Schiavo father: 'Down to her last hours'

CNN ^ | March 25, 2005

[RWR8189]

PINELLAS PARK, Florida (CNN) -- The father of Terri Schiavo, the severely brain-damaged woman whose feeding tube was removed a week ago, said Friday his daughter is "down to her last hours."

Bob Schindler, Schiavo's father, said, "Terri is weakening. ... Something has to be done, and has to be done quick."

Schindler said the family's hopes lie with the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta, Georgia, which is hearing -- for the second time this week -- an appeal claiming Schiavo's due process rights have been violated.

Schiavo is in her seventh day without food or water since Pinellas County Circuit Judge George Greer ordered the tube removed for the third time.

The case is again in the federal appeals court, where a three-judge panel will rule on the motion filed by attorneys for Schiavo's parents.

[Destro]

SHE IS NOT DISABLED SHE IS IN A PVS - not the same thing.

[workerbee]

Let's put aside what the laws say, the technicalities, the he said/she said of all this for just a minute. Do both of you at least acknowledge the reality of what is going on here, that a woman is being starved until she is dead? There's such a gleeful air in your posts as you assert "the law says this" or "if you don't like it change it." For the sake of the argument, let's say all the laws have been followed and are being carried out. The question still remains: Is this moral, to withhold food and water from an otherwise healthy woman (physically) until she is dead? Are either of you even remotely bothered by this reality, "legality" be damned? You both seem to be taking such delight in the very real heartache of those of us who think a tragedy of gigantic proportions is playing out here. Aren't you in any way saddened by Terri Schiavo's "legally mandated" fate?

[WhistlingPastTheGraveyard]

If you don't like it here....get out.

You're serving eviction notices now?

Let's see you try to enforce one. Just one.

[Cherokee Conservative]

First: horsesh**. I'll educate you after lunch.

Second: Interesting how you'll take the word of a man who is an adulterer; who didn't claim Terri wanted to die until he'd been awarded 1 million dollars for the sole purpose of taking care of Terri for the REST OF HER LIFE; and who promised to do just that until after he'd been awarded the money. But, the word of two RN's who cared for Terri are immediately dismissed. It's only hearsay. Hmmm....two people say the exact same thing and it's hearsay. One man says my wife wants to die, she told me once, and it's believable and must be true. Strange logic indeed.

[Gimme]

will be stuffing their faces with food this Easter Sunday



And lots to drink.

[Nowhere Man]

I do hate these casual statements "don't let me get like that, I would rather be dead" being the basis for judicial decisions. When I was 26 I used to say I didn't want to live past 60, I thought that was positively senile. Now I am over 60 and these are truly the best years I have had. I think young people making these kinds of decisions need to be very very careful and update any living wills every four or five years.

I see what you mean, when I was 17 or 18, I couldn't imagine myself at 40. Well, I'll be 39 this year and facing my 20th High School reunion so now I am almost at that point to where I could never imagine myself being. It is easy to make casual statements about "not living like that." Well, at the drugstore I work at, there is one man wheeling his almost quadrapeligic brother in every so often and I had that thought to me. Well, even since I gotten in deep with Terri, I take that back, every life has worth no matter what and is worth living. I've always been pro-life but Terri has made me more so and keeps it in the forefront. Given the choice, growin old is better than being dead. B-)

[Gimme]

Ditto

[MarMema]

So if my husband locks me in a room and denies me food and water until I am dead, that's a private family manner.

By your logic.

[MTOrlando]

SHE IS NOT DISABLED SHE IS IN A PVS - not the same thing.

Yes, she is disabled! See below for definitions from the ADA and Florida Statutes.

AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT of 1990
SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.
    As used in this Act:
         (2) Disability.--The term "disability" means, with
 respect to an individual--
            (A) a physical or mental impairment that 
substantially limits one or more of the major life 
activities of such individual;
            (B) a record of such an impairment; or
            (C) being regarded as having such an impairment.

FS Chapter 825 
ABUSE, NEGLECT, AND EXPLOITATION OF ELDERLY PERSONS AND DISABLED ADULTS
(4)  "Disabled adult" means a person 18 years of age or 
older who suffers from a condition of physical or mental 
incapacitation due to a developmental disability, organic 
brain damage, or mental illness, or who has one or more 
physical or mental limitations that restrict the person's 
ability to perform the normal activities of daily living.

Also note that, FS 765.404 Persistent vegetative state, being classified as PVS does not remove her status as a disabled adult.

[Cherokee Conservative]

You know how many people are brain injured waiting to have a plug pulled across THIS country alone???

I'm sure many many more are now waiting since feeding tubes can now be yanked, and people can be starved to death. YOu done good! So many more people can die now. Next you can push for Euthanasia for those who have to be catheterized and can't use the toilet. No one would want to live that way right. Yank the catheter, and stop filling out the menu cards!

[MarMema]

You can't 'forget the feeding tube' - people who can drin and eat food can never be in such a position

Try again. They put them in to allows shorter staffing. Most of the people killed in this manner were very capable of eating and drinking on their own, even Nancy Cruzan. Spoonfed, that is.

The feeding tubes were about institutional needs, not patient needs.

[freebilly]

SHE IS NOT DISABLED SHE IS IN A PVS

That's been disputed.

[Jackknife]

You, sir, are clueless.

[freebilly]

No one put a gun to her head<

But someone may have put hands to her throat....

[mistersoapy]

"She wants to die, let her."

I, for one, believe in the right to die but I am not convinced that "she wants to die." Maybe she does and maybe she doesn't but, the law aside, I don't think there is clear evidence either way. What they are doing may be legal but I don't think it is right (let alone the method.)

[Lead Moderator]

Tone it down.

[Cherokee Conservative]

What is with you people. You are all so emotionally charged with this issue, you are lashing out at each other, and your country.

Be good sheeple and never disagree with your government! You must accept what the courts say at all costs just like we've always done... . .You know like the people that accepted all the segregation laws and the like. Shhhhhh! America is perfect.

[MarMema]

By it's own definition, in PVS she would never have lived this long. So she is either an extremely unusual case for PVS or not PVS.

In medicine we normally choose the horse rather than the zebra when we hear hoof beats outside the window.