Current Affairs Terri Schiavo

Here's a recent article on what's going on with her: http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/03/10/schiavo.block.ap/index.html

I say that they should listen to her parent's wishes for her and allow rehab to happen. If Terri never said that she wanted to be euthanized if an event like this happened, and her parents are against it, I don't think a husband who could possibly have been abusive should overpower everyone else.

It's nice that Family and Children's Service wanted to intervene, but strange that Greer wouldn't allow it. Along with denying her family's intervention and new medical testing.

She isn't totally in a vegetative state either! Looking at this from a social work perspective, it seems that the judge deems her as not "useful" to a capitalist system because she isn't able to perform efficiently, and is taking up money, and therefore should be killed. Even worse is how they're just planning on letting her die slowly by taking out her feeding tube.. this is something that they wouldn't even let happen to pets. Whatever happened to "No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment." Article 5, Universal Declaration of Human Rights.


Sorry about the appeals to emotion.. Maybe I'm confused by the whole thing. Can anyone else give a summary of this case?

 

Gas her (or lethal injection or whatever). Based on my understanding of the situation, she's in a coma and she's taking up room in a hospital, the staffs time, and someones money, and she's never going to come out of it (if you have a shred of hope she will, do some research about comas). What's the point of keeping someone alive like this? Wouldn't someone else benefit from a newly free room and equipment in the hospital?

If I'm mistaken about her circumstances, my apologies.

 

I'm sure that 15 years is long enough to wait and see if someone will come to from a comatose state. I mean, I would lose hope after a year, or more then likely less. If it's her husbands decision, then let him make it. She isn't a child anymore, no matter what mental state she happens to be in.

 

true on that its painful to let someone go no matter what state their in Even if their in it for fifteen years you got to have faith at times.

 

Oh, she isn't in a coma, I think she had a heart attack which led to brain damage after her being in a coma for 10 years.. and now she's 'supposedly' responding to people. But, at the moment she's on a feeding tube and dependent on machines. Her husband, although the guardian of her, did go off and have a child with another woman while Terri was in this state. Of course, he most likely did want to have a child, like any human would.

But, this is where the controversy comes: Her parents want her to live because they still have hope that she will recover, her husband has lost hope and thinks that she would have wanted to die. But, if he did cheat on her is he worthy of choosing whether Terri dies over her own parents?

Here's more information on the matter:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/1351061/posts

And if you have time, here's the search query for the reports on this at cnn.com http://search.cnn.com/pages/search.jsp?query=Schiavo

 

I had to do a debate on this whole topic last year in debate class and I've heard a lot of arguments. Here is my understanding of the arguments/situation.

Terri Schiavo was bolemic or something and one night as she returned to her bedroom after getting up to go to the bathroom she collapsed in the hallway outside her room. I dont remember if it had happened early in the morning or what the situation was but I think the husband was asleep and when he woke up later he found Terri lying in the hallway facedown. He immediatly called the hospital and when the paramedics had arrived she had not been breathing for hours. When they got her to the hospital and got her stabel they did a cat scan of her brain and she had some serious brain damage. At the time I believe they thought she could possibly recover so they put her on life support and stuff. Several months later they did another cat scan or something and the part of her brain that had only been damaged was now completely deteriorated (in other words the primary conscious part of her brain was dead and disentegrated, she has an enormous black hole in the middle of her brain).

A few years later she had shown no signs of recovery, so her husband went to the hospital asking them to take her off life support because she had said to him before tht she didn't want to be sustained by tubes and stuff. Her parents didn't agree with him and brought the whole thing to court. After hearing testimonies and witnesses (Terri's friends and stuff) the court ruled that it was Terri's wish that she be cut off from life support if she showed no improvement. Then after they followed through with the ruling a rogue judge disagreed with the decision and ordered that her tube be put back in. This random judge overruled a court ruling based solely on his personal opinion and the opinion of some life groups. First of all he isn't supposed to be allowed to do that and second he was taking away what the court ruled to be her decision.

It has now been many years (I can't remember the exact amount) and Terri Shiavo has shown absolutely no signs of improvement. There has been no change to her condition after years and years of treatment. It is time to accept that she isn't coming back and let her go. Especially since two probably more (I can't remember how many but is was a lot more than one) courts ruled that it was her decision to be removed from life support if she was ever being permanently sustained by it. The only real problem is she didn't put those wishes in a living will or something, so the only source the courts have for her wishes are her husband and her friends, which many people including Terri's parents are trying desperately to discredit.

 

Ten years?! In a coma? The woman known as Terri is long gone and never coming back; what exists now is a human body that can't survive without loads of help. The longer you're in a coma or vegitative state, the less likely you'll be coming back. Even a lone month spent in such a state may cause some damage; ten years would completely annihilate you.

I'd like to know how much of a response.

Her parents need to be educated about the facts. Terri is never coming back, not as they knew her. It's a tough pill to swallow that your child is gone, but with the level of degradation that will have occured by now, aside from the body there's nothing left of Terri.

After ten years I'd be pretty iffy on the whole issue too. It wasn't right that he cheated on her (while I can understand why he'd pursue sexual relations provided such relations were pursued several years into the coma, he should have divorced her first or something). But aside from her food tube, is there anything keeping this woman alive at all?

I concede that Terris awakening is not impossible; it is however extremely rare. For every miracle case of people awakening after however many years, there are hundreds if not thousands more of people who don't.

I'm not of the opinion that it's wise to keep on holding out for a tiny chance. Be that as it may, I'm a believer in living wills and only living wills permitting euthanization, so I don't think the husband has a right to choose. If he had some documented form of "if I end up like that, kill me", it'd be a different story.

