Worth reposting--
Terri Schiavo- Why the Rush to Put Her to Death?
by K.L. Marsala
Friday, March 4, 2005
I demand to know where the human rights and women’s rights groups are over the case of the Floridian woman Terri Schiavo. Where are her civil rights? Did she loose them the moment she could no longer audibly answer or respond for herself? Why do human rights organizations stand and give tirade after tirade to defend the war criminals at Guatanomo Bay, but where are they over a woman supposedly living in a Persistent Vegetative State (PVS) and her rights? Why haven’t the women’s rights groups spoken out against Terri’s "estranged" husband, Michael, who wants to pull the feeding tube and let his wife die a slow death of dehydration and starvation? Shouldn’t Michael’s desire to have his wife die be classified under-spousal abuse? Truly, if this case is a reflection of how Americans are moving forward in handling bio-ethics then we are all screwed.
This case, which should never have become a topic at America’s water coolers, has so many facets and layers to it. When it comes to the topic of bio-ethics, we’ve only begun to lift the lid off a deadly and dangerous box of medical morality.
In 1972, two neurologists stated they had identified a condition of "wakefulness without awareness." This state is caused when a patient, due to head injury, lack of oxygen, degenerative disease, or loss of all upper brain functions- becomes what has been termed Persistent Vegetative State or PVS. This wide-ranging term has delivered only uncertainty in diagnosis, treatment, and ethical decision-making regarding these types of patients. PVS has become one more thing out of the bio-ethics Pandora’s Box that shouldn’t have been opened.
A large portion of the danger in using such a general term is that many people who only hear sound bites of news and discussion over the condition of PVS are so deeply misguided and uninformed. Most of us when we hear the word "vegetative" immediately think of an individual who is nothing but brain dead. This is a misnomer. Patients who are unable to live without being hooked up to every tube, beeper, electronic regulator, and waste remover; and with no hope of ever recovering brain activity are classified brain dead. With the bio-ethics questions over PVS we’ve painted the manifestation that without bells and whistles this body is nothing but an inconvenience and a burden or a last will and testament needing to die so, darn it, I can obtain my inheritance! There are citizens, judges and lawyers who don’t even comprehend PVS and they are deciding if it’s okay to go ahead a murder someone…how does this make sense?
The term Persistent Vegetative State, has come to be applied to people who actually do show some signs of awareness (Terri Schiavo). PVS often is confused with "brain death," although the two are not the same. (Brain death is defined as the irreversible loss of all functions of the brain.) Appallingly, "right to die" advocates and Terri’s husband Michael, have used the PVS to unite people to their rationale. It has even tainted the positions in some state laws altering them to classify the basics of life (food and water) as medical treatment!
Imagine a cup of chocolate malted flavored protein drink…it has now become classified as medical treatment. I didn’t know feeding someone sustenance or giving him or her a cup of cold water was considered medical treatment. I thought it was just caring for those who can’t care for themselves due to their physical challenges or financial inabilities. I guess all the quadriplegics had better be watching out and so should third world nations. Human rights organizations may see you eating and drinking H2O and decide no, you’ve no right to medical treatment- give me that bowl of rice, NOW!
Persistent Vegetative State is not easily diagnosed. Although accepted signs of PVS include the absence of awareness of oneself or one's environment, we cannot measure thought or awareness--only behavior and movement. Today's medical tests are not specific enough to make a certain diagnosis of PVS. As a result, the rate of misdiagnosis is high, approximately 40 percent in some studies. Physical disabilities experienced by many of these patients, such as blindness and paralysis, can stop them from exhibiting behaviors that could make their awareness known. Recent video footage shot of Terri Schiavo shows her smiling and responding to her surroundings, leading many to question whether she is actually in the state of PVS. If you really want to know the answer to this, ask her parents and friends.
