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Terri Schiavo Revisited: Brother Bobby Schindler Speaks
CUA Tower ^
| 11/12/10
| Joanna Gardner
Posted on 11/14/2010 10:59:10 AM PST by wagglebee
There was not a dry eye in McGivney Hall's Keane auditorium Wednesday as more than 150 students watched a short video of photos and footage from the life of Terri Schiavo-a Florida woman whose tragic medical condition riveted the nation and Congress five years ago.
The video presentation followed a talk given by Bobby Schindler, the late Terri Schiavo's brother and advocate from the Terri Schiavo Life and Hope Network, sponsored by the CUA student organization Students for Life.
Schindler's talk addressed the misconceptions surrounding Schiavo's death, its treatment by the media, and its ongoing impact in today's culture, in a presentation both emotionally moving, and factually startling.
For many, Schiavo's controversial 2005 death after suffering a traumatic brain injury in 1990 that left her severely disabled, was a vague memory. Current CUA students were between grades 7 and 10 when Schiavo died and for many the details of the case were unclear.
According to Schindler, this confusion exists for most of America because of the misleading coverage the case received in the mainstream media, the many rumors that circulated about its details, and a common atmosphere of both ridicule and acceptance surrounding the event that has developed in pop and media culture.
But Schindler's primary message was a call for awareness in the present day. "The reason why we're still talking about this case, why it's so important, is because this issue did not end with Terri," he said.
Schindler began his presentation by declaring false much of what is now assumed about the case. "She was not in a coma, she was not in a persistent vegetative state, she was certainly not brain-dead. There were no machines, no respirators, dialysis machines, nothing at all hooked up to her keeping her alive, other than food and water."
On February 5th, 1990, Schiavo collapsed in her apartment for reasons still unknown. The lack of oxygen to her brain for several hours left her with what is termed a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). Her injury resulted in difficulty swallowing and she was put on a feeding tube.
Schindler explained that in the years following her injury, Schiavo made progress. She was able to go out in a wheelchair and was beginning to say certain words, he said. However, in 1993 her husband and legal guardian Michael Schiavo stopped all rehabilitation and Terri was confined to a nursing home.
"If you do that to anybody with this type of brain injury, they are going to naturally deteriorate, and Terri did," Schindler said. Over the course of the next twelve years, Michael Schiavo and Terri's family became engaged in a legal battle over Terri's life; Michael argued that her wish would be to die, and her family sought the right to care for her at home.
In 2005 after a series of court cases, Congress stepped in, passing a bill giving cases like Terri's the right to a federal review. A federal judge ruled that the original court decision on Terri's case would stand and that her feeding tube would be removed.
"This case is often talked about as an end-of life issue; it's not. She wasn't dying. She didn't have a terminal disease. Doctors said that Terri quite possibly could have lived a normal life span," Schindler argued. Many doctors have argued, however, that Terri's condition was irreversible.
Feeding tubes by law are considered extraordinary means of keeping a person alive. "The health care profession now recognizes food and water as artificial life support," Schindler said. "Food and water have been defined as medical treatment." While debate continues within the medical community, Schindler firmly expressed his belief that food and water should not be denied to patients in Terri's position.
After two weeks without food and water, Schiavo died of dehydration on March 31, 2005 at the age of 41. Schindler called it a "brutal death."
Schindler and his family formed the Terri Schindler-Schiavo Foundation (now the Terri Schiavo Life and Hope Network) as a response to this experience. He described the organization's mission as "advocating for people who are not dying, who are only being sustained by food and water."
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, each year in the United States about 1.7 million people sustain a Traumatic Brain Injury. The CDC reports, "TBI is a contributing factor to a third (30.5%) of all injury-related deaths in the United States." (www.cdc.gov) It is also a signature injury of troops deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan.
Schindler said these figures are what give the issue such relevance today. "I think this is an issue that's going to touch everyone, either directly or through a family member," he said.
