Posted on 09/21/2003 12:13:53 PM PDT by pc93
Terri's Call to Action Part 1 is over 5000 posts. If you don't want to get caught up to speed at Part 1:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/971896/posts?q=1&&page=5167#5167
Simply visit Terri's official web site at:
http://www.terrisfight.org
There are contact numbers at her web site for her core media team, legislators, media and for press updates.
See flash movies of Terri interacting with her mother, responding to a physician and see for yourself that she's not in PVS "persistant vegetative state").
In addition to access a text file with a lot of information see:
http://bellsouthpwp.net/p/c/pc93/FedCourtDktCaseNo8_03-cv-1860-T-26TGW.txt
If you want to join Terri's fight, it's important for us to CONTACT BUREAUCRATS, THE MEDIA and also your friends and family. It's up to you how you choose to Help Terri.
Pinellas Pasco Judge Greer set October 15, 2003 at 2:00 p.m. for her feeding tube to be removed. There's something wrong with Florida's exit protocols and the way the courts handle new information re: criminality (misrepresentation, attempted murder, etc.) affecting a case. There was no living will, only the assertion of a very suspect, so-called husband, his brother, etc. that Terri would not want to live on life support. Terri is not on life support, she is not comatose or PVS and she is not living "artificially". She does get sustenance from a feeding tube but only because she has been denied rehabilitation by her so-called husband after he won a malpratice lawsuit three years after her collapse (cause unknown but probably due to strangulation or physical abuse, or both) which is why Terri needs an army of supporters to spread her story from coast to coast. Terri has retained rights that are being sidestepped because she is disabled and has been denied rehabilitation! The technologies of rehabilitation have greatly improved exponentially yet Judge Greer has not let Terri have a chance to learn to eat or to be able to learn to speak/communicate again. Also new information bearing on the case which shows criminality on husband's side has not been considered by the 2nd District Court of Appeals who handed down Mandate for termination of Terri's feeding based upon testimony of criminal husband and brother as above stated. Who is next?
Let's make a difference! Thank you for your efforts.
Having read excerpts of the book the attorney wrote, the one who represented her parents in having her killed....he spoke in one part about seeing Nancy for the first time and being shocked to see her eyes open and her apparent "life".
Just a few nights ago I found article after article in the NEJM about how to help kill these people ( my words) when they look so alive. All of these discussions about how to get past the hurdle of the victims themselves looking so alive to others.
It seems to me that since that time, they have come up with their approach. I call it the "empty shell" approach. It's the thing you hear over and over from the right to kill movement, about how the person looks alive but really that is just a shell of a person there. Christine's father used it over and over again in public.
To seal that approach in time, the attorney I spoke of above, in case you didn't know, wrote a book about killing Nancy subtitled the deaths of Nancy Cruzan. Deaths, plural. And apparently on her gravestone they have three dates, her birthdate, the date she "really" died in the accident, and the date they killed her with dehydration.
These people just make me ill. To think of that poor woman looking forward to her can of food, and what they did to her, makes me want to cry.
Lord, can there be any better description of evil than the things that are happening, have happened in these stories? If this is routine now, what is ahead of us?
What Really Happened with Nancy Cruzan
Misunderstanding #1: Medical experts agree that Nancy was in a persistent vegetative state.
Fact: Two physicians testified that Nancy was not in a persistent vegetative state. Also, four nurses testified that Nancy interacted with and responded to them.
Misunderstanding #2: Nancy Cruzan was terminally ill.
Fact: A terminal condition is an incurable condition caused by injury or illness that reasonable medical judgment finds would cause death imminently. No one ever testified that Nancy's case was terminal. In fact, it was expected that she would live an average life span with continued care.
Misunderstanding #3: Nancy Cruzan could never have been fed orally.
Fact: Following her accident Nancy was spoonfed soft foods such as mashed potatoes, bananas, eggs and drinking juice. The initial reason for inserting a feeding tube into her abdomen was "to make her long-term care easier." It is acknowledged that as time passed her ability to take food and liquids orally would have diminished.
Misunderstanding #4: Nancy Cruzan was being kept alive by state-of-the-art technology.
Fact: The idea of feeding by tube directly into the abdomen was first suggested by a physician in 1790. The first insertion of a feeding tube into the abdomen was in 1845. The first serviceable feeding tube for continued care was invented in 1856. In short, the technology had been around for over 100 years.
Misunderstanding #5: Nancy's care was excessively expensive, invasive and painful.
