Posted on 03/22/2005 12:37:06 PM PST by AliVeritas
In a video, Terri Schiavo appears pale, puffy and fragile.
Her mother, Mary Schindler, faces Terri, back to the camera from a three-quarter shot.
Mrs. Schindler lifts her left hand to caress Terri's face.
Terri smiles.
But this can't be, for we have been told that Terri Schiavo is hopelessly brain damaged and in a "persistent vegetative state" or, as one doctor who recommended starving her to death put it, in "wakeful oblivion."
Another video. It shows Terri grimacing and turning away when a doctor places a cotton swab in her mouth.
Who knew that someone in a persistent vegetative state could feel discomfort enough to react as anyone might when a swab is shoved in your face?
Terri seems wakeful, but not oblivious. Another video. Terri's eyes follow a Mylar balloon as it is moved over her, back and forth.
Huh. A profoundly brain-damaged woman who appears to have the ability to concentrate.
Oh, it's probably just a reflex.
(Excerpt) Read more at phillyburbs.com ...
The problem is, you don't know that "no one's home". Doctors have slapped the (idiotic) label "Permanent Vegetative State" on her, and this makes people think of a "vegetable", and that makes people assume that "no one's home".
That doesn't mean that no one's home.
Michael Schiavo should have allowed independent tests done to determine whether she's in such a state.
Even if she is in "such a state", i.e. the state of brain damage that has been defined, by people, and given the label "Permanent Vegetative State", that would not make it all right to kill her.
Killing people because they fit the definition of some human-invented label is a very dangerous slippery slope.
Not allowing such tests makes me question his motives more than anything else in this case.
But once you buy into the logic that (1) Michael's hearsay testimony of what Terri "would have wanted" should hold sway, and (2) if she fits the definition of "PVS" she "would have" wanted to be killed, then you have no right to complain. After all, she was diagnosed PVS (once). From that point on, Michael's simply been looking out for her "wishes"; having future tests (if they don't show the right thing) might harm her "wishes" to be killed.
The real problem is that we've allowed ourselves to be mesmerized by a bogus, prejudicial term because it "sounds scientific". "Permanent Vegetative State". Oooh, so scientific. It even has an acronym, PVS. This is all very Scientific. A person = a Vegetable, say Scientists.
And never mind that laughter coming from that Vegetable...
yes of course the husband should decide her fate. The husband who has another woman, and 2 kids. I suggest we just have all ex's decide the medical care of their ex spouses. Do you suppose anybody would have a problem with that?
YES. Because they have moved from Karen Quinlan to those who can smile and laugh, and their movement will not stop.
A wonderful speaker in the US House said, "We are all potentially Terri Schiavos", and the truth is there are those dying as Terri is in every state today.
It is only because the Schindlers have fought so hard that we have been awakened to what is happening.
I said I'm not going to get into an argument over whether she's PVS. Just that you shouldn't let anecdotal accounts of things that could be reflex make you think she's actually aware of anything. A person in PVS will exhibit various traits that will appear to be conscious, but they're not. They may make random gutteral sounds that can be interpreted into a myriad of different meanings, but it's just sound with no consciousness directing it. There is truly no one home, just a functioning body.
But we'll never know the truth about Terri if MS gets his way. That's just how he wants it.
I hope you are serious, because that is exactly what this case is about. If this case is ultimately won by Michael Schiavo (which is looks to be), then we go down the road to euthanasia.
It will be like the the ancient tradition in certain places where the kind would be put to death the minute he showed any signs of weakness or disease. In other places, the king had to be ready to fend off attacks from any challenger, which.
In the future, each of us may well have to prove our usefulness to society or to the ones who supposedly "love" us, if we want to stay alive. Getting a little forgetful? Not able to do the kind of deep cleaning you used to do? In the future you you may be disposed of like a broken CD player.
The Nazis used poison gas to murder millions of human beings whom they deemed undesirable. One of several methods used was the gas van. Such vans were first deployed in 1940 in the “Euthanasia” operation. Hitler delegated the “Euthanasia” operation to Reichsleiter Philip Bouhler, Dr. Karl Brandt, and several doctors of their choice. The targets were several German population groups: the mentally ill or retarded, the chronically ill, and criminals. At first, the murders were carried out in fixed, sealed chambers, into which carbon monoxide gas was pumped from metal canisters. In addition, some were killed by lethal injections and by shooting. In 1940, an experiment using gas vans was conducted in Kochanowka, near Lodz, in the murder of mentally ill children.