But he also sees his sister's case as part of a larger cultural movement. "We are now deciding whether someone should live or die based on what they can and cannot do," he said. "This is not only a life issue," he said, "but a disability rights issue."
In April, a controversial episode of the TV show Family Guy aired mocking the Terri Schiavo case. Schindler said that such instances in pop culture reveal a "prejudice" against the disabled and "a dangerous apathy in our society."
The distortion of the case in the mainstream-media is nothing recent, according to Schindler. He quoted journalist Nat Hentoff, who wrote in 2003, "The reporting on the fierce battle for the life of 39-year-old Terri Schiavo has been the worst case of this kind of journalistic malpractice I've seen."
Students who attended the event commented on this misrepresentation. Sophomore Meghan Dietzler said, "I didn't even realize that she was not on life support or brain dead. I believed what the media told me, and I thought my family was pretty informed about it."
"I didn't realize how much of an issue this was, or that it affected so many people in our country and in our culture," said sophomore Mary Linn.
Most students were also touched on an emotional level. Freshman Cassian Utrie explained, "This stuff moves you because it's real."
The president of Students for Life, senior Deirdre Lawler said, "I think it was very powerful to hear him talk about it from a personal perspective
.These issues can become abstract very easily."
Asked about the club's reasons for bringing Schindler to campus, Lawler said, "We were really excited to have Bobby to represent another facet of our mission which is to promote a culture of life, and his story is very important to address another way in which that culture of life is threatened."
Vice president of SFL, senior Ryan Cooley said, "The intentionality here was to promote and highlight an issue that often goes unspoken of and misrepresented."
TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: euthanasia; moralabsolutes; prolife; terridailies; terrischiavo; whiterose
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To: Ohioan from Florida; Goodgirlinred; Miss Behave; cyn; AlwaysFree; amdgmary; angelwings49; ...
The Schindler FamilyTerri Schiavos mother and siblingsare some of the finest people I know. Their indomitable fight to save Terri from a cruel and medically unnecessary slow dehydrationin the face of media smears and fury among some who went berserk over their desire to save Terris lifeepitomized familial unconditional love and stalwart courage in the face of great adversity. That several year struggle destroyed father Bob Schindlers health, and her death broke his heart. He died a few years ago.
But the family continues on, working quietly behind the scenes individuallyand through their foundation, the Terri Schiavo Life and Hope Networkto help people who are fighting against a loved one suffering a similar fate. They remain white hot controversial figures in some quarters, but the pro life movement has now stepped forward with a big $100,000 Life Prize award to the foundation. From the press release:
In 2005, the world watched as a young woman with disabilities was deprived of food and water by order of a judge. Her family has vowed to fight for the right to life of those vulnerable individuals with disabilities and as a result, Terris Network has become their safe haven amidst the pressures of the so-called right to die movement. More than 1,000 families have been helped by the organization through their national network of resources, support and medical facilities for the medically-dependent and now they are among the six recipients of $600,000 in prizes awarded for achieving significant progress in promoting the sanctity of human life and working to protect and preserve it
The Life Prizes winners were measured by their success in saving lives and selected for best demonstrating their leadership and progress in pro-life achievements through public advocacy, scientific research, legal action, outreach and public discourse activities.
What a splendid recognition of selflessness. Congratulations to all who contribute to the Networkand to Bobby, Susanne, Mary, and the abiding memory of Bob.
If you are interested in the details about other recipients, hit this link.
61
posted on
12/19/2010 11:57:14 AM PST
by
wagglebee
("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)
To: wagglebee
When I consider what our family has done to keep both twins, through TTTS, through preeclapsia, the countless requests for Divine intervention and prayer (http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2627233/posts?page=303), the thought of destroying, of murdering the other baby or babies in the womb is a horrorshow.
Consider if for only a second that those babies are aware of each other in there (if you don't believe that, just suppose) and consider the abject horror for the survivor...
What parent would do this to their children?
62
posted on
12/19/2010 12:28:55 PM PST
by
Smokin' Joe
(How often God must weep at humans' folly. Stand fast. God knows what He is doing.)
