Posted on 04/01/2005 11:52:28 PM PST by FairOpinion
One of Terri's close friends testified that she had lunch with her shortly before her collapse, and Terri only ate a bagel, and she was concerned that Terri ate so little.
My point is that as far as I know eating very little is NOT characteristic of people with bulemia, just the opposite -- they gorge themselves and purge.
Years before Terri met Michael, she lost a lot of weight using Nutrisystem -- a healthy way of losing weight.
Put all this together, and I find it extremely unlikely, that Terri had bulemia.
But no mention is made and no attention is paid to the above facts.
Please produce proof that Terri wanted to have all food and water withdrawn from her, even by mouth, and die that way.
No. The actual question in the case was whether or not Terri Schiavo was able to eat on her own, and whether or not she could swallow that food. She could not.
Her parents, hoping against hope, found "doctors" who fed into their unrealist hope.
I ask you the question again:
If a person, even Terri Schiavo, could NOT chew, eat or swallow, and they have NO HOPE of getting better, isn't a feeding tube unrealistic, unnatural, and an attempt to circumvent God's purpose for that person?
Why did "Christians" fight so hard against allowing a natural death (since Terri Schiavo can NOT eat on her own, it is natural to remove the feeding tube)?
The reason I put Christians in quotation marks is because NOT ALL Christians believe that removal of the feeding tube was wrong.
The bone scans have already been brought up before the court and the Schindlers claim against Michael Schiavo were dismissed 'with prejudice' meaning that the Schindlers could not bring up that issue again. It means that their claim was unfounded.
The potassium imbalance which brought on the heart arrest and subsequent oxygen depletion to the brain was DUE TO BULIMIA.
It's a matter of medical record and was a part of the trial.
No one is pure as the driven snow except one, Jesus.
So, no the Schiavo side is not pure at all. It's just that he is not evil incarnate as the Schindler side has made him out to be. The Schindlers believed they were doing what was right. But, that doesn't make them right.
TM129: I am afraid, very afraid, that the choice to refuse medical care will disappear if we begin to force individuals into unnecessary legal battles, unnecessary human tragedy, and unwarranted extreme burdens for people (emotional, physical, mental and financial) by unnaturally extended life and forcing people to accept feeding tubes for unlimited time periods, respirators and surgeries unwanted by a person or their immediate family.
FO: Please produce proof that Terri wanted to have all food and water withdrawn from her, even by mouth, and die that way.
I made a statement that the right to refuse medical assistance is at risk and that it concerns me.
I wasn't trying to prove that Terri wanted or didn't want to have food and water withheld.
I have, however, tried to make the point that when the physical body is unable to process food (chew and swallow) and drink water adequately, that the body is and has shut down and it is unlawful (even according to God, if God has so situated that body) to force that physical body to receive food and water.
A credible physician at a credible physician web site, ...
Would you care to expand on that?
Thank you for posting this article. It is excellent.
CSI MEDBLOGS: CODEBLUEBLOG ANALYZES TERRI SCHIAVO'S CT OF THE BRAIN
http://codeblueblog.blogs.com/codeblueblog/2005/03/csi_medblogs_co.html
It was in the article -- it gives the link to the site, where the doctor's analysis is.
Go to the link of the article and check out the other links.
It also has links to articles in medical journals, which state that PVS is misdiagnosed in nearly half the cases.
If a person appears generally vegetative, but has enough swallowing ability to take care of their own saliva without drooling, what would be the harm in seeing whether the patient could take on a sufficient quantity of concentrated nourishment (in addition to the saliva) without choking?
Given the alternative of 100% certain death by dehydration, who would have been harmed by allowing the parents to attempt feeding with either a nineteenth-century invalid feeder or a medieval (if not earlier) spoon?
As I have posted before, or at least thought I had, that would be preferable, of course.
The problem is, though, that the REASON Terri Schiavo had a feeding tube was because she was UNABLE to chew and swallow food due to her diminished brain activity and ability. The parents hoped physical therapy would cure this disability. The courts found that their hope was unrealistic, due to the neuorological limitations (or lack) of their daughter's brain.
I am all for seeing if the ability to be fed is appropriate.
When it is NOT appropriate, what then?
Let the person choke on the food to death?
Or for their daughter's care.
The Schindlers had a big lapse in moral judgement when they decided to avoid investigating the basis for the "malpractice" suit, for fear that such investigation might jeopardize their daugher's ability to receive treatment. Given that the Schindlers had spent huge amouts of money on their daughter's care, I do not begrudge them a desire to (1) get at least some repayment, and (2) win some more money for their daughter's care. Nonetheless, their failure to confirm that everything was on the up-and-up proved fatal.
Let the person choke on the food to death?
Even if there were a 95% chance that the person would choke before their swallowing muscles improved to the point of becoming reliably, and only a 2% chance of success, would that not be preferable to a 100% probability of an agonizing death by dehydration?
There are only two reasons I can see that the denial of oral food and hydration would be in anybody's interest:
You conflate Terri's situation with others which are not similar.
Chew/swallow is something learned, and in her case, it could well have been re-learned through therapy.
Further, you postulate that Terri's body was "shutting down," which is manifestly untrue.
However, the Pope's body was, e.g.--so regardless of the feeding tube, he died.
The differences are extremely important.
Of course, you know, with absolute moral certainty, exactly what caused the potassium imbalance, eh?
Because, if you are not 100% morally certain, then you really shouldn't be discussing it as though it were a settled fact.
Whether or not the Schindlers chose to argue about the alleged bulimia (perhaps they choose their battles, or were unaware of the allegation) is irrelevant.
Ummmnnhh...NOBODY on this thread has suggested "...unwarranted extreme burdens..." or "...unnaturally extending life..."
So just exactly what are you trying to say?
BINGO!!!
He who controls the language controls the argument.
Ask Goebbels, or Madison Avenue.
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