Wolfson Report ordered by Jeb Bush
I'll post it(22nd time) but you will have to tear yourself away from terri.org to read it. The facts seem to matter little to those who would have insisted on torturing her by force feeding her for however long they could have kept her breathing.
BTW, the Schindlers also said that if infection necessitated amputation of all her limbs that they would be prepared to do so AND then perform open heart surgery on her to keep her alive...all this even if they knew doing so would be against her wishes.
Well! No condescension there. Hey, wizeazz, didn't I not ask you for a source?
The facts seem to matter little to those who would have insisted on torturing her by force feeding her for however long they could have kept her breathing.
If Terri was like a "houseplant" -- as Felos is widely quoted as having likened her -- it wouldn't be "torture," would it? And you have left untouched my point about the fact that Michael was ignoring Terri's wishes himself for years on end -- years that ended, of course, after the money came in. That fact is undeniable, even if you are on Michael's side.
I have read most of Wolfson's report (which should have had footnotes so we could read his references ourselves and not be held hostage to HIS prejudices, some of which can be read below), and the part that addresses amputation reads as follows:
Who was it that "elicited agreement" regarding the hypothetical situations? Obviously, that would be an advocate of Michael Schiavo's, wouldn't it? So Michael's attorney -- be it Felos or whomever -- asked the Schindlers essentially at what point they were willing to give up, and were offered a laundry list of scenarios that would make them agree to leave their daughter to die.
Throughout the course of the litigation, deposition and trial testimony by members of the Schindler family voiced the disturbing belief that they would keep Theresa alive at any and all costs. Nearly gruesome examples were given, eliciting agreement by family members that in the event Theresa should contract diabetes and subsequent gangrene in each of her limbs, they would agree to amputate each limb, and would then, were she to be diagnosed with heart disease, perform open heart surgery. There was additional, difficult testimony that appeared to establish that despite the sad and undesirable condition of Theresa, the parents still derived joy from having her alive, even if Theresa might not be at all aware of her environment given the persistent vegetative state. Within the testimony, as part of the hypotheticals presented, Schindler family members stated that even if Theresa had told them of her intention to have artificial nutrition withdrawn, they would not do it. Throughout this painful and difficult trial, the family acknowledged that Theresa was in a diagnosed persistent vegetative state.
Like I said, it would have been helpful if Wolfson had provided a searchable reference to a court document that would explicitly show what questions were asked to "elicit agreement," especially since he non-objectively referred to the Schindlers' response as "disturbing." Unfortunately, absent that, we have to go to more convenient sources, like Terrisfight.org, whom, to my knowledge, hasn't been accused of creating court documents from whole cloth.
Wolfson did, however, note that when Schiavo asked Terri's urinary infection not to be treated, it was hospital administration that refused him -- not the Schindlers' action, as said before, since Schiavo was, at this point, keeping the Schindlers in the dark regarding Terri's condition and medical records.