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Vindication For Michael Schiavo
By Matt Margolis | June 15, 2005
The autopsy of Terri Schiavo has been released. The key findings of the report reveal that Terri Schiavo had not been abused, she had irreversible brain damage, and she was blind.
As I suspected, this vindicates Michael Schiavo, who had been accused of so many terrible things. Michael Schiavo had been so vilified by groups and people who supported keeping Terri Schiavo alive it was disturbing. Here we are now, and it is clear that allegations that Michael abused Terri Schiavo and that he had feared she’d one day wake up and report him… all of that was bogus.
Also interesting is this information that Terri Schiavo was blind. I don’t know when this blindness would have occured, but it certainly calls into question the parents claims of Terri’s responsiveness to visual stimuli. We all saw those videos of her following a balloon… So were they moving the balloon to follow Terri’s movements? Maybe so.
Scott from Slant Point sees this as vindication for Michael Schiavo also. I’m glad I’m not the only one. I’m buying Scott a beer when I visit New York again.
William at Pardon My English hopes now the case will forever be closed.
I hope so too, but I’m not counting on it. I expect accusations of falsification, distortion, or suppression of information will be made… which would be unfortunate. The two sides of this case have largely fallen on partisan lines, and it’s disappointing to see my fellow conservatives acting like liberals who lose elections, making ridiculous accusations of conspiracies amongst other things. It’s time to let this case go.
UPDATE: No real comment from Blogs For Terri, but they certainly had time to write a pre-buttal.
UPDATE II: Suddenly, the autopsy doesn’t matter anymore…
UPDATE III: Blogger Michael King agrees with me… And has this to say about the case:
I got called all kinds of names, up to and including “Nazi” over my stance in this case, by all sorts of people, including some who I had the greatest bit of respect for. I felt the US Congress had no business getting involved, and after Terri Schiavo died, I insisted (as I do today) that no one “won” in this sad, sordid matter.
I absolutely agree with him, and I have to say, I got attacked by some of my political allies for my views on the case as well.
UPDATE IV: La Shawn and I disagree.
Topics: General |
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June 15th, 2005 at 12:49 pm
True, this case has been going on much too long but despite that we shouldn’t ever give Michael Schiavo the benifit of the doubt. Whether Terri was really as dead as we thought or not she still deserved to live, after all we give convicted felons the right ‘innocent until proven guilyt’. So why not Terri?
To describe my opinion this I like to use a bible verse. “He will not break off a bent reed nor put out a flickering lamp. He will bring lasting justice to all.” Isaiah 42:3. I like to see Terri as the flickering lamp, or bent reed and in my opinion she shouldn’t have been put out.
June 15th, 2005 at 1:26 pm
Well you know something, Matt? They still didn’t have the right to starve her to death, no matter how damaged the woman’s brain was. Only speaking for myself and not others, it doesn’t matter to me what the autopsy showed, and it never has.
June 15th, 2005 at 1:33 pm
And here’s the most important bit: “The brain weighed 615 grams, roughly half of the expected weight of a human brain. … This damage was irreversible, and no amount of therapy or treatment would have regenerated the massive loss of neurons.” In other words, she was dead long before the feeding tube was removed.
Right-wing bloggers have been pompously promising that this autopsy report would prove nearly all of the outrageous and downright defamatory charges that they were shouting throughout the Terri Schiavo legal drama. Now that the report has clearly done no such thing, it’s time for the “culture of life” demagogues to apologize: to Michael Schiavo, for defaming him as a man and a husband every time he opened his mouth (and, for good measure, every time he didn’t); and to the American people, for insulting our intelligence, our culture, and our values whenever we failed to support their childish emotional drama.
June 15th, 2005 at 2:10 pm
Jeez, first the Tillman stuff, then Downing Street memo about “fixing intelligence” and now the autopsy report shows Frist, Bush and shreaking right wing harpies that prop them in power were fabricating nonsense in the Schiavo matter. Better watch out, before too long the American public will start to get the idea that lying has become an accepted weapon in the right-wing’s battle to obtain and retain power.
June 15th, 2005 at 2:13 pm
Don’t worry, John, we already know that, and have known it since the Vince Foster “murder” story. Like the Downing Street memo, it’s really nothing new.
June 15th, 2005 at 2:13 pm
La Shawn, i had no problems with the pro-life argument of this case… My problem was the gross vilification of Michael Schiavo.. which in my view shows a clear attempt by those who did it to justify their position. to me, those kind of attacks undermined their attempt to make it a pro-life issue.
We criticize Democrats for resorting to character assassination as opposed to arguing the facts… but i feel that both sides were prejudiced in what they considered to be facts. politics as usual i suppose.
June 15th, 2005 at 2:15 pm
And John, a bipartisan Senate investigation already concluded there was no fixing of intelligence, and the Downing Street Memo has been debunk several times already.. move on.
