Terri Schiavo @ MindSay 
save terri
Consider this situation: A healthy man lies on a gurney. He is surrounded by people who are there specifically to see him. A member of the medical staff on hand gives him an injection, and he quietly goes to sleep. A few minutes later he is dead as a result of the drug that was injected. What if that man was your husband, or your father, or your son? Would you sue the medical staff for malpractice? What if that man was the mastermind of a mass murder, or a terrorist act? Would you celebrate his death?
Lastly, think of this: A woman lies in a hospital bed, where she's been for fifteen years. She is blind, can't speak or walk or eat, or even respond to outside stimuli, but she can breathe on her own. A decision has been made to remove any life support she receives and allow her to die. Since her body still breathes without assistance, "life support" means her feeding tube. Over the next two weeks she continues to live, without food, without water, without medication. Her body is slowly starving and dehydrating, and her loved ones have to watch helplessly. They are told that she can feel no pain but since the woman cannot communicate, they have no way of knowing for sure.
What I can say without a doubt is that if I were to refuse to give my pet food and water, I could be arrested for animal cruelty. If prisoners on death row were refused nourishment and hydration, the captors would be reprimanded, possibly even convicted themselves, for using cruel and unusual punishment. But if a person wishes to not be kept alive in the event that they are unable to care for themselves any longer, the only option is to be starved and dehydrated until their body ceases to function. How is this humane?
Physician assisted suicide is a controversial topic, and is only legal in one state (Oregon). Dr. Jack Kevorkian is still serving time in prison for his role in the voluntary deaths of over 100 people. Some will argue that doctors should be prolonging life, not cutting it short. But what about quality of life? Is it right for doctors to keep a person alive if they are no longer truly living, such as in the case of the woman who was in a persistent vegetative state for fifteen years? And when it comes to the right to die, is it ethical to deprive someone of food and water as a means of death? Why is that method more ethical than a lethal injection?
If a person of sound mind confers with his or her attorney, has proper legal papers drawn up, signed, notarized, and distributed amongst family members, friends, and medical staff, they can legally be allowed to die naturally and refuse the use of life sustaining systems in the event that their body cannot function on its own. Why then, can a person not request to die quickly by lethal injection, given those same criteria? Under the proper circumstances - a terminal disease that is incurable or past the point of viable treatment, or a critical injury from which one cannot recover - it should be allowed. We aren't talking about angsty teenagers who wish death upon themselves after a dramatic break-up with their beau or rift with their best friend. We're not talking about those who suffer from a mental disorder that may affect their decision-making abilities and will to live. We're talking about healthy-minded adults who simply want to live each day to the fullest and have some control over the quality of their lives in their final hours.
If you're still unsure, here's a quick quiz:
Which way would you prefer to die?
a) Starve to death
b) Dehydration
c) From an incurable disease or injury that inflicts days, even months or years of suffering before slowly ceasing to function
d) Quietly in my sleep
We're kind enough to give pets and convicted murderers that last option. Why not common citizens?
So.... today was my first day volunteering. I feel like I should write an entry about it, for posterity if anything else, however, I do not feel like retelling this story for the seventh time, so I wont...
Also, I am surprised that there wasn't a top blog about the Jackson trial. He totally should have been put in jail. I mean come on... they let him off on all 10 counts! I'm going to repeat that in case for some reason you didn't read it the first time... all 10 counts!!! I would have locked him away for looking like a weirdo.
In other news, apparently Terri Schiavo's brain was half the size of a normal human being. She was blind, meaning she couldn't see, i.e. she did not have the capability of sight. In other words, she was not receptive and could not see her family move around the room.
Those little twitches were nothing but, well... little twitches. muscle spasms if you will. Also, because of the reduced capacity of her brain she couldn't feel anything. There's more crap that I'm missing but whatever. Oh yeah... she was in a vegetative state!