Between 70,000-100,000 people were murdered in “Euthanasia” operations. Experts who became experienced with poison gas and mass murder in this program were later employed between 1941 and 1942 in the occupied eastern areas, where they engaged mainly in murdering Jews.
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Democrats and activist judges are putting our nation on this course. God save us.
And don't forget this alleged 'vegetable' said "I WAAAAAAAN..." when she was told Friday that they were stopping her feeding - and all she had to do to stop it was say she wanted to live. She said it so loud that a policeman out in the hall came in to see what the fuss was about.
Terri is still there, and what they are doing is nothing short of state sanctioned murder. If Michael and Judge Greer want her dead so bad, they should be the ones to physically and quickly execute her, IMO.
No one is taking away her rights. She is unable to care for herself. You look at it as pro-actively killing her, others may see it as ending her suffering. You appear know more about her condition than I or her parents do. Its not our choice, that belongs to her husband/guardian. Do you know what she told him in private? I don't either. I look at this way, if I had spent 15 years in her condition I wouldn't want to keep "living" like that and would be glad to not suffer anymore. Does Terri think like that. I don't know since she can not communicate or care for herself. So who am I to argue with the guardian who states he is following her wishes. Michael Shiavo has been vilified by her parents and the press for 15 years, and unless you know him personally you can not really know what type of person he is. But because he makes a decision you don't like he is a bad person with no love for his wife. That maybe but I don't know since I don't know him. I do know that Terri's parents have tried for 15 years to discredit and slander him. Are they are considered good people?
At least... I just wonder if anyone is listening.
And I agreed not to get into a discussion of whether she's "PVS".
What I was saying is that you don't know and have no good reason to say that "no one's home". Do you?
If so, what's your reason?
Here, you're just saying something weaker: that I can't prove that someone's home, that the indications that someone's home are rather anecdotal.
Man, that's harsh! I mean, you're right. I can't prove that "someone's home" regarding Terri Schiavo. Her apparent reactions might just be anecdotal coincidences. But the same is true of the pot-smoking teenager who lives down the street.
Am I to understand that you think we should just assume that "no one's home" unless/until Terri can really, solidly establish otherwise?
Man... that's harsh.
A person in PVS will exhibit various traits that will appear to be conscious, but they're not. They may make random gutteral sounds that can be interpreted into a myriad of different meanings, but it's just sound with no consciousness directing it.
I am here to tell you that you don't know that. You don't know that at all. What makes you think that you know that?
Do you think that Scientists have Proven that anyone whom they've labeled "PVS" is Not Conscious? Is that what you think?
Do you think that Scientists can even define "Conscious" with any certainty?
Do you want to buy a bridge?
There is truly no one home, just a functioning body.
Says you. And if you're wrong?
The Monty Python scene, "I'm not dead yet," is a reality in the liberals' utopia.
People change their opinions about TV shows and fashion styles, but apparently if you once, casually, said in like 1987 that you wouldn't wanna be on a feeding tube, then that's your Wish For All Time.
I shudder to think what I might have casually said 20 years ago, to someone. Who knows how it might be used against me.
Re: The Culture of Death
Apocalypse 6:8 And behold a pale horse, and he that sat upon him, his name was Death, and hell followed him. And power was given to him over the four parts of the earth, to kill with sword, with famine, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.
You seem to regard a legal guardian as a Godlike figure with the power of life and death. Such is not the case. If anything, the legal guardian, at least in prior interpretations of the law, and not this brave new world culture of death, run by death lovers interpretation, was to safeguard, to all reasonable extents, the life of his ward. Now, the duty seems to be to kill them.
I understand much.
You explain me then why Michael Shiavo denied her therapy?
You explain to me how a husband, who promises to have and to hold until death brings them apart, leaves Terri and moves in with another woman, and fathers 2 children.
You explain to me the comments given by sworn affidavit by nurses that Michael sweet Michael would inquire, "Is the bitch dead yet?"
You explain to me through court transcripts that Michael promised to use the money awarded to him, that it would be used for therapy, and was never used for therapy. In fact it was used to hasten her death.
You want to give credence to Mr. Shiavo go right ahead. This whole thing just reeks to me.
I'll be interested to see if there is a rash of lawsuits to effectuate euthanasia after this. I'm betting so.
Then the Dems will accuse Bush of reducing life expectancy, and increasing the death rate.
Great post and good article! Thank you!
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