Michael Schiavo: A refusal to quit in the face of threats, anguish and vitriol.

The Inquirer ^ | Mar. 20, 2005 | Sandy Bauers

[thinkingman129]

It doesn't appear to do much good, as I have discovered, to ask sensible questions such as yours.

People at this stage have apparently heard what they want to hear and feel what they're going to feel (and believe)about the 'players' in this horrible real-life drama.

[ljswisc]

Some corroborative evidence is needed.

Not if you have a judge willing to dismiss that kind of evidence. There's an orgy of it that he dismissed. WHY?

[TAdams8591]

"It took them I don't know how long to get her breathing again. They stuck a ventilator down her throat." To little avail. "She was brain-dead," Scott Schiavo recalled.

All the family could do was wait until medications that kept her heart beating wore off. It took a day and a half, he said.

After the funeral, the family went to the Buck Hotel in Feasterville. Scott and Terri were sitting next to each other at a large table, where the conversation turned to how upset their grandmother would have been at her final hours.

Terri turned to him, Scott Schiavo said, "and she said, 'Not me, no way, I don't want that.' She says, 'If I'm ever like that, oh, don't let me. Pull that tube out of me.' " Scott Schiavo said he testified about the incident in 2000."

In the above conversation, the reference was to a VENTILATOR. Terri was referring to a VENTILATOR (If Scott Schiavo was even telling the truth). Feeding tubes were not an issue then nor were they an issue at the time of Terri's collapse. I don't see where Terri says she wanted to be STARVED to death.

Furthermore, this was a passing comment made during an emotional conversation about the death of an elderly Grandmother, rather than a rational decision made after considerable thought.

Around the same time Terri's friend stated that she was most upset about the fact that a VENTILATOR was going to be removed from Karen Quinlan, (though the feeding tube was permitted to remain and Miss Quinlan lived for ten more years). Yet, the friends remarks were discounted.

This is what ODIUS Judge GREER, the FOOL, based his decision upon. Absolutely OUTRAGEOUS!

[surfatsixty]

Your the jerk who pointed at the Dims, not me.

[thinkingman129]

Thank you for posting a viewpoint from a different side.

[AllieOop]

There is a big difference in removing a ventilator and stopping all food and water. She is medically stable and only needs food and water just like any other human. Does this mean that if a baby is born with a disability, the parents can just stop feeding it until it dies? What it is, is murder. Plain and simple.

[nina0113]

Sorry. He didn't remember the "don't want to live like that" till after he got the money. It's taken years longer than he thought, and the money's way gone, but he's staked out a position he can't back down from.

[TigersEye]

Whether Terri really wants to live like that or not is the question.

That is true and her husband has ordered that no therapy that might establish some sort of communication with her be tried.

All I can say is that Heaven would be much, much better than a life like that (for myself, anyway).

You put it well to say "for yourself" but even that is an opinion since you have neither been in Heaven or in the condition Terri is in. I look at the statements some people make here and think "what a living hell it would be to be them." But maybe it's not as bad for them as it appears to be. It might not even be that bad if I thought like them. It's an uninformed opinion.

You either believe life is sacred, in all circumstances, or you don't but none of us knows what death will be like.

[BigSkyFreeper]

It is evidence submitted by Terri's parents.

[Iscool]

He's not an adulterer. He waited 5 f'ing years.

After 5 years of marriage you can screw around and even have kids but you don't commit adultery...Kool...Or do you mean you legally give up any responsiblity as a spouse???

[VRWC For Truth]

How about a sensible review of the case before the state of Florida kills Terri? SOP in the case of death row inmates.

[vaudine]

You took the words right out of my mind. His words are in fact, not facts.

I would like to know if Terri greets him with smiles or if she realizes on some level he wants her to die.

vaudine

[kvanbrunt]

Thanks for the Post. It was nice to hear his side. However the courts in this country continually deny guardianship for parents who do not seek medical treatment for religious reasons for children who are sick and under their care. I think this case is similar. As Bush said lets err on the side of life. (well spoken as always and no speech writer present)

[tuckrdout]

Mike has been threatening, and is now KILLING a helpless humanbeing. I don't feel sorry for him that he is being threatend. Now he can know the fear his inlaws have lived with for 14 years, as their daughter's life has been threatened.

I feel very sorry for his kids. They don't deserve this.

[surfatsixty]

Oh, read the facts. I give up on you folks tonight. Good night.

[RPTMS]

That's what I said.

[nina0113]

I'm sorry, but my German is limited to what I picked up watching old war movies - what does "nicht einmal unheimlich" mean?

[jonsie]

I personally believe Michael has written a book and is waiting to write the last chapter.

[BigSkyFreeper]

How can you starve to death being on a ventilator? She was on a feeding tube the day she was admitted into the Humana Hospital in 1990. Quite frankly, she was unresponsive, and admitted into ICU for 2 months.

[socialismisinsidious]

I agree; both sides, but I would argue that it really doesn't matter what Michael has to say because:

1.Food does not equal health care--there is nothing heroic about feeding someone: she is not being kept alive by anything that I don't do for my children every single day. So if I stop feeding my infant and allow her to die is that okay? am I not responsible for her death?

2.Terri did not have anything in writing. We just changed our mortgage..took 10 signatures each and 4 pages to be notarized! Shouldn't legally killing someone take at least that amount of forethought? If it was that important to her then she should have put it in writing....not in writing--then tough.

3.She may not have wanted to live that way, but would she have wanted to die this way? Starving a dog to death is against the law in most states--why would it be acceptable to do to a human?

4.All of the right to die arguments are based on assumptions--they assume that the person (Terri in this case) is in misery, feels nothing, understands nothing, loathes this life,--insert argument here-- but how do they know?...what if they are wrong? Should we not err on the side of life?

5.This killing of people to put them out of their misery is a very slippery slope. I am sure that you have heard of Peter Singer...today he writes that we should be discussing the killing of spina bifida babies. Only very severe forms of spina bifida--what a guy that Singer is! /sarcasm
Eugenics is a very dangerous game and it is evil to the core. Dangerous because we should not be putting a dollar amount on human lives, we should not be valuing one life above another based on "potential" and we should not be subjectively judging the relative value of someone else's life (specifically someone who is not guilty of any crime).
Thanks for the post.