I suppose now that, hm... let's see... her parents were wrong in insisting that rehabilitation would "cure" her. I guess this doesn't matter, however, especially if you believe it's wrong to remove someone from life support.
I will sleep well tonight though, knowing that my endless rants and discussions with people on mindsay were partially correct, in terms of medical science. Although.... if you disagree in what science has to say about brain function... then you would still disagree with me... and you wouldn't be totally unfounded, because we know didly squat about the human brain.. but still... I will consider myself to be correct! because I like being right!
I feel like I'm mocking this subject. I just want to say that the loss of a human life is nothing to make fun of. It's a shame that Terri had to live for so long the way she did, and still ultimately die. I hope at least maybe this information might give her parents some peace, finally knowing that there would have been little they could have done to help her, even if she had been kept alive.
Oh, btw, my next adventure story will be about my recent fishing trip and subsequent burns. enjoy! maybe!
More next time
TAMPA, Fla. - In a victory for Michael Schiavo, a coroner who performed an autopsy on Terri Schiavo reported Wednesday that she suffered from an irreversible brain injury and would not have recovered as her parents insisted was possible. It also found no evidence that she was strangled or otherwise abused.
"Her brain was profoundly atrophied," Jon Thogmartin, medical examiner for Florida's Pinellas-Pasco County, told a press conference. "There was massive neuronal loss, or death. This was irreversible and no amount of therapy or treatment would have regenerated the massive loss of neurons."
“The brain weighed 615 grams, roughly half of the expected weight of a human brain," he added.
Thogmartin was joined by Dr. Stephen Nelson, who described her condition as "very consistent with a persistent vegetative state," which is what Michael Schiavo and most doctors had contended was the case.
Schiavo died March 31 at the age of 41, nearly two weeks after the feeding tube keeping her alive was removed by a court order sought by her husband, Michael Schiavo.
OK< IM TIRED OF THIS!! look ppl, her family was both right and wrong! she had brain activity!!! GET IT RIGHT PPL. BUT, the part that was PERMANATLY DAMANGED was the part that hold all our cognative parts, BASICALLY every part of her brain that made her, her, IS DEAD! AND ON TOP OF THAT, she has now died TWICE!! her husband stayed her husband because if he seperated from her he would have no say in what happened to her! AND TO YOU WHO COMPLIAN OF HER STARVING WAKE UP! YOUR ATTACKING THIS WRONG! we give death row innmates "mercy deaths" of lethal injections, yet a woman who did nothing wrong has to starve to death. FEDERAL LAW SAYS DOCTERS CANT KILL THIER PACIENTS meaning we hade to let her starve, while convicted killlers will die in their F'N SLEEP! see the proplem here?look at it this way, would you want a docter to bring you back when there are these factors that come into play
1. you have NO CHANCE FOR RECOVERY
2. RIGHT TO LIVE DOESNT APPLY BECAUSE YOU HAVE DIED ALREADY
3. YOU CAN MOVE YOU MOUTH OR THROAT MUSCLES TO EAT
4. you will spend 10+ years IN AN BED BECUASE YOU WILL NEVER AGAIN BE ABLE TO DO ANYTHING YOU LOVE
5. oh yeah did i mention? that you will niether REMEMBER WHO YOU ARE AND WHO THE PPL AROUND YOU ARE, and if you are in any way religuis and believ in heaven, THEY ROBBED YOU OF GODS HOLY KINGDOM FOR 15+ YEARS BECAUSE YOUR PARENTS COULDENT BEAR YOU MOVING ON TO A BETTER PLACE.
oh yeah, ppl this is not the only case here, these things happen EVERY DAY, and why would CONGRESS move in on this one? when the bill they pass only applies to this case? PR ANYONE? i am disgusted, but hey, if you still believe she shopuld have eaten through a tube connected DIRECTLY TO HER STOMACH, fine all i know is, you wont have me on a f'n tube, i wanna die when my time comes. oh and one last note " if god wanted her to die. she would have died" "if god didnt want her to come back she wouldent have" these sound familair? they are both idiotic look GOD GAVE US FREE WILL< MEANING IF WE PLAY GOD AND BRING A DEAD PERSON BACK< HE WONT STOP US! and if god wanted her to die? HE DID! IT WAS HER TIME HE DID DIE FOR GODS SAKE! pant..... i want to thank you for your time, for anyone who actually read my rantings, your good ppl. feel free to respond/hate/cmake fun of me in any way.rant is done now lateness.