To: Smokin' Joe
I've got a niece and nephew who are twins, it is amazing how "aware" of each other they are. Even when they bicker it is totally different from normal sibling squabbles.
My brother's sister-in-law lost a twin during pregnancy. When the surviving twin was old enough they told him about his twin, he said that he had always known that someone was missing.
63
posted on
12/19/2010 12:34:34 PM PST
by
wagglebee
("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)
To: wagglebee
To: wagglebee
Interesting. A great family.
I have difficulty getting on FR, then in logging-in and posting. I seemed to have no problems with other sites.
65
posted on
12/22/2010 8:32:06 AM PST
by
Dante3
To: PhatHead; Ohioan from Florida; Goodgirlinred; Miss Behave; cyn; AlwaysFree; amdgmary; ...
The death panel carnage has started.
Thread by PhatHead.
Last week, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) revoked its regulatory approval of the drug Avastin to treat late stage, metastatic breast cancer. Each year, the practicing oncologists chosen by 17,500 American women to save them from their life-threatening, heavily progressed cancer prescribe Avastin to treat them.
The FDA explained that it was revoking approval of the drug for that use because it decided that the drug does not provide "a sufficient benefit in slowing disease progression to outweigh the significant risk to patients." Risk? The drug is prescribed for women who are otherwise going to die from cancer unless the drug saves them at least for a time. The far greater risk to these women is from the FDA, not the drug.
As The Wall Street Journal said last Friday in response to the FDA's explanation:
Ponder that [word] "sufficient." The agency is substituting its own judgment about clinical meaningfulness for those of practicing oncologists and terminally ill cancer patients.
(Excerpt) Read more at spectator.org ...
66
posted on
01/02/2011 10:11:24 AM PST
by
wagglebee
("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)
To: Ohioan from Florida; Goodgirlinred; Miss Behave; cyn; AlwaysFree; amdgmary; angelwings49; ...
Big Murder has made it clear that abortion is their preferred method of contraception.
Thread by me.
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas, December 22, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Planned Parenthood Federation of America plans to require all its affilate groups to offer abortions in at least one of their clinics, according to one of its affiliates.
Planned Parenthood of South Texas said Monday they were dropping their affiliation with the national abortion giant because of the decree, according to Caller.com.
The leader of the affiliate, which will change its name to Family Planning of the Coastal Bend on New Years Day, said there was no need to offer the procedure given the presence of other abortionists in the area.
We have never provided abortions, said CEO Amanda Stukenberg. Our position is that if that is a need in your community, fine. There are far greater needs in our area than abortion. We feel that women here have options. We dont need to duplicate services.
The South Texas office will continue to offer emergency contraception, which can cause the death of an embryo by preventing its implantation in the uterus, in addition to other birth control drugs.
It is unclear how many of Planned Parenthoods 89 affiliate groups in the United States do not perform medical or surgical abortions. Planned Parenthood committed 324,008 medical and surgical abortions last year, according to their 2008-2009 annual report.
Although Planned Parenthood often points out that abortion accounts for a minute percentage of its services, one former Planned Parenthood insider turned pro-life activist has revealed the groups dependence on the lucrative business of abortion for propping up its $1 billion budget.
The money wasnt in family planning, the money wasnt in prevention, the money was in abortion, said Abby Johnson, former director of a Planned Parenthood clinic in Bryan, Texas.
According to Johnson, her superiors established a monthly quota of abortions to keep the money flowing, and would increase the quota to meet financial needs. They really wanted to increase the number of abortions so that they could increase their income, she said.
67
posted on
01/02/2011 10:14:37 AM PST
by
wagglebee
("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)
To: 2ndDivisionVet; Ohioan from Florida; Goodgirlinred; Miss Behave; cyn; AlwaysFree; amdgmary; ...
Cal Thomas nails it here!
Thread by 2ndDivisionVet.
