Posted on 09/07/2003 1:17:49 PM PDT by MarMema
The following is from a website that fights the euthanasia movement:
http://www.internationaltaskforce.org/iua27.htm
International Task Force on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide
Update Year 2003, Volume 17, Number 1
Special report
The fight to save Terri Schiavo’s lifeIt’s not a new story: family members’ battling in court over whether a brain-damaged relative should be starved and dehydrated to death. But the fact that this scenario has been played out before in no way diminishes the significant danger the current Terri Schiavo case poses to all cognitively disabled patients.
In the past, these Update pages have reported on two other similar cases—the Robert Wendland and the Michael Martin court battles. [See Wendland: Update, 11-12/97; 2001, #1; 2002, #1. Martin: Update, 5-6/93; 9-10/93; 7-8/94; 9-10/95.] Both the Wendland case in California and the Martin case in Michigan dealt with wives wanting to withdraw food and fluids from their brain-damaged husbands, while mothers and sisters fought to save their sons/brothers’ lives. Neither man was in a persistent or permanent vegetative state. Both could respond to simple commands. Ultimately, the judges in these cases, while sympathetic to the wives’ arguments, found no clear and convincing evidence to support the spouses’ claims that their husbands would not want to continue living. Given that lack of evidence, the judges expressed their desire to err, if necessary, on the side of life, and, consequently, ordered that tube-provided food and fluids be maintained. In Terri Schiavo’s case, it’s her husband who wants her life ended, and, thus far, the judge responsible for hearing this case has shown no inclination to "err" on the side of life.
Background
It is not clear what exactly caused Terri to collapse on February 25, 1990. What is clear is that the oxygen supply to her brain was cut off, leaving her permanently brain damaged. The most common theory is that, at the age of 26, Terri had a heart attack brought on by a low potassium level caused by an eating disorder. Another more recent theory suggests she may have suffered a serious neck injury.
Terri’s husband, Michael Schiavo, a respiratory therapist and nurse, recounted that he had awakened at 5 a.m. and saw Terri collapse to the floor. Her heart had stopped beating, and her brain was without oxygen for about five minutes. [St. Petersburg Times, 1/30/00]Almost three years later, a jury awarded Terri approximately $700,000 for her on-going medical care in a malpractice suit filed by Michael against her doctor. The case rested on the fact that her gynecologist neglected to diagnose her low potassium level even after having her blood tested. The same jury also awarded $300,000 to Michael for loss of companionship. Ironically, during that trial Michael’s attorney, Glenn Woodworth, showed a video of Terri, and argued that, even though she was in a "vegetative state," "you can tell she has some sense of her predicament." He also pointed out to the jury that "[on the film] she knows her husband and looks into his eyes." [St. Petersburg Times, 11/12/92, 1/25/00]
But not long after the successful malpractice suit, Michael, Terri’s legal guardian, decided it was time to take her off life support and refuse antibiotics for infection. Since Terri was not on a ventilator or any other high-tech life support system, that meant withdrawing all her tube-provided food and fluids. The result: certain death by dehydration within one to two weeks. Terri’s parents, Robert and Mary Schindler, vehemently opposed Michael’s decision.
Michael & the Schindlers go to courtThe battle over Terri’s care, or lack of it, ended up in the courtroom of Pinellas County Circuit Court Judge George Greer, who conducted a hearing in January 2000. Michael sought the court’s permission to stop Terri’s tube feeding, arguing that, prior to her brain damage, Terri had told him that she would not want to be kept on life support. Terri’s parents said that Michael never mentioned that Terri didn't want life support until after the malpractice settlement and that, with further treatment, her condition could improve.
