Posted on 03/26/2005 6:10:08 AM PST by mathprof
At the center of the debate over Terri Schiavo's fate is the question of her diagnosis: Is she in a persistent vegetative state, or in a milder state of brain damage called minimal consciousness? And in either case, does she have any chance to regain awareness?
While a few neurologists say it is possible she has been misdiagnosed, an overwhelming majority say there is little room for disagreement. Patients who have suffered brain damage from oxygen deprivation - like Ms. Schiavo, whose heart briefly stopped in February 1990 - almost never recover if they have remained in a vegetative state for more than three months. Most neurologists who have examined Ms. Schiavo say she has been in a vegetative state for about 15 years.
Dr. Ronald Cranford, a Minnesota neurologist who examined her in 2002 as part of a previous court case, said a CT scan of her brain showed very little but scar tissue and spinal fluid. An electroencephalogram measuring electrical activity in the thinking parts of her brain showed no evidence of continued function, he said.
[snip]
In some cases, patients with severe brain injuries may indeed reach or pass through a state of minimal consciousness, where they are intermittently able to respond or move with purpose, say by reaching for a glass. In a study published earlier this year, neuroscientists in New York reported that on brain scans these patients do show evidence of some conscious awareness.
[snip]
On blogs and talk shows in recent days, Dr. Cranford has been widely attacked as heartless and extreme, and commentators have noted that he recommended that life support be removed from some patients with severe brain damage.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Yet another doctor, Dr. William Cheshire, cited by Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida this week in his decision to intervene in the Schiavo case, also questioned the diagnosis after visiting the patient and reviewing records and videotape, according to an affidavit he filed with the court. But Dr. Cheshire did not conduct an examination, according to his employer, the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Fla. He declined a request for an interview.
I cannot believe anyone would allow her to starve on the basis of that sentence.
The won't examine her now.
The Executioner Judge and M. Schiavo forbid it.
That tells me all I need to know.
Exactly.
There is doubt, but we're not going to examine her to find out.
Actually, some say that about the New York Times.
Dr. Ronald Cranford, a neurologist and medical ethicist at the University of Minnesota Medical School who has examined Ms. Schiavo on behalf of the Florida courts and declared her to be irredeemably brain-damaged, said, "I have no idea who this Cheshire is," and added: "He has to be bogus, a pro-life fanatic. You'll not find any credible neurologist or neurosurgeon to get involved at this point and say she's not vegetative."
DOESN'T HOLD MUCH HOPE OF RECOVERY NOW, DOES IT?
Believe it.
We can all remember this as the Easter Weekend in Hell. Terri is supposedly bleeding now from her eyes and mouth. I am filled with hatred today ....... it's a very bad and uncomfortable feeling.
Cheshire sounds pretty well qualified according to this: http://www.cbhd.org/aboutcbhd/staff/cheshire.htm Cum laude graduate of Princeton, professor of neurology at the Mayo Clinic. Not exactly Hamburger U qualifications.
The NYT is all for Terri's DEATH.
The Liberal DEATH Squad !
"While a few neurologists say it is possible she has been misdiagnosed, an overwhelming majority say there is little room for disagreement."
And out of this so called overwhelming majority, how many actually conducted an examination ?
The NYT would argue that having a large family and going to church automatically means that he's not qualified to make judgements about Terri Shiavo. They'd spin that his religious views would get in the way.
Jesus descended into hell... Terri is descending into a hell (on earth).
BE ANGRY AND YET DO NOT SIN.
Putting heat on Jeb to recognize what Greer has done as an armed insurrection, seems to be the most logical choice to me.
That's true. His views on life and death probably aren't nuanced enough.
But surely they would give the Episcopal Church a pass? Seeing that it's becoming the Gay Church?
With GOD, all things are possible!
On Jeb--------- here is what I wrote to a FReeper yesterday morning when that FReeper was extremly down on Jeb for doing little to nothing to save this innocent girl. He said that Jeb did not have "courage of his convictions". I'm not so sure I would disagree. Here is what I wrote:
May I comment on your words .....
The 'old media' regrettably is still greatly influential, still effective in molding and creating the opinions of the majority of Americans. For instance, look at the distorted and neatly fashioned polls on the Schiavo issue (ABC's for instance.) The questions were slanted, they were outright fraudulent polls and results. Terri's real condition was consciously misrepresented in the questions of these polls. Then there was the media not presenting Terri's condition from 1990 on, ill-treatment in the hospice, and the rest of the truth of the entire matter.
I've been studying media bias for close to 40 years and am quite aware of the evil power of that bias and the way, in the end, it can destroy a free nation. But media bias and the effectiveness of that bias has never been so clear and obvious than in the (non)coverage of the Terri Schiavo case. Never have I seen a citizenry more ignorant of the facts of a story -- never so incorrectly informed, and never has that bias been so maddening! Not even the citizens' recent ignorance of the real John Kerry or the realities of Rathergate could match this. No news story has made the power of bias more clear than this one.
What I'm trying to say (but saying poorly) is that the American people are so ignorant of the facts of this case, so disinformed that if it were true that Jeb were actually afraid of political ramifications from his actions, it would be easy to see why he were.
But "courage of convictions", as you mention, is another thing. In politics these days "courage of convictions" is nearly an impossibility, especially with a media constituted in the way that it still is today. With a continuing extremely influential left/liberal/socialist/anti-American old media still in place and keeping most of the people ignorant, any courageous act by a conservative to try to rescue Terri is tough to do. Because the media has so very effectively continually distorted Republicans' and others' motives to come to this girl's rescue, every courageous act will be colored in a political way. But that courageous act should be performed anyway, imo.
I think Jeb and the Republicans would win politically in the end if they did the moral thing.
But, is 'winning in the end' the most important thing today? Well, sadly I guess it is.
'Doing the right thing' may not be.
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