Terri Schiavo

Terri Schiavo is the Florida woman whose husband wants to withdraw her feeding tube and let her starve to death, in spite of the objections of her parents, who have offered to take over her care. At first glance this seems like a classic case of disagreement over what is reasonable care for a very disabled patient, but the more I look into this one, the uglier it looks. Pro-Life Blogs is keeping and updating a link round-up of blogs that are publishing on this. Chief among them is Hyscience, a blogger that is in possession of information from a source close to the case. He has been releasing information gradually over the last few days, and like I said before; it's ugly.

Related: Here is my previous post  Euthanasia: Not Our Burden to Bear.

Note: More information on Terri Schiavo here. Links to other sites here. 

Comments

[Benjamin]

Good job on your Terri Schiavo coverage. Much appreciated. It is going to take a Herculean effort by all caring blogs to save Terri. We've got to keep attacking.

[jpe]

It is going to take a Herculean effort by all caring blogs to save Terri. We've got to keep attacking.

I'd be pretty surprised if this battle can be won; what may come out of this is a change of the right-to-die laws.

[Mike]

Dory:

This is totally off-topic, but I wanted to say here what I said on Adrian's site concerning the Blog Awards:

I've looked at all the winners and, not surprisingly, they are certainly deserving of the honors they have received.

But for my money, the members of the Decablog are the true outstanding evangelical blogs. Why? Because they (which includes you, of course) do so much to help the rest of us. Who has done more than the Ten Apostles of Godblogs to help the rest of us get noticed? And who has done more to stimulate discussion and edifying posts from so many others?

I think we need a new set of awards - call them the Servant Awards. And the members of the Decablog are the place to start handing them out. There are certainly others, too, that have helped many of us without drawing attention to themselves. Doesn't Scripture have something to say about the path to greatness leading through selfless service?

This is not to diminish the accomplishments of the EBA Awards, but to add that there are a host of others that are worthy of recognition for all that they have done to help "the tail" of the Blogdom of God.

[LB]

Thanks for this post, Dory, and for reading and commenting on my blog. :)

[shelly]

I think that her parents are right to want to keep thier daughter alive. but on the otherhand i can see were the husband is coming from in wanting to stop her suffering. I just whish that there were a treatment and wish the family the best

[Barb]

Being a parent myself, in a way I can understand how Terry's family feels, but have they thought about the future? Terry is only 41 years old, and can be kept alive in the condition shes in for years to come..When her parents die, who will take care of her then? Her sister?, doubtful, as much as Im sure she loves Terry, she still has a life of her own. If the parents win the fight, Michael will no longer be her guardian. So who will be there for Terry, 20-30 years down the road? I for one dont know if shes in a totally vegatative state or not,,but come on, after 15 years with no improvement, I cant believe that ANYONE would want to continue to be kept alive in that condition. I think the best thing to do is take out the feeding tube, and let Terry be in God's hands, his will be done.

[jc]

There is some very good information regarding the teri shiavo case at this URL. According to doctors that have examined her, the majority of her cerebral cortex is gone and has been replaced by spinal fluid. As everyone knows this is the center of the brain responsible for congnitive thought. Most of her reactions are being controlled from her brain stem and can be attributed to simple reflex..again this is from the aforementioned URL.

[Joan]

According to some doctors, Terri would benefit from therapy which was denied her by her husband. I have seen the tape of her interreacting with her family. Believe me this was no "involuntary reflex". Her heart and lungs function on their own. Removing the feeding tube will allow her to starve to death over a two plus week period. Keep in mind the tube was removed once before for a period of 6 days before it was reinserted. If this treatment were done to a dog or cat it would be a animal cruelty crime punishable by inprisonment. Check the facts before you vote for "mercy" (I use the term loosely) killing.

[fonda]

I feel that the parents should have the overall say... the husband has a new life and should stay out of it now.