Sarah Palin deserves an apology. When she said that the new health-care law would lead to "death panels" deciding who gets life-saving treatment and who does not, she was roundly denounced and ridiculed. Now we learn, courtesy of one of the ridiculers -- the New York Times -- that she was right. Under a new policy not included in the law for fear the administration's real end-of-life game would be exposed, a rule issued by the recess-appointed Dr. Donald M. Berwick, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, calls for the government to pay doctors to advise patients on options for ending their lives.
These could include directives to forgo aggressive treatment that could extend their lives.
This rule will inevitably lead to bureaucrats deciding who is "fit" to live and who is not. The effect this might have on public opinion, which by a solid majority opposes Obamacare, is clear from an e-mail obtained by the Times. It is from Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., who sent it to people working with him on the issue.
Oregon and Washington are the only states with assisted-suicide laws, a preview of what is to come at the federal level if this new regulation is allowed to stand. Blumenauer wrote in his November e-mail:
"While we are very happy with the result, we won't be shouting it from the rooftops because we aren't out of the woods yet. This regulation could be modified or reversed, especially if Republican leaders try to use this small provision to perpetuate the 'death panel' myth."
Ah, but it's not a myth, and that's where Palin nailed it. All inhumanities begin with small steps; otherwise the public might rebel against a policy that went straight to the "final solution."
All human life was once regarded as having value, because even government saw it as "endowed by our Creator." This doctrine separates us from plants, microorganisms and animals.
Doctors once swore an oath, which reads in part: "I will not give a lethal drug to anyone if I am asked, nor will I advise such a plan; and similarly I will not give a woman a pessary to cause an abortion."
Did Dr. Berwick, a fan of rationed care and the British National Health Service, ever take that oath? If he did, it appears he no longer believes it.
Do you see where this leads? First the prohibition against abortion is removed and "doctors" now perform them. Then the assault on the infirm and elderly begins.
Once the definition of human life changes, all human lives become potentially expendable if they don't measure up to constantly "evolving" government standards.
It will all be dressed up with the best possible motives behind it and sold to the public as the ultimate benefit.
The killings, uh, terminations, will take place out of sight so as not to disturb the masses who might have a few embers of a past morality still burning in their souls. People will sign documents testifying to their desire to die, and the government will see it as a means of "reducing the surplus population," to quote Charles Dickens.
When life is seen as having ultimate value, individuals and their doctors can make decisions about treatment that are in the best interests of patients. But when government is looking to cut costs as the highest good and offers to pay doctors to tell patients during their annual visits that they can choose to end their lives rather than continue treatment, that is more than the proverbial camel's nose under the tent.
That is the next step on the way to physician-assisted suicide and, if not stopped, government-mandated euthanasia.
It can't happen here? Based on what standard?
Yes it can happen in America, and it will if the new Republican class in Congress doesn't stop it.
68
posted on
01/02/2011 10:19:02 AM PST
by
wagglebee
("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)
To: Ohioan from Florida; Goodgirlinred; Miss Behave; cyn; AlwaysFree; amdgmary; angelwings49; ...
The death panels are coming and the left is trying to spin it as a positive. For those who may not remember, Art Caplan was one of the biggest cheerleaders of Terri's murder.
Two threads by me.
Watch out! The "death panels" are back. They are going to be used by Obama and his horde of federal health reformers to make sure that if you are old, very sick and go into a hospital, you will never return.
So goes the line of utter malarkey put forward with a straight face and Twitter finger last year by Sarah Palin, who notoriously and ridiculously coined the term "death panels" to vilify efforts to legislate paying doctors to talk with Medicare patients about their health care options if they become terminally ill. Her critique worked. The provision to pay doctors for the time involved to talk about end-of-life care for older Americans was dropped from the health reform bill.
But it has come back, this time in the form of regulations to be issued on Jan. 1 by the Department of Health and Human Services. If an elderly person is offered a chance to do advance care planning by their doctor and wants to do so, then Medicare will pay the doctor for the time involved.
