The Killing of Terry Schiavo

[KiwiCoromandel]

Schiavo and the religious Right

George W.Bush and the Republican Party are using Terri Schiavo as a political tool, writes Andrew Sullivan

March 29, 2005

IT is impossible to look without grief at the images of Terri Schiavo starving slowly to death in a Florida hospice.

It has, alas, become impossible in America to look at such a tragic set of circumstances without hysteria.

Those of us who have worried that unleashing religious fundamentalism into the bloodstream of US politics would lead to disaster can feel only that our fears have now come true.

Fifteen years ago, Ms Schiavo suffered a heart stoppage caused by her bulimia. Her brain was temporarily starved of oxygen and scans showed that her cerebral cortex had stopped functioning. A scan shows her brain has since shrunk massively.

She is not brain dead, but she has no ability to think, feel or communicate. She has been kept alive by a feeding tube. In the first years that she was in this state, her husband Michael Schiavo did all he could to find a treatment.

Ms Schiavo was sent to California to have platinum electrodes implanted to get her brain going again. Michael slept next to her for five weeks. At the time, he and Terri's parents were united in doing all they could for what was left of his wife.

Eventually, the husband acquiesced to near-universal medical opinion and came to terms with the fact that his wife would never revive. He said that when she was cognisant she had once told him that she did not want to be kept alive artificially for an indefinite period of time.

The Miami Herald reported: "She suffered from bile stones and kidney stones, according to court papers, and had to have her gall bladder removed. She has 'drop foot', where her foot twists downward, and the ensuing pressure resulted in the amputation of her left little toe. She frequently developed urinary tract infections, diarrhoea and vaginitis."

Michael Schiavo decided to let her die with dignity.

Her parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, for understandable reasons, differed and fought him in the Florida courts. The parents, who had at first encouraged Michael to date other women, then used his second relationship as a weapon against him.

However, court after court acknowledged the overwhelming medical data and the fact that Terri's legal guardian was her husband.

Then members of the political religious Right heard what was going on, took up the case and cast it as an example of what the Pope has called the "culture of death".

They demonised Michael Schiavo. Their clout was such that they got the Florida legislature to pass a bill to protect Terri, a law overruled by the courts in Florida. Then they got Congress to pass a law to delay the process of death, pending new Federal Court challenges. President George W.Bush rushed back to Washington to sign the bill in the middle of the night.

You want proof that the religious Right runs the Republican Party?

Federal courts then examined the long course of the case and came to the conclusion that Florida's courts had acted within the law. The parents appealed to the US Supreme Court, which again refused to hear the case.

But if limited government means anything it means leaving decisions like this as close to the individual as possible. But that is not what US Republicanism now thinks.

It has a religious drive that puts theological certitude before prudential or legal reasoning and a growing contempt for an independent judiciary. That is how Bill Bennett, a leading conservative activist, could write that Jeb Bush, the Florida governor, should simply overrule the courts, break the law and send armed guards to insert the feeding tube by force.

This attack on the basis of constitutional liberty in the name of religion is usually called theocracy.

The President himself, who said last week that "it is wise to always err on the side of life", did not seem so concerned when he signed countless death warrants as governor of Texas, with the most cursory of legal reviews.

He also signed a Texas law that gave next of kin discretion to remove life support from a terminally ill patient in the absence of a living will.

Last week, an eight-year-old boy died in Texas after his tube was removed because his parents could not afford treatment, but the religious Right seemed uninterested. Culture of life?

The Schiavo case is a battle to win over the religious Right voters who will determine the next Republican nominee. The Republican leadership is gambling that the intensity of its religious base will outweigh the more general public's disdain for this exercise in government over-reach. The broader public, they calculate, will forget. The zealots will always remember.

If Schiavo dies they will have a martyr as well. They will use her death as a symbol in the campaigns to come.

[Shawn]

DeLay Let Brain-Damaged Father Die

"There was no point to even really talking about it," Maxine DeLay, the congressman's 81-year-old widowed mother, told the Times. "Tom knew, we all knew, his father wouldn't have wanted to live that way."

link

[The Hunter]

Latest report by the CBC. http://www.cbc.ca/story/world/national/200...chiavo0328.html

[slum_goddess]

terri schiavo's blog

[DudeAsInCool]

terri schiavo's blog

If you click the blogs on the right, you will find some very, very conservative stuff...

