[T'wit]

Just thought you'd be interested. It may not add much, but for years I've been hearing claims that Terri is brain dead, has no cortex, has only fluid up there, and so on. It is the codeblue doc's point in his article that such claims are incorrect and greatly overstated.

If any of this is truly in dispute, the only course that is sane and humane is to test Terri in any way that might be useful.

There's no hurry about killing her. In fact, when people are in such an all-fired hurry to kill a perfectly harmless disabled women, it only attracts the deepest suspicion about their motives.

[Randjuke]

Just thought you'd be interested. It may not add much, but for years I've been hearing claims that Terri is brain dead, has no cortex, has only fluid up there, and so on. It is the codeblue doc's point in his article that such claims are incorrect and greatly overstated.

Thank you for posting it. Terri is clearly NOT brain dead, a point that the much of the public hasn't grasped. If she was brain dead, there would be no controversy. I have some misgivings about the codeblue doc, he seems willing to stick his neck out based on incomplete information, something that most doctors hate to do.

If any of this is truly in dispute, the only course that is sane and humane is to test Terri in any way that might be useful.

There's no hurry about killing her. In fact, when people are in such an all-fired hurry to kill a perfectly harmless disabled women, it only attracts the deepest suspicion about their motives.

I have some disagreements with you here. This case has dragged on for years, her tube has been pulled and re-inserted twice, so using terms like "all-fired hurry" don't seem to fit. In fact, no matter how things turn out I think our justice system has done a disservice to all parties involved.

The other problem is the use of the term "kill". I have had and still have many patients with feeding tubes. Often they are inserted when the family (and I) has hope. A lot of times the family will want tube feedings for a while to see if there's any recovery of swallowing function or consciousness. Over time though it sometimes becomes clear the chance of recovery is negligible and the family will decide to stop the tube feedings, believing this is what their ill relative would want. I would not agree with calling this "killing" although you could certainly argue the opposite. And I sure as hell don't want the government involved in that decision.