For example:
(Imagine it. You are in your early twenties. You are watching a movie, say on Lifetime, in which someone has a feeding tube. You pick up the empty chip bowl. "No tubes for me," you say as you get up to fill it. What are the chances you have given this even a passing thought?)
Good article, thanks for posting this.
Excellent article, especially given who wrote it and where it appeared (about the only more surprising place for an article like that to appear would be Harper's).
Didion, like Garry Wills, actually got her start at National Review.
Excellent article, very well researched and written. I'm quite surprised it appeared in the NY Review of Books, but good for them. Their readers need to read this.
Great post!
The author does a good job of explaining all the smoke screens that were used to blur the real issues of Terri's case, that led to public confusion about what was really happening.
I wish every FReeper and anyone else who wanted her killed would read this.
Thank you for posting this. Fascinating and thoughtful.
ping
I was pleasantly surprised by this piece. It's obvious the writer is disgusted at what was done to Terri.
Never imagined myself saying this but ... God bless Joan Didion. Her arid style, which I don't care for in her fiction, is just right for shining a cold, clear floodlight on this case. Thanks for posting this.
I know for a fact I have probably said something very similar in my early 20's!! However, now in my middle 30's I have told my DH to never do to me what HINO did to Terri!
Thank you for posting this. Will read later.
Bump for later reading.
To me, this part of the article is KEY. WHY did Michael "remember" that Terri wanted to die AFTER he received the malpractice settlement?
"Only in 1997, seven years after the cardiac arrest and a year before he first requested that the feeding tube be removed, did Michael Schiavo first mention these recalled wishes to the Schindlers. In 1992 he had pursued (and finally settled, for approximately $1.1 million after fees) a medical negligence suit against the doctors who had supervised Theresa Schiavo's infertility treatment, arguing that they had failed to pick up the potassium imbalance. During the course of this 1992 malpractice action Michael Schiavo (who had not yet been videotaped in what seemed to be a legal office explaining that his wife had never wanted to "live on tubes," never wanted "to be a burden") was asked how he saw their future:
A: I see myself hopefully finishing school and taking care of my wife.
Q: Where do you want to take care of your wife?
A: I want to bring her home.
Q: If you had the resources available to you, if you had the equipment and the people, would you do that?
A: Yes. I would, in a heartbeat.
Q: How do you feel about being married to Terri now?
A: I feel wonderful. She's my life and I wouldn't trade her for the world. I believe in my marriage vows.
Q: You believe in your wedding vows, what do you mean by that?
A: I believe in the vows I took with my wife, through sickness, in health, for richer or poor. I married my wife because I love her and I want to spend the rest of my life with her. I'm going to do that."