Terri's Day challenges the nation to unify

Renew America ^ | March 13, 2006 | Kevin Fobbs

[KevinNuPac]

Terri's Day challenges the nation to unify

Kevin Fobbs

March 13, 2006

Terri's Day — A Celebration of the Culture of Life honoring Terri Schiavo with a day of remembrance challenges each and every one of us to stop for a moment and ask ourselves a question, do we respect ourselves, our families, our lives?

And if we are faced with the question of the possible certainty of death, does anyone truly know, or even have the faintest clue about, our wishes? That is the greatest good, the greatest legacy that Terri Schiavo's death and an annual "Terri's Day" can bring to our lives and to the celebration of the Culture of Life.

On March 18th, we as a nation will begin to grieve again, to reach into our hearts and feel with our collective national spirit what the Schindler family felt last year at this time as each moment since Terri was disconnected from the feeding lifeline, the moments crept by like hours and hours like days.

All of us have felt in some way that pain — even if it were only in the privacy of our loved one's home, hospital room, hospice or perhaps talking with an attorney and doctor attempting to make sense out of some fleeting comments made in a conversation perhaps voiced ten, twelve or even two decades earlier — not necessarily an expression of her true feeling about an end-of-life decision but merely an incidental musing in a long-forgotten side conversation.

For at least one million Americans, and quite possibly a whole lot more, this is an opportunity to voice an opinion through a pledge supporting a resolution in each state called "Terri's Day — A Celebration of the Culture of Life." Each and every person who cares that your family, your spouse, your mother, your father, your sister or brother understands with clarity what you wish the end of life for you to be, with dignity and certainty should sign the online pledge at www.kevinfobbs.com and take the additional step to sign a Living Will — or as they call it at www.terrisfight.org, the Will to Live.

Some have asked why Americans should care about an annual Terri's Day. It is quite simple, we tend to keep turning the page on the Culture of Life because we feel it does not affect us. We tend to believe that seemingly universal belief that those who are handicapped, those who are not quite living a "perfect" life or by contemporary notion "ideal" then those lives are possibly disposable, marginal, not relevant, and part of the Culture of Death which embraces a "disposable society."

But life and our values for the Culture of Life are not disposable. Think about the young people today who would rather hurt themselves or even take their own lives rather than feel "imperfect" or the elderly person whose family is told by an insensitive health care professional while the stricken person struggles to cling to life, "she would be better off in another place," — just let her die, disconnect her from life, because her quality of life is not up to "contemporary standards. "

Why does celebrating the Culture of Life in Michigan become so essential for all of us in America? It is important for several reasons. Dr. Jack Kervorkian, also known as "Doctor Death" helped launch first in Michigan and then the nation the notion of the death culture. Secondly, and equally as important, at the May 12 event — just two days before Mother's Day — there will also be a "Mary's Moms" celebration of those women and mothers who have met challenges in standing up for some aspect of the Culture of Life.

This past weekend I sat at my cousin's funeral — or going home celebration, which more accurately describes it — thinking about the dearly departed and how she packed so much caring for others into her life even as she struggled with illness and advancing age. She was a wonderful woman who had lived through many, many challenges in her life, but in her 73 years she had met these challenges with dignity and had conveyed to her family when would be the right time to allow her to pass away.

Her daughter, who is a minister, spoke to the packed church about the times when, with all of her pain and then a stroke, the doctors had informed them that perhaps it was better to let her go. Yet that was three years ago that that occurred, and if the family had listened to the doctors and refused to see how she fought back and not only recovered but went back to volunteering at the church to feed and clothe the homeless. The medical professionals didn't care about an elderly lady who was on dialysis, but the family did and they knew better. Patricia lived three more years — years her extensive extended family considered "a gift from God."

So isn't part of the lesson of Terri's legacy and Terri's Day for families and loved ones to have a meaningful conversation with their family and to have the written document on hand as well that conveys the wishes clearly and concisely? You betcha.

As I sat in the church I thought of all of the families across the nation and the world who were sitting at their loved one's bedsides — or even standing outside of a hospital emergency room — overwhelmed with emotion, torn by what may be days of conflicting anguished decisions. I thought again of how out of death we may have the certainty of life. Terri's death reminded the nation that yes a state can and will starve you to death, and your family may be rendered helpless as you watch your loved one's precious life forces drain slowly away.

