T'wit, FReeper extraordinaire, has died.

self | August 5, 2007 | 8mmMauser

[8mmMauser]

A great FReeper and close friend passed. T’wit, also known as Timothy Wheeler passed on. In tribute, I would like to make this the August thread of Terri Dailies, the topic foremost in T’wit thoughts.

Tim was a man of great faith, a faith that grew stronger especially in recent months. As I type this, I still am not yet coherent, as I try to awaken and sip a good coffee brought to me recently by Tim. In his usual fashion, he probably figured I would appreciate a little care package and would appreciate the better quality than the usual fare we would fix.

But I do not want this thread to be maudlin, nor a reminiscing on anecdotes, rather a stab at what Tim would want.

T’wit was passionate about the beauty of nature, of good books, good music, and intellectual challenge, but mostly he was passionate about his love for our America, for Jim Robinson’s FreeRepublic, and for our fight for those in the plight of Terri Schiavo. For the latter, he sought justice and fervently hoped and prayed we on Terri’s List would carry on this battle against the evils of those who would control who lived and died.

In our many talks, he would sound like a poster boy for all the stated position of Jim Robinson.

His wife told me last evening the final thoughts he had. As can be expected, it was for us to continue our fight as we have done already. She hoped that rather than flowers or donations sent, that donations be directed at causes like that supporting Terri’s Legacy, the Terri Schindler Schiavo Foundation. In this way, we remember him and further his wishes. T’wit and I talked a lot about faith and I can reassure all, his faith in Our Lord was strong and growing stronger, a comfort to me that he carried it to the end.

My words come out with difficulty this morning, but should flow better later, although without the word play and banter we would sometimes engage, at least for now. T’wit would be upset if I quit the puns for long, though.

We will continue our prayers for T'wit and his wife and family.

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[8mmMauser]

Another ping to the thread from ElkGroveDan with thanks to Coleus on post#146.

Brain-injured man speaks after 6 years

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[Ciexyz]

Most sad news.

[8mmMauser]

Albert Devlin has been killed. The innocuous headline says he died, but his brother said he was murdered. It looks like a State sponsored killing again, Living Will or no Living Will. It took them twelve days to kill him.

Please note, he had given his brother Dan a health care proxy and Dan wanted him to live. Details from news sources are a bit scarce and incomplete, and worst of all, too late.

I do not think this is an exact quote from the judge, so please do not hold me to it. "We don't need no steeenking living wills!"

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BUFFALO, N.Y. - A man who suffered severe brain damage, and became the center of a family's two-year court feud over whether to keep him on life support, has died.

Buffalo police Lt. Albert Devlin, 55, died Tuesday morning at Roswell Park Cancer Institute _ 12 days after his feeding tube was disconnected at the request of his wife, Suzanne.

In a case recalling the Terry Schiavo debate, decisions over Albert Devlin's care divided his family.

The cases differ in a crucial way: unlike Schiavo, Devlin signed a health care proxy during his health crisis. Nevertheless, debate persisted about who should carry out his wishes, and how.

Albert Devlin had given his brother, Dan Devlin, control of his medical treatment in a July 2004 proxy. Albert Devlin was diagnosed with esophageal cancer and suffered severe brain damage during surgery 10 months later to remove cancerous tissue. Soon after, his wife successfully sued for control of her husband's treatment.

Earlier this month, state Appellate Justice Salvatore Martoche denied Dan Devlin's appeal of that ruling.

Dan Devlin and Suzanne Devlin agreed that Albert Devlin told them after his diagnosis that he did not want to go on living as "a vegetable" if something happened.

Dan Devlin, 60, believed that a treatment might be found to help his brother regain consciousness. He vowed to pursue murder charges if life support was discontinued before every option was explored.

Suzanne Devlin declined to comment.

During a hearing, several witnesses called by Suzanne Devlin _ including a third Devlin brother, Kenneth, who is also a Buffalo police officer _ testified that Al Devlin told them he would not want to live if he were incapacitated.....................

Man at center of life support battle dies

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[8mmMauser]

Police Lt. Albert Devlin

Requiescant in Pace

"We will not be silent. We are your bad conscience. The White Rose will give you no rest."

[8mmMauser]

Bobby Schindler...

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Recently, a group of surgeons restored the consciousness of a man who had been in a “minimally conscious state” for six years, unable to feed himself or communicate. The experiment, led by Dr. Ali Rezai, director of the Center for Neurological Restoration at the Cleveland Clinic, involved implanting two electrodes into the brain of a trauma victim.

According to an article in the National Catholic Register regarding these findings, Dr. Joseph Giacino, co-leader of the study and associate director of the New Jersey Neuroscience Institute, stated that “the breakthrough raises questions about Schiavo,” adding that “his patient’s circumstances were different than Schiavo’s.”

In 1991, Terri had a similar procedure where stimulators were implanted in her brain. This has prompted several articles where doctors insisted that Terri’s procedure was a failure compared to Dr. Rezai’s study, implying that Terri’s brutal death was somehow justified.

