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Being Had: Another Look at the Death of Terri Schiavo
Breakpoint with Chuck Colson ^ | 6/14/2006 | Chuck Colson

Posted on 06/15/2006 7:44:45 PM PDT by Mr. Silverback

Recently, I told you about Michael Schiavo’s new book, Terri: The Truth. I compared reading the book to “falling down Alice’s rabbit hole and ending up in a new and bizarre world.” This world is “a scary place” where “survival of the fittest” is taken to a whole new level—a world that Christians must never stop fighting against.

Now, I stand by everything that I said about Michael Schiavo’s book, but there’s something that I said about his late wife that I need to take back. I’m embarrassed, not only because of the mistake I made, but also because I was had and should have known better.

In the earlier commentary I said that “the autopsy showed that [Terri] had been brain-dead.” This “finding” did not affect my belief that it was wrong to take her life. My concern from the beginning was with the process we followed and its implications for the sanctity of human life.

My calling Terri “brain-dead” was based on what the media said about the autopsy. For instance, MSNBC began its report this way: “an autopsy on Terri Schiavo backed her husband’s contention that she was in a persistent vegetative state . . .”

Well, I should have known better than to take the media’s word. Terri’s brother, Bobby Schindler, thanked me for the commentary but drew my attention to what the autopsy report actually said.

That report said that there was no evidence that Terri suffered, as had been widely reported, from an eating disorder. The medical examiners were unable to determine what caused the heart attack that left her brain-damaged.

Damaged, not dead. In fact, the autopsy report referred to her receiving morphine, which would not have been necessary if she were brain-dead or in a persistent vegetative state. The report, while it noted “severe brain damage,” said nothing about Terri being in a persistent vegetative state.

What’s more, persistent vegetative state is a clinical diagnosis, made through observation and, as such, is a matter of interpretation. So reports like MSNBC’s were, at best, highly misleading. If she had not been deliberately starved, Terri, in the estimate of the medical examiner, “could have lived easily for another decade . . .”

As bioethicist C. Ben Mitchell puts it, the autopsy confirmed “our worst fears.” Terri didn’t die from any illness but “at the hands of her husband and his lawyers.”

As I said, I’m embarrassed about this mistake, but more than that I am angry. It’s not enough that the legal process sentenced her to death, but the media deliberately or negligently got the circumstances of both her life and her death wrong.

As a result, the “culture of death” has taken several steps forward. Instead of giving life the benefit of the doubt, we are all-too-ready to choose death. As Mitchell said, “Terri Schiavo should be alive today and in the loving embrace of her parents.” Instead, she has become a symbol of the “scary place” our culture is headed: a place where everybody is on the lookout for signs of death, not life. And as for those who defended Terri Schiavo and have been pilloried in the media, well, in the cold light of day, we now know we were right after all.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Editorial; News/Current Events; Philosophy; Politics/Elections; US: Florida
KEYWORDS: breakpoint
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To: Michael Goldsberry

I'm so sorry.


21 posted on 06/15/2006 8:05:24 PM PDT by Mr. Silverback (Try Jesus--If you don't like Him, satan will always take you back.)
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To: Mr. Silverback

Thanks.


22 posted on 06/15/2006 8:08:17 PM PDT by freedom4me ("Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom."--Ben Franklin)
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To: Mr. Silverback
As a result, the “culture of death” has taken several steps forward. Instead of giving life the benefit of the doubt, we are all-too-ready to choose death. As Mitchell said, “Terri Schiavo should be alive today and in the loving embrace of her parents.” Instead, she has become a symbol of the “scary place” our culture is headed: a place where everybody is on the lookout for signs of death, not life.

Beware of cocky, swaggering, know-it-all doctors and nurses (and lawyers like Felos), whose answer for any poor suffering soul is morphine.

23 posted on 06/15/2006 8:12:08 PM PDT by lakey
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To: freedom4me
Not to toot my own horn, but...here's one: Something's Rotten in Pinellas Park (Freeper penned op-ed)
24 posted on 06/15/2006 8:13:55 PM PDT by Mr. Silverback (Try Jesus--If you don't like Him, satan will always take you back.)
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To: A Citizen Reporter
Well, kiss some big behinds, but the one man with the legal authority to stop the murder was Jeb Bush, and even the DeLay lead House gave him the power to do so, indirectly! You sound like part of the journalism apologist crew. A Hemlock Society lawyer and his client, a spouse abuser, were given the power to kill this disabled woman by a Florida Judge who put himself in a position of higher authority than the Governor of the state. THAT is a dirty fact folks don't want to acknowledge and it shows the governor abdicated his authority in a chicken act to avoid the political fallout from the sick media.
25 posted on 06/15/2006 8:13:55 PM PDT by MHGinTN (If you can read this, you've had life support from someone. Promote life support for others.)
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To: T'wit

>> Terri didn’t die from any illness but “at the hands of her husband and his lawyers.”


