The Killing of Terry Schiavo

[Kooperman]

PEGGY NOONAN

'Don't Kick It'

If Terri Schiavo is killed, Republicans will pay a political price.

Friday, March 18, 2005 1:37 p.m. EST

It appears we've reached the pivotal moment in the Terri Schiavo case, and it also appears our politicians, our senators and congressmen, might benefit from some observations.

In America today all big stories have three dimensions: a legal angle, a public-relations angle and a political angle. In the Schiavo case some of our politicians seem not to be fully appreciating the second and third. This is odd.

Here's both a political and a public-relations reality: The Republican Party controls the Senate, the House and the White House. The Republicans are in charge. They have the power. If they can't save this woman's life, they will face a reckoning from a sizable portion of their own base. And they will of course deserve it.

This should concentrate their minds.

So should this: America is watching. As the deadline for removal of Mrs. Schiavo's feeding tube approaches, the story has broken through as never before in the media.

There is a passionate, highly motivated and sincere group of voters and activists who care deeply about whether Terri Schiavo is allowed to live. Their reasoning, ultimately, is this: Be on the side of life. They remind me of what Winston Churchill said once when he became home secretary in charge of England's prisons. He was seated at dinner with a jabbery lady who said that if she were ever given a life sentence she'd rather die than serve it. He reared back. No, he said, always choose life! "Death's the only thing you can't get out of!"

Just so. Life is full of surprise and lightning-like lurches. The person in a coma today wakes up tomorrow and says, "Is that you, mom?" Life is unknowable. Always give it a chance to shake your soul and upend reality.

The supporters of Terri Schiavo's right to continue living have fought for her heroically, through the courts and through the legislatures. They're still fighting. They really mean it. And they have memories.

On the other side of this debate, one would assume there is an equally well organized and passionate group of organizations deeply committed to removing Terri Schiavo's feeding tube. But that's not true. There's just about no one on the other side. Or rather there is one person, a disaffected husband who insists Terri once told him she didn't want to be kept alive by extraordinary measures.

He has fought the battle to kill her with a determination that at this point seems not single-minded or passionate but strange. His former wife's parents and family are eager to care for her and do care for her, every day. He doesn't have to do a thing. His wife is not kept alive by extraordinary measures--she breathes on her own, is not on a respirator. All she needs to continue existing--and to continue being alive so that life can produce whatever miracle it may produce--is a feeding tube.

It doesn't seem a lot.

So politically this is a struggle between many serious people who really mean it and one, just one, strange-o. And the few bearded and depressed-looking academics he's drawn to his side.

It is not at all in the political interests of senators and congressmen to earn the wrath of the pro-Schiavo group and the gratitude of the anti-Schiavo husband, by doing nothing.

So let me write a sentence I never thought I'd write: Politicians, please, think of yourselves! Move to help Terri Schiavo, and no one will be mad at you, and you'll keep a human being alive. Do nothing and you reap bitterness and help someone die.

This isn't hard, is it?

At the heart of the case at this point is a question: Is Terri Schiavo brain-dead? That is, is remedy, healing, physiologically impossible?

No. Oddly enough anyone who sees the film and tape of her can see that her brain tells her lungs to breathe, that she can open her eyes, that she seems to respond at times and to some degree to her family. She can laugh. (I heard it this morning on the news. It's a childlike chuckle.) In the language of computers she appears not to be a broken hard drive but a computer in deep hibernation. She looks like one of those coma cases that wind up in the news because the patient, for no clear reason, snaps to and returns to life and says, "Is it 1983? Is there still McDonald's? Can I have a burger?"

Again, life is mysterious. Medicine is full of happenings and events that leave brilliant doctors scratching their heads.

But in the end, it comes down to this: Why kill her? What is gained? What is good about it? Ronald Reagan used to say, in the early days of the abortion debate, when people would argue that the fetus may not really be a person, he'd say, "Well, if you come across a paper bag in the gutter and it seems something's in it and you don't know if it's alive, you don't kick it, do you?" No, you don't.

So Congress: don't kick it. Let her live. Hard cases make bad law, but let her live. Precedents can begin to cascade, special pleas can become a flood, but let her live. Because she's human, and you're human.

A final note to the Republican leadership in the House and Senate: You have to pull out all the stops. You have to run over your chairmen if they're being obstructionist for this niggling reason and that. Run over their egos, run past their fatigue. You have to win on this. If you don't, you can't imagine how much you're going to lose. And from people who have faith in you.

Bill Frist and Tom DeLay and Jim Sensenbrenner and Denny Hastert and all the rest would be better off risking looking ridiculous and flying down to Florida, standing outside Terri Schiavo's room and physically restraining the poor harassed staff who may be told soon to remove her feeding tube, than standing by in Washington, helpless and tied in legislative knots, and doing nothing.