Judge Greer appointed attorney Richard Pearse, Jr., to study the case and recommend a solution. Pearse’s report questioned Michael’s credibility, pointing out that he had stopped pursuing treatment for Terri only after the malpractice award. If Terri died, Pearse concluded, Michael would inherit the $700,000 and be legally free to marry a woman he‘d been engaged to for four years. If he divorced Terri, he would lose any claim to the $700,000. Michael’s attorney, George Felos, countered that Pearse was personally biased against the removal of feeding tubes and that the reason Michael had not filed for divorce was that he didn’t want the Schindlers to have the authority to keep Terri on life support. [St. Petersburg Times, 1/26/00]
On February 11, 2000, Judge Greer ruled that—in spite of the fact that Terri left no written evidence or advance directive indicating a wish to forego life support—Michael could order all food and fluids withheld from Terri starting on March 12. Greer later changed the target date until after the Schindlers had exhausted all appeals.
Litigation nightmare
Since Judge Greer’s ruling, the Schindlers’ determination to save their daughter’s life has been matched at every step by Michael’s resolve to end her life. Each appeal filed by the Schindlers was met with petitions and appeals by Michael. And it soon became apparent that Judge Greer’s bias was clearly with Michael. (See the Timeline on page 2 for details.)
A bright point for the Schindlers during this litigation nightmare came on October 17, 2001, when the 2nd District Court of Appeals approved their request to have Terri examined by independent doctors and ordered Judge Greer to hold an evidentiary hearing on the doctors’ findings. Michael’s subsequent appeals to stop the medical exams were denied by the Appellate Court on November 1, 2001, and by the Florida Supreme Court on March 14, 2002. At issue then and now is whether Terri is truly in a persistent vegetative state (PVS). If she isn’t, according to Florida law, she cannot be starved and dehydrated to death. [www.terrisfight.org; World Net Daily, 11/1/02]
The hearingThe Appellate Court authorized that five medical experts—two selected by Michael, two by the Schindlers, and one by Judge Greer—examine Terri to determine her condition and whether any treatment would be of benefit. It had been quite a while since she had received any treatment, and, according to the Schindlers, she had regressed significantlly. Prior to 1993, Terri was in rehabilitation and had improved to the point of being able to say "yes," "no," and "stop that." But that was the year Michael stopped her therapy and began moving her to different facilties, finally placing her in a hospice for dying patients. "She hasn’t had her teeth cleaned in 10 years, a mammogram, or therapy," her father explained. "She was thrown into a room and left to die." [World Net Daily, 12/1/02; Courier Times, 10/6/02]
On the first day of the hearing, the court viewed a recent videotape of Terri in which she smiled when she heard her mother’s voice, reacted when she saw her mother, and even followed a doctor’s instruction to open and close her eyes and to turn her head in specific directions. [Palm Beach Post, 10/13/02] Video clips of Terri’s clear interaction with her mother were later shown on WFTS, the ABC News affiliate in Tampa, prompting the news anchor to say on the air, "I guess it seems a matter of semantics, but it doesn’t look like a coma." [S. Drake, Not Dead Yet Server List, 10/14/02]
Yet despite the video, the two doctors solicited by Michael and his attorney, George Felos, a euthanasia advocate, testified that Terri was PVS and there was no hope of improvement. The two physicians chosen by the Schindlers concluded that Terri was not PVS and could still improve with treatment. As expected, the tie breaker, the neurologist appointed by Judge Greer, sided with Michael.
One of Michael’s "experts" was Ronald Cranford, a Minnesota neurologist who makes it his business to testify at high profile "right to die" cases, always in support of death. He even refers to himself as "Dr. Humane Death." In addition to testifying that Terri was PVS—and discounting Terri’s interaction with her mother on the video as an "involuntary subcortical response," not recognition—Cranford also told the court that PVS patients and the unconscious in general lack "personhood" and consequently have no constitutional rights. [Naples Daily News, 10/22/02; World Net Daily, 11/1/02; Ragged Edge Online, Issue 6, 2002]
Judge Greer issues death sentence
There wasn’t much about this latest hearing that was surprising, and that includes the judge’s ruling. On November 22, 2002, Judge Greer once again ordered that all Terri’s food and fluids be withdrawn. "Viewing all the evidence as a whole," the Judge wrote, "and acknowledging that medicine is not a precise science, the court finds that the credible evidence overwhelmingly supports the view that Terry [sic] Schiavo remains in a persistent vegetative state." [Order, Schiavo v. Schindler, No. 90-2908-GD-003 (FL. Cir. Ct. Nov. 22, 2002)] In his ruling, Judge Greer set Terri’s execution date: January 3, 2003, at 3:00 p.m. He later stayed that date, saying that Terri needed to be kept alive until the Appellate Court reviews the Schindlers’ appeal. [AP, 12/13/02; CNN, 12/13/02] Oral arguments for that appeal are scheduled for April 4, 2003.
