Free Republic

I wrote this to a FReeper earlier. She was feeling much frustration with many here I believe because of what was, in her mind, a careless disregard for morality and the well-being of an innocent and quite defenseless girl, Terri Schiavo.The intelligent and good FReeper was at the point of wanting to leave FR. So I wrote her:*****Don't go, please. You're one of the folks here with a real good heart and very strong feelings. That is a very good combination. Don't go ........I'm getting a feeling (or a wish) that today (Wednesday) the Federal marshals or some others are...

It is evident that attending nurses have affidavits affirming that Terri Schiavo was able only a few short years ago to ingest food and water orally. This is also evidenced by the "guardian's" insistence on police overlooking her room to prevent her parents from doing just that....a secret drink, an ice chip, etc. The judge's order is that the tube not be reinserted. There is no moral order able to be given that she not have the CHANCE to eat and drink in a manner normal for babies and others who might find themselves in a dependent status. Everyone in...

Tuesday, March 22, 2005 11:52 p.m. EST Second, Third Nurse Accuse Michael Schiavo Two additional nurses have filed affidavits in the Terri Schiavo case that corroborate bombshell allegations by nurse Carla Sauer Iyer, who went public on Tuesday with claims that Michael Schiavo had deliberately withheld treatment from his disabled wife. Heidi Law was a certified nursing assistant at the Palm Garden Convalescent Center in Largo, Fla., where she treated Mrs. Schiavo in 1997. Story Continues Below In an affidavit filed with the court in August 2003, Ms. Law maintained: "I know that Terri did not receive routine physical therapy...

THIS BRAIN IS NOT THAT BAD Thanks to reader "primer" I've been directed to the University of Miami Ethics program website where they posted this image from a CT scan of Terri Schiavo's brain in 1996. The sentence attached to the link for this scan on the site says: CT scan of Ms. Schiavo's brain, showing extensive cortical regions filled with spinal fluid. If you go to this link you can see the scan in a larger reproduction. A COURT OF MEDICAL LIGHTWEIGHTS WEIGH IN ON TERRI'S CT. The Second District's first opinion in this case explained: Since 1990, Theresa...

If the tragic case of Terri Schiavo shows nothing else, it shows how easily "the right to die" can become the right to kill. It is hard to believe that anyone, regardless of their position on euthanasia, would have chosen the agony of starvation and dehydration as the way to end someone's life. A New York Times headline on March 20th tried to assure us: "Experts Say Ending Feeding Can Lead to a Gentle Death" but you can find experts to say anything. In a December 2, 2002 story in the same New York Times, people starving in India were...

Terri Schiavo’s situation has people lined up in opposing factions. They’re separated by contradictory medical opinions, disputed facts, divergent opinions on what constitutes death with dignity and a range of views on the legitimacy of government’s interest in her continued existence. Perhaps the only point of agreement is that Terri’s plight is especially heartrending. Terri’s husband, who remains her legal guardian, claims that removing her feeding tube will be a painless and probably most natural way to die. But who knows that with certainty? Ten years ago, a woman was paralyzed by a stroke and unable to communicate. She found...