Reality check… the 1972 definition and the recent attempts to define PVS are not clear enough to tell the true state of patients who’ve suffered serious brain injury. According to Cindy Province (who holds master’s degrees in medical surgical nursing and bioethics, and is a cofounder and associate director of the St. Louis Center for Bioethics and Culture), this is her reasoning we cannot let the death sentence of PVS fit all situations, "Part of the reason is that consciousness is a continuum, not an all-or-nothing phenomenon. In general, terms, human brains aren't like light bulbs that are either on or off. Instead, they are more like irons, which, while turned on, may be anywhere from warm to hot. Unfortunately, medical treatment and ethical decision-making have not always taken into account that there are many things that are still unknown about severe brain injury."
Do we understand this? How can we make a judgment of life or death based on knowledge that is still incomplete? Neurosciences has barely touched the cusp of understanding the smallest part of our grey matter…we’ve a long ways to go before we can mark someone with a death sentence.
So what if someone is in the position of a Terri Schiavo or they were in a PVS state for seven years or more… is life not worth allowing the injured brain time to go from lukewarm to hot? Are those like Terri, who are alive, allowed the same pursuit of happiness, protection, and equality? Or do we want to give only preferential treatment to ourselves and to what we define as "living"? As I had jested over those who are quadriplegic or from a third world country, will we make the same applications to our elderly folk as we are to those who appear to be in a state of PVS? Your children- grandma- may decide you don’t deserve medical treatment (i.e. food and water) when you get too feeble to go to the kitchen and cook it. How cold hearted have we become?
Ms. Province relayed recently that on the, "medical horizon, a large amount of work with severely brain-injured patients is taking place." This research is happening inside and outside the United States. Not long ago, at the Royal Hospital for Neurodisability in London, a diagnostic tool was developed to help medical professionals identify awareness in patients previously diagnosed as unaware. Some of these patients have begun to communicate, and to recapture some physical function, but more significantly -for ethical concerns- to express their wish to live. Shouldn’t we all be given the right to express our wishes?
Terri Schiavo and others like her deserve the right to live. Everyone deserves food and water. Sometimes it seems we treat our criminals sitting in today’s penitentiaries better than we treat those who cannot defend themselves. Whether its patients like Terri, our elderly or our unborn human children, ethics of who we are as a race must be brought up to the moral standards of love and compassion for humanity. None of us living in a nation so full of plenty should ever deny another human being nourishment. Food, water and the right to live cannot be decided by a textbook definition that is completely filled with the nuances of variables. There is still so much we don’t understand about the human brain and how it functions. We have barely scratched the surface of the brains amazing recuperative abilities. With our minimal knowledge of how this all works are we willing to starve another human to death because we were given guardianship rights over them?
Terri Schiavo, if the human rights advocates and the women’s right organizations don’t take a stand for you- I want you to know there are those who will fight for you, pray for you, and believe you’ve the right to live and Terri- I am one of those here for you. God Bless you.
http://www.torontofreepress.com/2005/kmarsala030405.htm
Wishing for Winterflight
An old friend, a book, and a trip to Florida to fight for Terri Schiavo | by Joel Belz
An e-mail last week from a good friend in Indiana got right to the point. "I am going to Florida this weekend," he said, "to stand as a protest and witness against the state murder of Terri Schiavo. Will you join me?"
There were several reasons I was reluctant to say yes.
"I am a journalist," I thought to myself. Journalists keep their distance. They pride themselves on their detachment. Maybe I could go and write about what was happening as a news story. But to stand there and join the protest against what was going on? Wouldn't that simply prove to some readers that WORLD is ultimately a biased and opinionated pretender as a newsmagazine?
I was reluctant as well because I had already told my friend that I was not fully persuaded of his own position on the ethical issue of removing feeding tubes. My friend had written, for example, that he considers it sinful for a 90-year-old person, weary with life and seeing death as perhaps more attractive than a useless extension of life, to turn down food. I'm not sure I'd go that far—and I struggled with the wisdom of identifying myself on the protest line with someone who might embarrass me with what I thought were extreme ideas.
