Where's The Apology? (Bending the Facts on Schiavo)

Washington Post ^ | Friday, June 17, 2005; Page A31 | E. J. Dionne Jr.

[echoBoomer]

...The autopsy in the Terri Schiavo case provides a rare moment of political accountability. We should not "move on," as Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist suggested. No, we cannot move on until those politicians who felt entitled to make up facts and toss around unwarranted conclusions about Schiavo's condition take responsibility for what they said -- and apologize... So the big-government conservatives had to invent a story. They had to insist that they knew, just knew , more about Terri Schiavo's condition than the doctors on the scene. They had to question Michael Schiavo's motives and imply that he wanted to, well, get rid of her...

[Numbers Guy]

Gee, newbie, upset that MoDo's on vacation so had to post EJ Dionne?

[A Balrog of Morgoth]

Am I the only one who is sick of people who are so gleeful in their celebration of the death of Terry Schiavo?

[A Balrog of Morgoth]

E.J. Dionne "writes" another article that is nothing but strawmen and ad hominem attacks.

Ho-hum. SSDD.

[kingu]

Don't care what the doctors said, what I do care about was a judge ordering a person starved to death. I do care that this even made it before a judge. Once it was established who had the ability to make medical calls for her, that should have been the end of the court battle.

I would have much preferred for the family to care for her, I would have preferred better therapies. I find it pretty inexcusable that it wasn't until she had passed away that anyone knew she was blind.

The only apology needed is from the court system for ordering someone's death. The correction needs to be made to the law to prevent this type of case from ever going before a judge again. I've made it pretty clear in my will - if a judge orders my termination, I will my gun collection to the first person who defends my life from murder.

[Pelham]

no

[jimboster]

I gotta agree with E.J. We were wrong on this one and we should apologize. So, in future cases like Schiavo's, we just starve the person to death and then have an autopsy. If it turns out the poor soul's condition could have impoved over time, well, then the other side has to apologize.

[RobbyS]

Dionne is unbalanced. The autopsy finds NO cause for her collapse, including the "bulemia" that was used to make it appear that it was something she did to herself.

[presidentsfriend]

The big lie on this, IMHO is that the majority of the American people sided with the so called husband.Zogby had a poll taken at the time this all went down that showed most Americans sided with Terri`s family(her real family that is,mom,dad sis and bro).The other polls where all bogus just as they always are.The thing is,people are influenced by the phony polls,the phony poll becomes reality.Even the Fox news poll is done by a liberal pollster,not sure how they put it over my guy,Britt Hume???
Anyway my point is....most Americans that had the full story sided with the family and not the ex husband.

[olezip]

Frankly, I would have felt better if the autopsy had been performed by an independent forensic team or teams. As it is I suspect that there may have been sloppy work. How do we know there was not sloppy, incomplete examination of the evidence? Without independent forensic expertise either performing or witnessing and advising, we have learned little more than what we knew before the autopsy was performed. Questions remain IMHO. Opportunity for a more thorough examination has gone up in smoke.

[WhyisaTexasgirlinPA]

Instead of making the hard and morally challenging case for keeping Terri Schiavo on life support, they spun an emotional narrative that they thought would play well on cable TV and talk radio.

If he is so intent on the "facts", why does he say she was on life support? Perhaps he should apologize for that......

[ReadyNow]

Can anybody read a New York Times opinion piece and not laugh?

[digitalbrownshirt]

I agree, and I found it disturbing that her parents weren't allowed to have their own ME there for the autopsy. Their request was denied.

Quite a pun with your last line. I laughed, but felt guilty about it.

[eeriegeno]

Hey EJ! Go suck a lolly with Barney Frank!

Better yet, why not take a drive with Ted up to Chappaquiddick? Or maybe Sheets would welcome you to the next cross burning? Or maybe Hillary would welcome you to the next episode of Slick-does-an-intern?

These democrats are just GD-unbelievable in what they will say and do to promote their party!!! As Howie Dean would say, "YYYYEEEEEEEEEEEEEaRrGGGGhhh"........

[WilliamofCarmichael]

I am glad this clown employee of the W-P is gloating and sticking his neck out.

No one denied that the poor woman had brain damage -- the extent of the damage could have been determined without killing her, BTW. Her family wanted to care for her -- her husband said, no.

Even the report admitted that it could not determine the cause of the original problem -- what caused the problem?! The MSM was completely wrong (lying? spinning and spiking?) about that!

Now, does the governor of Florida have the guts (this time!) to finish what he started. Find out what caused the problem.

[sausageseller]

echoBoomer = troll

[Halls]

I am! I for the life of me can't understand why anyone celebrate's the fact Terri was murdered. It is disgusting!

[ClancyJ]

Good post and we agree on lots of it.

I want to find out how these laws are being changed to determine who has to die. Who in the heck is given the authority to say that one of our family members cannot live but must be "terminated" because of "dead states".

Last I knew plugs were pulled if someone was braindead. Suddenly it is PVS, possible PVS, terminal illness or unrecoverable state. On and on as we go to work and just live our lives.

Some out there are working on laws that provide a way for medical facilities or relatives to kill us. (All under the guize of "peaceful decision making for end of life situations".)

Yeah right. It is killing for the benefits of others.

[sausageseller]

Cat got your tongue. It is about time you made some replies!