Same here Saundra. Just checked in here at 4:17pm west coast time....Will go turn on Fox and see what is up. A report anyone???
See post #22....we now have confirmation that it will be rescheduled.
My earlier post had errors. In this episode of "Law and Order" a husband wants to keep a persistent vegetative state wife on life support because he is managing her finances. If she dies, the money goes to her son (his stepson). The parents and son want to end the life support. It's of course more complicated than this, but this is a variation of the Schiavo story.
Sorry....it didn't happen.....I have been told that it is being rescheduled.
Important development regarding Terri Schiavo related cases.
CONSIDERATIONS ON THE SCIENTIFIC AND ETHICAL PROBLEMS RELATED TO VEGETATIVE STATE
http://perso.club-internet.fr/frblin/fiamc/welcome.html#top
Federation Internationale des Associations Medecins Catholiques
World Federation of Catholic Medical Associations
At the end of four days of concentrated study and debate, during the International Congress“Life-Sustaining Treatments and Vegetative State. Scientific Advances and Ethical Dilemmasâ€(Rome 17-20 March, 2004), after we heard the contributions of some of the most prominent scholars and researchers in the field from the perspective of science, anthropology and ethics, and after the deeply inspiring words of the Holy Father John Paul II to the Congress participants, the World Federation of Catholic Medical Associations (FIAMC) intends to present the following statement to the general public:
1) Vegetative State (VS) is a state of unresponsiveness, currently defined as a condition marked by:
a state of vigilance, some alternation of sleep/wake cycles, absence of signs of awareness of self and of surroundings, lack of behavioural responses to stimuli from the environment, maintenance of autonomic and other brain functions.
2) VS must be clearly distinguished from: encephalic death, coma, "locked-in" syndrome, minimally-conscious state.
VS cannot be simply equaled to cortical death either, considering that in VS patients islands of cortical tissue which may even be quite large can keep functioning.
3) In general, VS patients do not require any technological support in order to maintain their vital functions.
4) VS patients cannot in any way be considered terminal patients, since their condition can be stable and enduring.
5) VS diagnosis is still clinical in nature and requires careful and prolonged observation, carried out by specialized and experienced personnel, using specific assessment standardized for VS patients in an optimum controlled environment.
Medical literature, in fact, shows diagnostic errors in a substantially high proportion of cases. For this reason, when needed, all available modern technologies should be used to substantiate the diagnosis.
6) Modern neuroimaging techniques demonstrated the persistence of cortical activity and response to certain kinds of stimuli, including painful stimuli, in VS patients. Although it is not possible to determine the subjective quality of such perceptions, some elementary discriminatory processes between meaningful and neutral stimuli seem to be nevertheless possible.
7) No single investigation method available today allows us to predict, in individual cases, who will recover and who will not among VS patients.
8) Until today, statistical prognostic indexes regarding VS have been obtained from studies quite limited as to number of cases considered and duration of observation. Therefore, the use of adjectives like "permanent" referred to VS should be discouraged, by indicating only the cause and duration of VS.
9) We acknowledge that every human being has the dignity of a human person, without any discrimination based on race, culture, religion, health conditions, or socio-economic conditions. Such a dignity, based on human nature itself, is a permanent and intangible value that cannot depend on specific circumstances of life and cannot be subordinated to anybody's judgment.
We recognize the search for the best possible quality of life for every human being as an intrinsic duty of medicine and society, but we believe that it cannot and must not be the ultimate criterion used to judge the value of a human being's life.
We acknowledge that the dignity of every person can also be expressed in the practice of autonomous choices; however, personal autonomy can never justify decisions or actions against one's own life or that of others: in fact, the exercise of freedom is impossible outside of life.
10) Based on these premises, we feel the duty to state that VS patients are human persons, and, as such, they need to be fully respected in their fundamental rights. The first of these rights is the right to live and to the safeguard of health.
In particular, VS patients have the right to:
-correct and thorough diagnostic evaluation, in order to avoid possible mistakes and to orient rehabilitation in the best way;
-basic care, including hydration, nutrition, warming and personal hygiene;
-prevention of possible complications and monitoring for any possible signs of recovery;
-adequate rehabilitative processes, prolonged in time, favouring the recovery and maintenance of all progress achieved;
-be treated as any other patients with reference to general assistance and affective relationships.
This requires that any decision of abandonment based on a probability judgment be discouraged, considering the insufficiency and unreliability of prognostic criteria available to date.
The possible decision of withdrawing nutrition and hydration, necessarily administered to VS patients in an assisted way, is followed inevitably by the patients' death as a direct consequence. Therefore, it has to be considered a genuine act of euthanasia by omission, which is morally unacceptable.
At the same time, we refuse any form of therapeutic obstinacy in the context of resuscitation, which can be a substantial cause of post-anoxic VS.
11) To the rights of VS patients corresponds the duty of health workers, institutions and societies in general to guarantee what is needed for their safeguard, and the allocation of sufficient financial resources and the promotion of scientific research aimed to the understanding of cerebral physiopathology and of the mechanisms on which the plasticity of the Central Nervous System is based.
