I don’t know what should be done.
And I’m fine with that.
I’m neither a medical expert, nor someone who knew her intimately.
She never confided in me, I’ve never seen a case like hers, I don’t know what her vitals are.
I didn't visit her in the hospital, or watch a tape of it.
and I’ve never stayed awake all night talking to her exchanging our dreams, hopes and fears until the morning sun pushes back the dark.
Failing all of those qualifications, I have no business making any decision, much less one that will result in her life, or death, or something that is neither.
I’m 29 years old.
I don’t think I’ll ever die.
I am that one unique individual who will slip through deaths bony fingers, and I will live forever.
Or, I could die on my way into work tomorrow. Leaving behind a wife and daughter, an unwritten novel, a pile of books beside my bed, very little money in the bank and a world that I’ve just barely begun to glimpse.
I just don’t know. I could be paralyzed, struck with a crippling disease, in a vegetative state, or I could live to be 110.
I talk about these things with my wife now and then. Not often, we’ve got better things to talk about. And I’ve never written anything down. But if I was ever in that state I would want my wife to decide what happens to me.
I would hang around for a bit, until she was ready. Maybe a year, or a few years, maybe ten or fifteen years, until she worked out a way to move on without me. And then I’d leave.
Having no answer, and no opinion even to start with, I tried to do some research. At the end of the day I still don’t have an answer, and only a poor excuse for an opinion. But here’s what I found, maybe it will help you.
Terri Shiavo is in a vegetative state. This isn’t an opinion, it’s the diagnosis of medical experts. Tom Delay is not one of those medical experts, but he has an opinion.
“Terri Schiavo is alive. She's not, 'just barely alive.' She's not, 'being kept alive.' She is as alive as you and I," DeLay said, "and, as such, we have a moral obligation to protect and defend her from the fate premeditated by the Florida courts."
http://www.discardedlies.com/entries/2005/03/tom_delay_terri_will_not_be_forsaken.php
I agree with Tom Delay.
Sort of.
As long as he speaks for himself and not me when he says “She is as alive as you and I.”
One thing I found in my research (small tangent, sorry) is that Tom Delay is scum. After what I’ve read I signed a petition for his resignation (http://www.pcactionfund.org/index.htm). And yes, I read articles in his defense too. Don’t take my word for it. Read for yourself.
http://www.opednews.com/wade_032005_delay_schiavo.htm
http://dailydelay.blogspot.com/
-Sucuumbing to tempation, here’s one icky thing Tom Delay has done
“Tom DeLay received all expenses-paid junket from a lobbyist accused of bilking tens of millions of dollars from six Native American tribes.
• Lobbyist Jack Abramoff arranged for an Indian tribe and a gambling services company to contribute to the Washington-based National Center for Public Policy Research, which in turn covered most of the cost of a $70,000 trip to Britain by DeLay, his wife, and several others in mid-2000. DeLay listed the purpose of the trip as “educational”—he spent time networking with conservative British politicians and playing golf at the famous St. Andrews golf course in Scotland. “To the casual observer, it was a pretty simple deal,” a former House leadership aide told the Journal, after being shown details of the London transaction. “Jack raised money for the pet projects of DeLay and took care of his top staff. In turn, they granted him tremendous access and allowed him to freely trade on DeLay’s name.” Two months after the trip, DeLay helped kill the Internet Gambling Prohibition Act, which would have made it illegal to use the Internet to place certain bets. Abramoff is under investigation for taking huge fees from six Indian tribes and delivering little in return. Emails between a former DeLay aide and Abramoff refer to their Indian clients as “monkeys,” “morons,” and “troglodytes.”(Raw Story, 2/28/05; National Journal, 2/26/05; The Washington Post, 03/12/05; USA Today,11/30/04)” -
The republicans in the house have propped up their invasive rhetoric with supposed moral pillars. But recently talking points circulated amongst the republicans on the floor of the senate have surfaced. It seems to me that they show that this is just more political leverage. But you should read these too, and decide for yourself.
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/Schiavo/story?id=600937
My favorite is “This is a great political issue, because Senator Nelson of Florida has already refused to become a cosponsor and this is a tough issue for Democrats.”
