Posted on 10/22/2003 6:48:59 PM PDT by Bloody Sam Roberts
Edited on 10/23/2003 5:54:46 AM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
There have been plenty of bone-headed decisions over the years by government officials and legislators playing doctor in controversial medical cases. But few lawmakers have acted as rashly, ineptly and dangerously with respect to the public as did the Florida state Legislature and Gov. Jeb Bush when they passed a last-minute law intended to stop the death of Terri Schiavo, a brain-damaged woman who’s been in a coma for more than 13 years.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.com ...
caplan@mail.med.upenn.edu
Please feel free to respond. Here is the email I sent him:
Dear Dr. Caplan,
It would seem that you are misinformed on certain facts of the Terry Schiavo case. In your commentary you state:
"the Florida state Legislature and Gov. Jeb Bush...passed a last-minute law intended to stop the death of Terri Schiavo, a brain-damaged woman who’s been in a coma for more than 13 years. "
Terry Schiavo is not in a coma. She is awake and her eyes are open and she responds to people in the room with her. This is not the definition of a coma.
You also state:
"And no court has ever been persuaded that Terri has any hope of recovering from her severely brain-damaged state."
It is also fact that no court has ever been told or notified that Michael Schiavo has refused his wife ANY form of rehabilitative care and has also issued orders to others that no steps be taken to rehabilitate her. These orders from Mr. Schiavo have also taken the form, this past Saturday the 18th of October, of refusing his wife to receive her last sacrament of communion. He did not want his wife to receive even the tiniest piece of the communion host.
Many believe this is because he fears that such a display would reveal him to be a liar and an accomplice to murder if his wife were able to swallow anything unaided.
The fact is that Michael Schiavo is a despicable human being and Governor Jeb Bush, a man who knows right from wrong, did the right thing by saving this woman from being executed unjustly.
I felt compelled to respond and bring these items to your attention for it is clear you have not done due diligence in researching the subject at hand before filing commentary with your publisher.
Good day,
Here we go again...coma....PHD indeed...(does that stand for Prick Head Dick?)
FMCDH
You've made numerous errors, which are serious, and they beckon examination of your motives for misrepresenting the medical condition of one Ms. Terri Schiavo, an American citizen residing in the State of Florida.
At the least, your academic integrity ought to be called in, formally, to be questioned by your peers.
By the way, the rule of law is not a statute, nor is a law by which we live. There is no "well-established rule of law, which states that when a patient cannot ..." There is instead a statute and some case law that support that a concept of what you infer.
There is much work for you to do, in lieu of your indiscretions.
Furthermore, it will probably come as a surprise to you that the people of the State of Florida, lawfully petitioned their Representatives sitting in Legislature and had them make a law that was dutifully signed into being by the Governor of Florida.
All that was Constitutional. If you think not, then you are wrong. And quite probably you are terribly wrong.
The people make the laws lawfully through our blessed democratic-republican process, thereby observing the rule of law, and we live by those laws that we make.
Our authority, the sovereignty of the people, trumps all else, save God's, respecting that there is some possibility that there may be a higher order over us all.
Judges who object to the balance of power which places them under the powers of the people, can join the political processes in order to peacefully try and change the balance.
But woe shall greet any judge wreckless enough to place himself or herself above the lawful processes by issuing echoes from where they are lost in extra-Constitutional space, in errant expectations of fooling the people into submission.
M. F.
Columbus, OH
Oct. 22, 2003 10:46 P.M. EDT Wednesday
THAT alone should tell you something. You're never going to convince a mush-minded academic that is an MSNBC columnist of anything.
Coma and Persistent Vegetative State
A coma is a profound or deep state of unconsciousness. The affected individual is alive but is not able to react or respond to life around him/her. Coma may occur as an expected progression or complication of an underlying illness, or as a result of an event such as head trauma.
A persistent vegetative state, which sometimes follows a coma, refers to a condition in which individuals have lost cognitive neurological function and awareness of the environment but retain noncognitive function and a perserved sleep-wake cycle.
It is sometimes described as when a person is technically alive, but his/her brain is dead. However, that description is not completely accurate. In persistent vegetative state the individual loses the higher cerebral powers of the brain, but the functions of the brainstem, such as respiration (breathing) and circulation, remain relatively intact. Spontaneous movements may occur and the eyes may open in response to external stimuli, but the patient does not speak or obey commands. Patients in a vegetative state may appear somewhat normal. They may occasionally grimace, cry, or laugh.
Is there any treatment?
Once the patient is out of immediate danger, although still in coma or vegetative state, the medical care team will concentrate on preventing infections and maintaining the patient's physical state as much as possible.
Such maintenance includes preventing pneumonia and bed sores and providing balanced nutrition. Physical therapy may also be used to prevent contractures (permanent muscular contractions) and orthopedic deformities that would limit recovery for the patients who emerge from coma.
What is the prognosis?
The outcome for coma and vegetative state depends on the cause and on the location, severity, and extent of neurological damage: outcomes range from recovery to death. People may emerge from a coma with a combination of physical, intellectual, and psychological difficulties that need special attention.
Recovery usually occurs gradually, with patients acquiring more and more ability to respond. Some patients never progress beyond very basic responses, but many recover full awareness. Patients recovering from coma require close medical supervision. A coma rarely lasts more than 2 to 4 weeks.M/b> Some patients may regain a degree of awareness after vegetative state. Others may remain in a vegetative state for years or even decades. The most common cause of death for a person in a vegetative state is infection such as pneumonia.
Information provided by the
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health
Some people believe Terry Schiavo is conscious of nothing. Some people believe she is conscious of her experience, which if she really were, would mean she has already suffered thirteen years of hell. It is interesting that those who believe Terry Shiavo experiences nothing believe she ought to be allowed to die with dignity, but those who believe she is experiencing hell want to prolong her agony and suffering as long as possible.
Hank
... and your binary number re-calculates to 172?
Of course, there haven't been any bone-headed decisions by judges playing doctor, have there?
I especially like your use of the salutation 'Mr.' as a sort of b!+ch-slap to his ego.
Well, if it was her, "will to live," that kept her alive, why is everyone so upset that her feeding tube was removed?
Or, maybe it was really the intereference of others that kept her alive against her will.
Hank
Nice try but the spin cycle on your machine is faulty. Those who wish to stay her execution order do not believe she is experiencing hell.
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