The Killing of Terry Schiavo

Kooperman · March 25, 2005

Conservatives Invoke Terri Schiavo Case in Fund-Raising Campaigns

By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK

Published: March 25, 2005

Videotape of Terri Schiavo blinking at her parents has inspired donations from people around the country to the foundation set up to help pay for the family's legal battle. But many other groups are soliciting donations in her name as well, some for a much broader agenda.

"Help Save Terri Schiavo's Life!" says the Web site of the Traditional Values Coalition, a Christian conservative group best known for its campaigns against gay rights. Next to a link to the Web site of her parents' foundation is a pitch to "become an active supporter of the Traditional Values Coalition by pledging a monthly gift."

"What this issue has done is it has galvanized people the way nothing could have done in an off-election year," said Rev. Lou Sheldon, the founder of the group, acknowledging that the case of Ms. Schiavo, a severely brain-damaged Florida woman, had moved many to open up their checkbooks. "That is what I see as the blessing that dear Terri's life is offering to the conservative Christian movement in America."

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/25/politics...html?oref=login

Shawn · March 25, 2005

:reallymad: :reallymad: :reallymad: :reallymad: :reallymad: :reallymad: :reallymad: :reallymad: :reallymad: :reallymad: :reallymad: :reallymad: :reallymad: :reallymad: :reallymad: :reallymad: :reallymad: :reallymad: :reallymad: :reallymad:

Kooperman · March 25, 2005

Schiavo's Hydration Level Raises Questions

By JOSEPH B. VERRENGIA, AP Science Writer

Her skin is flaky, tongue dry and lips sunken. Doctors are saying Theresa Schiavo could survive another week without food or water, but she could just as easily die over the weekend.

But is she suffering? On that point, expert opinion varies widely.

Schiavo stopped receiving food or water last Friday. Because she is in a persistent vegetative state without conscious awareness, many medical authorities say she is unable to process or communicate pain and discomfort. Any reaction she shows is reflex, they say.

And as her organs fail, they predict that she is likely to pass peacefully, as if she was drifting off to sleep.

But other physicians — some of whom combine medicine and Christian missionary work — strongly disagree.

Dr. David Stevens, executive director of the Christian Medical Association in Bristol, Tenn., has worked in some of Africa's poorest nations.

He recalls watching people die of dehydration with symptoms that include thick saliva, severe cramps and dry heaving. As their mucous membranes and intestines dry out, they bleed from the mouth and nose, and begin to hallucinate.

Stevens says the quiet death that physicians often associate with dehydration comes to patients whose bodies were already shutting down from cancer or another terminal illness.

"That's a whole different thing than someone like this, whose body is in metabolic equilibrium," he said.

But in a statement, groups representing hospices said the Schiavo case has raised "erroneous medical claims" that stopping food and water causes terminal patients considerable discomfort.

"Most studies show that patients nearing the end of their lives do not experience hunger," said Ryan Walker, a spokesman for the Hospice and Palliative Nurses Association. "Dry mouth is the most common symptom, but it easily can be alleviated."

Other medical authorities say a case like Schiavo's is more difficult to analyze because researchers don't have a complete idea of what a vegetative patient might feel. They still have basic functions controlled by the brain stem, including sleep-wake cycles, breathing and some facial expressions. But she is not consciously aware and requires total assistance.

And, at 41, her case is rare because of her age. Nursing homes are full of geriatric patients battling serious diseases only to suffer a heart attacks and wind up breathing on ventilators while their families weigh sad and limited options.

But Schiavo was 26 and outwardly healthy when she collapsed and her brain was temporarily starved of oxygen. The courts have ruled that the episode left her in a persistent vegetative state, and agreed that her husband has the right to disconnect her feeding tube.

"Often the issues hardest to decide are when young people who are otherwise living productive lives are struck down by an unforeseen event. They do not have a lot of other medical problems and can live for years without succumbing," said Elaine J. Amella, associate nursing research dean at the Medical University of South Carolina at Charlestown.

Currently, Schiavo is not known to face a life-threatening infection like pneumonia, for which the family and doctors might agree to withhold antibiotics and let nature take its course.

Without a national euthanasia policy, physicians said nutrition is the only medical intervention over which Schiavo's surrogate decision-makers can exercise any individual choice.