Here is a conservative article defending the republican moral high ground and insisting that the democrats politicize the issue.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0321/p01s03-uspo.html
On Terri’s responsiveness:
http://abstractappeal.com/schiavo/infopage.html
The trial court heard testimony from five experts: two selected by Michael, two selected by the Schindlers, and one independent expert selected by the trial court. The two experts selected by Michael and the independent expert agreed that Terri was in a persistent vegetative state and that her actions were limited to mere reflexes. The two experts chosen by the Schindlers disagreed, but the trial court found their positions not credible. For instance, the trial court explained:At first blush, the video of Terry Schiavo appearing to smile and look lovingly at her mother seemed to represent cognition. This was also true for how she followed the Mickey Mouse balloon held by her father. The court has carefully viewed the videotapes as requested by counsel and does find that these actions were neither consistent nor reproducible. For instance, Terry Schiavo appeared to have the same look on her face when Dr. Cranford rubbed her neck. Dr. Greer testified she had a smile during his (non-videoed) examination. Also, Mr. Schindler tried several more times to have her eyes follow the Mickey Mouse balloon but without success. Also, she clearly does not consistently respond to her mother. The court finds that based on the credible evidence, cognitive function would manifest itself in a constant response to stimuli.The experts also disagreed about whether any treatment could improve Terri's condition. The two experts selected by the Schindlers each proposed a potential therapy method, but the trial court rejected both of them based on "the total absence of supporting case studies or medical literature."Affirming those decisions, the Second District explained that it, too, reviewed the videotapes of Terri in their entirety as well as Terri's brain scans. The appellate court explained that it not only affirmed the decision but that, were it to review the evidence and make its own decision, the court would reach the same result reached by the trial court.
http://journals.aol.com/justice1949/JUSTICEFORTERRISCHIAVO/entries/713
Of all the expert opinions I found, that all agreed that there is no chance of recovery. They didn’t say a slim chance, or a slight chance. They said no chance. “Schiavo recovery impossible, experts agree”
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/7257835/
A much as this is being made into a right-wing vs. left-wing issue, there are dissenting views on both sides. I ran into this liberal blog arguing that she should be kept alive. It’s a narrow blog though, the only issue it discusses is the Terri Schiavo case, and if it’s name is any indication it was created just for that purpose.
"Ask yourself: What if your spouse had abused you, injured you by strangulation or head trauma, then driven you to the hospital and demanded 'your' right to die? What if the only evidence presented to the court that you 'wanted to die' was hearsay testimony from the same spouse that materialized only after they got your $1.5+ million settlement? What if they spent $500,000 of that settlement money not on you, but on a prominent euthanasia attorney they hired specifically to lobby for 'your' right to 'die'? "
http://liberalsforterri.blogspot.com/
And what does the rest of the world think? The BBC collected opinions on their website. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/talking_point/3203921.stm
They are varied, and opinions are strong, but they seem to lean more towards letting her die.
Some insist that Terri’s husband has her insurance settlement in mind
“'Now, he has had her feeding tube removed and sentenced her to a most excruciating death, citing Terri's own wishes as the rationale ...' said Rep. Jim Ryun, R-Kan. 'Michael did not remember this supposed request until years after Terri's initial injuries when a cash settlement was awarded to her, a settlement he would stand to inherit.'"
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/03/21/national/main681832.shtml
I did find on at least a couple sources that he is living with another woman, and has 2 children. But I couldn’t find for how long, or how old the children are. Terri has been in a coma for 15 years (since 1990).
“Both sides have accused each other of being motivated by greed over a $1 million medical malpractice award from doctors who failed to diagnose the chemical imbalance that caused Terri Schiavo to stop breathing. However, that money, which Michael Schiavo received in 1993, has all but evaporated - spent on his wife's care and the court fight. Just $40,000 to $50,000 remained as of mid-March.
Michael Schiavo has a longtime girlfriend with whom he has young children but has declined to divorce his wife. He and his wife's parents had a falling out in 1993 over Terri Schiavo's care and the malpractice money. The Schindlers tried unsuccessfully to have Michael Schiavo removed as her guardian.”