By signing the online pledge at www.kevinfobbs.com or going to www.terrisfight.org, you can learn about how to encourage your state legislature to establish March 31st as an official Terri's Day. Hold a Culture of Life Home Party or meet-and-greet to sign pledges, share ideas and support The Terri Schindler Schiavo Foundation as well as Culture of Life activities and events in your community or around the nation. Between now and March 31st you can make a dramatic difference for yourself, your family and for the nation. Stand up for the Culture of Life because one person, one life, one family can and does make a difference in America. Make the difference and be the difference today. America...The countdown for the Culture of Life has begun.

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Kevin Fobbs is President of National Urban Policy Action Council (NuPac), a non-partisan civic and citizen-action organization that focuses on taking the politics out of policy to secure urban America's future one neighborhood, one city, and one person at a time. View NuPac on the web at www.nupac.info. Kevin Fobbs is a regular contributing columnist for the Detroit News. He is also the daily host of The Kevin Fobbs Show on News Talk WDTK - 1400 AM in Detroit. Listen to The Kevin Fobbs Show online at www.wdtkam.com daily 2-3 p.m., and call in toll-free nationwide to make your opinion count at 800-923-WDTK(9385) © Copyright 2006 by Kevin Fobbs http://www.renewamerica.us/columns/fobbs/060313

[8mmMauser]

Opponents insisted the provision allowed facilities to euthanize the disabled.

"This gives them a license to kill the developmentally disabled," said Rep. Tony Soltani, R-Epsom.

Rep. John Hunt, R-Rindge, said that misrepresents the legislation's intent.

"We did not want to treat mentally disabled citizens as second-class citizens," said Hunt, adding that: "There's nothing in here that empowers hospitals to pull the plug when they feel like it. This is about empowering you to make the choices for yourself and your family."

House, Senate approve end-of-life care bill

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[8mmMauser]

Chuch Colson is off base (may not have read the Exit Protocol on morphine either)...

....................

Chuck Colson gets it right in his commentary about the worldview represented in Michael Schiavo's book:

Joking aside, Michael Schiavo’s world is a dangerous and scary place, a place where the “survival of the fittest” is taken to a whole new level—a place where a badly brain-damaged woman should have her food and water taken away simply because she is badly brain damaged and her husband says she would not want to live that way. It’s a place where it’s easy for even a registered nurse like Michael Schiavo to confuse food, which everyone needs, with the kind of life support, like a respirator, which his wife did not need. It’s a place where, as Schiavo is accustomed to saying with a straight face, taking someone’s food away is not starving her to death; it’s simply allowing her to die peacefully and painlessly. (Why a hospice needs to administer morphine to a person dying painlessly is something that Schiavo does not bother to explain, like so many other issues.)

Unfortunately, Colson is completely off-base in his statement that Terri's "autopsy showed that she had been brain-dead when she was in a comatose state." The fact that Terri could breath on her own is ample evidence that she was not "brain-dead."

Dr. Thogmartin, the Pinellas County Medical Examiner, and Dr. Stephen Nelson, the consulting neuropathologist, stated clearly in their autopsy report, and reiterated several times during the related press conference, that persistent vegetative state (PVS) is a clinical diagnosis and cannot be confirmed by autopsy. They confined themselves to stating that Terri had severe brain damage (not brain-death), and that such damage was "consistent with" a diagnosis of PVS. They could not, in fact, conclude that Terri was PVS and didn't come anywhere near suggesting that Terri was brain dead. This is public information that Colson should have known (the autopsy report is here).

Consider that ...

A reporter questioned Dr. Nelson about whether Terri's autopsy results meant that Terri's family could not have interacted with her, as they claimed. Dr. Nelson, to his credit, said quite emphatically, "no, not at all". He again reiterated that pathological studies cannot confirm PVS.

Jerri Lynn Ward of Austin, Texas, notes the report states: "The frontal temporal and temporal poles and insular-cortex demonstrated relative preservation." "What this tells us is that her cortex retained function and that her brain was more normal in the area that controls higher-level thinking," said Ward. More by Ward here and here.