Unfortunately for Terri, her experimental implants were done 16 years ago and therefore did not include the most recent technology available today. In addition, comparing the pictures of her procedure to that of the new study, one can see that the placement of the electrodes on this patient was very different from the area of the brain where the electrodes were placed in Terri’s procedure, not to mention that the device (again by looking at the pictures) used on this patient was very much different than what was used on Terri............................

Terri Schiavo's Death Still Being Rationalized as Brain Injured Get Help

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[8mmMauser]

Ping to the wagglebee thread on the Bobby Schindler article above.

Terri Schiavo's Death Still Being Rationalized as Brain Injured Get Help

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[8mmMauser]

Made in China...

Thread by JACKRUSSELL on the used parts industry in China. Thanks to TheSarce.

The Ministry of Health is gearing up to introduce a nationwide definition of brain death to facilitate human organ transplants, said Vice-Minister Huang Jiefu.

The authorities will start mapping out the criteria needed to define brain death in October.

Huang made the remarks at the just concluded China Organ Transplant Forum in Beijing, which was organized to bring together experts to provide suggestions on how the legislation and standards governing organ transplants could be improved.

Health Authorities to Define Legal Brain Death

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[8mmMauser]

Surprise, surprise...

Hillary views are not accepted all that well in a thread by wagglebee.

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Hillary Clinton is pro-abortion and the only female candidate pursuing a bid for the White House in either party. If abortion advocates are correct, Clinton has the women's vote locked up -- yet a new poll shows that women don't necessarily support her and that her pro-abortion views are a turnoff.

Poll Shows Hillary Clinton's Pro-Abortion View Turns Off Women Voters

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[wagglebee]

The deathbots certainly demonstrated how hateful they are on this thread. Some seem to subscribe to the belief that, when in doubt, we should just kill the person so that an autopsy can be done to figure out what was wrong.

[Dante3]

How horrible!

[ContraryMary]

May he rest in peace. My prayers for his family.

[8mmMauser]

Remembering Haleigh, watching until we know she is safe and free...

Something is afoot in the Haleigh Poutre saga. Now, we may ponder is Judge Collins tougher or is Judge Jeffrey Kinder?

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SPRINGFIELD -- The trial of Haleigh Poutre's stepfather, who is accused of beating the 13-year-old girl into a coma, was postponed indefinitely yesterday after the defense lawyer abruptly withdrew from the case.

~Snip~

Over the past two years, as a juvenile court judge, Collins presided over the girl's end-of-life case and ongoing care in a rehabilitation hospital, often making decisions that angered Schubert. On Aug. 15, in an unusual move by the trial court administration, Collins was appointed to replace Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Kinder to oversee the trial.

Defense lawyer in Poutre case bows out

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[8mmMauser]

A take on proxies inter alia and (non)effectiveness on saving the life of Lt. Devlin:

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The News report of Daniel Devlin’s struggle to save the life of his brother demonstrates a travesty that occurs more often than suspected in many health care facilities. Recent British studies show that many persistent vegetative state diagnoses are erroneous. But even if they were 100 percent correct, it is simply inhumanely wrong to suggest that the right to life depends on the ability to interact with one’s environment.

Nutrition and hydration are but ordinary care, which must be provided, even artificially, unless death is imminent. The proxy itself differentiates between treatment options that can be rejected and artificial nutrition and hydration. It states that the agent cannot make decisions about tube feeding unless the patient has made his wishes known in that regard.

But that rule can be and often is overridden. It can happen when a patient whose wishes were recorded becomes incapacitated, the proxy restrictions are ignored and the agent is permitted to refuse nutrition and hydration as if it were the same as “extraordinary” medical treatment, which can be rightfully refused. In this regard, the proxy law is worse than useless. It’s a sham.

Sarah Zilbauer

Grand Island

Buffalo case proves proxy law is a sham

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[8mmMauser]

I really regret that I may only excerpt this fine work by Ilana Mercer in World Net Daily today. It merits a full reading, especially at the beginning.

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Animal-rights advocates counter by claiming that not all human beings have the capacity for moral agency. They don't mean Michael Moore, but poor Terri Schiavo, RIP. Remember how far-left (and far-gone) liberals fought like rabid dogs to slowly starve and dehydrate her? One philosophical argument they deployed to justify Terri's torture was that she had lost what made her uniquely human.

But, as Machan emphasizes, "To complain that moral agency is lacking while someone is in a coma or asleep is to misunderstand the point of a definition, a statement about the nature of something." An elk doesn't stop being an elk if without antlers. The criminal Carranza consciously used his capacities in choosing to kill. And while a baby doesn't have moral agency, it will develop it in time. However damaged or depraved, a human being is still a human being.

Easily, the most salient aspect about human beings is that they live in moral communities. When the lunatic left and a few "Crunchy Cons" abandoned the weak and the enfeebled Terri Schiavo, others (Sean Hannity, Thomas Szasz, Alan Dershowitz, WND and this column, etc.,) stepped in to fight for her rights. This is not the case with animals. Members of the canine community have yet to deliver disquisitions against dog fighting. However, when the day arrives and Fido fights tooth and nail for more than Kibbles 'n Bits, he will indeed have earned his rights.