And I was reluctant because of logistics. It would mean traveling to Florida, finding a place to stay, and doing all that for an open-ended period of time. Was that good stewardship of my time and WORLD's resources? Was it even possible, given commitments I had already made? But if I stayed just a day or two, would that be seen as tokenism or grandstanding?
Pretty good reasons, wouldn't you say, for telling my friend no? So I hit the reply button, and told him instead to "Count me in. I'll see you in Florida." Here's why.....
http://www.worldmag.com/displayArticle.cfm?ID=10411
Source of claims in Schiavo case was abuse hotline
The state tried to keep secret the source of allegations it wants to investigate.
By WILLIAM R. LEVESQUE and WES ALLISON
Published March 4, 2005
http://www.sptimes.com/2005/03/04/Tampabay/Source_of_claims_in_S.shtml
CLEARWATER - State officials want to investigate 30 allegations of abuse, neglect and exploitation in the care of Terri Schiavo, including experimental procedures allegedly performed improperly.
The Florida Department of Children and Families' petition seeking to intervene in Schiavo's case said the agency received a 34-page document outlining the allegations on Feb. 18 via an abuse hotline by an unidentified person or group.
On Thursday, despite efforts by DCF to keep the document sealed, Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge George Greer ordered it to be released today. The St. Petersburg Times obtained a copy of the document Thursday.
It does not identify who is alleged to have abused Schiavo or provide any information indicating the credibility of the allegations.
DCF also provided no detailed description of the alleged abuse, which appear to mirror some allegations previously raised against Michael Schiavo, Terri Schiavo's husband and guardian. His attorney could not be reached Thursday for comment on the document.
But George Felos has said that previous allegations of abuse against his client were unsubstantiated and that several law enforcement agencies, from the State Attorney's Office to the Sheriff's Office, have refused to investigate.
Attorneys for Schiavo's parents have encouraged a DCF investigation, though they have said they do not know who raised the latest concerns.
Greer has scheduled a hearing Wednesday to consider the DCF's request to intervene in the case so it can investigate. Greer has set the removal of Schiavo's feeding tube for March 18 at 1 p.m.
DCF's filing, made before Greer set a date for the feeding tube's removal, also had sought a stay to investigate the claims. The DCF has declined to comment about its investigation.
Among general accusations outlined in the filing:
A failure to file a proper guardianship plan.
Experimental procedures performed improperly. No detail is provided.
Issues involving a lack of visitation.
Lack of manipulation of Schiavo's arms.
Denial of access to legal counsel for Schiavo, which the DCF said has never previously been investigated.
Some of the allegations are unclear. For example, the DCF describes a "failure to educate using certain therapies" and an "investigation of rehabilitation entitlements in light of technologies available."
The DCF said it had not seen the allegations before.
"Termination of the life of Theresa Schiavo would hamper the investigation into abuse, neglect and/or exploitation allegations, many of which have previously gone on uninvestigated" by the DCF, the agency's petition said.
Greer ordered the document released after a petition from lawyers for the Tampa Tribune and WFLA-CH. 8. The DCF argued the document, by law, is confidential.
Also Thursday, Rep. Dave Weldon, R-Palm Bay, said he plans to file a bill next week that would give Terri Schiavo, and others in her position, her own legal representation and other protections.
Weldon, a physician, is a social conservative who has been vocal on a variety of life issues. He could not be reached for comment Thursday, and his spokeswoman said he would have no comment until his bill is filed.
Congress is in recess until Tuesday.
Weldon did not yet have a sponsor in the Senate, though one should be relatively easy to find. It's unclear how much chance the bill would have for passing Congress.
Attorney David Gibbs III, representing Schiavo's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, hailed the effort.
"It would extend the constitutional protections of due process afforded death row inmates . . . to people in Terri's condition," Gibbs said.
George Felos, an attorney representing Schiavo's husband, declined to comment on the legislation because he had not seen it. But Felos, reached before the DCF document was obtained, said no bill can retroactively undo a court judgment.
"That's the foundation of the separation of powers," he said.
[Last modified March 4, 2005, 00:55:04]