Issue whatever subpoena, call whatever witnesses, pass whatever emergency bill, but don't let this woman die.

http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/p...n/?id=110006442

[Wolfie]

I hope this does offend anyone but I would not want to be kept alive in that state personally. And if there is a legal way to insure that (while I still have control of my facilitaies) I would do so.

As for the so-called do-gooders who are using this poor woman vegetative state to promote thier pro-life agenda all I can say is, shame on you!

[KiwiCoromandel]

US court allows right to die

A Florida court has cleared the way for the feeding tube to be removed from a severely brain-damaged woman at the centre of a fierce right-to-die dispute.

Following a flurry of legal activity in the courts and in the US Congress, Pinellas Circuit Court Judge George Greer reinstated his order that Terri Schiavo's food and water be stopped.

Earlier on Friday, US House leaders issued subpoenas for Schiavo and the Senate called her as a witness to congressional hearings in late bids to stave off the removal of her feeding tube.

Pinellas Chief Judge David Demers then issued a temporary stay, blocking the scheduled 1 pm EST removal of the tube. But Greer held an emergency hearing where he denied the congressional committee's motion to intervene, a court official says.

"Judge Greer held a hearing on the congressional committee's motion to intervene in the case. He denied it and reinstated the order (to remove Schiavo's feeding tube)," said Ron Stuart, a spokesman for the Pinellas Circuit Court.

Although the Pinellas court cleared the way, it was not immediately clear if the feeding tube would be removed...........

Read more.........

http://tvnz.co.nz/view/tvnz_story_skin/480307%3fformat=html

[DudeAsInCool]

  There's just about no one on the other side. Or rather there is one person, a disaffected husband who insists Terri once told him she didn't want to be kept alive by extraordinary measures.

And the few bearded and depressed-looking academics he's drawn to his side. 

Poor Peggy. She can't write one article without throwing a spear at the liberals, who in this case, havent been involved at all.

[KiwiCoromandel]

Florida woman's feeding tube removed

19.03.05 1.00pm

by Robert Green

FLORIDA - Doctors removed the feeding tube that has kept a brain-damaged Florida woman alive for 15 years on Friday after US lawmakers tried to prolong her life by subpoenaing her to appear before Congress.

The feeding tube was removed from Terri Schiavo, the woman at the heart of a long and furious right-to-die battle, at 1:45pm (7.45am NZT) and she was expected to die in seven to 14 days.

Her husband's lawyer called the last-minute attempt by the US Congress to keep the tube in place "nothing short of thuggery. "

Schiavo has been kept alive since a heart attack starved her brain of oxygen in 1990, leaving her in what the courts declared was a permanent vegetative state.

Her husband and legal guardian, Michael Schiavo, said she would not have wanted to be kept alive in that condition and won permission to remove the feeding tube after 1pm (7.00am NZT) on Friday.

Her husband was not present in his wife's room at the Woodside Hospice when the feeding tube was removed in what his lawyer, George Felos, described as a "very calm" and prayerful procedure. But her husband was at her bedside later, Felos said.

Read more.........

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10116170

[DudeAsInCool]

Congress Ready to Approve Bill in Schiavo Case

By CHRISTINE HAUSER

Published: March 20, 2005

s lawmakers met to discuss a compromise bill on the case of Terri Schiavo that could be acted on as early as today, the mother of the brain-damaged woman pleaded for congressional leaders to avoid using the issue to advance their own platforms.

http://nytimes.com/2005/03/20/politic

[slum_goddess]

I hope this does offend anyone but I would not want to be kept alive in that state personally.  And if there is a legal way to insure that (while I still have control of my facilitaies) I would do so. 

get a living will--you can get a blank online, print it and fill it out. i believe you need two witnesses to your sig &c.

btw, if the person in question is black, s/he'll die w/o any gov't intrusion. fucking hypocrite bastards.

[KiwiCoromandel]

US Congress set to act in right-to-die case

21 March 2005

WASHINGTON: United States President George W Bush cut short a vacation to return to Washington and be ready to sign a bill that may keep a brain-damaged woman alive, in a case pitting christian conservatives against right-to-die activists.

In a rare Sunday session, the US House of Representatives was to debate a deal aimed at pushing the Florida case into federal court and restoring the feeding tube that has kept Terri Schiavo alive for the past 15 years.

"The president intends to sign legislation as quickly as possible once it is passed," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said. "This is about defending life."