Chuck Colson: Right on Michael but Wrong on Terri Schiavo

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[8mmMauser]

A pro-life movie...National Review Online

Not long ago, the TV Land cable network aired a salute to television history, which ended up provoking in me some very unusual emotions. You see, they were bestowing accolades on a particular episode of a 1970s TV show called Maude. I remembered that very episode from when I was a kid—and the memories flooded back of how angry and scared I had been because of it. Maude, a middle-aged woman played by Bea Arthur, was urged by her grown-up daughter, played by Adrienne Barbeau, to get an abortion; the daughter’s rationale was that Maude was in her 40s, and thus too old to have a baby. Now, put yourself in the position of young me: My own mom was in her 40s when I was born. Thank God, it would never have occurred to my sister—20 years older than I—to make such a case. But by the time I was a teen, I had already heard loud and clear the cultural message the show’s producer, Norman Lear, and others like him were sending: A life like mine could very easily have been judged too inconvenient. I was, as far as they were concerned, expendable.

Thunder and Enlightening

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[Dante3]

bttt

[BykrBayb]

See my post 3,574 for a link to that legislation. It looks to me like a very dangerous piece of work.

[BykrBayb]

Arthur Caplan, the bioethicist from University of Pennsylvania Hospital has been involved in experimenting on patients without their informed consent. He was sued for it. Now he advocates killing patients without their consent. There are some sick twisted freaks out there.

Your son was fortunate to have such good parents. It's hard to think of the abuse and torture he may have suffered otherwise. Most parents, even good parents, would never suspect their child's doctor of subjecting them to abuse. It just flies in the face of everything we always knew to be true. Doctors are compassionate people, who care about their patients. Some still are, but you can no longer count on getting one who is. And a doctor who is backed up by an ethics department is less likely to have ethics.

[floriduh voter]

This email went to Judge Greer, State Attorney McCabe and Jeb.

SIPOSays...On Charlie Crist.

Charlie changed his mind, deciding after all it would be a cool political move to be seen hanging out with family values idiots who worship Jesus, concluding, by simply showing up, Christian voters would forgive him and vote for him. Poor Charlie ain't got a scriptural clue how the forgiveness system works. If Charlie actively seeks forgiveness, he must first ASK FOR IT. He hasn't done that.

While, yes, a Christian can forgive applying the, "...they know not what they do..." principle," there's still no obligation to vote for the evil doer.

Reconciliation is earned, and Charlie might start by publicly confessing and investigating his own roll helping George Greer and Bernie McCabe accomplish Jeb's "right to starve" state sanctioned judicial signature murder of Terri Schindler Schiavo -- an aware of self human being who screamed for her life.

The Schindler family pleaded with him, the governor, too many to count police and regulatory agencies for investigative/protective help, and pretty political boy Charlie multiple times turned his back on them. Christian voters have a higher moral obligation to ignore Charlie when he screams for his political life come Republican primary day. (George, Bernie, Jeb - pass this on to Charlie.)

End of email. This guy knows exactly what happened to Terri.

[floriduh voter]

"This is about empowering you to make the choices for yourself and your family."

In an ideological world that the LIBERAL LEFT WING FANATICS INCLUDING JUDGE GREER and the death lawyers live in, husbands love their wives, children love their parents, and parents love their children. It is PURE BUNK.

IN THE REAL WORLD, there's a little thing called greed and perversion i.e. starving, dehydrating and overdosing family members is about BEING GRANTED carte blanche to MURDER someone.

IT'S NOT ABOUT LOVED ONES, WISHES, EMPOWERMENT OR CHOICE. IT IS MURDER. The victim has no choice at all. "Terri screamed..."

[floriduh voter]

Rusty Humphries just mentioned Terri on the radio and then said "now this" about illegal immigration.

[floriduh voter]

What a coincidence that A. Caplan is from Pennsylvania where the schiavos are from.

[Sun]

http://www.fightingforlifeonline.com/

Our Vision

1. To use this website as a gathering place for information about specific life battles.

2. To inform the pro-life community of immediate action that can be taken to save lives that are at risk.

ET CETERA - click link for more.

[8mmMauser]

Wesley J. Smith testifies to Congress...

"Once we accept the killing of terminally ill patients, as did the Dutch, we will invariably, over time, accept the killing of chronically ill patients, depressed patients, and ultimately perhaps, even children," predicts Smith.

He warns lawmakers that "once killing is redefined as medical treatment, it becomes transformed from 'bad' into 'good.' Thus, the guidelines intended to 'protect against abuse' eventually are viewed not as protections but instead as hurtles separating sick and dying patients from the beneficence of death. In such an intellectual and cultural milieu, it becomes easy to justify ignoring or violating 'guidelines.'"