 

Whoa, hold on! She was in a coma, she's awake now but she's mentally disabled now. Sorry for the confusion, there is a lot of it surrounding this case.

And Terri seems to still be cognitive! Check this site: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1350523/posts and go down to "Documented Terri-vocabulary references". It gives words that she as said and who witnessed them.

 

I remember hearing about the so called words that she was heard saying asnd stuff but in the courts where the final decisions were made most of Terri's nurses and "caretakers", so to speak, testified that she makes all sorts of incomprehensible noises and most of the time they are mindless grunts and throat sounds. None of it is intelligent, purposeful speech or attempts at speech. Those same nurses and doctors who worked with Terri for over ten years testified that she couldn't respond to any stimuli. They would take a toothpick or some other pointed object and perform tests like the ones you get when a doctor numbs your leg or something. "Can you feel this, move your hand if you feel a pinch" that kind of stuff. She never responded to any of it. The parents supposedly in one of the earlier trials claimed that she could respond to their attempts to talk to her. The parents took some video of Terri in her condition (which was against a court order by the way) and on their footage they told Terri to open her eyes and she did. Suddenly everyone thinks that she understands what people say to her. What people didn't know and what was later revealed in court was that the parents only showed part of the tape. They had stood in Terri's room for over an hour saying repeatedly "Terri open your eyes" (They were recordin the whole time). When Terri did open her eyes, just because sometimes she just uses muscles randomly, the parents got it on tape and then the only thing they showed in court was that little tidbit of them saying it one time and her opening her eyes. It was a totally random action that the parents tried to use as proof of her being alert to what is around her. This was disproved in court and discredited but it was a sneaky move by the parents. In reference to the alleged abuse accusations, it was rather convenient that they suddenly appeared after the courts again decided that the best course of action was to remove Terri's tube.
I personally think that this whole thing about her being abused is a mere delay tactic put in place by the parents and their lawyers to give them time to find a judge to overrule the court's decision again.
I especially think the whole case of her being abbused is hogwash because doctors and nurses had been questioned about Terri's care many times in the courts and they had all testified that Terri had received such good care that she had never had a single bedsore. Never having a bedsore in a hospital when you can't consciously move any of your own muscles sounds like ridiculously good care to me. I think it is time that everyone learn from this terrible situation and make their own living wills and let Terri finally move on. Seeing as the courts have again ruled that it was her will to not be kept alive on life support I think the appeals should be stopped and the parents need to come to terms with Terri's death and let her "artificial" life end.

 

Having read her (limited) vocabulary, and seeing that she apparently is still semi-cognitive, I can't morally say euthanazia would be right. I think it's a pity that there has to be a life lived like this though.

I will however say it doesn't sound like she's enjoying life very much. ("Help me was her most common saying; I heard it hundreds of times")

My apologies for the confusion; I thought she was still in a coma.

 

Doctors removed the tube.

Sorry for the double post, but this news DESERVES it.

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/nation/11174669.htm

Well, if it helps the person using the currency metaphor, currency that is TOO battered and beaten is removed from circulation.

 

Yeah, but it's still currency and worth $100.. I'd take it

I don't think there's any chance of her being put back on the feeding tubes this time around. I hope that it doesn't take long for her to pass on.. I can imagine the frustration her family is going through, especially with the media in their faces.

 

I like the way they use currency as an imagery to lives.

Thats very astute for them, as America has been seeing money as very important asset in lives.

 

Nah, I've seen priests and pro-life activists use that argument of the crumpled bill before. Pretty much they raise up a twenty, or hundred dollar bill and ask "anyone who wants this, raise your hand". And everyone raises their hands. The speaker then folds the bill a few times and asks "you still want this?" And everyone raises their hands.. Then the speaker progresses to crumples the bill and put rips in it, but still everyone raises their hands saying that they want it.. Why? Because no matter how worn it is, it's still worth the same amount. The metaphor applies to people as well, no matter how worn or disabled, or old a person is, they are still a human and worth the same as any other.

Ableists might disagree though.

 

Ok, then what about a cellphone that won't pick up calls, won't send calls, won't let you play any games on it or anything useful? It'll just sit there plugged into a powersocket, sucking up power because it also can't hold a charge.

 

I agree with Neph. eek: Whoa, weird, eh? ) Terri is dead. Or at least, the woman known as Terri Schiavo. What's left is a living corpse that her parents won't let die. They need to just let her go. Terri's gone, and she's not ever coming back. They need to let her go, rather than try to hold on to whatever's left of her. She's not disabled, she's dead. In that money analogy, it's better like this.

Burn the bill, and ask if anyone wants the ashes. The bill is gone. All the ashes can do is remind you that it existed. So, why would you want it?

(Good analogy, Neph)

 

Yes, Terri is not anymore here. For the sake of everybody, specially Terri's, she deserves peace.

 

Eh.. I guess that everyone who has a mental disability isn't here either. They're just a body and don't compare to the rest of us. They should all be eradicated

She isn't a living corpse, it isn't like she's on life support. She just can't swallow, and doesn't have the 'normal' cognitive performance the rest of us have.

Being a 'devil's advocate' is interesting..

 

Not everyone. Just those who are completely incapable of interacting with others, as Terri is.

Regardless of what she is, she isn't Terri Schiavo. Not anymore. That person hasn't been Terri in 15 years. Terri, the woman known as Terri is dead. Her family needs to let her go. Why should they keep an empty shell of a human body alive when, as Neph says, all it does is take up space, time, and energy?

It's always best to fight for what you believe in. (I'm betting her parents would say the same thing, though)

 

Terry isn't just mentally disabled though. She's an unresponsive vegetable with her entire cerebral cortex gone, replaced with spinal fluid, and absolutely can't support herself on any level.