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.
Sure. But, consider...... about 11 paragraphs, in the article up above, refer to Terri.
I think the article has only one paragraph that doesn't refer to the Schiavo case.
I understand that..but it has more far reaching implications...I guess you dont want to discuss those...The matter of Terri Schiavo is the only thing to be discussed, right?
Yes, Terri Shiavo is mentioned in this article...but it must be admitted, often there are threads discussing something completely unrelated to Terri Shiavo, and yet, someone will start trying to introduce the matter of Terri
Schiavo into the discussion, and usually meets with complete failure, because simply the thread is not about her...This is not as blatantly the case here, but there are other issues to be discussed, issues of end of life matters, without the mention of Terri Schiavo...
I can read as well as anyone, and comprehend as well as anyone...and, the article also concluded with the mentioning that people dont want the govt sticking their noses into end of life decisions...that should be up for discussion as well..
Guess it wont be tho, this thread should be about nothing but Terri Schiavo....
This article is almost all about Terri. Perhaps a more general article about euthanasia and end-of-life issues could be posted, to start another thread. There would be more material to work with, then.
If he learned that, then he didn't learn what this American was saying.
I didn't read you yet, but I wanted to say HI THERE,DEAR! It's good to see you again!
Going back to read you now.
It will be my decision, as it was my fathers, and if you don't like it go f*** yourself!
>>>
Wrong, and while you're right I can't save you from your own homicidal urges, I'll gladly have you arrested if you try it on anyone else. Just as I would any other person who tried to kill the innocent.
Get a grip...no need to shout and color your words in red...unimpressive...
Tho perhaps you are correct...since you cannot discuss the matter of end of life issues, without bringing up Terri Schiavo, then perhaps your suggestion is a good one...except for one thing....if the thread would be posted as a general thread about end of life issues, surely within just a few posts, Terris name would be brought up, the Terri ping list would be alerted, and soon enough the whole discussion would turn again to Terri....
What would be informative, would be a general thread about end of life issues, with people relaying how they dealt with this in their own lives, with their own loved ones, and how they hope to deal with it in their very own end of life decisions...this would be interesting and informative, if it could be kept on track, for what it was...
I certainly meant no offense, tho it seems as if some was taken...I just thought there could be some more general end of life discussions taking place..
Nice to see you as well...
It has been discussed. It has been discussed more on this thread than in the article, I'd guess.
Often there are threads discussing something completely unrelated to Terri Shiavo,
I don't think this thread should be required to "do penance" for all the other threads that "sinned."
It has more far reaching implications.
Of course it does. Maybe someone can post an article that would be a good jumping off point and start a more general thread.
Well then, the simplest solution is for you to discuss Terri Schiavo, and I will just discuss the more far reaching implications of govt intrusion on end of life matters, with just those posters who are interested in such...in that way, we both can discuss what we wish to, with those that we wish to...and all are happy...
What does this have to do with homeland security ?
What an awful trauma to have to go through with that doctor. It is hard enough to stand firm in carrying out a parent's wishes when you don't have to fight really hard.
I have had the same experience with my Grandma and my parents. At least I didn't have to fight with the doctors.
The pain we go through watching, and holding our parents as they go to heaven is hard enough...
Which of those courts actually revisited the case?
Many who saw her, in person, say otherwise.
What really blew me away about this doctor tho, is that he tried to coerce me and my dad, claiming on some sort of religious grounds, that my dad 'HAD' to have the feeding tube inserted....a couple of years later, this same doctor was arrested for Medicare Fraud...my aunt sent me the newspaper articles from the local paper where she and my parents lived...it was all a big scandal...apparently this doctor had been double billing the govt for years on all hs medicare patients...
He was my mom and dads GP, to whom they went just for general health care...thankfully, when they became really ill, he with cancer, and she with Alzheimers, they went to the specialists...this GP was called in by the specialists only as a courtesy...
So this GP, seem to find on religious grounds that my dad must have the feeding tube inserted, but I guess the same GP found nothing in his religion admonishing him from stealing money from the govt, in the form of double billing...
I hope he went to jail...
Many in this debate have said a lot of things that are untrue. That's why I'm not debating it any more.
I'm sorry, I guess it is a Schiavo thread and not a "Frist reconsiders his earlier position about government involvement" thread.
We do need to to discuss the wider subject, but it's so hard when it always turns to Terri.
And then people are calling other people names...
You have a good evening, too. I think it's my bedtime.
Which case would you like to discuss? You could start a thread about it.
Not tonight, dear.
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