In defense of Michael Vick, Part 2

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[8mmMauser]

More story follows on the fate of Lt. Devlin, R.I.P.

This tells more how he got Greered. Hmmm, this story isn't fading quite so silently as the death angels would wish. But the title is NKR (Not Quite Right) as it says he died, but he was killed.

Am I guessing right? That the judge supposed poor Lt. Devlin wanted to be tortured to death over twelve days by starvation?

In his March 12 ruling, State Supreme Court Justice Russell P. Buscaglia cited expert opinion that Albert Devlin’s brain damage was irreversible and the testimony of family members and friends who said Devlin had told them he would not want to live “if he could not hold a gun as a sportsman would,” or if he were confined to a wheelchair or connected to breathing apparatus “like Terry Schiavo or Christopher Reeve.”

In revoking the health care proxy and awarding Suzanne Devlin guardianship, Buscaglia ruled that although Daniel Devlin believed “he and only he knew Albert Devlin’s true wishes, he neither testified nor produced any evidence to controvert” his sister-in-law’s case.

In a story in The Buffalo News on Aug. 8 — the day before Devlin’s life support was ended — Daniel Devlin, who had presented no witnesses during last year’s hearing, said he felt Buscaglia was wrong to remove him as his brother’s health care agent.

Comatose police lieutenant dies; wife and brother had differed on life support

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[8mmMauser]

Need I remind...that the lefties can't let it go. Terri looms in their fantasies like a Shakespearian image, not letting go. We see it most every day in one news media or another. So here is today's daily movement of the left...

The editorial warns fellow conservatives against claiming that George W. Bush failed to fulfill their agenda. The president is a lame duck but not a good scapegoat, because “rather than betraying the right, he has given it virtually everything it craved, from humongous tax cuts to conservative judges.” The worst political errors of the Bush regime, from its ruinous war in Iraq to the awful Terri Schiavo intervention, sprang directly from the brilliant minds of the religious right and the neoconservatives.

Reality: America Isn’t Conservative

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[8mmMauser]

When evil strikes you in the face, don't count on heroes to come to the rescue. Thread by wagglebee.

ROCKFORD, Illinois, August 23, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A peaceful pro-life witness was violently assaulted outside an abortion site on Tuesday. Police responded late to his 911 after he was beaten by an unknown visitor to the clinic.

Early on Tuesday morning August 21, three Rockford pro-lifers-Ken Plez, Pat Brady and Kevin Rilott-were praying quietly in front of the Northern Illinois Women's Center (abortuary) for an end to abortion. A large white truck pulled into the clinic parking lot, and without setting foot on the clinic property, Rilott approached and tried to talk to the people inside.

Pro-Lifer Violently Assaulted Outside Abortion Clinic, Police Take Time After Repeat 911 Calls

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[8mmMauser]

Governsleastgovernsbest has a thread on the NYT and Rudy and pro-choice. Thanks, wagglebee.

Are Rudy's positions on abortion and other social issues more liberal than those of the Republican base? No doubt. But more "moderate"? If a pro-life Democrat were running for president, it would make as much sense for the Times to say "Mr. X’s candidacy has always been considered somewhat unorthodox, given his more moderate views on social issues like abortion, putting him at odds with many in the Democratic base." But hey, the Times isn't in the sense-making business. It simply wants to portray its positions as the default, "moderate" ones.

Pro-Choice Position 'More 'Moderate' than Pro-life? NYT Says So

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[TheSpottedOwl]

Such a sweet little girl. I'm glad to hear that the judicial system can actually function. The full force of the law needs to be applied to that "stepfather".

The prosecutor opposed Schubert's motion to withdraw, saying it would cause major delays in the trial of Jason Strickland, which was set to begin in early September. The prosecutor also said that one of Schubert's complaints, that he did not receive adequate compensation for his extensive legal services in this two-year-old case, should have been anticipated.

MONEY!!!!! Trust me, they only care about money. Even if you are innocent, the minute you run dry, they throw you under the bus! Of course this Jason Strickland person isn't exactly innocent.

[TheSpottedOwl]

Imo, Michael Vick is scum. Dog fighting isn’t the only thing he’s into. Let’s just focus on dog fighting. True, dogs are animals, they are not human. When the Lord created earth, he gave man animals to use wisely and humanely. No where does it say you can bash a dog’s head in because she lost a fight!

Mr. Owl is Jewish, and slaughtered animals in the Kosher fashion. No, there wasn’t a Rabbi present, however it is said to be the least brutal way of killing your dinner. Using what the Lord has provided for food is not akin to setting dogs on each other.

We are appalled by “people” who treat their animals wrong. There is no reason on earth to purposely kill, maim, or mistreat an animal. If an animal needs to be put down, call a vet!

I cannot believe that Terri Schiavo was mentioned in that article.