[donna harris]

I feel so very sorry for the whole family, If it was my child I would do the same as her parents.... the husband is living his new life he should go away and let her family take care of her, they should make this dession not him.he left her a long time age...the judge is not God ........God bless Terri and her family

[Hanna]

Terri Schiavo has no cerebral cortex. That is a medical certainty with brain scans as evidence. That in itself renders Terri Schiavo PVS, as there is no hope of recovery. The cortex does not regenerate and cannot be repaired. In the words of Dr. Jay Wolfson (the court appointed guardian provided by Terri's Law), "it's difficult for the lay person to understand" when watching someone who is PVS but not comatose. Because she cries, grunts, blinks, laughs - these are voluntary reflexes and not done with purpose. Purposeful act requires some type of consistency - which Terri does not have. You are viewing a snipet of video over hours and hours worth where the person being taped incidentally is following a command. But Terri laughs and cries out when no one is in the room.

I can appreciate Terri's parents wanting to interpret something out of it but they've been responsible for such patent lies and misrepresentations already that they have no credibility whatsoever.

Furthermore, they testified that even if Terri had made her wishes not to be artificially fed to them, they still would not allow the feeding tube removed.

Talk about selfishness!

[Betty Parham]

I to feel sorry for Terri's family and I do not blame them for wanting to keep her alive. I would do the same if it were my child as every parent would, Her Husband has went on with his life so why not just divorce her and let her family take care of her they want to. I feel he does not want to relinquest his guardianship because he will no longer be able to keep all the mony that was rightfully Terri's in the first place and maybe she could get the rehabilition she needs.
Also I have read the reports where the bone scan shows she has had so many broken bones, how would she get these by just passing out.

[Edward Casey]

In the natural state of things, if a person is so disabled that it requires a feeding tube to keep them alive, is that not circumventing nature itself? Before medical science got so advanced that it could keep a commatose body alive indefinatley, isn't this the same thing that is being done to Terri? There is no other way to keep her alive, other than by feeding with a tube. This, in my opinion, is keeping a shell of a person whose soul has already left them artificially alive.

[Sean]

What usually goes completely unreported in this case is that Michael Schiavo participated in years of intensive therapy for his wife. Swallow tests were performed, and Terri was found completely unable to swallow, since this is a cognitive function, not simply a reflex. Medical experts say that trying to spoon feed her may actually hasten her death from infections caused by food substances entering her lungs.

Additionally, as the "Terri's Law" guardian reported, her family condoned and even encouraged Michael to see other women, and that he even took some women to meet her family. This tells me that the talk about adultery is completely disingenuous. By the way, his report is a must read for anyone who cares about this case. Just type Jay Wolfson Terri Schiavo in a search engine to find it.

According to Michael Schiavo, things turned sour when Terri's father became upset that Michael refused to share the legal settlement. Whether this is true is impossible to know, but why are the Schindlers' assertions taken at face value and Micheal's ignored?

The financial settlement has been almost completely depleted. To those who argue Michael has wasted it on legal fees, it is also clear that the money would have been depleted by now on her medical care anyway. The hospice has been giving Terri free treatment for years, and they would normally charge $80,000 per year if the money was there. These facts tell me that Michael's motivation is not financial.

The "slippery slope" arguments from Nat Hentoff (Village Voice) and others aren't very convincing to me either. These arguments never take into account the relevant facts of Terri's medical condition. They never mention that Terri's cerebral cortex has almost completely liquified in the 15 years since it was deprived of oxygen. These articles mention what the Nazi's did to paralyzed and mentally retarded people and try to argue we are on the same path if Terri is allowed to die. The Nazi's Eugenics programs have nothing to do with this case. I'm not in favor of letting doctor's decide to discontinue treatment, but that is not what this case is about, either.

Finally, the videos of Terri, although in a few segments appear to demonstrate cognitive ability, are simply clever edits from hours of video. The "Terri's Law" guardian reported that he witnessed no evidence that Terri responded to her parents or to other stimuli. Her caregivers report that Terri randomly does all the things you see in the videos. Her parents simply edited out the vast majority of the video footage that shows her completely unresponsive.

Is it possible that when Michael Schiavo says Terri wouldn't have wanted to be kept alive this way, that maybe he is telling the truth? Maybe that is his real motivation?

If he's telling the truth, isn't it then possible that keeping her alive through the feeding tube may in fact be akin to torture?

[Sid Rose]

Thanks for your important work. I hope you will take up the monstrous Texas Futile Care Law, which permits the killing of even conscious patients who have terminal diseases. Little Sun Hudson died on March 15, executed for the crimes of being born poor and with a congenital defect.

Sid Rose