"In this case there really isn't any in-between," said Dr. Michael Weissman, director of the palliative care center at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. "Of all the things we talk about stopping in these cases, nothing more emotionally laden than feeding. Antibiotics don't mean nurturing, but feeding does."

If nutrition is denied, there is a point when death may occur even if the tube is reinserted — toxin levels are too high and the body is in too much shock. Or the patient might survive, but with additional damage to the brain, kidneys or other organs.

Ironically, when the end of life draws near, doctors say that over-hydration may pose the bigger medical problem. As the kidneys and other organs fail, fluid builds up in the lungs and the legs. This increases stress and pain, and often requires aggressive intervention.

One frequent hallmark of approaching death is the "death rattle" as patients lose the ability to cough or swallow saliva and other secretions from their throats and bronchial tubes. When they breathe, air moves over the fluids, creating turbulence.

A study by the Medical College of Wisconsin suggests that death comes about 16 hours after the rattle's onset. But patients with brain injuries and lung disease might also produce similar noises without being close to death.

Dehydration leads to kidney failure and levels of toxins and impurities rise in the bloodstream. At some point the biochemical changes in the blood become severe enough to impair the electrical system that controls the functioning of the heart. Blood pressure drops. Consciousness wanes. Respiration slows, or even stops for longer intervals.

The heart slows, then stops beating. Finally, the brain shuts down from a lack of oxygen. Death might not be immediately apparent.

In a recent New England Journal of Medicine study, hospice nurses rated the deaths of terminally ill people who voluntarily stopped eating and drinking. On a scale of zero to nine, with the highest number being "a very good death," their average rating was eight.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/a...d_woman_doctors

Wolfie · March 25, 2005

A man was arrested after trying to steal a weapon from a gun shop so he could "take some action and rescue Terri Schiavo," authorities said.

Dumbass. :rolleyes:

KiwiCoromandel · March 26, 2005

Schiavo parents beg Jeb Bush to intervene

26 March 2005

PINELLAS PARK: Terri Schiavo's parents begged Florida Governor Jeb Bush to intervene as their brain-damaged daughter edged closer to death on Saturday and federal courts again rebuffed their efforts to have tube feeding resumed.

"With a stroke of his pen, he could stop it immediately," said Schiavo's father, Bob Schindler, suggesting that Bush could intervene in some executive capacity, although the governor has said he cannot.

"He's put Terri through a week of hell and I implore him to put a stop to this. This is judicial homicide and he has to stop it," he said.

Schindler and his wife, Mary, spoke to reporters soon after the 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a Florida federal court's denial of the parents request to resume the feeding.

That closed yet another door to the parents in a bitter seven-year legal feud with Schiavo's husband and legal guardian that has escalated into a highly politicized moral dispute over whether Schiavo should live or die.

The feeding was halted a week ago under an order from a state court that has long sided with Schiavo's husband, Michael. The court found she has been in a "persistent vegetative state" since a heart attack damaged her brain 15 years ago, and would not want to live in this condition.

The Schindlers have drawn passionate support from conservative Christians in their struggle to prolong their daughter's life. Their stance has drawn in the US Congress - which passed a special law to push the case into federal courts - President George W Bush, who interrupted a vacation to sign the law, and his brother, Jeb Bush.

Schiavo, 41, was expected to live up to two weeks without the tube feeding, but Schindler said his daughter was fading after a week and was "down to her last hours."

With few legal options open to the Schindlers, 11th hour intervention by Governor Bush also appeared unlikely.

Read on...........

http://stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3228996a10,00.html

KiwiCoromandel · March 26, 2005

Bush approval hits record low

26 March 2005

WASHINGTON: US President George W Bush's approval rating has slipped to a new low in the latest national survey with pollsters suggesting federal government intervention in the Terri Schiavo controversy may have been a factor along with growing concern about the economy.

The USA Today/CNN/Gallup survey found 45 per cent of the 1001 adults surveyed Monday through Wednesday thought Bush was doing a good job, compared with 52 per cent during three previous surveys in late February and early March.

The president's previous low since taking office in January 2001 was 46 per cent in May 2004.

Bush's involvement in the Schiavo case in Florida "may be a major cause" for the 7-point drop, the Gallup Organization said.

Bush broke off his Texas vacation to sign emergency legislation on Monday that permitted federal courts to consider appeals by Schiavo's parents to force the reconnection of a feeding tube to prolong the life of the brain-damaged woman.