[Shawn]

Pretty sad if you ask me.

[DudeAsInCool]

Jesse Jackson Prays With Schiavo's Parents

Mar 29, 4:22 PM (ET)

By MIKE SCHNEIDER

PINELLAS PARK, Fla. (AP) - As Terri Schiavo entered her 12th full day without food or water, the Rev. Jesse Jackson prayed with her parents Tuesday and joined conservatives in calling for state lawmakers to order her feeding tube reinserted.

The former Democratic presidential candidate was invited by Schiavo's parents to meet with activists outside Schiavo's hospice. His arrival was greeted by some applause and cries of "This is about civil rights!"

"I feel so passionate about this injustice being done, how unnecessary it is to deny her a feeding tube, water, not even ice to be used for her parched lips," he said. "This is a moral issue and it transcends politics and family disputes."

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20050329/D894SE8G0.html

[Kooperman]

Terri Schiavo's 2002 CT scan

Neurologist who examined Schiavo explains the scan

TRANSCRIPT

Updated: 4:04 p.m. ET March 29, 2005

The overwhelming majority in the medical community say Terri Schiavo has close to no brain activity and has no chance of regaining awareness. Dr. Ronald Cranford, who actually examined Terri Schiavo in 2002 and testified to her condition, joined "The Abrams Report" on Monday. Cranford is the assistant chief of neurology at the Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis as well as a faculty member at the University of Minnesota's Center for Bioethics.

Below is the transcript of their conversation.

DAN ABRAMS, HOST: You're one of the few people who has actually examined Terri Schiavo and you're hearing all of these people who are coming on from the sidelines saying, "She's has been misdiagnosed," et cetera. How confident are you in your diagnosis and why?

DR. RONALD CRANFORD, UNIV. OF MN NEUROLOGIST: I'm extremely confident. I think at the time of the trial in 2002 there had been eight neurologists who examined her. And of those eight neurologists total, seven of them said beyond any doubt whatsoever Terri is in a vegetative state. Her CT scan shows severe atrophy or shrinkage of the brain. Her EEG is flat and there's absolutely no doubt that she's been in a permanent vegetative state ever since 1990. There's no doubt whatsoever, Dan.

ABRAMS: Doctor, let me read you this from Dr. Cheshire. I know you've heard about him. He's from the Mayo Clinic and he is the reason that they appealed to the federal courts saying, look we've got a doctor who is saying the following.

“There remain huge uncertainties in regard to Terri's true neurological status. I believe that, within a reasonable degree of medical certainty there is a great likelihood that Terri is in a minimally conscious state rather than a persistent vegetative state.”

Your response.

CRANFORD: Well actually if you read his report, he says she has no visual tracking and she has no conscious awareness which are the cardinal signs of the vegetative state, so I don't think there's any doubt she's in a vegetative state. He never examined her.

He did an interview with her for 90 minutes, observing her. He never viewed her CT scans. He makes no mention of her EEG, so while he's a reputable neurologist, perhaps, at the Mayo Clinic, his report means absolutely nothing. It's a desperation, last minute move by the governor who just doesn't know what else to do, so he brings in a Christian fundamentalist neurologist. It's just not true.

ABRAMS: I feel for the parents here and I'm going to play a sound bite...

CRANFORD: So do I.

ABRAMS: I want you to listen to it and just tell me if it's even medically possible that this is the case.

[Video] SCHINDLER: She's alive and she's fighting like hell to live, and she's begging for help. She's still communicating, still responding. She's emaciated, but she's responsive.

ABRAMS: Doctor, I mean you hate to say it but that's just a father wishful thinking, isn't it?

CRANFORD: I hate to say it but it's a father wishful thinking. These are sincere caring people. I think the Schindlers as opposed to the right to life activists and the president and Congress and all the others, I think they really believe that she's interacting. They really believe she's been denied medical care, and I think about sympathizes with their concerns.

This is a loving, caring family but they're wrong. And they've known they've been wrong. She's been diagnosed a vegetative state ever since the early 1990s. They were told that repeatedly in the early 1990s. It's wishful thinking on the part of parents who dearly love their daughter and don't want her to be in the vegetative state she's in. But Dan, there's really no doubt whatsoever.