Question of abuse surfaces
During the hearing, one of the doctors testified that Terri had a "suspiciously rigid neck," and that the only other time he had seen this in a cardiac arrest patient was in a case of an attempted strangulation. This testimony prompted Pat Anderson, the Schindlers’ attorney, to reexamine Terri’s medical records. Among those records was a report on a total-body scan performed on Terri in 1991, 13 months after she collapsed. The scan showed that Terri had fractures of the first lumbar vertebra as well as several thoracic vertebrae, fractures of both sacroiliac joints and both knees and ankles, multiple rib fractures, and a compression fracture of her thigh. Doctors who reviewed the scan and the report concluded that she had a history of severe physical abuse. "Somebody worked her over real good," one physician said. Terri’s records also indicate that her progress in rehabilitation was hampered by "ossification" or "bone matter that forms around fractures," which indicates that the fractures were not fresh. [World Net Daily, 11/13/02; Tampa Tribune, 11/13/02; St. Petersburg Times, 11/13/02] Judge Greer denied Anderson’s motion to allow discovery of this body-scan evidence during the hearing. His denial will be one of the issues before the Appellate Court. [www.terrisfight.org] Michael’s attorney called Anderson’s motion "garbage," calling it "rife with unattributed hearsay, rank innuendo and libel." [World Net Daily, 11/14/02]
But during the January 2000 hearing, Terri’s friend and co-worker testified that she frequently saw bruises on Terri and that Terri had said they were from her husband "pinching her." The friend also said that Terri and Michael had had a violent argument on the day Terri collapsed and that she had tried to convince Terri not to stay home that night. Terri ignored her friend’s advice. [World Net Daily, 11/13/02]
What concerns Anderson and the Schindlers is the fact that, just prior to this latest hearing, Michael filed a petition requesting that the malpractice settlement money reserved for Terri’s care be used to pre-pay her cremation and burial costs. [World Net Daily, 11/1/02]
Judge Greer granted the petition, a clear indication of his bias in this case. But, for the Schindlers, the request for a quick cremation coupled with the allegation of abuse "raises many doubts as to what really happened" the night Terri collapsed. [www.terrisfight.org]
And, as for the $700,000 awarded to Terri for her long-term care, it’s almost gone. That’s how Michael has paid for all the legal costs he’s incurred trying to end Terri’s life. [AP, 11/16/02; World Net Daily, 11/1/02; Ragged Edge Online, Issue 6, 2002]
Here is a definition of PVS from an internet site.
"The distinguishing feature of the persistent vegetative state is an irregular but cyclic state of circadian sleep and wake cycles, unaccompanied by any detectable expression of self-awareness (The Multi-Society Task Force on PVS Part 1 1500). Along with maintaining autonomous functions, such as cardiovascular and renal functions, patients in a persistent vegetative state may be aroused by certain stimuli, opening their eyes if they are closed, changing their facial expressions, or even moving their limbs. Furthermore, they can grind their teeth, swallow, smile, shed tears, grunt, moan, or scream without any reason. Their heads and eyes can follow a moving object or move towards a loud sound (Zeman 796). Yet, these responses have been observed in patients in whom careful study has shown no evidence of awareness. Consistent with a persistent vegetative state is a lack of sustained visual pursuit. Although they may move their eyes, patients in a vegetative state neither fixate on a visual object nor track a moving target with their eyes (The Multi-Society Task Force on PVS Part 1 1500-1501). "A circumstance where somebody could have his eyes open and not see, and not look, and not track, and not use his eyes for the purpose of gathering information about their environment...is hard for many people to understand," said Dr. Stell (personal interview). Positron-emission tomographic (PET scan) studies have shown an average of a fifty percent decrease in metabolic activity in the cerebral cortex and cerebellum of patients in a persistent vegetative state (The Multi-Society Task Force on PVS Part 1 1506). Thus, although these patients may exhibit behavior that appears to be the result of conscious thought and reasoning, these behaviors are merely reflexive and do not indicate awareness."