Some conservatives and right-to-lifers see rationing afoot. They think encouraging these discussions is simply a way to get old folks to save the federal government money by slyly tricking them into saying that they dont want a lot of medical care if they are terminally ill. Not only are they wrong, they are dead wrong.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
________________________________________________________
The Democrat who started the latest national debate over the inclusion of so-called death panels by the Obama administration into federal regulations now regrets doing so.
The office of Representative Earl Blumenauer, an assisted suicide advocate from Oregon who works closely with pro-euthanasia groups like Compassion and Choices, alerted supporters of the change the Obama administration implemented and worked to ask them to keep the news quiet.
We would ask that you not broadcast this accomplishment out to any of your lists e-mails can too easily be forwarded, his staff wrote. Thus far, it seems that no press or blogs have discovered it but we will be keeping a close watch and may be calling on you if we need a rapid, targeted response. The longer this [regulation] goes unnoticed, the better our chances of keeping it.
The memo talked of a quiet victory and had the congressman worrying about how Republican leaders would use this small provision to perpetuate the death panel myth.
But LifeNews.com reported on the new regulations and, weeks later, the New York Times got a copy of the memo Blumenauer wrote and the national dustup began.
Now, Blumenauer told The Hill that he regrets the secretive language used in the email, which he says he did not see beforehand.
If I had seen the memo, I would have suggested it be worded differently, Blumenauer told The Hill. Still, he defended the controversial new regulation.
This was a reasonable thing for the administration to do, Blumenauer said, adding that he doesnt expect Congress to try to repeal the regulation because Republicans are focusing on repealing and de-funding ObamaCare in its entirety.
Democratic strategist Bill Galston told the congressional newspaper that Blumenauer hurt efforts to defend the regulation by trying to keep it a secret, saying, It was stupid.
Tom McClusky of the Family Research Council commented on the memo and said pro-life people need to understand the importance of Blumenauers role in the debate.
Blumenauer is very important to this tale for it is with him that the legislative origins of the assisted suicide language begin, he said. The origins of the language are extremely important when you think about the motivation of the people behind it.
The original bill language would provide Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements to doctors who direct people to take their own lives instead of seek treatment and was written by a group called Compassion & Choices, an offshoot of a group from the 1980′s that called itself the Hemlock Society, the nations leading advocate for assisted suicide, McClusky explained. Ultimately the language was not in the final passed bill, though many other factors leading to rationing were included.
Although the advanced directives apparently cant be used to facilitate an assisted suicide, there is concern physicians will pressure or persuade patients to make decisions that would ration care or withdraw lifesaving medical treatment.
"We will not be silent.
We are your bad conscience.
The White Rose will give you no rest."
69
posted on
01/02/2011 10:28:32 AM PST
by
wagglebee
("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)
To: wagglebee
I recently heard about a senior on Medicate, who voted for Obama, who said she was not happy with Obama now. Why? The Medicare changes hit HER. Why were so many Americans taken by this man?
70
posted on
01/02/2011 1:10:46 PM PST
by
Sun
(Pray that God sends us good leaders. Please say a prayer now.)
To: wagglebee
It was a very sad day for our Nation. I believe it will be the date that will be remembered as the start of the “death panels”. GOD determines life not Nations.
To: wagglebee
72
posted on
01/06/2011 5:22:52 AM PST
by
Dante3
To: julieee; Ohioan from Florida; Goodgirlinred; Miss Behave; cyn; AlwaysFree; amdgmary; ...
At least he will be unable to order any more murders.
Thread by julieee.
Judge Who Ordered Euthanasia of Terri Schiavo Retires
St. Petersburg, FL -- The Florida state judge who allowed the former husband of disabled patient Terri Schiavo to take her life by depriving her of food and water, has retired from the bench.
(Excerpt) Read more at lifenews.com ...
"We will not be silent.
We are your bad conscience.
The White Rose will give you no rest."
