Schiavo feeding tube case

Thanks for the replies to what I wrote. Sometimes Larry King has good guests. If there's 0 hope for the woman, if she's just a shell, then..well, I can't bring myself to say "kill her". It sounds like putting down an animal. But what's worse, as I've said, is letting someone starve to death. That's horrific.

I figure if there's Dr.'s that say they can help, why not give them a shot before giving up?
I just put myself in her shoes and if I was fully cognative but couldn't express myself or move I don't know if I'd want to be knocked off or if I'd want people to help me to regain some capacity of life. If she's like Ari says and has no brain activity then I guess she's not really in there.

I guess I'm in the grey with this issue.

Quote:

---

Originally posted by Pyrosama
Not to be cruel or anything, but why don't you go to Terri's hospital room and ask her to give HER side?

---

Me personally? Geographic constraints. But "someone"? Only because there's difficulty communicating. Idon't see why it hasn't been done, though - or has it?

Quote:

---

Originally posted by Valec

I figure if there's Dr.'s that say they can help, why not give them a shot before giving up?

---

Firstly, because there will always be some quack who says he can help. At a minimum, there will be some guy who wants to experiment with some technique he believes in and is just LOOKING for a guinea pig. If it were me, I wouldn't want to be the pin cushion for a stream of research scientists/doctors wanting to test out their latest "revolutionary" technique. This is especially true if there actually IS an afterlife where my soul goes after I die. Don't force me to linger in a ruined body just to make other people feel good about themselves.

Secondly, because the Shiavo/Shindler families are not paying for this. The taxpayers are. It is THEFT to force the taxpaywers to foot the bill for an endless chain of hopeless experiments on someone for 15+ years.

There comes a time where enough is enough. The money being wasted on Terry Shiavo could be spent actually helping people that can be helped and saving lives that can be saved.

The real victims are the people who do not receive medical aid that COULD HAVE been successful because the money is blown on this hopeless case for political reasons.

Hey, you added stuff just after I clicked submit ;)

Good points there too. It does however bring up the cost of human life. But I'm not going to get into that because it could go on for months. I agree that the funds can be used on others who are in need. (See, I had to add that after)

I agree with your point about human guinea pigs, Ari. It's not like she has an actual choice like those people who go into investigational studies by choice.

Do you think that the decisions made for this woman will then become enforced on others? Will the law makers and bill passers be the ones to decide who lives and who dies if people do not have Living Wills?

Terry Schiavos' parents have got to be some of the most ungrateful and reprehensible people around. Take a look at this.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/03/25/schiavo/index.html

Here are some specifics that got me angered.

Quote:

---

"Governor Bush, you have the power to save my daughter," Mary Schindler said. "Please, please do something."

---

and this:

Quote:

---

"[Bush] has put Terri through a week of hell and our family through a week of hell by not acting," Bob Schindler said. "He has to come up to the plate."

---

Excuse me, but Governor Bush had been one of the leading proponents in trying to keep Terri alive. Wasn't it his legislation back in 2003 that forced the feeding tube to be reinserted? Didn't he try to gain custody of Schiavo via the courts so he could have the tube reinserted? Hasn't he been most vocal in his support of the Schiavos' parents case? And yet in the end, Bob and Mary Schindler decide to lash out at him for inaction?

These are two very miserable human beings. Any respect and sympathy I had for them immediately evaporated upon reading this article. Governor Bush should be a man they should be grateful to, not a man they should treat in this manner. You can't blame a politician for the limits the law places on him. These people amount to nothing more than abhorrent miscreants.

Quote:

---

Originally posted by Valec
Do you think that the decisions made for this woman will then become enforced on others? Will the law makers and bill passers be the ones to decide who lives and who dies if people do not have Living Wills?

---

That is what has me scratching my head. I've refused to make a moral judgement on the Terri Schiavo case, because I don't have all the relevant legal and medical information, and I don't like having my emotions manipulated by the media.

On the one hand, we have Republicans and conservatives gravely reminding us of Nazis and government-mandated euthanasia. On the other hand, these same conservatives actively pushed for FEDERAL involvement, which has already backfired on them. The same people who are frightened of governments deciding the value of life have willingly placed the argument in the government's hands. It makes no sense.

Quote:

---

Originally posted by Marah

On the one hand, we have Republicans and conservatives gravely reminding us of Nazis and government-mandated euthanasia. On the other hand, these same conservatives actively pushed for FEDERAL involvement, which has already backfired on them. The same people who are frightened of governments deciding the value of life have willingly placed the argument in the government's hands. It makes no sense.

---

I can't tell what you are arguing here. Who are you labelling as the "bad guys"?

Who are you saying did what?

Quote:

---

Originally posted by Alydar
These are two very miserable human beings. Any respect and sympathy I had for them immediately evaporated upon reading this article. Governor Bush should be a man they should be grateful to, not a man they should treat in this manner. You can't blame a politician for the limits the law places on him. These people amount to nothing more than abhorrent miscreants.

---

Wow. Just wow.

If anything, Governor Bush has gone WAY beyond what a Governor should do.

I read an article today that President Bush has dropped about 7-8% in approval rating as a result of his active involvement in this situation.

It is indeed pretty disgusting for the Schindlers to have ANY criticisms for either Bush. Those two men had done a tremendous amount to help their case- so much so that a lot of people are pretty angry with them. I guess that proves the adage, "No good deed goes unpunished."

The reported on the news here that Terri will be dead by monday night the way things are heading, if she even survives that long

Maybe she'll finally get the peace she deserves?

Every time I see this story on the news I am more and more sickened that her parents of all people would be campaining to have their daughter continue to 'live'. That is not life. That is a bunch of machines immitating life processes. If they truely cared for her, why didn't they just let her go with dignity?

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...e_050326190722

What a joke. The parents tried to convince a judge that Terry is trying to verbalize "I want to live". Somehow they are getting that sentence out of "'AHHHHH' and 'WAAAAAAA.'