A deal on the bill, which could be approved by tomorrow, was forged at the weekend, 24 hours after doctors removed the 41-year-old woman's feeding tube under a Florida court order.

Bush was to return to Washington from a break at his Texas ranch.

Schiavo's husband and legal guardian, Michael Schiavo, has long argued - and has been supported by the courts - that his wife would not have wanted to live in such a condition.

He accused Congress of political opportunism and "trampling all over a personal family matter that has been adjudicated in these courts for seven years".

He vowed to fight on. "I made that promise to her and I'm going to hold it out," he told CNN.

Terri Schiavo's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, have persistently appealed, believing their daughter responds to them and could improve with treatment.

"Our family is extremely grateful for what Congress is doing," Bobby Schindler, her brother, told CNN. "Terri is alive. She's not dying. She's a human being. She's not in a coma. She can be helped."

Read more........

http://stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3223829a12,00.html

[Shawn]

What a crazy mess.

I think the writer of the first article should continue masturbating in the corner. Where does he/she get the right to attack the husband? The reporter, who never met the woman, knows best?

For that matter, the last time the woman's family should have had a say was when their daughter was unmarried. Did they really sit back and let her marry some frooking beast? I'd say they are having trouble facing the enivitable.

I think it's time the Right looked at medicine and determined openly what they consider to be an abomination and what isn't. This woman by all rights should have died long ago. Medicine has kept her alive. Is the right comfortable with turning over the 'keys' to doctors? They usually aren't.

[KiwiCoromandel]

What a crazy mess.

I think the writer of the first article should continue masturbating in the corner. Where does he/she get the right to attack the husband? The reporter, who never met the woman, knows best?

For that matter, the last time the woman's family should have had a say was when their daughter was unmarried. Did they really sit back and let her marry some frooking beast? I'd say they are having trouble facing the enivitable.

I think it's time the Right looked at medicine and determined openly what they consider to be an abomination and what isn't. This woman by all rights should have died long ago. Medicine has kept her alive. Is the right comfortable with turning over the 'keys' to doctors? They usually aren't.

you raise some very valid points shawn...it is certainly not the style of the right to life lobby ( in any country ), to hand over the keys to the city on ANY grounds...... never mind something like this which is obviously a very fundamental and defining issue to them.....as to the last minute goverment interference..well, it`s clearly the one of the lowest and most rank forms of political opportunism doing the rounds at the moment.. <_>

[slum_goddess]

as to the last minute goverment interference..well, it`s clearly the one of the lowest and most rank forms of political opportunism doing the rounds at the moment.. <_>

but is it lower and more rank than bush appropriating 9/11 as his own?

*ducks* hahahahaha

[Kooperman]

The Days Of Our Lives

Tom DeLay of Texas says:

"Mrs. Schiavo's life is not slipping away - it is being violently wrenched from her body in an act of medical terrorism," DeLay said. "Mr. Schiavo's attorney's characterization of the premeditated starvation and dehydration of a helpless woman as 'her dying process' is as disturbing as it is unacceptable. What is happening to her is not compassion - it is homicide. She doesn't need to die, and as long as Terri Schiavo can breathe and her supporters can pray, we will not rest."

By now most people who read liberal blogs are aware that 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. A 68 year old man was given a temporary reprieve by the Texas courts just yesterday.

Those of us who read liberal blogs are also aware that Republicans have voted en masse to pull the plug (no pun intended) on medicaid funding that pays for the kind of care that someone like Terry Schiavo and many others who are not so severely brain damaged need all across this country.

Those of us who read liberal blogs also understand that that the tort reform that is being contemplated by the Republican congress would preclude malpractice claims like that which has paid for Terry Schiavo's care thus far.

Those of us who read liberal blogs are aware that the bankruptcy bill will make it even more difficult for families who suffer a catastrophic illness like Terry Schiavo's because they will not be able to declare chapter 7 bankruptcy and get a fresh start when the gargantuan medical bills become overwhelming.

And those of us who read liberal blogs also know that this grandstanding by the congress is a purely political move designed to appease the religious right and that the legal maneuverings being employed would be anathema to any true small government conservative.

Those who don't read liberal blogs, on the other hand, are seeing a spectacle on television in which the news anchors repeatedly say that the congress is "stepping in to save Terry Schiavo" mimicking the unctuous words of Tom Delay as they grovel and leer at the family and nod sympathetically at the sanctimonious phonies who are using this issue for their political gain.

This is why we cannot trust the mainstream media. Most people get their news from television. And television is presenting this issue as a round the clock one dimensional soap opera pitting the "family", the congress and the church against this woman's husband and the judicial system that upheld Terry Schiavo's right and explicit request that she be allowed to die if extraordinary means were required to keep her alive. The ghoulish infotainment industry is making a killing by acceding once again to trumped up right wing sensationalism.

