Free Republic

It was impossible to look without grief at the images of Terri Schiavo starving slowly to death in a Florida hospice. It has, alas, become impossible in America to look at such a tragic set of circumstances without hysteria. Those of us who have long worried that unleashing religious fundamentalism into the bloodstream of American politics would lead to disaster can feel only that our fears have now come true. Fifteen years ago Schiavo suffered a heart stoppage that was caused by her bulimia. Her brain was temporarily starved of oxygen and scans showed that her cerebral cortex had stopped...

Lets say a nursing student, for the sake of the illustration we'll call him “Mike” decided he wanted to kill his wife. Now said wife, oh, let's call her “Terri” had been dieting recently, but was still well within normal weight for her height. “Mike” wanted to do her in, in a way that could be dismissed as “natural causes”. As a nursing student/nurse, he'd have access to the knowledge, equipment and medicine to do so, but what would look natural. Let's say “Mike” took a B-D 3ml 25g1 1/2 syringe (I'm have one setting on my desk in front...

Florida governor says he doesn't have power from Constitution to intervene Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, the man said to be the last hope for Terri Schiavo, says he's powerless to help the brain-injured woman who has been without nourishment for more than nine full days. "I cannot violate a court order," Bush told CNN following Easter church services. "I don't have powers from the United States Constitution or – for that matter from the Florida Constitution – that would allow me to intervene after a decision has been made." To Terri's parents, Bush said, "I can't. I'd love to, but...