73
posted on
01/16/2011 10:58:41 AM PST
by
wagglebee
("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)
To: NYer; Ohioan from Florida; Goodgirlinred; Miss Behave; cyn; AlwaysFree; amdgmary; angelwings49; ...
This is disturbing beyond words.
Thread by NYer.
A COUPLE so desperate for a baby girl that they terminated twin boys are fighting to choose the sex of their next child.
The couple, who have three sons and still grieve for a daughter they lost soon after birth, are going to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal to win the right to select sex by IVF treatment.
They say they want the opportunity to have the baby daughter they were tragically denied.
An independent panel, known as the Patient Review Panel, recently rejected the couple's bid to choose the sex of their next child using IVF.
They have gone to VCAT in a bid to have that decision overturned.
VCAT recently ruled that it has the power to review the Patient Review Panel decision. It will hear the couple's case in March.
So determined are the couple to have a girl that they recently terminated twin boys conceived through IVF.
The couple said it had been a traumatic decision to make but they could not continue to have unlimited numbers of children.
If their test case fails, they say they will go to the US to conceive a girl.
The couple, who cannot be identified, conceived their three boys naturally.
The woman - in her thirties - says she loves her sons but would do anything to have a daughter.
The man said: "After what we have been through we are due for a bit of luck. We want to be given the opportunity to have a girl."
The woman, who is consumed by grief over the daughter who died soon after birth, admits she has become obsessed with having a daughter and it has become vital to her psychological health.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.com.au ...
74
posted on
01/16/2011 11:02:55 AM PST
by
wagglebee
("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)
To: Salvation; Ohioan from Florida; Goodgirlinred; Miss Behave; cyn; AlwaysFree; amdgmary; ...
This is incredibly moving.
Thread by Salvation.
January 12th, 2011 by Steven W. Mosher
I know something about dramatic conversions to the pro-life cause. I experienced one myself some years ago in a Chinese abortion clinic. I had never really thought about what an abortion entailed until I witnessed one with my own eyes. But I could not ignore the result a dead baby and a mother deeply wounded in both body and spirit and I turned away in horror.
Abby Johnsons epiphany occurred in similar circumstances, although she was not, as I had been, an innocent bystander to this crime against humanity. Rather she was the long-time director of a Planned Parenthood clinic which, over the course of her tenure, had done thousands of abortions. Abby, in fact, had scheduled the abortion that changed her life.
She had joined Planned Parenthood as a college student because she had been led to believe that the organization was dedicated to helping women in crisis. She believed them when they told her that they wanted to make abortion rare. She repeated their lies when she told naive young women that what was growing in their wombs was not a baby, but just a fetus, little more than a clump of cells, or a ball of tissue.
But as she went from being a volunteer to full-time employee, she learned that a key goal of the organization was to make as much money as possible by performing as many abortions as possible. Instead of helping to make abortions rare, as she had believed, she realized to her dismay that she was helping to make them more common.
Then came the day when she herself was asked to assist with an abortion, holding an ultrasound probe to allow the abortionist a clear view of his tiny target. What came up on the screen was an entire, perfect profile of a baby at 13 weeks. As the doctor inserted the suction cannula, she saw the baby began struggling to turn and twist away. But there was no escape. As she writes, For the briefest moment it looked like the baby was being wrung like a dishcloth, twirled and squeezed. And then the little body crumpled and began disappearing into the cannula before my eyes. The last thing I saw was the tiny, perfectly formed backbone sucked into the tube, and then everything was gone.
Abby was devastated by what she had seen. And she swore to herself that she would never again support abortion.
Perhaps her story would have ended there, were it not for the friendships she had formed with the pro-lifers who had long held prayer vigils outside her clinic. These compassionate prayer warriors had long interceded not just for the women who visited the clinic and their unborn children, but for the clinic personnel as well. It is thus no accident that when Abby walked out of her Planned Parenthood office she went directly over to the office of the local 40 Days for Life director, Shawn Carney, and that he and other pro-lifers helped her transition from abortion advocate to helping women and saving lives.