No credible neurologist has come along who's examined her who's said she's not in a vegetative state. It's just what they want to see. And you can see how scary the tapes are that show her apparently interacting with her eyes open. But her eyes are open, but she's not even looking at her mother when you look at those tapes.

ABRAMS: Let's talk about the CT scan. You actually have the CT scan.

CRANFORD: Yes, this is a CT scan of Terri Schiavo taken in 2002, the most recent CT scan done on her, 2002.

ABRAMS: Tell us what it means.

CRANFORD: Well it shows extremely severe atrophy. Where those black areas are, that should be white. That should be cerebral cortex, and so really there is no cerebral cortex left. It's just a shrinkage of the cerebral cortex. It's a thin band of white on the outside and any neurologist or any radiologist looking at those CT scans will tell you that her atrophy could not be more severe than it is. So even if she were mentally conscious, which she's not, she's irreversible. She's been like this for 15 years, Dan, and that CT scan shows the most extreme severe atrophy of the higher centers of the brain.

ABRAMS: And what about those who say that there should have been more tests? That she's never had a PET scan. That she needs another MRI.

CRANFORD: Well she doesn't need an MRI because a MRI will not show any more damage than this C.T. and you can again check with any radiologists. They'll tell you this CT scan is more than adequate.

ABRAMS: You are at the center of a case—we've never received as many e-mails as we have on this case, this sort of divide and the passion in this case. You're in the center of it. How has that been for you?

CRANFORD: Well, I'm not the doctor. I mean they've had two other neurologists included a court-appointed expert...

One of the seven doctors who actually examined her who said beyond any doubt she's in a vegetative state. So there's just no doubt about the diagnosis. I know there's sympathy for the family. When you see those pictures, it looks like Terri is interacting, but do you know what? She's really not. That's what the vegetative state is. It looks like they're interacting, but they're really not. And there's nothing I can do to change that.

ABRAMS: Dr. Cranford thanks a lot for taking time to come on the program. Appreciate it.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7328639/

Left: CT scan of a normal 25 year old; Right, Terri Schiavo's most recent scan

[Kooperman]

another shot of her CT scan.....

[Kooperman]

Federal Appeals Court OKs Schiavo Review

9 minutes ago U.S. National - AP

ATLANTA - A federal appeals court early Wednesday agreed to consider a petition for a new hearing on whether to reconnect Terri Schiavo's feeding tube.

The ruling by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals came as the severely brain-damaged woman entered her 13th day without nourishment.

Schiavo's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, have maintained that Schiavo would want to be kept alive and have asked the courts to intervene. Schiavo's husband, Michael, insists he is carrying out her wishes by having the feeding tube pulled.

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

[Shawn]

I had heard at one point she couldn't go beyond 14 days. I wonder how accurate that sort of prediction was? Unless somebody is secretly hydrating her...

[Kooperman]

I had heard at one point she couldn't go beyond 14 days. I wonder how accurate that sort of prediction was? Unless somebody is secretly hydrating her...

Somebody has hydrated a few conservatives at the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. They might as well just put the tube in and see how many decades she can keep blinking and seeing nothing. Maybe the family can charge admission to see the new Lady Madonna and the conservatives can worship at her shrine. When she finally expires thay can stuff her and prop her up in a glass case as a portable miracle.

This poor woman deserves better than all this greed and politically tainted treatment.

[Kooperman]

Federal Appeals Court OKs Schiavo Review

ATLANTA - A federal appeals court early Wednesday agreed to consider a petition by Terri Schiavo's parents for a new hearing on whether to reconnect their severely brain-damaged daughter's feeding tube.

The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled without comment on Schiavo's 12th day without nourishment. Last week, the same court twice ruled against Schiavo's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, who are trying to keep her alive.

In seeking a new hearing late Tuesday, attorneys for Schiavo's parents argued that the District Court "committed plain error when it reviewed only the state court case and outcome history."

Now, the court will consider the request for a new hearing based on the facts of the case, rather than whether previous Florida court rulings have met legal standards under state law.

There was no time frame for the court to consider the motion, but the Schindler's attorneys asked to have the tube reinserted immediately "in light of the magnitude of what is at stake and the urgency of the action required."