The tube was removed on March 18 with the permission of Schiavo's husband, who has been waging a long legal battle with his wife's family over whether the 41-year-old woman should be allowed to die.

So far, appeals by Schiavo's parents have failed. The US Supreme Court refused to intervene on Thursday.

Separate polls by the Gallup organization, ABC News and CBS News in recent days showed large majorities of Americans were opposed to the congressional and presidential intervention in the Schiavo controversy.

Also possibly weighing on Bush's ratings slide is concern about the economy with new emphasis on rising fuel costs.

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/stor...hub=CTVNewsAt11

slum_goddess · March 27, 2005

Exactly how I feel :good job:

me three. for months i'd meet my friends at the local down the hill....now sky travel has 'animal airport' and 'the zoo' (from auckland NZ) on at 18,00 every night and i stay home.

slum_goddess · March 27, 2005

dig this shit: 'A family tragedy that unfolded in a Texas hospital during the fall of 1988 was a private ordeal — without judges, emergency sessions of Congress or the debate raging outside Terri Schiavo's Florida hospice.

'The patient then was a 65-year-old drilling contractor, badly injured in a freak accident at his home. Among the family members keeping vigil at Brooke Army Medical Center was a grieving junior congressman — Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Texas).

'More than 16 years ago, far from the political passions that have defined the Schiavo controversy, the DeLay family endured its own wrenching end-of-life crisis. The man in a coma, kept alive by intravenous lines and oxygen equipment, was DeLay's father, Charles Ray DeLay...'

more crap here (you're welcome) :)

DudeAsInCool · March 27, 2005

Politics aside, there must be a more humane way to deal with situations than this

KiwiCoromandel · March 28, 2005

Schiavo at the 'point of no return'

28 March 2005

PINELLAS PARK: A wrenching dispute over the fate of Terri Schiavo neared its end today as the brain-damaged Florida woman moved closer to death and her parents gave up their long and bitter legal battle to prolong her life.

"I'm not saying we wouldn't be open to any idea that comes up. But at this point, it appears that time has finally run out," David Gibbs, an attorney for Schiavo's parents, said late on Saturday, the St Petersburg Times reported on Sunday.

The tube feeding that has sustained Schiavo for 15 years was halted on March 18 under a state court order, setting off a flurry of efforts by Bob and Mary Schindler to get their daughter's feeding restored.

Their effort drew in the US Congress, President George W Bush and his brother, Florida governor Jeb Bush.

But a string of judicial rebuffs, including from the US Supreme Court and the Florida Supreme Court, effectively ended the Schindlers' seven-year legal dispute with Schiavo's husband and legal guardian, Michael Schiavo, over whether she should live or die.

Gibbs said Schiavo, 41, was declining rapidly. "They've begun to give her morphine drip for the pain. And at this point, we would say Terri has passed the point of no return," he told CBS television.

Doctors have said Schiavo, who is being cared for at a Florida hospice, would live for up to two weeks without the feeding tube. They say patients in her condition appear to feel little or no discomfort when deprived of nutrition and water.

A state court first ruled in 2000 Schiavo should be allowed to die.

It declared she was in a "persistent vegetative state" since suffering a heart attack that deprived her brain of oxygen in 1990 and sided with her husband in ruling she would not have wanted to live in that condition.

The Schindlers, who are practicing Roman Catholics, have attracted passionate support from an array of conservative christians, right-to-life and anti-abortion activists.

Passions boiled over on Sunday among the crowd of about 100 protesters holding vigil in front of the hospice in Pinellas Park, with the first two violent arrests.

One of those was Don McBurney, a member of the Denver Bible Church, who grabbed a paper cup of water and rushed the police lines standing guard in the driveway.

Three policemen wrestled him to the ground, cuffed his hands and forced him into the police van. He struggled, screaming, "Bring her water".

McBurney was charged with trespassing. There have been 38 arrests in the past 10 days, including three others on Sunday, but so far they had been peaceful.

Some in the crowd suggested militias should form to storm the hospice. Others prayed quietly and sang hymns.

Ardith Cooper of Morris, Illinois, stood sketching a chalk drawing of Terri Schiavo nailed to a crucifix. Christians mark Easter Sunday as the day they believe Jesus Christ was resurrected after being crucified.