However it is my understanding that this is a new diagnosis and not all the "facts" are in yet.
In a truly wonderful book I am reading, Forced Exits, by Wesley Smith, about this very topic - there are details of cases where people were diagnosed with PVS and families were told to go ahead and starve them. Mistakenly.
Dr. Vincent Fortanasce, a board certified psychiatrist and neurologist, consulted for these cases, sometimes!, says in the book, "Eighty to ninety percent of the cases I see have been improperly diagnosed, often by doctors who are not qualified to make the determination. Unfortunately, that's the real practise in medicine today".
Eighty to ninety percent is a BIG number. How many people are being killed by misdiagnosis?
Formerly associate professor of surgery, anesthesiology and human nutrition at The Ohio State University, Flancbaum told his audience at Shaarey Tikvah that early 20th-century German doctors took the Hippocratic Oath at their medical-school graduations, pledging to work to benefit their patients. "The Germans had ethic," he says. "They were just bad ethics!"
Many of the same ethical issues that emerged during the Holocaust are still with us today, the speaker pointed out. For example, even before the formation of the Third Reich in 1933, German doctors were practicing involuntary sterilization on the insane, mentally retarded and others to control population growth. It's happening today in modern China.
Even before they became Nazis, Germany physicians and scientists believed in eugenics, which relates to the bearing of sound off-spring. They also practiced euthanasia, defined as "an easy and painless death," physician-assisted suicide and human experimentation.
Several myths have cropped up about these practices, he told his audience, which included some Holocaust survivors. One is that only a "few, crazy, incompetent" German physicians and scientists were coerced into performing the deadly concentration-camp experiments on Jews that are so vividly documented in the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. - experiments on twins, on the effects of hypothermia and those done "to propagate and perpetuate Nazi ideology and racial theories."
These physicians were neither few nor incompetent, said Flancbaum. By 1937, not only had more than 45% of all German physicians willingly joined the Nazi Party, but more than 200 of them were voluntarily conducting their "research" in the death camps.
They justified their experiments three ways: to guarantee Hitler's superior race of Aryans: to help defeat the Allies during World War II; or simply to advance their own Nazi careers. Eliminating the 13% of the Jews who were doctors in pre-Hitler Germany undoubtedly helped their careers, Flancbaum noted.
Another myth is that the general German population was unaware of euthanasia. In fact, many German families after World War I saw euthanasia as the most humane way to dispose of the aged and infirm, including their own family members. This national mentality, says Flancbaum, resulted from the German's increasing social tension and xenophobia after World War I.
Soon the German list of "undesirables" grew to include the mentally retarded, alcoholics, homosexuals, political opponents, Gypsies and Jews. "Germans didn't feel they owed humans the same protection as their laboratory animals," Flancbaum charges.
By 1937 the German medical community was practicing wide-scale "racial hygiene," supported by a series of laws that were passed to justify isolating, disenfranchising and eventually killing their unwanted populations.
At the post-war Nuremberg military tribunals, 23 doctors who held senior Nazi army positions were put on trial. Their major defenses were that the "inmates were volunteers," "the victims were going to die anyway," anyone else, including the Japanese,"
Of the 16 doctors who were guilty, seven were hanged and nine received prison terms of 10 years of life but not one served his entire time, Flancbaum added. Seven more were acquitted. Five major figures known to have participated in the Nazi medical experiments on camp inmates escaped and were never tried, including the infamous Dr. Joseph Mengele.
What have we learned? Flancbaum asked. "The challenge for us in medicine today is to remain practitioners of the Hippocratic Oath and not allow it to become a hypocritical oath," Flancbaum maintained. "The biggest example (of this) is what Germans did to Germans.
Pegita/Pennsylvania
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