What if YOU were Terri Schiavo

I cant even believe the president signed this having been so disconnected from the case , the governor of the state yes maybe , but the president and congress come on , these guys couldnt even enforce a summons to appear a week ago.

I really like your Avatar DrBryan.

You are wise to have a living will stating your wishes. I have one too.

I would never ever want to be in bed unable to attend to a single need I had. Poor thing.

what is this talk about congress getting involved. they have the legal right to do so so what are you all crying about? should we start taking out parts of the constitution that some people don't think are correct?

This question is impossible to answer.

What would I do if I was her? I can not answer because I do not know what her deal is. Is she brain dead or is she not brain dead? Is she capable of feeling anything? Is she self aware? I don't know. Therefore none of us can fairly answer that question.

The decision is not up to Congress, nor Lawyers, nor Governors, not even Presidents. The decision should be up to trained, qualified medical professionals. A team of medical professionals should be commissioned to make the determination as to whether she is brain dead or not. One side says she is (the husband), and one side says she isn't (the parents). So, until a medical authority investigates and rules, we should all standby and keep quiet.

The bottom line is there is no argument until you know one way or the other. How can we take sides when it comes to someone's life until we have a full picture of the evidence.

The time for political grandstanding by Congress and other politicians should be long over. Now is the time to end this problem by performing a full medical assessment. Anything less is irresponsible. We should not be in the business of killing those who deserve to live, nor should we be in the business of forcing those who are no longer alive to remain in limbo.

Medicine, not politics. That's all there is to it.

Correct Djar, but that should have been DONE before it went to congress.

What a mess this is going to create.

Originally posted by intrepid
Nope, I would wish I had a friend that would take care of things. BTW bro, I do. He's my offline friend, very similar to you. I'm covered.

I am too.

What this poor girl is living through now is the worst kind of hell I can imagine, if this was a matter of kindness or compassion she would have been dead years ago. If I demonize the husband for ANYTHING it would be that he allowed his poor wife to suffer this long.

I would not have done the same, this issue would not have come to court.

If I was ever brain damaged like she is, I know that I would want nature to take over. I don't care how I would die, just as long as no one tried to keep me alive artificialy for selfish reasons.

I find it interesting that the group of people here that are saying that no scans have been done on her brain or that she's not "truly" brain damaged have choosen to ignore boogeyman's excellent post that shows her CT scan with a huge hole in the middle....

For those of you that say that you would want to be kept alive if you were Terri Schiavo, why would you want to do that?

She's brain damaged, but not brain dead. She's not some clinically dead person kept going by life support. She severally brain damaged, and dependent on a feeding tube.

Worse still, her husband as met some one new, according to some news reports. I guess what his real incentive is! It'd be convient to have the wife out of the way.

[edit on 21-3-2005 by Agent Orange]

Yup yup,


Terri's brain scan

Boogyman thanks for the link!!

what is this talk about congress getting involved. they have the legal right to do so so what are you all crying about? should we start taking out parts of the constitution that some people don't think are correct?

The president has just done this for us.

Attorneys for Michael Schiavo told CNN Monday they would argue the new legislation represents the intrusion of Congress and the president into both a private family matter and a state court system.

"We feel confident that the federal courts are not going to find this act constitutional," attorney Deborah Bushnell told CNN.

The extraordinary session had supporters, primarily Republicans, arguing that the issue was Schiavo's "right to life," while a Democrat warned that passing the measure would "undermine over 200 years of jurisprudence."

"I think it's an invasion to the American people when you make a private decision in a family matter. They're thumbing their nose up to the American people and the Constitution," he said on CNN. "This is a sad day for Terri, and it's a sad day for every American in this country, and people should be outraged."

The bitter legal debate has resulted in more than a dozen state court decisions. The battle appeared to reach a climax Friday when the Florida trial judge ordered Schiavo's tube removed, rejecting a House panel's efforts to subpoena the woman, her husband and others for a hearing. The U.S. Supreme Court later rejected the House's appeal to intervene in the case.

When the Executive branch seeks to overturn a decision of the highest court in the land, it should be of GRAVE concern for anyone, regardless of which side of the issue you are on!!! Wake up!!! This is scary scary stuff people!!!

Great Post Goz

I would not want to remain in a vegitative state...

HOWEVER, being starved to death because assisted suicide is illegal does not apeal to me either.

Just put me out, give me some pioson or something.

I have had my instructions written out for years and trust me I would not want to be kept alive like this.

One thing we all can be sure of once this is over, rather then only 25% of Americans having living wills is we will have at least 75% adults who have wills in place, just to avoid this kind of event.

I would suggest that rather then congress intervening on this issue they should perhaps consider a law such as Utah has.

Originally posted by namehere

and if she was given a special computer i bet she could too communicate, theres people in worse condition who use such computers..

I wish they would try that at least -- being able to communicate would make all the difference to most everyone I think. At least it would to me -- I know if I were in her condition and if I werealert but not able to communicate I would be mad within a very short time. And if I couldn't communicate and was trapped I would prefer to die -- but that is just me.

I wonder if there is a way to contact the people who made the law last night to make them try getting her the computer you mention so they can try at least. Maybe with proper help and equipment she could do this.


jm

The scary thing to me is, I have a brain damaged wife, she is no where NEAR her, but she is crippled by her disease, fortunatly she has improved so much in the last few months but she made it clear that after a year of being in this stage and the prognosis is bleak she said "pull the plug, euthanize me".

I love my wife very much unlike that bastard, Let the parents decide what they want, they love her, not her husband, what is HE after anyway? money? why not divorce her? he's happy with this other girl...

So how did she react to her mother?

GOD i'm so torn between opinions...Either kill her swiftly or feed her and let her parents care for her...(I feel so bad right now, I feel like crying and while i'm starving, I feel bad about eating right now)

I will do something I rarely do, i'll pray for her to come back in a miracle, but sadly, i'm expecting little.

I wonder if there is a way to contact the people who made the law last night to make them try getting her the computer you mention so they can try at least. Maybe with proper help and equipment she could do this.

You think they haven't thought of this over the past 15 years? They have. No dice...she's brain damaged. Her cerebral cortex is shot to hell. There are some MRIs on various Teri posts, and it doesn't take a doc to see there's not much there folks. Court-appointed dr after court-appointed dr over the course of more than a dozen trials have concluded time and time again, that she's in a persistent vegetative state. Let the poor woman go...

I'm listening to Michael's reaction right now from an interview with Barbara Walters. He says she feels no pain because her cortex of her brain is gone.

Sad.

A few years back, pro life protestors argued that argued that abortion & euthanasia, or mercy killing, cheapened life. First embryoes, then the brain dead, next the severly infirmed and elderly. Though everyone thought that they were being alarmist and reactionary, the line keeps getting pushed back. Just like they said.


[edit on 21-3-2005 by Agent Orange]

[edit on 21-3-2005 by Agent Orange]

Ground, Awww I'm so sorry about your wife. ((((((cyber hug))))) for how sad you are feeling. This must be terribly hard on you.



Agent - Kinda like the movie Soylent Green huh - scary!

[edit on 21-3-2005 by MauiStacey]