In a protest lasting about an hour, seven people in wheelchairs rolled to the driveway, hoisted themselves out of their chairs and sat on the ground, screaming, "We're not dead yet, let Terri live".

Michael Schiavo and the parents were alternating time at Schiavo's bedside - having long ago stopped speaking to each other in a bitter family feud that escalated into a highly politicised dispute.

Lobbied by evangelical christians who have felt emboldened since Bush's re-election last November, the Republican-controlled Congress raced through a special law to push the case into federal courts, and the president interrupted a vacation to sign it into law.

But federal courts, up to the Supreme Court, turned down the Schindlers' request for an order to resume feeding.

Fresh efforts in state courts also failed and Governor Bush was rebuffed in a move to get the state welfare agency to take custody of Schiavo.

Jeb Bush told CNN on Sunday he had done everything within his powers and could not violate a court order.

Congress' effort was assailed by critics as meddling in a family affair that had already been decided by state courts.

Opinion polls showed most Americans disapproved of the congressional move and felt Schiavo should be allowed to die.

A Time Magazine poll released on Sunday found a majority of Americans surveyed who called themselves born again Christians or evangelicals agreed with the decision to remove Schiavo's feeding tube.

Kooperman · March 28, 2005

Stories on Schiavo Protestor Miss One Point: He's a Registered Sex Offender

By E&P Staff

Published: March 28, 2005 11:30 AM ET

NEW YORK As protests outside the hospice housing Terri Schiavo in her final days mounted last week, numerous newspaper reports, many based on an Associated Press account, mentioned or quoted 10-year-old Joshua Heldreth and/or his father, Scott Heldreth. Josh was one of several youngsters arrested for crossing police lines in Pinellas Park, Fla., in an effort to take water to Schiavo.

None of the stories revealed that Scott Heldreth, a religious activist and anti-abortion crusader, is a registered sex offender in Florida-- until The Charlotte Observer mentioned it on Sunday.

A widely published AP story on Sunday by Allen G. Breen had painted a warmer picture of the Heldreths, noting that it was young Josh who insisted that his father take him to the protests from their home in North Carolina, not the other way around. “God’s with me,” Josh said.

The article continued: “Scott Heldreth, a veteran of the Operation Rescue and Operation Save America campaigns against abortion, didn't intend to join this fight, until his son asked to be brought to Pinellas Park. ‘My wife and I, we felt like if God really put it on his heart, we should come down, to allow him to live out what God had put on his heart,’ says Heldreth, a carpenter.”

The story said some of the children at the protest carried signs accusing Terry Schiavo’s husband of murdering her and urging that he be sent to jail.

The Charlotte Observer story, however, revealed that Heldreth had pleaded guilty to sexual battery, was in jail for parts of 1992 and 1993, according to court records, and served time on probation.

“The former Naperville, Fla., resident remains listed on the Florida Department of Law Enforcement's sex offender registry,” the Observer reported, “but he's not registered on North Carolina's; the N.C. equivalent applies to offenders convicted on or after Jan. 1, 1996.”

According to the story, Heldreth claimed that his religious beliefs came to him while in jail. Before then, he said, "I basically agreed with everyone trying to kill Terri Schiavo." Then, he said, he accepted Christ and turned his life around.

Heldreth declined to discuss the specifics of the incident that led to his jail time. Online research shows that Heldreth was arrested after an incident at Ohio University and charged with two counts of rape and one count of kidnapping.

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/ne...t_id=1000856102

Amber · March 28, 2005

IMHO....this is where "ASSISTING" should come into play. Bring on Kavorkian(sp)

Hell....I wouldn't want to starve to death and I damn sure wouldn't want my kids starving to death and being there to watch it. :reallymad:

DudeAsInCool · March 28, 2005

Anger at Bushes as time grows short for Schiavo

Mon Mar 28, 7:56 AM ET

Politics - USATODAY.com

By Larry Copeland, USA TODAY

By Sunday, after nine days of legal defeats for Schiavo's parents in their effort to have her feeding tube reattached, much of the optimism was gone. Last week's unity among the demonstrators had splintered, and an undercurrent of anger ran through them.

Their ire was directed at Michael Schiavo, Terri's husband, who successfully petitioned the courts to have her feeding tube removed; at state judge George Greer, who has ruled consistently in his favor; and increasingly, at President Bush (news - web sites) and Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/u...shortforschiavo

The Killing of Terry Schiavo

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