The story of Abbys conversion, which was years in the making, is nothing short of miraculous. I was reminded in the telling of how Father Paul Marx befriended abortion pioneer Bernard Nathanson, a friendship which greatly aided Dr. Nathanson in his long spiritual journey from the atheism of his youth to his final confirmation in the Catholic faith. (I understand that Abby and her husband have left the Episcopal Church over its pro-abortion stance, and are receiving instruction in the Catholic Church.)
If you are tempted to despair over Americas continuing embrace of abortion, consider the moral courage of Abby Johnson and those who stood with her, and be reminded that all things are possible with God. unPlanned is a story of Gods grace and redemption that should be read by every one determined to build a Culture of Life.
75
posted on
01/16/2011 11:07:04 AM PST
by
wagglebee
("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)
To: Ohioan from Florida; Goodgirlinred; Miss Behave; cyn; AlwaysFree; amdgmary; angelwings49; ...
Every day more proof emerges that life really does begin at conception.
Thread by me.
Amillia Sonja Taylor was born at just under 22 weeks gestation, and was one of the smallest babies ever at 284 grams.
IOWA CITY, January 14, 2011 (LifeSiteNEws.com) - A project by Dr. Edward Bell of the University of Iowa, in Iowa City, to create a registry of surviving infants with birth weights of less than 400 grams has found that, while still rare, the chances of survival of these tiny children is rising.
The Tiniest Babies Registry has compiled data on 110 babies born between 1936 and 2010 weighing between 260 and 397 grams at birth and having gestational ages from 21 to 34 weeks.
Dr. Bell told Reuters Health that he was motivated to create the registry in 2000 after a baby girl, now patient #11 in the Tiniest Babies Registry, was born at his university hospital weighing just 359 grams.
When our patient survived, I began to look around to see what other tiny survivors had been reported, Bell said.
Dr. Bell and fellow researcher Diane Zumbach found that the number of micro premies who survive each year has increased since the early 1990s, and noted that gestational age was more important for the babies survival than their size.
By far, the vast majority of infants born alive weighing less than 400 grams are too early in pregnancy to survive, Dr. Bell said in the Reuters report, indicating that the children in the survivors registry were unusually small for their gestational ages but more fully formed than an average 400-gram baby.
A normally-grown 400-gram baby would be approximately 19 weeks along in pregnancy, which is 3 to 4 weeks before reaching a level of development that allows even a chance of survival outside the womb, Bell said.
The researchers also noted that female babies had a much better chance of survival than males, conjecturing that female hormones may play a part in the earlier maturation of internal organs.
Eighty-three (75%) of the patients are female. The 10 smallest infants are female, and the registry contains only 1 boy who was born weighing less than 300 g, Bell wrote in a report published in the journal Pediatrics.
Dr. Bell cautioned, however, that information on long-term health of the children is limited and that many of them have ongoing health and learning problems.
Since the birth of the first survivor below 400 grams in 1936, there have been something like 10 billion babies born in the world who survived to go home with their parents, and we know of only a few more than 100 of these who weighed less than 400 grams, Dr. Bell told Reuters.
Undoubtedly, there are more that have not yet made it to the Registry, he added. In fact, I found another baby shortly after the report was published. Patient #111 is not included in the paper, but he is the smallest boy to survive at 274 grams.
An abstract of the report by Dr. Bell, titled The tiniest babies: a registry of survivors with birth weight less than 400 grams is available here.
The Tiniest Babies Registry, which has a list of the babies in order of date of birth and birth weight, is available here.
76
posted on
01/16/2011 11:11:05 AM PST
by
wagglebee
("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)
To: wmfights; Ohioan from Florida; Goodgirlinred; Miss Behave; cyn; AlwaysFree; amdgmary; ...
53 MILLION!
Thread by wmfights.
