Replies

Michael Snedeker

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

The near-drowning occurred Aug. 16, 1981, and the diagnosis was bleak. He was sent home after 30 days in the hospital, with the expectation he might live for three to six months. He would live for more than 25 years, and caring for him 24 hours a day would become the Snedekers' first priority.

"You get used to what you had to do," said his father. "(Michael's death) does relieve us of a lot of things, but it's not that we don't miss him."

"For me it wasn't a burden," he added. "It's family."

When I met Michael and his parents in March 2005 — during the national debate over the fate of Terri Schiavo — he was in what doctors called "a persistent vegetative state." If two physicians would verify that diagnosis, New Jersey law would have permitted the Snedekers to withhold food. To them it was an unthinkable option.

Faith and love kept disabled son — and family's hope — alive

8mm

Carrie K. Hutchens in the Dakota Voice nails it again...

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

I read the AP article, "Surgery on Girl Raises Ethical Questions" and then "Parents who froze girl in time defend their actions" by Jeremy Laurance and Louise Jack. How interesting that Art Caplan is quoted in both. How interesting that "he", of all people, would be involved in presenting an ethical question involving this girl and her parents' decision regarding their child.

Ashley was born with brain damage that holds her in the bonds and boundaries of infancy. No one knows why. Knowing might prevent this situation from happening to others, but it cannot take back the hand it has dealt Ashley and her family. But that is not the issue at hand. The issue, it seems, is how the parents chose to handle the health and care of their daughter as they saw best. A decision that Art Caplan is quoted on The Independent Online Edition, as saying, " Arthur Caplan, a medical ethicist at the University of Pennsylvania, said the "do no harm" rule governing physicians is powerful and stopping growth is, "not the ethical way to head".

Oh really!?!?!?

Art Caplan who wrote the commentary "Opinion:Time to let Schiavo die"?

The Art Caplan who so obviously was leaning towards Michael Schiavo's side and so worried about what Michael had been and was going through? Poor Michael. He was treated so poorly, according to Caplan, for striving to do what he (Michael) felt was best for Terri. And, according to Caplan, this was a decision for Michael to make and said, "Those who would change a system that has worked and worked well for the millions of Americans who face the most difficult of medical decisions should think very hard about whether Sen. Bill Frist, DeLay, Sen. Hillary Clinton, Bush, Sen. John Kerry or the governor of your state needs to be consulted before you and your doctor can decide that it is time to stop life-prolonging medical care." Yes, this is what he said about Michael and the Schiavo case. Not what he said about the Ashley case............................

Ethical Questions Presented by Art Caplan?

8mm

>> Michael would react to familiar voices, including nurses whom he favored.

Michael was "in there." God bless his family for their fortitude over the years. God bless all the volunteer "angels" who pitched in to care for him.

It is often forgotten that Karen Ann Quinlan's parents, like Michael's, refused to discontinue tube feeding. Karen Ann is commonly thought to have been brain dead, but was not -- she could breathe with a ventilator. Her father was indignant at the suggestion that her feeding tube be removed. "That would take away her nutrition!" he said (or words to that effect).

God bless parents and family everywhere who patiently, lovingly, care for a helpless child.