Anita Fanshaw, 43, one of about 10 protesters outside Schiavo's hospice in Pinellas Park, Fla., praised the court's decision.

"God has a way of making things work," she said.

Attorneys for the Schindlers and Schiavo's husband, Michael Schiavo, didn't immediately return phone messages early Wednesday.

Terri Schiavo's feeding tube was removed March 18 on a court order sought by her husband, who contends she wouldn't want to be kept alive artificially.

Doctors have said Terri Schiavo, 41, would probably die within a week or two of the tube being removed. She suffered catastrophic brain damage in 1990 when her heart stopped for several minutes because of a chemical imbalance apparently brought on by an eating disorder.

Bob Schindler described his daughter as "failing" following his visit Tuesday.

"She still looks pretty darn good under the circumstances," Schindler said. "You can see the impact of no food and water for 12 days. Her bodily functions are still working. We still have her."

Federal courts were given jurisdiction to review Schiavo's case after Republicans in Congress pushed through unprecedented emergency legislation aimed at prolonging Schiavo's life. But federal courts at two levels rebuffed the family.

On Tuesday, the Rev. Jesse Jackson prayed with the Schindlers and joined conservatives in calling for state lawmakers to order her feeding tube reinserted.

The former Democratic presidential candidate was invited by Schiavo's parents to meet with activists outside Schiavo's hospice in Pinellas Park, Fla. His arrival was greeted by some applause and cries of "This is about civil rights!"

"I feel so passionate about this injustice being done, how unnecessary it is to deny her a feeding tube, water, not even ice to be used for her parched lips," he said. "This is a moral issue and it transcends politics and family disputes."

Mary Schindler later made a terse but emotional appeal to Michael Schiavo: "Michael and Jodi, you have your own children. Please, please give my child back to me." Michael Schiavo and fiancee Jodi Centonze have two children, born long after Terri Schiavo's collapse.

Although supporters of the Schindlers have claimed the dehydrated woman is being denied comfort measures such as ice chips for her dry mouth or balm for chapped lips, George Felos, the husband's attorney, defended how Schiavo is being cared for.

"Obviously, the parents and the siblings are desperate. Desperation may lead to different perceptions," Felos told CNN. "I can only tell you what I've seen, and Terri is dying a very peaceful, cared-for death."

Jackson said he asked Michael Schiavo for permission to see the brain-damaged woman but was denied. He also telephoned black legislators in a last-ditch effort to bring back a bill that would prohibit severely brain-damaged patients from being denied food and water if they didn't express their wishes in writing. Lawmakers rejected the legislation earlier this month and appeared unlikely to reconsider it.

One of those contacted by Jackson, Democratic state Sen. Gary Siplin, said he told Jackson the issue had been "thoroughly discussed." Senate Democratic leader Les Miller added, "I have voted. It's time to move on."

The chief sponsor of the measure, state Sen. Daniel Webster, said he knew of no changed votes and that Jackson's efforts may have come too late.

"If he could sway votes — and I'm certain he may be able to — it would have been helpful if he had done that a little earlier," said Webster, a Republican.

First lady Laura Bush also commented on the case Tuesday, saying the government was right to have intervened on behalf of Schiavo.

"It is a life issue that really does require government to be involved," Bush said aboard a plane bound for Afghanistan, where she was to promote education and women's rights.

During Jackson's visit, a man was tackled to the ground by officers when he tried to storm into the hospice, police said. He became the 47th protester arrested since the feeding tube was removed March 18. The man had two bottles of water with him but did not reach the hospice door, police said.

The parents had lost a round in the courts Tuesday when an appeals court upheld a previous ruling by Judge George Greer that blocked the Department of Children and Families from intervening in the case.

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

[DudeAsInCool]

They dont have enough feeding tubes to feed all the brain dead and deranged so-called Republican politicians and the religious right. I might be able to understand them better if they were against abortion, as well as all wars; or in making sure everyone has health care, not just the wealthy... but their hypocracy is just unbelievable. They should all be ashamed of themselves... Christ must be rolling in his grave with all this bullshit flying

[Kooperman]

One of the Miami papers actually reported that Jeb Bush ordered an armed seizure of Terri Schiavo early in this standoff, but the police refused to allow it, saying they're following the court order. Jeb's goons backed down.