"Fifty-three million is the population of a medium-size country. Imagine the outcry if the people of Spain (46.1 million people) were destroyed by another nation," C. Ben Mitchell, professor of moral philosophy at Union University in Jackson, Tenn., and a consultant to the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, told Baptist Press. "Yet most of the world is silent about the destruction of the unborn. Christian love demands that we weep compassionately for the unborn, pray fervently that the killing would stop, work urgently for alternatives to abortion, and become the voice of the unborn in the public square."
The United States has one of the highest abortion rates for the developed world and also some of the world's most liberal abortion laws.
(Excerpt) Read more at bpnews.net ...
77
posted on
01/16/2011 11:17:49 AM PST
by
wagglebee
("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)
To: Ohioan from Florida; Goodgirlinred; Miss Behave; cyn; AlwaysFree; amdgmary; angelwings49; ...
Wesley J. Smith nails it here.
Thread by me.
Thanks to the spread of suicide tourism, the UK is going through another in a series of pushes to legalize assisted suicide. As with the last time, when a bill was introduced in the House of Lords, a commission is studying the issue. And advocates are pretending that their goal is what it clearly is not.
In the current British Medical Journal, a deputy shovels the manure with the very first paragraph! From One and a Half Truths About Assisted Dying, by Tony Delamothe (link to Abstract only):
Sixteen months ago I argued that the debate on assisted dying had been hijacked by disabled people who wanted to live and that it should be reclaimed for terminally ill people who wanted to die.
But the activism in the UK about legalizingand or, not prosecutingassisted suicide has explicitly not been limited to the terminally ill. MSP MacDonalds just defeated bill in the Scottish Parliament, for example, is referenced by Delamothe. Yet, it specifically would have permitted assisted suicide for people with non terminal disabilities. From a story I first quoted here at SHS on March 26. 2009 (my emphasis):
Ms MacDonald has narrowed her proposals to cover only three specific categories of people who believe their lives have become intolerable. It includes those with a progressive, degenerative conditions; those who have suffered a trauma such as crashes or sports injuries, leaving them entirely dependent on others; and those with terminal illness.
Debby Purdy, who won a ruling in the Law Lords requiring the public prosecutor to say when assisted suicide would be prosecutedleading to a quasi decriminilizationis not dying. She has MS and wants her husband to be allowed to help kill her when she has decided she has had enough of disability. The most notorious cases of suicide tourism, such as Daniel James, a young man taken to Switzerland by has parents after a sports injury left him totally paralyzed, involved people with disabilities, not the terminally ill.
And even those bills that did so limit the license proposed to the dying, were never intended remain so restricted. Rather, the dying were the foot in the door. Thus Lord Joffe, who unsuccessfully attempted to legalize assisted suicide several years ago, admitted that he wanted a far broader license (as reported here):
I can assure you that I would prefer that the [new] law did apply to patients who were younger and who were not terminally ill but who were suffering unbearably, adding, I believe that this bill should initially be limited.
I could giveand have givenexample, after example, after example, after example, after example! But truth is not the coin of the realm on this issue.
Delamothe is upset because disability rights campaigners are the single most effective organized opponents of assisted suicidein the UK and in the USA. But they are right and he is wrong. Assisted suicide/euthanasia is not about terminal illnesses. It never has been. As I have written, the philosophy that underlies the movementradical individualism and that killing is a proper means of ending human sufferingmake it impossible to limit euthanasia to the dying and remain consistent to values. The dying are just used as the justification for what is already a far broader and more radical goal of eventually legalizing Kevorkianism that would permit virtual death on demand to any adult with more than a transitory desire to die.
78
posted on
01/16/2011 11:20:26 AM PST
by
wagglebee
("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)
To: wagglebee
Such beautiful news that these tiny babies are surviving!
79
posted on
01/16/2011 2:24:45 PM PST
by
Sun
(Pray that God sends us good leaders. Please say a prayer now.)
To: Sun
There's a troll on the thread calling these babies "pariahs."
80
posted on
01/16/2011 2:26:04 PM PST
by
wagglebee
("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)
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