This issue gets to the essence of the culture war. Shall the state be allowed to interfere in the most delicate, complicated personal matters of life, death and health because a particular religious constituency holds that their belief system should override each individual's right to make these personal decisions for him or herself. And it isn't the allegedly statist/communist/socialist left that is agitating for the government to tell Americans how they must live and how they must die.

One of the things that we need to help America understand is that there is a big difference between the way the two parties perceive the role of government in its citizens personal lives. Democrats want the government to collect money from all its citizens in order to deliver services to the people. The Republicans want the government to collect money from working people in order to dictate individual citizen's personal decisions. You tell me which is the bigger intrusion into the average American's liberty?

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2005_03_20_...134934659869241

[DudeAsInCool]

Poll: No Role for Government in Schiavo Case

Federal Intervention in Schiavo Case Prompts Broad Public Disapproval

Analysis by GARY LANGER

March 21, 2005 --  Americans broadly and strongly disapprove of federal intervention in the Terri Schiavo case, with sizable majorities saying Congress is overstepping its bounds for political gain.

http://www.abcnews.go.com/Politics/PollVau...d=599622&page=1

[slum_goddess]

he dint do it when the WTC was attacked, he dint do it after the tsunami, but for terri schiavo, bush cut short his vacation and flew back to DC. transparent, down-in-the-popularity-polls moron.

wolfie: my living will.

[slum_goddess]

thankyou, kiwibank. i've been trying to figure out a way to do it since like a few years ago, when i was appalled that my mother (offline) dint know shit about things like the dangers of black box voting (w/o a papier trail)...as well, i think that people are still in denial--they're thinking like 'oh, bush wouldn't do anything to really hurt the country...' i'm all 'if you're not outraged, you're not paying attention.' it's very frustrating.

ps, peggy noonan is a fucking tool (she wrote speeches for the senile reagan)

[Ken]

Schiavo's husband and legal guardian, Michael Schiavo, has long argued - and has been supported by the courts - that his wife would not have wanted to live in such a condition.

So this Michael Schiavo says that Terry Schiavo told him that she would not want to be kept alive in a situation like this.

Now, on the other side, the family doesn't seem to support this sentiment with any statements from Terry Schiavo regarding her wishes.

Am I to believe that this whole thing is based upon only what Michael Schiavo says?

I can't say I fucking care either way (many people die every day for many reasons), but I think the biggest fuck up is the fact that Michael Schiavo is her legal guardian.

He's not blood related, so any instinctual certainty of sincerity that I can get right off the bat isn't there (not a universal by any means, but blood relatives are often more reliable with regards to sincerity and care of their own; it's a good starting point anyway, so debate and harrass me about this if you want, but it wont do any good).

I don't know Michael Schiavo, but I do know from many sources that he had an extra marital affair and has had two children with said woman (regardless of circumstance in this case, it still happened. It is stated fact). Ulterior motive and incentive therefore cannot be ruled out, and immaculate circumstance, I believe, is required for him to come anywhere close to having authority over her life.

It's all about intent. Schiavo doesn't have any written (or otherwise) proof of Terry Schiavo's "wishes". Schiavo has done some questionable things that relate to Terry Schiavo (regardless of your opinion on marriage and what it means to you, he committed adultery by definition).

I've seen M. Schiavo give interviews. I get bad vibes from him (and his lawyer annoys the shit out of me, that smug bastard).

After careful consideration of available facts, I wouldn't trust Michael Schiavo, and I don't think he should be deciding fate.

I think slum_goddess and others are looking past the humanity and are blindly focusing on the politics.

I too believe the federal government has no business interfering, and that apparent hypocrisies are true, but I am able to ignore that (because it’s irrelevant to the core issue) to look at the situation only.

I'm not offering an opinion on whether T. Schiavo should live, die, or be launched into the sun, what I’m saying is that M. Schiavo SHOULD NOT be the one making any decisions. He’s seems like a corrupt and misleading person.

He is not trustworthy.

Edited March 22, 2005 by Ken

[Ken]

Also, M. Schiavo won a $1.7 million dollar settlement in a series of medical malpractice type lawsuits related to T. Schiavo.

He, along with his..........I suppose girlfriend will have to suffice...........were the main benefactors of the money.

That strikes me as pure bullshit. What a bunch of shit eaters they are.