[DudeAsInCool]

One of the Miami papers actually reported that Jeb Bush ordered an armed seizure of Terri Schiavo early in this standoff, but the police refused to allow it, saying they're following the court order. Jeb's goons backed down.

I wish they had left them thru - then the rest of the world would see just how nuts these people are

[DudeAsInCool]

Starving for leadership

Democrats missed a golden opportunity to reclaim the "moral values" debate in the Terri Schiavo case.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

By Arianna Huffington

March 29, 2005  |  This column is not about Terri Schiavo and the wrenching spectacle that has surrounded her tragic fate. May she rest in peace.

It is about congressional Democrats and how they once again pathetically misread what moral values mean in a political context. May they miraculously wake from their persistent vegetative state -- or it won't be long before they are receiving their political last rites.

Ever since November, Republicans (aided and abetted by a poorly worded exit poll) have not only succeeded in defining the last election as having been about moral values, they've succeeded in defining moral values. In the GOP's extraordinarily abridged moral dictionary, fighting against gay marriage is morally valuable; fighting against 12 million children living in poverty is not.

Read more here:

http://www.salon.com/opinion/huffington/20...iavo/index.html

[Shawn]

The Pope has now recieved a feeding tube

[Guest .::BeatFactory::.]

Court to Weigh Schiavo Emergency Motion

[Wolfie]

The Pope has now recieved a feeding tube

Sounds like its the latest rave.

J/K

[Kooperman]

11th Circuit Court Rejects Schiavo Appeal

By RON WORD, Associated Press Writer

PINELLAS PARK, Fla. - With time running out for Terri Schiavo, a federal appeals court Wednesday rejected her parents' latest attempt to get the brain-damaged woman's feeding tube reconnected.

The Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed to consider an emergency bid by Bob and Mary Schindler for a new hearing in their case, raising a flicker of hope for the parents after a series of setbacks in the case. But the court rejected the request 15 hours later.

Three times last week, the court also ruled against the Schindlers.

"Any further action by our court or the district court would be improper," Judge Stanley F. Birch Jr. wrote. "While the members of her family and the members of Congress have acted in a way that is both fervent and sincere, the time has come for dispassionate discharge of duty."

To be granted, the parents' request would have needed the support of seven of the court's 12 judges. The court did not disclose the vote breakdown.

The Schindlers visited their daughter Wednesday morning at her hospice and urged their supporters to keep trying. "I was pleasantly surprised by what I saw," Bob Schindler said. "So she's still fighting, and we'll keep fighting."

"We know that some of her organs are still functioning. ... It's not too late," he said.

In requesting a new hearing, the Schindlers argued that a federal judge in Tampa should have considered the entire state court record and not whether previous Florida court rulings met legal standards under state law. The Schindlers' motion also said the federal appellate court in Atlanta didn't consider whether there was enough "clear and convincing" evidence that Terri Schiavo would have chosen to die in her current condition.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...amaged_woman_46

[DudeAsInCool]

It's too bad that Ms. Schiavo could not have utilized this:

Meet the mind readers

Paralysed people can now control artificial limbs by thought alone. Ian Sample reports

Thursday March 31, 2005

The Guardian

There's a hand lying on the blanket on Matt Nagle's desk and he's staring at it intently, thinking "Close, close," as the scientists gathered around him look on. To their delight, the hand twitches and its outstretched fingers close around the open palm, clenching to a fist.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/life/feature/sto...1448140,00.html

[Wolfie]

There's a hand lying on the blanket on Matt Nagle's desk and he's staring at it intently, thinking "Close, close," as the scientists gathered around him look on. To their delight, the hand twitches and its outstretched fingers close around the open palm, clenching to a fist.

I think the brain still needs to be working for that.

[The Hunter]

IMHO, there are a lot of people involved in this whose brains are surely not working.

[DudeAsInCool]

Terri Schiavo passes away

Death comes after courts repeatedly ruled against parents

BREAKING NEWS

MSNBC staff and news service reports

Updated: 10:18 a.m. ET March 31, 2005

PINELLAS PARK, Fla. - Nearly two weeks after a court ordered her feeding tube removed, and after multiple attempts by her parents to get the order lifted, Terri Schiavo passed away on Thursday at the age of 41.

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/7293186