[texasbluebell]

Since Dr Hammesfahr is so controversial, why don't we simply disregard his report.

Let's instead look at what Dr. Cheshire, a Mayo clinic neurologist, had to say, after examining Terri within the past month:

http://www.sbcbaptistpress.org/bpnews.asp?ID=20441

“I believe that, within a reasonable degree of medical certainty, there is a greater likelihood that Terri is in a minimally conscious state than a persistent vegetative state,” William P. Cheshire Jr. wrote, after recently visiting Schiavo for 90 minutes and examining her medical records.

“This distinction makes an enormous difference in making ethical decisions on Terri’s behalf. If Terri is sufficiently aware of her surroundings that she can feel pleasure and suffer, if she is capable of understanding to some degree how she is being treated, then in my judgment it would be wrong to bring about her death by withdrawing food and water.”

(more at link)

[Sweet_Sunflower29]

(Cheshire writes) “To enter the room of Terri Schiavo is nothing like entering the room of a patient who is comatose or brain-dead or in some neurological sense no longer there. As I looked at Terri, and she gazed directly back at me, I asked myself whether, if I were her attending physician, I could in good conscience withdraw her feeding and hydration. No, I could not. I could not withdraw life support if I were asked. I could not withhold life-sustaining nutrition and hydration from this beautiful lady whose face brightens in the presence of others.”

Why, oh why is this not allowed to be taken into consideration?