Posted on 11/07/2003 2:31:27 AM PST by kattracks
Capitol Hill (CNSNews.com) - Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean, who begins his campaign website greeting with the phrase, "As a medical doctor...," claims Florida Republicans should be "embarrassed" for intervening to save the life of Terri Schindler Schiavo last month. Earlier in the year, Dean publicly expressed his support for physician-assisted suicide.
Dean accused Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Republican state lawmakers of interfering in a "private matter" when they passed "Terri's Law," which allowed Bush to have the 39-year-old disabled woman's feeding tube reconnected after it was removed under court order at her husband's request. The former Vermont governor said he was "appalled" by Bush's intervention.
Terri suffered a brain injury in 1990 under questionable circumstances that left her severely disabled. Her husband, Michael Schiavo, his brother and another brother's wife claim Terri verbally expressed her desire not to be kept alive "artificially" should she ever require life support. Terri's parents and siblings, along with her former co-workers, friends, priests and fellow church members dispute that claim.
"I'm tired of people in the legislature thinking that they have an M.D. when what they really have is a B.S.," the Miami Herald quoted Dean as telling about 200 business and community leaders at the Capital Tiger Bay Club in Tallahassee Tuesday.
Bush spokesman Jacob DiPietre said the governor found Dean's remarks "shameful."
"Gov. Bush," DiPietre said, "doesn't think that it's appropriate for a presidential candidate to be so flip about a serious issue that involves not only protecting the rights of the disabled, but also the fundamental right to life that is guaranteed in the Florida Constitution."
Pamela Hennessy - spokeswoman for Terri's parents, Robert and Mary Schindler - called Dean's comments "a monumental display of bad taste in every way imaginable.
"Obviously, he doesn't know every aspect of the case," Hennessy said, "and I think he's using it as platform just to take a swing, verbally, at Gov. Bush."
Hennessy said she is not surprised, however, at Dean's lack of compassion for Terri.
"Mr. Dean is on record as being in favor of physician-assisted suicide," Hennessy explained.
During an Aug. 20 appearance on Oregon Public Radio, interviewer Colin Fogarty asked Dean, "In general, where do you stand on physician-assisted suicide and Oregon's vote on that issue?" Dean said the question posed "a very difficult moral problem," which he believes should be decided by the states.
"I as a physician would not be comfortable administering lethal drugs," Dean explained, "but I think this a very private, personal decision, and I think individual physicians and patients have the right to make that private decision."
By contrast, Hennessy praised Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.), who is competing with Dean for the Democratic nomination and who also commented on Terri's case.
"He [Lieberman] was smart enough and man enough to see that not everything that happens in life is a question of politics," Hennessy said. "He recognized that, and he didn't turn it into a political fight."
Lieberman, who drew criticism during his 2000 vice presidential bid for waffling on pro-life issues, told the Associated Press in October that he supports Terri's Law.
"I feel very strongly that we ought to honor life, and we ought not to create a system where people are being deprived of nutrition or hydration in a way that ends their lives," Lieberman said.
Hennessy noted that, in advocating for, signing and implementing Terri's Law, Gov. Bush did something she is not accustomed to seeing politicians do.
"When [Jeb Bush] campaigned for governor the first time, he told the people of Florida that he wanted to be a champion for the disabled," Hennessy said. "I think he kept his promise."
To view CNSNews.com's long-term coverage of the Terri Schindler Schiavo case click here.
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The person in question does not have a terminal illness. If her food and water were denied, she'd die of starvation/dehydration, but not of a terminal condition.
"allocate scarce resources" - I hope that doesn't mean letting someone live or making them die is to be a matter of cost effectiveness and the bottom line. I don't want those kind of decisions made by bean counters.
Because Dr. Dean is not just content to tell people how to think and how to live; now he wants to determine who should live and who should die."
There are probably some who get a big thrill from the power to bring death to those who can't fight back.
Bite hard.
It is close to impossibe to prove any specific instance, but let me assure you that there are only so many resources to go around. They get allocated on various bases. They aren't always logical.
As of now, Terri has that room. Maybe she wants it, maybe she doesn't. We don't know. We do know that someone else needs it.
In the EMT training I have been taking, they hint around that sometimes it is better to let someone die. This is not the sort of thing they would ever admit to or that would ever show up in a book. It is, however, a fact.
You know what triage is?
If you don't know, you don't want to know. It involves saving lives. It isn't particularly pretty. You sort bodies according to their chances. Their apparent chances. Your best guess at the time and under the circumstances.
This is not just done in war.
I don't think it is really like that. Nobody is counting beans.
I'll be redundant:
You've got three ambulances, You can transport up to 12 patients. You've got 30 injured in a car accident.
Which ones do you take?
I'll explain it. You make three piles. Ones that are likely to live anyway, ones that are probably going to die or who are dead, and ones that you might be able to help.
The third group goes. It goes as fast as you can get it there. The other two stay on the pavement.
You have a better idea?
Dean has some positions that are actually conservative (in the old sense of the word.) These will become to the fore more often should he win the nomination and run in the general election.
Philospophy is something that is nice to think about.
I don't know about Terri, but ten years on life-support seems to me like long enough, I wouldn't want it. That's not so say that she doesn't.
Cutting her off food does seem cruel.
Dean didn't do that--Jeb Bush just did. The government did. Not many true conservatives I know are comfortable with the government determining who should live and who should die. Dean's point was that the government should not intrude into such things. He's right.
The gall for a Democrat to convey an issue of government intervening in one's personal affairs.
You mean like raising taxes and socialisisng health care? Or his so called backing of gun rights? Or perhaps you mean that his kill'em on the way out approach to abortion is congruent with inalienable rights?
Well, the government would intrude if I decided to sacrifice my neighbor to Baal in my backyard. Even with my neighbor's express written and witnessed consent. And it would not just be right to, it would be [expletive deleted] right to!!!
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