Fact: The cost of Nancy's liquified food was $7.80 per day. The cost of caring for Nancy at the Missouri Rehabilitation Center was about $120,000 of state money. It would also have been possible for Nancy to be cared for at home. Though a Kangaroo Pump was used at the Center to pump the food into her abdomen it generally is not needed. Cans of liquified food can be purchased at a pharmacy without prescription. It can be shaken and poured into a dispensing container or bag. That could easily have been fed into the abdomen by gravity without the use of a pump. With regular turning in bed to prevent bed sores Nancy could have been cared for at home.
Misunderstanding #6: Nancy could only have been cared for in a medical facility.
Fact: The previous information reveals this not to be true. In fact, other patients in similar conditions are currently being cared for at home. Family members are trained to administer the food, turn the patient and attend to the hygiene concerns.
Misunderstanding #7: Nancy showed no indications of being aware of her surroundings.
Fact: Testimony given in court hearings revealed that Nancy was able to hear and see, she smiled at amusing stories, she cried at times when visitors left, she appeared to attempt to form words, and she experienced pain from menstrual cramps. In a PBS documentary on the case, Nancy's father, Joe Cruzan, acknowledged that Nancy was aware of when the nurse opened her can of food.
Misunderstanding #8: No one had accepted the premise that Nancy was alive.
Fact: Joe Cruzan stated in a March 31, 1989 interview, "My daughter died six years ago and the state will not let us have a funeral." The Missouri State Supreme Court, however, refused the request to stop feeding stating, "...This is not a case in which we are asked to let someone die...This is a case in which we are asked to allow the medical profession to make Nancy die by starvation and dehydration."
Misunderstanding #9: The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Nancy should die because her life lacked quality.
Fact: The U.S. Supreme Court did not wrestle with the issues of quality of life or with whether guardians had the right to make the decision to remove nutrition and hydration from the patient. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that if sufficient evidence was found that it was Nancy's wish not to continue living with tube feeding then nutrition and hydration could be withdrawn. The Cruzan family found witnesses who claimed to have personal knowledge that such was Nancy's wish. Even though no written documentation could be found that this was her wish, a lower court granted the request to cease administering nutrition and hydration based on the testimony of the witnesses.
On Friday, December 14, 1990, the order came to cease administering nutrition and hydration (food and water) to Nancy. Death came 12 days later on December 26th. Nancy died at the age of 33.
"The definition of "terminal" now would allow insulin, for example, to be removed from the treatment of a diabetic because the diabetic "would die without it." Since any diabetic will die without insulin, he is ipso facto, "terminal," and thus insulin can legally be withheld."
I encourage everyone to find their state prolife site, if you have not yet, and educate yourself, in advance.
Further, don't you think we should also email Howard Troxler of the Times so he knows how OUTRAGED we are at the hate speech in his paper?
I know the pro-diers ignore all logic. But I wish they could see that, if they choose to see her body as an empty shell, then they should agree she is not suffering while being kept alive.
If they say that she is suffering by being kept alive, then they should agree that she will suffer while being dehydrated
The idea that it would be "merciful" to kill a "not-even-there-patient", is ridiculous. The would be like their saying, "I am going to put this damaged apple out of its misery." A damaged apple has no misery.
In other words, she does not need to be "mercifully" released from her body, if "she" isn't there.
Nancy's family couldn't seem to make up their minds about whether she was already dead when she was in the hospital. One minute they say she "She would have been X years old." Then they correct themselves and say, "She is X years old." (I can see making that kind of mistake but their muddled thinking gets worse)
One time her father said he was glad she was finally released to heaven and another time he said she was already there for quite a while Yet another time he expressed uncertainty about whether there is an afterlife.
The pro-euthanasia folks get away with talking out of both sides of their mouths.
(I know that using logic to fight them is not the answer, but it bugs me that they can be so two-faced)
How can someone say, "The patient has no consciousness," one minute and argue that the patient needs to "die with dignity" the next?
If Terri is not enough of a "person" to deserve to live, then she is not enough of a "person" to deserve the "privacy" her husband is imposing on her.
Perhaps Felos used his telepathic powers to give Melone some pointers.
Crist's office is doing radio press releases DAILY that he is not involved in the Schiavo case at this time and is still monitoring it.
That is per the news. Please ping the list in case they were confused by disinformation on this thread. I will continue to give breaking updates from local tv and radio that are ACCURATE.
Nice missive to mightily mistaken Ms. Melone about her misrepresentations.
Good point.
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