Edited March 22, 2005 by Ken

[KiwiCoromandel]

I think slum_goddess and others are looking past the humanity and are blindly focusing on the politics.

no ken..i don`t believe that is the truth of the matter at all.....the ones that are looking past the humanity and blindly focussing on the politics are the president of the united states, the republican controlled senate and ideologically blinkered right to lifers......where is the humanity in the heavy-handed unfeeling and ideologically arrogant way that the judge`s decision was/is being overruled...not just once either..actions that have resulted in the virtual torture of ms schiavio via the grotesque musical chairs parody with the feeding tube........those people don`t give a flying fuck about poor terri schiavo..their only concern is their political survival and payback to the fundamentalists that put them in the white house....

[DudeAsInCool]

The Terri Schiavo Case

Schiavo: 'Come down, President Bush'

By WILLIAM R. LEVESQUE, Times Staff Writer

Published March 20, 2005

PINELLAS PARK - Angered by the latest political developments in Washington, Michael Schiavo said Saturday that it isn't just the Florida governor who should visit his wife to learn about the case.

Jeb Bush's brother, President Bush, should visit Terri Schiavo, too, he said.

"Come down, President Bush,"

Schiavo said in a telephone interview. "Come talk to me. Meet my wife. Talk to my wife and see if you get an answer. Ask her to lift her arm to shake your hand. She won't do it."

She won't, Schiavo said, because she can't.

He made a similar offer to the governor last week, saying lawmakers interferring in his wife's life know nothing about the case. So far, Gov. Bush hasn't responded to the offer.

President Bush has indicated he will sign any federal legislation to keep Terri Schiavo alive.

Weary after an emotional visit with his wife, Schiavo said he is astonished that politicians want to interfere in such a private matter.

"Instead of worrying about my wife, who was granted her wishes by the state courts the past seven years, they should worry about the pedophiles killing young girls," Schiavo said, referring to a local case. "Why doesn't Congress worry about people not having health insurance? Or the budget? Let's talk about all the children who don't have homes."

He said

U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay,

who is leading a charge to extend Terri Schiavo's life,

is a "little slithering snake" pandering for votes.

"To make comments that Terri would want to live, how do they know?" Schiavo said of the members of Congress who want to keep his wife alive.

"Have they ever met her?" Schiavo said. "What color are her eyes? What's her middle name? What's her favorite color? They don't have any clue who Terri is. They should all be ashamed of themselves."

Schiavo said he was going to stay at his wife's side through the entire ordeal and said he wouldn't back down in his fight to have her wishes carried out.

"Terri died 15 years ago," Schiavo said, referring to the collapse and cardiac arrest that doctors say virtually destroyed her brain. "It's time for her to be with the Lord like she wanted to be."

http://www.sptimes.com/2005/03/20/Tampabay...me_down__.shtml

[Redneck4sure]

I read somewhere a few days ago that there is no money. It was placed in escrow and controlled by the court. The medical bills and the lawyers have eaten it all up. The lawyers for BOTH sides haven't been paid in 2 yrs but they keep on going and BOTH sets of lawyers say they will fight it out for free as long as it takes.

It is a sad deal with no winners. No matter the outcome poor Terry is doomed. Doomed to remain in a hospital bed or doomed to die. Her family has suffered all these yrs. It's just a shame that things can be that way.

I feel so fortunate that no one in my family is in that situation.

[DudeAsInCool]

Probably inappropriate here - but if GWB or Delay were in a similar situation as this poor worman, I'd volunteer to remove the tube

[Redneck4sure]

redneck humor?

[KiwiCoromandel]

I feel so fortunate that no one in my family is in that situation.

yes red.....i have been thinking the same thing myself.........when i look at what they are going through i count myself fortunate indeed.....sitting here talking about it is a lot damned easier than being there....that`s for sure..

[slum_goddess]

I think slum_goddess and others are looking past the humanity and are blindly focusing on the politics.

einstein speaks (said in the same tone as the althea leasure character in 'the people vs. larry flynt').

two interesting posts:

The big story of the weekend should have been the massive anti-war march that took place simultaneously in dozens of cities around the nation and the world, involving  hundreds of thousands of people.  That should have dominated the front pages of America's newspapers...

from the face of protest is a-changin' (daily kos)

and

the debacle of the Schiavo case proves one thing: when Congress decides to act, even in the face of overwhelming public opposition and state court decisions, they can act with incredible speed. And their decision? While insurance companies have a right to profit,babies do not. The bottom line: you don't have any rights that the Republicans in congress can't take away from you, should you stray from the straight and narrow, they will smear you into the ground...

memo to congress: that's bullshit

[slum_goddess]

'glassy-eyed, no cognitive ability, persistent vegetative state--poor terry schiavo--the unwitting personification of the christian right. except she's not a disgusting hypocrite.' :lol: (from the new 'get your war on')