12) Particular attention has to be paid to families having one of their members affected by VS. We are sincerely close to their daily suffering, and we reaffirm their right to obtain help from all health workers and a full human, psychological and financial support, which enables them to overcome isolation and feel part of a network of human solidarity.
13) In addition, it is necessary for institutions to organize models of assistance, specialized with reference to the care of these patients (awakening centres and specialized rehabilitation centres), sufficiently spread over the territory. Institutions should also promote the training of competent personnel.
14) VS patients cannot be considered as "burdens" for society; rather, they should be viewed as a "challenge" to implement new and more effective models of health care and of social solidarity.
Gian Luigi Gigli, MD
President of FIAMC
---------------------------------------------------------- Sparks Fly at Vatican Meeting on Euthanasia by Omission - Doctor Accused of Manslaughter (LifeSiteNews.com) The international congress on "Life- sustaining treatments and the vegetative state" organized by the World Federation of Catholic Medical Associations (FIAMC) and the Pontifical Academy for Life over the weekend, was anything but dull. LifeSiteNews.com spoke with congress Canadian participant Alex Schadenberg, of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition who said Pope John Paul II's definitive pronouncement on the immorality of removal of nutrition and hydration from patients in a persistent vegetative state was shocking to many. The surprise stems from the fact that the now condemned practice is commonplace at hospitals throughout the world, including Catholic hospitals. The day before the Pope's pronouncement, there was an exchange between a presenter from the Pontifical Academy for Life and another physician who was also to make a presentation. Dr. JPM Lelkens, corresponding member of the Pontifical Academy for life, spoke on the fact that the numbers of euthanasia deaths in the Netherlands are skewed by the nation's refusal to acknowledge withdrawal of nutrition and hydration (passive euthanasia) as euthanasia. Therefore, while Holland suggests low figures for deaths by euthanasia, Dr. Lelkens, a physician and professor in Maastrict Holland suggested that some ten per cent of deaths in the Netherlands are due to euthanasia - 3.9% from withdrawal of nutrition and hydration alone. Dr. JCM Lavrijsen, a physician from Nijmegen Holland who was also presenting at the conference, but on palliative care, was indignant that Dr. Lelkens was referring to withdrawal of nutrition and hydration as euthanasia. In an intense exchange, Lavrijsen, an advocate of withdrawal of nutrition and hydration for patients in a persistent vegetative state, asked Lelkens publicly, "Are you accusing me of manslaughter?" After a brief pause, Dr. Lelkens responded, "Yes because there is no other way to define it, I am accusing you of manslaughter." The debate on the matter, at least for Catholics, was brought to a close the next day when the Pope gave a definitive statement condemning the removal of nutrition and hydration from patients in a vegetative state. (see coverage of the statement: http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2004/mar/04032001.html ) Professor Gianluigi Gigli, president of the World Federation of Catholic Medical Associations, also spoke strongly against passive euthanasia. Dr. Gigli called the practice of removal of nutrition and hydration as a Trojan horse to active euthanasia. He attacked the philosophy of the practice since it bases respect for human life on utility rather than on the dignity of the person. Gigli said, "After society rejected euthanasia under Nazism, we are now accepting euthanasia for freedom or compassion or pain or choice, I will fight this so long as I live and with all of my strength." He continued, "If we open the door to nutrition and hydration removal, something else will come. It will make life a disposable good and life will be only a good based on its quality. If we accept this we will accept that there is a life not worthy of life. It will lead to the notion - 'wouldn't it be better, faster and more compassionate to give them an injection'." Source: LifeSiteNews.com Publish Date: March 22, 2004 Online at: http://ifrl.org/IFRLDailyNews/040323/6
thanks, cpforlife.
I wish they would come up with another word for "vegetative". All the findings they present as battle point only underscore the fact they've already lost the war each time they use "vegetative" to describe a human being.
Sorry I didn't catch your ping in time, but it looks like the show is being rescheduled (per your posts above). Please ping me again if you hear anything, and I'll also keep an eye out for it.
It is my understanding that Jeb Bush did get involved and is involved now.
He doesn't have the power to throw the judges out, they are separate branches of government.
He can't stop the activist judges from issuing their nutcase opinions, but he is working on this as is the attorney general, the last I heard.
Therefore, I don't understand your post. Has something happened recently that I don't know about to cause Governor Bush [and the attorney general] to withdraw their lawsuit?
It would seem that Terri's physical condition is deteriorating and there should be a way to declare a life-or-death emergency for the governor to take over the guardianship himself. In fact, many of us first thought that the governor would be the temporary guardian back on Oct. 21, 2003. Nothing much constructive is happening, and Terri is growing weaker.
bump for Fox to cover the continuing assault on Terri and on our sensibilities.
Do we know when this might air? (My condolences to the families and friends of those who have been killed recently in Iraq, and praying for safety for the rest.)