What a terrible situation

[Blurred]

How in the hell does it come down to the government to kill someone who has committed no crime? Even worse, let's pull her tube and have her die slowly and painfully. We have people in prison for killing and raping who we keep alive until they die naturally, who are treated with more dignity and respect. This is an outrage and a travesty. Her husband and herself never discussed what she would have wanted in this situation. Their family doctor has said she is NOT in a persistent vegetative state, and that she responds to the family. Parents can only watch her dehydrate and starve to death......

[adam]

I know, what the fuck is up with that. Even if she was a vegetable, why would kill her? that is just fucked up.

[nealric]

All I can say is I think its a pretty ambiguous situtation.
It sucks that it even has to come up.
However, I think its hard to put it as a moral equivilent of murder. She would have died 15 years ago if not for modern medicine.

I just wish the government would be a bit consistet with their policies towards life- people in general for that matter.

[smmokan]

I think you (not necessarily you, Blurred, but the general "you") need to know all the details behind the situation before you make a statement regarding this story. I've heard many different variations of what's really happening- and it all comes down to moral and religious beliefs too, which I'm not about to get into. My guess is that if this woman knew this was going to happen to her beforehand (enter living will), she would want the plug pulled as well.

I just want to know how the hell they can support this financially for 15 yrs?!?!

[cmsummit]

I just want to know how the hell they can support this financially for 15 yrs?!?!

The taxpayers have been picking up the majority of the tab for the past 15 years.

[board]

I just want to know how the hell they can support this financially for 15 yrs?!?!

she has money left from a malpactice lawsuit and medicare is covering the rest.

[nest]

Would you honestly want to be kept alive in her state? Im sure you are also all for increasing your taxes to keep these people alive. Spend the healthcare money on someone who will actually benefit from it. Turn the conservative radio down and think it through for a bit.

[Luke Warmwater]

How in the hell does it come down to the government to kill someone who has committed no crime?

Enuf of this Iraq War shit.

[lemon boy]

Brett- I think you have your facts crossed up a tiny bit.

I for one am glad they're letting her die, keeping someone "alive" like that is beyond cruel and gruesome. She ain't never comin back, her brain is literally gone.

I do wish that they could legally give her a lethal injection though and just end it.

Notice: it isn't the govt. killing her. It is her Husband who has a legal power of attorney.

Furthermore, I'd suggest that for someone with well known conservative leanings you review how you'd like govt. to intervene in your life and look at it though a different lens.

a good link: http://abstractappeal.com/schiavo/infopage.html

[altagirl]

Not enough arguing around here lately for you blurred?

[trainnvain]

Well I know one thing, TV media has once again made a fucking circus out of someone's family crisis. TV sucks.

[lax]

fucked up

[KQ]

Not enough arguing around here lately for you blurred?

Too funny - I was thinking the same thing. Seems like someone is phishing and just when I thought we'd successfully avoided this argument and left this woman and her family in peace.

[optics]

Yes, it is a terrible situation, regardless of your stance on the issue.

[thommy21]

My wife works for a hospice company and has been on me about filling out my Five Wishes. This situation has me a little more motivated to do so. It lets you lay out who will make the decisions. More importantly you decide ahead of time what you do or don't want done with you. It gets pretty detailed around life support situations and you can add additional comments if you want. You need two witnesses when you sign and you get it notarized.

[natty dread]

In other news, Jerry Falwell is in critical condition, on a ventilator in the ICU. Now there's someone they ought to pull the plug on.

[mr_gyptian]

when the republicans question when and where their dominance started to wane. It will be this affair.

The fact that wing nuts like Russell Terry are in the middle of this tornado is making my head unscrew. my only hope is that carpet bagger Jesse Jackson will somehow make people forget Russell Terry's involvement.

with all that is going on in the world right now our congress acts with lightning speed over this? between their concern for steroids in baseball and mrs. schiavo it's a wonder a fucking thing gets done around there.

her plug should have been pulled a decade ago, pure and simple.

[lemon boy]

randall terry.

[sea2ski]

Well I know one thing, TV media has once again made a fucking circus out of someone's family crisis. TV sucks.

Yeah, those TV folks were pretty smart. They told people to go to the hospice to protest to boost their ratings, then they got the congress to have an emergency session to try to overturn the judgements in the Florida courts, then they got every religious and political group to keep adding their two cents because the Michael Jackson trial just wasn't getting the ratings. Yeah it's the media that's the problem.

