Robert Wendland as PVS. He did so in spite of the fact that Wendland could pick up specifically colored pegs or blocks and hand them to a therapy assistant on request. He did so in spite of the fact that Wendland could operate and maneuver an ordinary wheelchair with his left hand and foot, and an electric wheelchair with a joystick, of the kind that many disabled persons (most famously Dr. Stephen Hawking) use. Dr. Cranford dismissed these abilities as meaningless.etc
"You know, they are describing Robert as minimally conscious. What the public needs to know is that there really is no such thing. That is a term that was made up by Dr. Cranford and some of his colleagues in order to move the line over where you can start killing people like Robert.< "
FYI
The minimally conscious state
Definition and diagnostic criteria
http://www.neurology.org/cgi/content/full/58/3/349
"In 2002, a panel of experts established a new diagnosis on the basis of exactly these reactions: the minimally conscious state. "It took years to get some agreement on the definition, and it's only now getting some acceptance," said Dr. Nancy Childs, at Texas NeuroRehab Center in Austin, "but we've known for years that there was this other group."
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/05/health/05coma.html?position=&adxnnl=1&pagewanted=print&adxnnlx=1112818573-ACkXzPB1KwKvIgU7m3dM1g
Cranford responds to an article in NRO
http://pekinprattles.blogspot.com/2005/03/schiavo-dr-cranford-offers-reply.html
Dr. Cranford's Complete Terri Schiavo Report
http://pekinprattles.blogspot.com/2005/03/dr-cranfords-complete-terri-schiavo.html
http://www.med.cornell.edu/news/press/2003/03_31_03.html