What is the truth about Terri Schiavo?
| By Boo Radley - Mar 21st, 2005 at 4:15 am EST |
So since there are apparently no other news items in the United States, what are your thoughts on the Terri Schiavo case? I personally think that her husband put her into the state that she's in right now and that's why he wanted her feeding tubes cut.
This is one of the few times that I have ever agreed with Tom DeLay, because I think it's barbaric to wait around for two to four weeks for Terri Schiavo to die. She's obviously not dying and she's not in a coma, so I believe that this crosses the line. In certain cases I can see how cutting the feeding tubes is permissible, such as when the person is in agony, is dying, or is in a permanent coma.
However, the videos show that if Terri were to simply have more therapy, there is hope for her to recover somewhat, even if she isn't able to be the way she once was. She responds to her parents and her parents obviously don't approve of her husband's desire to kill her. I agree with the Schindler family: since Terri's husband already has another fiancee and children, he should just worry about his own family and let them worry about their own. I personally think he's already gotten away with much more than has been let on by his lawyers.
This is one of the few times that I have ever agreed with Tom DeLay, because I think it's barbaric to wait around for two to four weeks for Terri Schiavo to die. She's obviously not dying and she's not in a coma, so I believe that this crosses the line. In certain cases I can see how cutting the feeding tubes is permissible, such as when the person is in agony, is dying, or is in a permanent coma.
However, the videos show that if Terri were to simply have more therapy, there is hope for her to recover somewhat, even if she isn't able to be the way she once was. She responds to her parents and her parents obviously don't approve of her husband's desire to kill her. I agree with the Schindler family: since Terri's husband already has another fiancee and children, he should just worry about his own family and let them worry about their own. I personally think he's already gotten away with much more than has been let on by his lawyers.
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disagree on. We don't normally, but here we
do.
Terri Schiavo has been a vegetable for the past
few years. She can't do anything for herself.
There is good reason to believe that she is
terminally ill (i.e. she will never get
better)- this is the medical opinion that every
federal court that has reviewed her case has
accepted. The law regards her condition as
terminal- one that is never going to get
better.
Given that (in the eyes of the law- and,
practically speaking, these are the only eyes that
matter) she is terminally ill with no hope of
recovery, the question becomes: what would Terri
Schiavo have wanted for herself if she knew she
was going to be in this terminal state? Let's turn
to the courts once again. The Florida courts have
continually upheld the view that, based on
conversations between Terri Schiavo and her
husband (Michael Schiavo) before her heart attack,
she would not want to continue living as she is
now.
But Tom DeLay and the GOP don't want to accept
what the Courts are saying. At this level, the
issue becomes much larger than Schiavo and really
becomes about separation of powers. Tom DeLay
evidently doesn't understand the Constitution,
because if he did, he recognize that this is a
matter for the Courts to decide, not for the
legislatures to deal with.
To say that Terri Schiavo has been in a vegetative state for fifteen years is a clouded misjudgement. Mrs. Schiavo certainly isn't in a coma or in agony. I profusely believe that she did make that sort of comment in passing conversation, that she wouldn't want to be kept alive on feeding tubes and IVs when there was no hope for her. However, I don't think that this is the case. Over the past few years, her therapy has helped her increasingly. She responds to her parents and is slowly recovering. There is much video evidence to support this. However, a year or two ago her husband had the therapists stop doing their work and that is what has caused her to return to a vegetative state.
It seems to me that her husband wants to rid himself of what he considers a leech. It is true that his remarks about her passing conversational "don't keep me alive on tubes" came along quite late in the case, which doesn't mean that she didn't say it but it does mean (to me at least) that his motives aren't quite what they seem.
I understand that the GOP is politicizing this case unnecessarily and has ulterior motives about the whole thing, saying that it would "excite the pro-life base" etc., and that it is unconstitutional to move this case to the federal courts. However, I can hold this opinion and still believe that we should keep Terri alive.
Even for people that are comatose with no chance at rehabilitation, I believe that cutting the feeding tubes and effectively starving someone to death is primitive and inhumane. I would prefer a case of doctor-assisted suicide; at least a chemical shot wouldn't be as terrible, indignified, and disgusting as letting a human being die in that way.