Posted on 06/22/2005 8:06:02 PM PDT by Tumbleweed_Connection
"Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last?" asked Joseph Welch in his famous confrontation with the pathologically cruel Joe McCarthy. "Have you left no sense of decency?"
More than a half-century later, I would ask the same question of Florida's governor, Jeb Bush.
In an abuse of power that has been widely denounced, and has even appalled many of his own supporters in the Republican Party, Governor Bush has tried to keep the Terri Schiavo circus alive by sending state prosecutors on a witch hunt against her husband, Michael.
The state attorney who has been pushed by the governor into pursuing this case told me yesterday he has seen nothing to indicate that a crime was committed. Nevertheless, the inquiry continues.
Governor Bush asked Bernie McCabe, the state attorney for Pinellas County, to "take a fresh look" at this already exhaustively investigated case to determine, among other things, whether Michael Schiavo had perhaps waited too long to call for help after discovering that his wife had collapsed early one morning 15 years ago.
Mr. McCabe did not seem particularly enthusiastic about his mission. "I wouldn't call it an investigation," he told me in a telephone conversation. The word "investigation," he said, "is a term of art in my business."
He then explained: "When I conduct an investigation, it would mean that I have a criminal predicate. In other words, that I have some indication that a crime has occurred. That's my job...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
The point being that you really do have to be much more specific than what you wrote. Otherwise you rely on other folk's opinions, and some people are just downright malevolent.
Bet he would ~ and there's a chance he'd do it before she got the chance to even walk in with the water.
So, what say you "softwarecreator"? What are your "absolute", as opposed to "general" limits in this?
I trust my husband's and my family's judgement on whether I am recoverable or not, but thank you for your concern.
The living will I posted is humor, btw.... For the real version I think we'll take out the part about pizza. I don't really like pizza and may go a long time without asking for it. ;~D
If a patient is unable to swallow and hasn't been fed by mouth for years, I'd certainly hope anyone would stop someone from doing something as idiotic as trying to pour water down her throat.
I bet you think there are entirely too many folks with an incorrect religious viewpoint at those sources, right?
"The doctor who performed the bone scan wrote that "the patient has had trauma. "
Uh... Doctor's don't perform Bone scans - technicians do the scans. Little point, but if the simple ones are screwed up, who can trust the more complicated ones ?
I believe the doctor who interpreted her scans found things that COULD be evidence of trauma, but he left himself "outs" by adding a few lines that say they COULD be other things also. He explained this in court.
BTW, the word "trauma" itself does not signify abuse.
From now on, I want you to not jump to conclusions and pass judgment on people on this website when you are not well informed yourself.
Sorry you failed to detect the subtle distinction, but 'ems 'a facts!
Giving you 2 hours, and out!
Did you come up with anything on that issue?
Why? You think it might kill her?
How about putting it on a damp cloth & touching her lips?
I don't expect you to even give me two hours.... I'm not married to you and am not seeking your assistance in my medical treatment.
See... that's my point. I want people who don't know me from Adam to butt out of my medical life.
To try to pour water down the throat of a person who is at best barely cognitive, let alone someone who is completely vegetative and shown not to be able to handle it is the utmost in irresponsible grandstanding. The people arrested trying to bring her bottled water are loons who wouldn't have the first clue how to give her that water without drowning her if they had gotten in. No, you are not allowed near anyone I care about to make a fanatical display.
I'm not going to humor any more talk of it being a serious idea, or something that any doctor would recommend.
Presuming there's economic utility in your further survival or your early demise, count on me cheering you on, one way or the other.
Huh?
Their religious beliefs are irrelevant. It is their grasp of the facts, and their willingness to play fast-and-loose with them, which are problematic.
To the degree your passing involves the use of money issued by my government, or the public roads, or the protection of title afforded by our courts, or any other number of things, I have a right to be concerned for your welfare.
It's their religion ~ just as I guessed.
I am not a lawyer. This opinion of the Schindler's original counsel was related to me by a lawyer acquaintance of mine.
I'm not talking about the people in the crowd and I'm not talking about pouring it down her throat. I'm talking about her mother who was not even allowed to try it let her sip water or allowed to wet her lips.
That was pointless cruelty to the mother, and I believe to Terri as well.
If Shiavo was certain his wife was vegetative and wanted death he could have allowed that out of simple kindness to the mother and he still would have gotten what he wanted. He could have asked a nurse to supervise it.
But he didn't. Why? Suppose Terri actually drank the water? Some nurses apparently think she would have. But we will never know.
Oh, lying and libel are part of their religion? I didn't realize that, and thank you for the clarification.
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