First, one has to remember that Judge Greer has never asked Terri if she wants to die. Remember that if you have ruled that she is in a vegetative state, then there is no point. The Judge relies solely on expert medical testimony.
Second, one has to keep in mind that multiple caregivers; i.e., doctors and nurses, are willing to testify that Michael Schiavo has blocked any attempt to provide rehabilitation for his "wife". Even to the point that it took a court order to provide antibiotics to treat her infections over the objections of her "husband".
Lastly, one should be informed that Michael Schiavo is the administrator of a > $1 Million medical settlement. He claims the money is gone, but who is to know? In other words, there were big bucks involved here. Even after the settlement he would not allow any rehabilitation treatment.
Hannity interviewed a rehabilitation doctor who spent 10 hours over three different visits with her. That doctor says that Terri understands English and responds. She is NOT in a brain dead state. He has witnessed Terri acknowledge and smile at the appearance of her mother. At the end of his last visit, he informed Terri that the view out of her window included squirrels and birds. Even though she has no far vision, she turned her entire body to peer out the window.
I admit that I don't know the fine details of the case through the years, but my opinion is that the law should require a minimal standard of rehabilitative therapy be provided (in cases with no living will) and that a guardian who fails to provide for that should be deemed negligent and potentially removed. I cannot specify better than that because I don't have the medical expertise to frame it better, but I'm basically referring to standard motion & speech therapy.
I don't really understand how she could be deemed to be vegetative if a physician gave such an assessment. I would say that it's very disturbing if true, even more so if accurate. It's really hard to make heads or tails of all the contradictory statements throughout this dreadfully sad case. I'm glad I'm not the judge.
First, one has to remember that Judge Greer has never asked Terri if she wants to die. Remember that if you have ruled that she is in a vegetative state, then there is no point.Gee, this sounds familiar.The Judge relies solely on expert medical testimony.
Where have I heard this before I wonder ...
A whole legal system was set up.- - - - - - - -Courts for the prevention of hereditary illnesses were instituted called "Erbgesundheitsgerichte" (Hereditary Health Courts) and attached to the existing district courts as well as the Higher Courts.
Sitting on these were always one judge and two doctors (usually psychiatrists) present in court hearings of this nature. Witnesses and specialists could be called upon and the rules for civil procedure were to be normally applied.
From:
Hitler's men pg 4
and this:
- - - - - - - - - - - -
In the middle of 1939 the end-phase of the administrative preparations of the euthanasia programme was started. It dealt almost entirely with keeping it secure and secret. The German people were under no circumstances to become suspicious and the project was to roll without any interference. It was therefore necessary to disguise the activities as much as possible.- - - - - - - -Questionnaires had already been prepared by the psychiatric committee and advisers, and in October these were sent to the mental institutions of Germany. These questionnaires required answers to a number of questions including name, marital status, nationality, next of kin, whether regularly visited and by whom, who bore the financial responsibility and how long in the institution, how long sick, diagnosis, chief symptoms, whether bed-ridden, whether under restraint, whether suffering from an incurable sickness or complaint, and whether a war injury or not. And, what was the race of the patient. These questionnaires were prepared and sent out by one of the front groups which operated under T4.
In classic psychiatric style four front groups had been set up to shield the actual source of the operations in T4 from scrutiny.
The idea being essentially that T4 itself would issue orders to the front group who would then carry out the necessary measures. Anybody seeking to trace back the administrative chain, say from a hospital where patients were being taken to be murdered, would arrive at one of these four front groups and the chances of getting any further back than that were very small.
...
Ironically the relatives of the patients were charged with the cost of the killing, without however being informed as to what they were paying for. The questionnaires having been sent out were completed by the psychiatrists, doctors in charge of the patients in the asylums.
When the questionnaires came back they were evaluated by the psychiatric and professional members of T4 who were mainly leading professors of psychiatry in German Universities.
**** The whole business was in keeping with the euthanasia programme in that no one was ever actually examined in person, in direct violation of any normal medical approach or standards*****, especially when one considers that life or death hung on the decision of the psychiatrist evaluating.
Processing of the questionnaires was done very rapidly; for example one expert between November 14th and December 1st 1940 evaluated 2,109 of them.
From:
Hitler's men pg 6
Scary, huh?
History is repeating itself ...