Terry Schiavo
Dean
A group of bloggers is trying to raise awareness of Terry Schiavo's plight.
To be honest with you, I'm not comfortable with some of the rhetoric and generalizations about her husband and the judge in this case that these folks are putting out. Some of it strikes me as little more than the typical misandrist generalizations we see time and time again in the public eye. That said, if you're interested in the case, you can read about the people who claim to be Terri Schiavo's advocates by clicking right here.
Sarah Scantlin, was communicative during the whole time, by blinking her eyes.
Terry Shaivo, is in a totally different category, and has been categorized as a vegtable by neurologists.
If her higher functions of her brain died during heart attack, that can't be brought back by medical advances.
Which sadly, it seems that those against Michael Shavio, don't seem to recognize.
The 'by medical advances' phrase I find interesting given that Scantlin's communictions couldn't be brought back via medical avances, either. They came back on their own... the point of my initial reply.
I didn't know neurologists could recategorize the kingdom of a particular living entity. She was an animal, now she's a plant?
She has been categorized as vegetative by SOME neurologists. Others have said she is somewhat rehabilitable. I have a good friend who's wife is in pretty much the same state. Starving either of them to death or refusing to treat either of them for curable issues seems cruel to me, if not downright immoral, as does starving them to death.
Go watch the videos on http://www.terrisfight.org/
Shes at least SOMEWHAT responsive, if on a very basic level, especially to her mother. Will she ever lead a 'normal' life? No, likely not. Is there any harm in feeding the poor woman so she doesn't starve to death and treating normal illnesses you would treat for any other human being (I.E. Urinary Tract Infections and the like)? No. Its not like shes on a ventalator or some crap. She just needs to eat, and to me that doesn't seem like 'life support' except in the most basic sense. Nobody knows whether she can eat or not because nobody has tried for 10+ years to rehab her.
So she has the cognative skills of a baby.. maybe we should start offing infants if we don't wanna be burdened with them too.
She has been communicative. She can vocalize, follow an object with her eyes when asked, and respond--maybe not CLEARLY and not always consistently, but it's a response, and it's been documented by many. Sarah Scantlin was thought to be beyond hope (for 20 years!) and now look. Terri Schiavo COULD possibly do the same thing, if her husband ALLOWED her to receive therapy. He doesn't even want to give her the chance at life, much less a viable one.
I'm not out to demonize Terri's husband (although IMHO it's warranted), nor is that the focus of the effort for Terri. It's just a facet of a very complicated issue that most people don't know enough about to make a fair judgement. Michael Schiavo's personal conduct is almost beside the point.
There are two sides to every issue. Some say she'll never recover, but some say she can and will with therapy. Why NOT let her live so she can have a chance?
She may be able to eat with help, IE not IV style. This needs to be tried AFTER the tube is removed. I find it astonishing that more than a decade after her brain problem her parents, and their supporters, are still pulling the charecter assasination route. (I do remember some 'talk' of a 'mistress' as being his motivating reason, then money, then how he never really 'loved' their daughter, then how he's trying to 'spite' them by getting her, and back through the laundry list again....come on, get over the stupid, infantile rants becuase he's her legal guardian by marriage.)
If I was in that condition, I would want to die. I have stated as much, I have a medical POA that grants my husband power in the event I'm unable to exercize my mental faculties. I also have a DNR. Sadly, Terry did not, but there is no reason I've yet seen (for all the sob stories out there, try something with some scientific merrit) to throw generations of US jurisprudence to the wind to placate her parents and their quest to destroy her husband's legal standing.
But the minute you hand over the power of life and death to someone else, you make abuse possible. The only line that can guard against abuse is the line of the person's own, unambiguously stated desires. Beyond that line, there is, not a slippery slope, but a vast mishmash of gray areas where no clear line can be drawn.
The rights enumerated in the Declaration of Independence are the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The first and foremost of these is the right to life; without it, the others are utterly irrelevant. Nobody's right to life should be placed in the arbitrary hands of another human being without their explicit consent, which in this case was not given.
The husband's legal standing is irrelevant. The court has ruled that he is her legal guardian, but even a guardian should not have the right to decide another's death.
I can say the exact same about my wife. Neither of us have a living will, but I know unequivocally, that she would not want to continue in that way. Essentially, Robin, what you are saying, is that despite knowing absolutely nothing about my wife or I, that we should substitute YOUR judgement for ours. Awfully arrogant if you ask me.
My mother has made it clear she will fight tooth and nail against my husband making such decisions if I am in such a state. She's also dead set against my being an organ donor and being cremated. Doesn't this strike fear into your heart about what someone you don't live with, who holds antethical opinions to your's, and who refuses to see you as a legally consenting adult means? It scares the shit out of me that as a grown, married adult I'm being told by my mother, and the court system that I can not make my own valid heathcare choices while in a sane and able mind. If that doesn't scare you, there is something seriously flawed with your logic of 'another having control'.
And if after a decade with a wife who was nothing but a warm carcass my husband found someone else to give him some love and comfort, well, I'm not religious, so that seems only reasonable to me and not a sign that he never loved me at all.
And seriously, I don't think there are any villains in this case, but it has worried me the extent to which the parents' supporters have gone. I mean, the Florida legislature and governor taking blatantly unconstitutional actions, eviscerating state separation of powers, and trampling all over the authority of their own courts to resolve factual disputes.
She has shown responded to her mother's and father's voices, expressed pain, been able to follow a moving object with her eyes on command, laugh (!), etc.
Why should she not be given a chance like Sarah Scantlin?
I have myself had major and dangerous surgery SIX times, and filled out all the POA forms (I gave POA to my mother, not my husband, incidentally--and he was relieved). Removing a feeding tube if it's the only life support system used is one thing I would NEVER consider. If I were on full life support and brain dead, sure. But it's NOT the same.
Think seriously about whether you really would give an order for removal of only a feeding tube. I've been told that it's a VERY rare occasion that people do so. I'm not saying you have to be facing the real possibility of being in that situation to understand it, but it sure does help.
There are, in fact, things worse than death.
A baby can't feed themselves either. Should the guardian be able starve them to death if they don't want to, or can't take care of them anymore? Terri is at least as cognizant as an infant.
She can’t eat on her own? Heck we really don't know. The husband has refused to allow ANY rehab since about 1991, and also refused to treat a Urinary Tract infection, until a court ruled he couldn't withhold that treatment.
He has also told people early on in the situation that he and Terri had never even THOUGHT about a DNR order, because neither expected to be in that sort of situation, so it was never discussed in their marriage. It was only some years later AFTER he had gotten another girlfriend that he started on this 'Terri wanted to die' track.
Honestly, the courts seem to have been so one-sided on this thing it's almost absurd.
Sure there are things worse than death. Starving to death is one of those things, IMO.
-b
Imagine, if you will, the horror of her life if her mind is still mostly intact, but her ability to move her own body is nearly non-existant. Imagine the pain she may be in, unable to communicate that to her caregivers. Imagine YEARS of life like that. Imagine the frustration of such a life.
Perhaps it would be better if she were brain damaged enough that she doesn't realize the state she is in. Then, I guess continuing her life is more for her parents than herself, as she isn't really aware of her own sentience.
No, that is not a life I would want to live, either way.