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apus_story.asp?category=1110&slug=Brain%20Damaged%20Woman%20Q~A
Maybe it’s the hypocrisy that gets to me most. The republicans are supposed to stand for smaller government. Less interference, more personal liberty. Less big government in your lives. More power at the state level, and power that is less centralized. That’s what they are “supposed” to stand for.
And yet this seems a clear case of the federal goverment not only interfering in people personal lives, but trying to overturn a decision at the state level as well.
"House Majority Leader Tom DeLay pledged Friday to hold Florida state judge George Greer in contempt of Congress for ignoring a congressional subpoena for Terri Schiavo's testimony, saying, 'We will do everything to enforce the power and authority of the Congress and no little judge sitting in a state district court in Florida is going to usurp the authority of Congress,' he added."
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/3/18/181719.shtml
DeLay also told Hannity, "This judge and the Supreme Court of Florida are well known to be liberal judges that have a different worldview and they're imposing their worldview on the law."
So because this is a democratic judge his decision doesn' count? Does that make any sense? To anyone?
But that’s nothing compared to Bush’s hypocrisy.
They woke him up at 1:11 AM, he signed the bill in the hall outside his private quarters. This is his thing. He’s for life. He’s going to help the helpless, his is a culture of life.
But wait.
This culture of life mentality seem to be at odds with his past and current actions. His slashing of medicaid will result in thousands of deaths, cutting aid for the poor and hungry. Startin a war, on any premise, is going to result in death, not life. But more specificly, take a look at the “Texas Futile Care Law” that he passed as governor of Texas.
"Bioethicists familiar with the Texas law said yesterday that if the Schiavo case had occurred in Texas, her husband would be the legal decision-maker and, because he and her doctors agreed that she had no hope of recovery, her feeding tube would be disconnected. "The Texas law signed in 1999 allowed next of kin to decide what the patient wanted, if competent," said John Robertson, a University of Texas bioethicist. While Congress and the White House were considering legislation recently in the Schiavo case, the Texas law faced its first high-profile test. With the permission of a judge, a Houston hospital cut off life support for a badly deformed 6-month-old baby last week against his mother's wishes after doctors determined that continuing life support would be futile. The baby died almost immediately. "The mother down in Texas must be reading the Schiavo case and scratching her head," said Dr. Howard Brody, the director of Michigan State University's Center for Ethics and Humanities in the Life Sciences. "This does appear to be a contradiction."
This law says that when a family can't pay the hospital
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002215324_texaslaw22.html
“George W. Bush signed a law in Texas that expressly gave hospitals the right to remove life support if the patient could not pay and there was no hope of revival, regardless of the patient's family's wishes. It is called the Texas Futile Care Law. Under this law, a baby was removed from life support against his mother's wishes in Texas just this week.”
“Thomas Mayo, an associate law professor at Southern Methodist University who helped draft the Texas law, said that if the Schiavo case had happened in Texas, her husband would have been her surrogate decision-maker. Because both he and her doctors were in agreement, life support would have been discontinued.
The Texas law does not include a provision for dealing with conflicts among family members who disagree with the surrogate decision-maker as has happened in the Schiavo case although in practice hospital ethics committees would try to resolve such disputes, he said.
The Texas law, Mayo said, tends to keep such cases out of court, allowing life-support decisions to be made privately. However, within the last month two Houston cases went to court. One case resulted in a baby being removed from life support; he died soon afterward. The other led to the transfer of an elderly man to a nursing home.
Bruce Howell, a private health law attorney in Dallas who was involved in updates to the state law in 2003, agreed with Mayo that Bush's signing of the federal law appears to be inconsistent with his actions as governor.” http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=601938&page=1
Bush signed 1999 law in TX to pull plug on patient AGAINST the family's wishes by John in DC - 3/21/2005 06:42:00 PM
http://americablog.blogspot.com/
http://thinkprogress.org/index.php?p=480
1 comment:
"I’m 29 years old.
I don’t think I’ll ever die.
I am that one unique individual who will slip through deaths bony fingers, and I will live forever."
I think everyone thinks that way, well said, liked it, the ending especially, are you trying to be ironic when you say, 'until she worked out a way to move on without me. And then I’d leave."? If not it works both ways.
Keep writing!!!
;-)
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