Bioethicist Wesley J. Smith will Testify to Congress that "there is a proper public policy role for the federal government against assisted suicide"

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(this includes Ohioan from Florida's ping list, update to May 17.)



Terri on the road to recovery before the second stage began.

[8mmMauser]

A sad State of affairs, the state where I grew up. So much for Sen. Ron Wyden...

I have testified before, and it bears repeating: I opposed physician aide in dying both as an Oregon voter and as a senator. As the former Director of the Oregon Gray Panthers I witnessed first hand how many poor and vulnerable individuals receive inadequate health care. I worried primarily about the adequacy of the Oregon ballot measures' safeguards to protect the poor elderly, and as a result, I voted against the Oregon ballot measure - not once, but twice as a private citizen.

Despite my personal objections, I firmly believe that my election certificate does not give me the authority or the right to substitute my personal and religious beliefs for judgments made twice by the people of Oregon. I will continue to strongly oppose any legislative or administrative effort to overturn or nullify the will of Oregon's voters on this matter.

Had Oregon acted hastily or without thorough examination and debate, I might not be in a position defend the Oregon law. No one can accuse Oregonians of acting precipitously in approving the measure: the voters of Oregon did so only after two lengthy and exhaustive debates that dominated water cooler and dinner table conversation for the better part of two years.

Wyden defends Ore. 'Death with Dignity' law

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[8mmMauser]

Martin Anderson update...

......................

TALLAHASSEE, Florida  (AP) — Bay County's medical examiner who ruled that a teen struck by guards died of a blood disorder is accused of covering up an alleged 1977 beating by police officers.

In a complaint filed with the state, family members say Doctor Charles Siebert covered up the death of Michael Niesen. The doctor ruled that Niesen suffered injuries in a car accident and not in the beating.

The M-E is facing a similar accusation by Martin Anderson's family. He's the 14-year-old boy who died last January after collapsing at a juvenile boot camp.

Siebert stands by his findings and says the accusations made against him are untrue.

A second autopsy performed by another medical examiner concluded Anderson died of suffocation.

Another woman claims Siebert botched an autopsy when her daughter and husband died in a September 2004 tornado.

The families urge Florida's medical examiners commission to revoke Siebert's license.

Families: Boot camp medical examiner covered up other deaths

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[8mmMauser]

Ping to wagglebee's thread on the WorldNetDaily story of the Schindlers and Zolpidem...

Schindlers: Drug might have saved Terri

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[mtbopfuyn]

Hypocritic Oath.

[cyn]

'"Once we accept the killing of terminally ill patients, as did the Dutch, we will invariably, over time, accept the killing of chronically ill patients, depressed patients, and ultimately perhaps, even children," predicts Smith.'

Already done. Terri was not terminally ill.

Well, only in the sense that we all are, in that once we are conceived, we are all terminal.

[floriduh voter]

If Siebert is a republican, they won't lay a hand on him. If the sheriffs are Crist supporters, they won't lay a hand on them. Well, Crist is Florida's AG but notice he is staying out of the Martin Anderson beating death. Jeb handed it to Mark Ober of Hillsborough Cty.

See how Jeb did that to help Crist not have accountability for Martin's murder?

[Lesforlife]

PRECIOUS YENLANG VO UPDATE!!!

hi leslie,

we had a meeting with the hospital on thurs 5/25/06.
after long discussion, dr. lyson who is internal
medicine physician who substituting for her colleague.
she stated that my mother infection that she needed
for time in the hospital to be treated. it was her
word that the hospital administration postponed my
mother date for withdraws. as soon as it was the
extension date was 7/17/2006, i could not say a word
but thanking the internist for her words and tears
were streaming down my face as i stepped out from the
meeting and went to my mom room to visit her.

she is more responsive more now as before. she opened
her eyes as i called her name as she was receiving the
dialysis.

it was not only thank to the internist, but all the
people who voice their opinions taking their time and
effort to call the north austin medical center, texas
that made this big difference. their protest is
successful causing the hospital to bulge and allow my
mother for further treatment.

i want thank you and all the volunteers and everyone
who has been praying for us. please continue pray for
us because we still needed and mother is not out of
the loop yet. we need all the prayers and continue
voicing your opinions by calling the hospital.

thank you so much. god bless.
loann trinh

[8mmMauser]

Great news. I will ping it on the next page.