By VICKIE CHACHERE, Associated Press Writer
PINELLAS PARK, Fla. - With her husband and parents feuding to the bitter end and beyond, Terri Schiavo died Thursday, 13 days after her feeding tube was removed in a wrenching right-to-die dispute that engulfed the courts, Capitol Hill and the White House and divided the country.
Cradled by her husband, Schiavo, 41, died a "calm, peaceful and gentle death" at about 9 a.m., a stuffed animal under her arm, flowers arranged around her hospice room, said George Felos, Michael Schiavo's attorney.
No one from her side of the family was with her at the moment of her death. Her parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, were not at the hospice, Felos said. And her brother had been barred from the room at Michael Schiavo's request moments before the end came.
The death of the severely brain-damaged woman brought to a close what was easily the longest, most bitter — and most heavily litigated — right-to-die dispute in U.S. history.
Mr. Schiavo's overriding concern here was to provide for Terri a peaceful death with dignity," said Felos, who also was present at the death.
But the Rev. Frank Pavone, one of the Schindlers' spiritual advisers, called her death "a killing," adding: "And for that we not only grieve that Terri has passed but we grieve that our nation has allowed such an atrocity as this and we pray that it will never happen again."
Schiavo suffered brain damage in 1990 and fell into what court-appointed doctors called a persistent vegetative state, with no real consciousness or chance of recovery, after a chemical imbalance caused her heart to stop. She had left no written instructions in the event she became disabled.
Her husband argued that she told him long ago that she would not want to be kept alive artificially. Her parents disputed that, and held out hope for a miracle recovery for a daughter they said still laughed with them and struggled to talk.
Pinellas County Circuit Judge George W. Greer sided with her husband and authorized the removal of the feeding tube keeping her alive. It was disconnected March 18.
During the seven-year legal battle, federal and state courts repeatedly rejected extraordinary attempts at intervention by Florida lawmakers, Gov. Jeb Bush, Congress and President Bush on behalf of her parents.
Supporters of her parents, many of them anti-abortion activists and political conservatives, harshly criticized the courts. Many religious groups, including the Roman Catholic Church, said the removal of sustenance violated fundamental religious tenets.
About 40 judges in six courts were involved in the case at one point or another. Six times, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to intervene. As Schiavo's life ebbed away, Congress rushed through a bill to allow the federal courts to take up the case, and President Bush signed it March 21. But the federal courts refused to step in.
The case prompted many people to ponder what they would want if they, too, were in such a desperate medical situation, and many rushed to draw up living wills. The case also led to a furious debate over the proper role of government in life-and-death decisions, and whether the Republicans in Congress violated their party's principles of limited government and deference to the states by getting involved.
In Washington on Thursday, the president was careful to extend condolences to Schiavo's "families" — meaning both Michael Schiavo and the Schindlers — even though he backed efforts to reconnect her feeding tube.
"I urge all those who honor Terri Schiavo to continue to work to build a culture of life where all Americans are welcomed and valued and protected, especially those who live at the mercy of others," the president said.
House Republican Leader Tom DeLay condemned the state and federal judges who refused to prolong her life, and he warned that lawmakers "will look at an arrogant and out-of-control judiciary that thumbs its nose at Congress and the president."
"I never thought I'd see the day when a U.S. judge stopped feeding a living American so that they took 14 days to die," he said.
Gov. Jeb Bush, the president's brother, said that Schiavo's death "is a window through which we can see the many issues left unresolved in our families and in our society. For that, we can be thankful for all that the life of Terri Schiavo has taught us."
