Posted on 01/29/2006 10:06:22 AM PST by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON - Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, who took a leading role in the Terry Schiavo case, said Sunday it taught him that Americans do not want the government involved in such end-of-life decisions.
Frist, considered a presidential hopeful for 2008, defended his call for further examinations of the brain-damaged Florida woman during the last days of a bitter family feud over her treatment. Schiavo was in a persistent vegetative state.
The case became a rallying point for right-to-life advocates, an important segment of the Republican Party. It also drew interest from those supporting the right to refuse life-sustaining medical treatment and led to charges that the GOP was using a family tragedy for political gain.
Asked on NBC's "Meet the Press" if he had any regrets regarding the Schiavo case, Frist said: "Well, I'll tell you what I learned from it, which is obvious. The American people don't want you involved in these decisions."
Schiavo, 41, died March 31, nearly two weeks after her feeding tube was removed and 15 years after her initial collapse and hospitalization. Courts in Florida had supported her husband's contention that she would not want to live in such a state. Her parents and siblings disagreed and for years fought efforts to remove her feeding tube.
An autopsy later showed that Schiavo had suffered severe, irreversible brain damage and was blind.
Frist, R-Tenn., said in the full Senate that he supported what he called "an opportunity to save Mrs. Schiavo's life." A heart surgeon, Frist had viewed video ordered by a court and taken by a board-certified neurologist who had concluded she was not in a persistent vegetative state.
Congress passed a bill to allow a federal court to review the case, and President Bush quickly returned from his Texas ranch to sign the bill into law. But a federal judge refused to order the tube reinserted, a decision upheld by a federal appeals court and the Supreme Court.
Frist was later mocked as having made a diagnosis from his office using a video screen. "I didn't make the diagnosis," Frist said Sunday. "I raised the question of whether or not she was in a persistent vegetative state."
Looking back, Frist said, "When you're taking innocent life, with parents who want that life preserved, you've got to make sure, and therefore stepping in to say, let's take one more review, that's what we did."
He added: "I accept the outcome. I don't agree with the moral sense of it."
Frist plans to leave the Senate when his second term expires in January 2007. He said Sunday he will return to his home in Tennessee and decide whether to seek the Republican nomination for president.
Okay, then. Are you for natural death or assisted suicide? Anything other than natural death falls into the latter category.
Before modern medicine her heart attack would of killed her.
Jolly right.
Courts can be wrong.
In 1894, French Captain Alfred Dreyfus was tried for high treason and sentenced to life imprisonment in total isolation on Devil’s Island, off the coast of the peal colony of French Guiana. It took many years for the truth to be known.Dreyfus was totally innocent of the crime and false evidences had been used to convict him.
I go by the dictionary definition that represents thousands of years of accepted tradition. What definition do you go by? Hospices' and the right to die's cabal? A definition that is defined by one's personal or organization's definition?
from Merriam Webster's definition of life:
- a. the quality that distinguishes a vital and functional being from a dead body b : a principle or force that is considered to underlie the distinctive quality of animate beings,
I thought it turned out that she didn't have a heart attack (according to tests that were administered.)
Terri didn't have a heart attack.
Leave my life alone. That's all I ask. You can do whatever the hell you want with yours, but don't you dare come intruding on mine.
That should help you understand who I am.
Have a good evening.
Well, than I suggest you don't commit suicide. What's that gotta do with anything?
I think that both of you are correct, in that, the matter of end of life issues, is much larger than the case of Terri Shiavo...one reason being, that there is even immense disagreement as to whether Terri was at the end of her life, or not...whether she was cognizant or not...whether she was in a PVS or not...the disagreements could go on indefinitely, which is shown by how long these threads have gone on...
But the matter of end of life issues, aside from Terri Shiavo is interesting...in my own case, both of my parents, at the end of their life, wanted nothing done for them...no vents, no feeding tubes, no CPR, no extraordinary means(and for each person, the term, 'extraordinary' means is defined differently...in my parents case, what they meant, spelled out in writting, that nothing, absolutely nothing was to be done for them at the end of their lives, short of pain meds to keep them comfortable, should they need them...
Yet, on FR, I have been called an 'accomplice to murder', because I refused to forcibly, and against their will, to have a feeding tube, surgically inserted into them...when my dad was cognizant enough to refuse having a feeding tube, one of his own doctors tried to force me to override his wishes, and force him to have a feeding tube inserted...I sent that particular doctor off the case, as it became obvious, that he was trying to force his 'religious' view on my father, rather than respecting my dads own wishes for his last few weeks of life...my dad was going to die within a few weeks, and he had ceased to eat much....he ate and drank when he felt like it...and when he chose, he refused to eat and drink...this doctor was not satisfied with my dads own wishes, and so he sought to coerce both my father and myself...
My dad had a right to die as he chose....it was even in writing...I had a duty to abide by his wishes...this doctor thought his wishes were above everyone elses, and he sought to have his wishes carried out...But here on FR, there were some who chastized me for my actions, called me an 'accomplice to murder', and said that I was wrong, that I should have forced my dad to have a surgery he did not want, to insert the feeding tube, and that he should be fed against his will...
My dad died as he wished...he was not force to endure an unwanted surgery, he was not force fed, and he received enough pain meds to sustain him in a relatively pain free environment, until his moment of death came...
Now, granted, everyone who saw my dad in the last stages of cancer, understood that certainly he was at the end of his life....I see no such agreement on Terri Shiavos state...people are all over the place on just exactly what her medical status was...some experts say one thing, other experts say another thing...
But this issue certainly is much more than just the case of Terri Shiavo, and it is an issue which all of us have to face one of these days...possibly for our loved ones, certainly for ourselves..
I myself, as well as my husband, have already decided what we do and do not want...our sole remaining son knows our wishes as well...I certainly dont want the govt. barging into my family decisions on this, one of the most important issues of our lives..
I always appreciate your point of view.
I agree.
Everyone agrees Terri was not dying.
If she was dying, Michael Felos, and Greer would not have needed to kill her.
Thanks...sometimes I wonder if its wise to post this, but would like to try to get the conversation onto the whole general topic of end of life issues, rather than dwelling only on the Terri Shiavo case, as all of us will face end of life issues sooner or later...and as I just entered my 60s not that long ago, my end of life issues will be coming up sooner, rather than later, and its something I do ponder...
Well, we'll keep tryin' to widen the subject.
I agree it's vitally important.
I understand what you are saying...but what I am asking, must every single discussion about end of life issues, dwell on Terri Schiavo?..Is it possible to discuss end of life issues, without talking about Terri Schiavo?
See my post #258...I asked a direct question....I will ask it again...can we discuss end of life issues, without necessarily talking about Terri Shiavo?
I believe it.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.