[lph]

Too funny - I was thinking the same thing. Seems like someone is phishing and just when I thought we'd successfully avoided this argument and left this woman and her family in peace.

Ditto. i thought, well, this is a total media circus, but at least it has been kept off the board.

IMVHO, you really oversimplified the situation Blurred, and did the family, the courts, the husband and most of all the person in the center of it all a great disservice.

What a shitty situation it is, I feel badly for everyone involved. They believe so strongly in their position (both sides), that it has got to hurt.

(FYI....although it sounds like torture to be starved to death, there are end of life experts who believe it is a peaceful way to go, I certainly can't imagine how that is possible, but i hope for Terry's sake it is true.)

[EPSkis]

In other news, Jerry Falwell is in critical condition, on a ventilator in the ICU. Now there's someone they ought to pull the plug on.

Negative - taken off the ventilator today & now listed in "stable" condition.

"Stable" & "Falwell" generally aren't used in the same sentence.

[snowsprite]

No, you know what really pisses me off? It's that I don't get to decide what I want to do. If I get into some persistent vegetative state or one of severe pain, I'm not going to be allowed to take a lethal dose of painkillers and go gently and peacefully the way I want to. Instead, they will slowly starve me to death or force me to endure hours/days/months of agony (painkillers start to lose their effectiveness after a while, you know). That , my friend, is what is fucked up here. Okay to kill someone one way, a way in which they will slowly suffer, not okay to kill them (or really, help them die is more how I view it) in a humane manner with dignity.

I read something the other day where some woman was talking about how her friend had to die a slow, painful death of terminal cancer because legislators were worried that he'd overdose or turn into a drug addict. He was terminal.

WTF? If I hold down the little button on the dispenser too long they are going to rescusitate me so that I can die naturally? There is no common sense left in our society. All gone. It's disgusting.
[/rant]

Sprite

[Ski Monkey]

Her husband and herself never discussed what she would have wanted in this situation. Their family doctor has said she is NOT in a persistent vegetative state, and that she responds to the family.

I believe that her husband and her did discuss it, and if not directly asking the question "Should we keep you alive if you are in a persistent vegetative state?", the topic was discussed enough for all the courts to side with the husband. To say it wasn't discussed doesn't match the facts with what the courts are saying.

The doctor has said she is not in a persistent vegetive state, but he also never did a full comprehensive exam to determine it, he simply observed her. Here is a good article about it from a doc that actually did CT scans on her and looked at eeg's: http://msnbc.msn.com/id/7328639/

[Blurred]

mur·der Audio pronunciation of "murder" ( P ) Pronunciation Key (mûrdr)
n.

1. The unlawful killing of one human by another, especially with premeditated malice.
2. Slang. Something that is very uncomfortable, difficult, or hazardous: The rush hour traffic is murder.
3. A flock of crows. See Synonyms at flock1.


v. mur·dered, mur·der·ing, mur·ders
v. tr.

1. To kill (another human) unlawfully.
2. To kill brutally or inhumanly.
3. To put an end to; destroy: murdered their chances.
4. To spoil by ineptness; mutilate: a speech that murdered the English language.
5. Slang. To defeat decisively; trounce



I think it's rediculous that this came down to a judge who has never met her deciding whether she'd want the "plug" pulled or not. Her parents raised her, and haven't given up hope. Who's to speculate what she would have said if she knew it would have come down to this?

Where is the humanity here as well? Why not give her lethal injection or what not to kill her? This is so barbaric.

Also, this issue is so much bigger then politics. Hell, Jeb Bush and Jesse Jackson met today and agree on this subject.

[Viva]

Their family doctor has said she is NOT in a persistent vegetative state, and that she responds to the family. :

I've seen the MRIs- that gal's cortex is gone.

It is possible that these MRIs aren't providing a complete picture of her condition and there's more surviving brain function than we realize, but nothing convincing has emerged for 14 years.

Even the keeping her alive until science advances to the point of being able to restore higher cortical activity, or any for that matter, makes no sense as the best end result would probably be a 40+ year old baby. Neurons and supporting cellular architecture can be restored, but not accumulated experiences and learnings. It would certainly make for an interesting experiment, but that's unethical and immoral.