The truth at last
~~~

That's always been the truth. She didnt "die" either, she was murdered.
We got to watch it. Hope M. Schaivo rots in hell too. Toss in that Judge too.. and the lawyer..souless people.





26 posted on 06/15/2006 8:17:17 PM PDT by Gimme
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To: Mr. Silverback

Thank you for the post & the ping.


27 posted on 06/15/2006 8:17:59 PM PDT by DBeers (†)
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To: MHGinTN
You sound like part of the journalism apologist crew.

Knock it of, M. Some folks just don't see this the way we do. That doesn't mean they don't care about terri. Save your ammo for the fR death apolgists who call us "life fetishists"" because we don't want to watch a woman die of thirst.

28 posted on 06/15/2006 8:18:37 PM PDT by Mr. Silverback (Try Jesus--If you don't like Him, satan will always take you back.)
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To: MHGinTN
You sound like so very many people on this forum, who live to do nothing but lay blame at the Bush family. Your arguments are ridiculous.

YOU sound precisely like the BASH Bush press. But it's what I've observed about many of your posts.

29 posted on 06/15/2006 8:21:19 PM PDT by A Citizen Reporter
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To: Mr. Silverback
What’s more, persistent vegetative state is a clinical diagnosis, made through observation and, as such, is a matter of interpretation.

BAM - as that chef guy would say. It didn't matter, the judge and Michael knew from the start that her condition was based on clinical findings and not a true medical diagnosis. Michael wanted her dead, I suspect on grounds and/or reason of monetary value. He put a price on her "clinical diagnosis" and for diabolic reasons, was determined to see her dead. Pity the poor guy, when he dies he will have much to answer for and no amount of money will buy him out of eternal damnation.

30 posted on 06/15/2006 8:27:48 PM PDT by Gerish (Feed your faith and your doubts will starve to death.)
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To: A Citizen Reporter
You asserted, "But it's what I've observed about many of your posts." You don't know lilies from weeds to assert I'm anti-Bush. LOL! The Bush haters call me a Bushbot ... but I certainly have no respect for Jeb Bush.
31 posted on 06/15/2006 8:30:44 PM PDT by MHGinTN (If you can read this, you've had life support from someone. Promote life support for others.)
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To: Mr. Silverback

What I always found most appalling about her death, was that there was never an adequate investigation into exactly what happened the night of her alleged collapse and that the entire system knuckled under to one potentially abusive husband and near blind probate judge.

Terri never received a fair shake, as far as I'm concerned.


32 posted on 06/15/2006 8:32:04 PM PDT by DakotaRed
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To: MHGinTN
"You don't know lilies from weeds to assert I'm anti-Bush. LOL! The Bush haters call me a Bushbot ... but I certainly have no respect for Jeb Bush.

The heck I don't. Do you think I can't read simple English?

You have no respect, period. And particularly you will never have my respect.

This is an important issue to me, but you lay the blame in the wrong place.

33 posted on 06/15/2006 8:34:15 PM PDT by A Citizen Reporter
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To: thoughtomator
Terri Schiavo was a human sacrifice by the priests of Darwinism.

Are you really this confused?

34 posted on 06/15/2006 8:42:11 PM PDT by Ichneumon (Ignorance is curable, but the afflicted has to want to be cured.)
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To: A Citizen Reporter

Ms. Schiavo's autopsy was performed by one person who may not have been a disinterested party. Zarqawi's autopsy, on the other hand, was performed by two people.


35 posted on 06/15/2006 8:47:44 PM PDT by Tymesup
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To: Michael Goldsberry

if it would make your mother happy to see you happy, and you would be happy to have her around in any state... then you have nothing to cry for...

terry had people willing to care for her... the courts overstepped and an innocent woman died...

that is what one should cry for... keep your mother as long as you can...

teeman


36 posted on 06/15/2006 8:51:46 PM PDT by teeman8r
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To: Mr. Silverback
The question is:

When do you start being a living "human being"....

And

When do you stop being a living "human being"...

Is a physical reality not subject to whim or and arbitrary technicality for lawyer to lose or win?

Because human being's have rights that are not granted by government or laws of men

But if government or laws of men can control and or slide the definition of "living human being"...

Then was we have no right other then what is grated by government or laws of men

Government law parsing definition of who is and is not a living "human being" is a scary way to live

37 posted on 06/15/2006 9:00:48 PM PDT by tophat9000 (If it was illegal French Canadians would La Raza back them? Racist back their race over country)
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To: MHGinTN

Bush did everything legally possible...do you think he is KING of Florida??


38 posted on 06/15/2006 9:02:05 PM PDT by Suzy Quzy ("When Cabals Go Kaboom"....upcoming book on Mary McCarthy's Coup-Plotters.)
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To: Suzy Quzy
@
39 posted on 06/15/2006 9:15:01 PM PDT by MHGinTN (If you can read this, you've had life support from someone. Promote life support for others.)
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To: thoughtomator

Terri Schiavo was a human sacrifice by the priests of Darwinism.

___________________

The true priests were the members of the cult of Scientology who consider anyone not elevated to their status deserving of death.
Michael and his lawyer and, apparently, Judge Greer are members of this macabre cult of death. The sheriff, owners of the nursing home where she was murdered and other bit players are also apparent participants in this grisly barbarity as members of a cult that the Germans have had the sense to ban from their territory.
This was nothing less than a conspiracy by members of a vicious inhumane organization to bring about another death of an innocent young woman. They absolutely must be stopped.


40 posted on 06/15/2006 9:25:28 PM PDT by Louis Foxwell (Here come I, gravitas in tow.)
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