NY Times: Starvation Death Not Painful

NewsMax.com ^ | March 20, 2005 | Carl Limbacher and NewsMax.com Staff

[MisterRepublican]

The newspaper that was most outraged over photos of Iraqi terrorist suspects being mistreated by U.S. soldiers at Abu Ghraib prison said Sunday that the two week-long starvation-execution of Terri Schiavo will cause her "little discomfort."

"From the data that is available, it is not a horrific thing at all," Dr. Linda Emanuel, the founder of the Education for Physicians in End-of-Life Care Project at Northwestern University tells the New York Times.

"In fact, declining food and water is a common way that terminally ill patients end their lives, because it is less painful than violent suicide and requires no help from doctors," the paper maintains.

The Times also cites Dr. Sean Morrison, a professor of geriatrics and palliative care at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, who insists that starvation victims "generally slip into a peaceful coma."

"It's very quiet, it's very dignified - it's very gentle," he adds.

Other experts not quoted by the Times, however, disagree.

Wesley J. Smith, a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute and an attorney and consultant for the International Task Force on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide, says that in fact, for a conscious patient like Terri Schiavo, death by starvation will be fraught with agony.

In his book "Forced Exit, The Slippery Slope from Assisted Suicide to Legalized Murder," Smith reports:

"A conscious person would feel it [dehydration] just as you and I would. They will go into seizures. Their skin cracks, their tongue cracks, their lips crack.

"They may have nosebleeds because of the drying of the mucous membranes, and heaving and vomiting might ensue because of the drying out of the stomach lining."

[Just Kimberly]

Yep Yep!!! Lets see how long THEY could go!

Perhaps we should all send emails to NYT and challenge them to 'fast' for the time it takes Terri to "die of natural causes".

[stopem]

I just pray that none of my family nor I will ever have to find out how "peaceful" dying by starvation is. Dear God in Heaven.

No one should be allowed to play God by deciding whether someone should live or die.

I side on Pro-Life whether for a baby to a senior. But we all have seen what happens when we allow courts to congress to decide.

[Bommer]

You can starve them by not feeding them the "green" in buying their crappy paper!

[AmericanChef]

I think they should do a live test on Quack Linda and the entire staff at the Slimes.

[etwgmdn]

LOL. Terri's death by starvation won't hurt this doctor a bit.

[the gillman@blacklagoon.com]

...Gee, then the NYT won't mind at all if we try this at Gitmo...

Gitmo? Why don't we do this to the commie rats at the Times?

They're severely brain damaged.

[CBart95]

It's impossible to ignore the tastelessness of the messenger who brings this so called news.

May we forever refer to you as "Ghoul of my Dreams"?

[jriemer]

The newspaper that was most outraged over photos of Iraqi terrorist suspects being mistreated by U.S. soldiers at Abu Ghraib prison said Sunday that the two week-long starvation-execution of Terri Schiavo will cause her "little discomfort."

"From the data that is available, it is not a horrific thing at all," Dr. Linda Emanuel, the founder of the Education for Physicians in End-of-Life Care Project at Northwestern University tells the New York Times.

Here's the source of the above quote:
=====

Linda Emanuel, MD, PhD

Linda Emanuel, MD, PhD, is the Buehler Professor of Medicine and Director of the Buehler Center on Aging at Northwestern's Feinberg School of Medicine. She is the founder and Principal of the national Education for Physicians in End-of-life Care (EPEC) Project. She is also the Director of the Ford Center on Global Citizenship’s Health Section at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. 

Prior to joining Northwestern University, Dr. Emanuel was Vice President of Ethics Standards and Head of the Institute for Ethics at the American Medical Association. Dr. Emanuel moved to Chicago to create the Institute for Ethics at the AMA and to expand Ethics Standards. In the first three years of her tenure, these paired entities grew rapidly and were highly productive in the design and implementation of both the EPEC Project and the E-Force Program. The latter is a rigorous and innovative, multiple stakeholder group that identifies and validates measures for ethical parameters for all parties involved in health care. During this period of time, Dr. Emanuel fostered and supported the deliberations of the Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs and the continuing evolution of this Council’s 150 year old Code of Ethics.

Until 1996, Dr. Emanuel was the Assistant Director, Division of Medical Ethics, and until 1998 the Glessner Lee Associate Professor of Medical Ethics at Harvard Medical School. She has published and lectured extensively on clinical ethics including end-of-life care, the patient-physician relationship, academic integrity, accountability, organizational ethics and professionalism. 

Dr. Emanuel was trained at Cambridge University, University College London, Oxford University, Harvard Medical School and Harvard University. She is a board-certified general internist with fellowship training in public health research methodology and fellowship training in professional ethics. Until 1996, she cared for patients at the Massachusetts General Hospital. She takes part in the Palliative Care Service and Geriatrics Evaluation Services at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. Prior to her clinical career, Dr. Emanuel was a research neurophysiologist, in which field she earned her PhD.

====
When you combine her quote to the number of times "ethics" is used in her bio, it makes you want to gag.

[FreedomGuru]

The Times also cites Dr. Sean Morrison, a professor of geriatrics and palliative care at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, who insists that starvation victims "generally slip into a peaceful coma."

Wait....I thought Terri was already in a coma! At least thats what much of the media has been telling me. Wait...would the media "lie" to me? (/sarcasm off)

"It's very quiet, it's very dignified - it's very gentle," he adds

Death with dignity, this is what we heard from Dr. Kevorkian. Who killed people in a sleazy cabin, in the back of an old van, etc. And he idolizes the Nazis. Just more of the dark rantings of death squad in America.

[Just Kimberly]

BTT

[cbkaty]

If the Times says it...it's true...right?

[Right Wing Assault]

How about this? We starve the death row inmates for about 4 days. Then we put a plate of their favorite food in the room but tell them it is poisoned with cyanide. We put a TV camera in the room and make some real reality TV. There are all kinds of variations. Don't poison the first batch, but poison the second, etc.

I supposed that is cruel and unusual, but it sounds fun!

[cbkaty]

When you combine her quote to the number of times "ethics" is used in her bio, it makes you want to gag.

Actually...her pix makes me gag!

[B Knotts]

I think we've found Ward Churchill's "little Eichmanns."

He had the wrong address. The right one is 229 West 43rd Street.

[B Knotts]

And the difference is that the NYT editors actually are "brain-dead." They prove it over and over.

[jriemer]

The below was not quoted in the NewsMax article; however, the good news for Terri keeps coming according to Dr. Emanuel:

"Terri Schiavo, who is in a persistent vegetative state, is "probably not experiencing anything at all subjectively," said Dr. Emanuel, and so the question of discomfort, from a scientific point of view, is not in dispute."
Experts Say Ending Feeding Can Lead to a Gentle Death - NYT (3/20/2005)

[Just Kimberly]

BTT

[muir_redwoods]

Maybe not but dehydration sucks a$$!!

[NavyCanDo]

Same story was printed in the Seattle Times.

Take away food for a few days from a terrorist POW in GITMO and the same papers call it "torture"

[earlyamerican]

The New York times is ghoulish.