Outside the hospice — where over the past few weeks more than 50 protesters were arrested, many for trying to symbolically bring Schiavo food and water — demonstrators wept, prayed and sang religious hymns. Some threw their protest signs down in disgust.
"You saw a murder happening," said one demonstrator, Dominique Hanks.
Schiavo's body was taken in an unmarked white van with police motorcycle escort to the Pinellas County medical examiner's office, where an autopsy was planned that both sides hoped would shed light on the extent of her brain damage and whether she was abused by her husband, as the Schindlers have argued.
In what was the source of yet another dispute between the husband and his in-laws, Michael Schiavo will get custody of his wife's body and plans to have her cremated.
Michael Schiavo's brother, Scott Schiavo, said the ashes will be buried in an undisclosed location near Philadelphia so that her immediate family does not attend and turn the moment into a media spectacle. A funeral Mass, sought by the Schindlers, was tentatively scheduled for Tuesday or Wednesday.
Asked about perhaps never knowing where his sister might be buried, Bobby Schindler said, "We've already said goodbye. ... He's been doing this kind of stuff for 15 years. What would make him stop now?"
Bob Schindler, Terri Schiavo's father, attended a public memorial service late Thursday at a church in Pinellas Park, telling his supporters: "We'll never forget you all. Thank you so, so much. And Terri thanks you, too."
Schindler received a standing ovation from the more than 200 people at the service, who hugged him and shook his hand as he left.
The ill will between the husband and his in-laws became plain in other ways: The Schindlers' advisers complained that Schiavo's brother and sister had been at her bedside a few minutes before the end came, but were not there at the moment of her death because Michael Schiavo would not let them in the room.
"And so his heartless cruelty continues until this very last moment," said Pavone, a Roman Catholic priest.
Felos disputed the Schindler family's account. He said that Terri Schiavo's siblings had been asked to leave the room so that the hospice staff could examine her, and the brother, Bobby Schindler, started arguing with a law enforcement official.
Michael Schiavo feared a "potentially explosive" situation, and would not allow the brother in the room, Felos said. "Mrs. Schiavo had a right to have her last and final moments on this earth be experienced by a spirit of love and not of acrimony," the lawyer said.
Bobby Schindler did not address the family discord, but Pavone — who was with Schindler when he was asked to leave — said the brother "didn't raise his voice, but he became visibly upset" because he couldn't be with his sister when she died. A police spokesman refused to say whether there was a dispute.
Before she was stricken, Terri Schiavo had recurring battles with weight, and her collapse at age 26 was believed to have been caused by an eating disorder. Her parents, who visited her nearly every day, reported their daughter responded to their voices, and video showed her appearing to interact with her family. But the court-appointed doctor said the noises and facial expressions were reflexes.
Both sides accused each other of being motivated by greed over a $1 million medical malpractice award from doctors who failed to diagnose the chemical imbalance. Most of the money has been spent on her care and the legal battle.
Schiavo's feeding tube was briefly removed in 2001. It was reinserted after two days when a court intervened. In October 2003, the tube was removed again, but Gov. Bush rushed Terri's Law through the Legislature and had the tube reinserted after six days. The Florida Supreme Court later struck down the law as unconstitutional interference in the judicial system.
Schiavo lived in her brain-damaged state longer than two other young women whose cases brought right-to-die issues to the forefront.
Karen Quinlan lived for more than a decade in a vegetative state, brought on by alcohol and drugs in 1975 when she was 21. New Jersey courts let her parents take her off a respirator a year after her injury. Nancy Cruzan, who was 25 when a 1983 car crash put her in a vegetative state, lived nearly eight years before the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that her feeding tube could be withdrawn.
In both cases, however, the families agreed that lifesaving measures should be ended.
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What a terrible terrible thing that happened. Could you imagine going through all that? What hell to go through. Makes you feel real grateful to be alive and well.
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