Posted on 03/22/2005 3:58:24 AM PST by billorites
This is 2005, isn't it? This was NOT the case when she had those electrodes implanted in the early 1990's, I assure you. Ask your doctor next time you visit him/her.
I just saw on TV that Patricia Heaton and Mel gibson are actively trying to save Terri too.....Patricia Heaton says she talked to Terri's mom yesterday.......
And the problem with doing an MRI in the last 15 years is what? They have been doing it for years. It didn't just start in 2005.
Maybe I was not clear. The electrodes of the early 90's are not the same kind they use today. The kind they used in the 90's render Terri unable to have an MRI.
Should they have been removed? Perhaps. I'd like to see a link that one of her many doctors recommended that.
Oh well. That's what the whole case has been about from the get-go. Check into the background of Felos. Look at what's happening in Holland right now. Look at German history. Explain to me, if you can, the justification for allowing other people whose conditions are similar to Terri's, but who were born that way, to live while Terri does not have that right. This whole case has been about defining Terri in such a way that she is less than human, in order to justify killing her.
That's an easy one. First, the fundamental legal premise is that the patient's wishes are to be honored. Not the spouse, not the parent, but the patient himself has the right of self-determination. Pretty nifty, pretty simple, and a downright agreeable premise.
Now, people born without cognitive ability are presumed to want to live, and the law gives them the benefot of the doubt. But adults, well, we're different. We can express a wish to be starved to death. And that is what the court found that Terri wished.
I personally think the courts that defend the Schiavo "starve her to death" outcome are full of crap. No person in their right mind would ever request or permit themselves to be starved to death. Sure, take me off the machine, nevermind the kidney dialysis, but at least feed and water me! Heck, if I had to choose a method of death, between the giving up of a basic necessity, I'd pick being left to the elements, specifically cold. It's quicker and less painful. Proabably illegal though.
Anyway, I feel better now that that's off my chest.
Another difference is that she is not on any life support equipment.
One thing I think we can be pretty sure of is that this is and will make a mess of the law - as in "Hard cases make bad law."
You sure? I didn't think the law was that distinct & that determination was made by Greer.
Is it part of the new law signed by Gov. Bush and struck down by the courts?
I was referring to the original. I thought you knew. I saw a discussion about it a few days ago & recall that the Florida law previous to Greer's ruling specifically prohibited euthanasia. I'm not sure what it said about the feeding tube but I'd be surprised if they defined it specifically as part of life support.
I don't know whether or not it is correct - though there are statements by her nurses supporting it - that she is capable of eating and drinking if food is put in her mouth, but that the feeding tube is a precaution to keep her from choking. If that's true, the term "life support" is getting stretched like the commerce clause.
Would it be appropriate to begin withdrawing food and water from them now, or later?!
I've heard about those nurses. They did not testify under oath and you would think that the Schindlers, who visit their daughter frequently and talk to the nurses, surely, would have called them during the 19-20 appeal cases and most specifically the 2002 case in which the Schindlers gave testimony along with two doctors of their choosing.
Iron alloyed with nickel has STRONGER magnetic properties than pure iron. Many alloys of iron are more magnetic than iron - some by orders of magnitude.
The judge is supposedly losing his eyesight as it is. Bet he fears losing it all the way to an eyeball acid bath or something.
He's gonna' give that prince everything he can.
One of the big problems in this case has been that there has never been objective evidence of Terri's desires. All we have is Michael's hearsay.
As far as I'm concerned, an honest judge would have asked to see the living will document. Without that, there really was no reason for the case to go forward. (Which is why I believe that Greer made up his mind on the side of death before he ever heard a single argument.)
I read somewhere in one of these threads that the FL legislature had changed the law in 1999 to include feeding tubes as part of "extraordinary" medical support. Dang, I wish I could remember the legalese.
It is very troubling that the determination in this case has been that dependence on "medical intervention" abrogates the right to life. Dangerous precedent.
I read lots of posts that misstate and misunderstand the nature of hearsay. But, nevermind the legal buzzword, I'll try to express the legal process with different words.
The function of the law is to discern the patient's wishes. That would be Terri. The law does not intend that somebody else substitute their wishes for Terri, the legal standard it to act on her wishes, period, end of disucssion. The husband has no right to decide, the parents have no right to decide, the judge has no right to decide what Terri's wishes are. The patient's wishes RULE.
So, what to do when the patient's wishes are unkonwn? Preferably, there is a clear written directive. Absent that, the law may look for other evidence. That's what it did in Cruzan, and what it did in this case. If the evidence is clear and convincing (there is no reasonbale doubt that the patient's wishes are being carried out), then the court orders what it finds to be the patient's wishes.
As I said in another post, this case stands for two very ugly propositions. First, that a patient has no recourse but to die, faced with an error in determination of the his wishes. Second, that forced starvation is legally and medically ethical.
We've become a culture of death.
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