June 15th, 2005 at 2:20 pm
Matt: how can you say “both sides were prejudiced” when one side has been proven right and the other wrong? Terri was brain-dead, thre was no hope of even partial recovery, and Michael was not an abuser. One side drew these conclusions based on known facts and several court rulings, and the other side called us a “culture of death” and all-but-explicitly threatened retaliation against “aggressor courts.” Clearly, the “prejudice” was not evenly distributed.
June 15th, 2005 at 2:26 pm
I agree Raging Bee, but it’s also a matter of perspective… Now we know Michael Schiavo had not abused Terri. However, beforehand there was only suspicion, and what one believed often was connected to whether or not you believed Terri should be kept alive or not. So, technically, one’s position influenced their interpretation of the evidence. From what I’d heard, there was no conclusive evidence prior to the autopsy. The people who wanted Terri Schiavo to be artificially kept alive jumped to a conclusion of their own.
It is clear now however that Michael Schiavo was indeed not abused Terri, so those people who jumped to conclusion in the past have to live with the fact that they destroyed the character of an innocent man.
June 15th, 2005 at 2:34 pm
“From what I’d heard, there was no conclusive evidence prior to the autopsy.”
“No conclusive evidence” = “innocent until proven guilty.” Also, when Michael sued for malpractice in relation to Terri’s PVS, the defendants could have alleged abuse as a possible alternative cause of Terri’s condition. If there was ANY evidence of abuse, they would indeed have used it in that trial. Allegations of abuse had been discussed, and repeatedly dismissed for lack of evidence.
June 15th, 2005 at 2:34 pm
The Schindlers did not start accusing Mr Schiavo of abuse until after he refused to split athe reward from a medical malpractice suit filed on Terrys behalf. The only way they could hope to collect any monies was to keep Terry alive.The Schindlers never did collect from the suit but, they managed to build quite a cottage industry out of her suffering-shame on them.
June 15th, 2005 at 2:41 pm
“No conclusive evidence” = “innocent until proven guilty.”
I agree. I never thought he did abuse her. i’m just trying to explain how easy was in this case for people to be influenced by their personal views.
June 15th, 2005 at 3:12 pm
This case shows why rational conservatives need to get their party back from the extreme religious nuts. Where are those Goldwater Republicans? The GOP is being taken over by Pat Robertson and James Dobson..people like Frist and Delay fall at the feat of these false idols. I’m a liberal..and I beg my conservative brothers and sisters…save your party from the zealots! P.S…these are the same people who want to teach “Intelligent Design” in our schools! Yet watch how they deal with evidence and science as they say the autopsy is a whitewash!
June 15th, 2005 at 3:21 pm
Sure it’s easy to be influenced by personal views — especially if it’s your relative’s life in question, or if you let your mind become completely unmoored from reality, as the far-right demagogues tried to unmoor the entire nation, while exacerbating and exploiting the frustration, grief and confusion of Terri’s parents for their own completely unrelated ends.
Speaking of lying (which is what said demagogues did), I notice that the autopsy report established that Terri’s visual cortex was gone, which meant she was blind. So how does Dr. Bill Frist explain his certainty that “She certainly seems to respond to visual stimuli?” There’s a world-famous misdiagnosis for you.
(Dude, your sometimes-fixed, sometimes-mobile fake coffee stains are really creeping me out…)
June 15th, 2005 at 3:28 pm
dick durbin is a traitor!
lets get him out!!!
look what he said today!
he called us like ‘pol pots’ on gitmo
June 15th, 2005 at 3:29 pm
Irreversible doesn’t mean dead
Blogsforterri.com and Fr. Frank Pavone point out that whether or not the autopsy results are sufficient to make judgment on, the moral aspects of her murder are unchanging. Irreversible brain damage and brain death are two totally different things. A…
June 15th, 2005 at 3:30 pm
“a bipartisan Senate investigation already concluded there was no fixing of intelligence, and the Downing Street Memo has been debunk several times already.. move on.”
A bipartisan Senate investigation concluded no such thing. They concluded they WOULD NOT look into the matter that the current administration fixed intelligence to support their views of going to war.
C’mon back John.
June 15th, 2005 at 3:41 pm
“Irreversible doesn’t mean dead”
It does when a huge chunk of the cerebral cortex — the part that is indispensible for human consciousness — is gone, and there is no sign of thought, feeling or responsiveness.
Terri Schiavo died in 1990, and all the authorities did this year was admit the fact.
June 15th, 2005 at 3:45 pm
Perhaps there is some vindication for Mr. Schiavo on the abuse front. I don’t know how much an autopsy does or doesn’t say about these things. However, any inkling of doubt in this case should have led everyone to the common sense approach that her organs will fail at some point, probably sooner than later. It’s the rush to kill that’s scary. That is where Mr. Schiavo needs a whole lot more for vindication. Err on the side of caution, as our grandfathers have all said. It’s particularly fitting when we are talking about a human life. Keep in mind that there a great many doctors on both sides of the issue, and I suspect there would be a whole host of examiners that might have seen the autopsy in quite a different way.
June 15th, 2005 at 3:56 pm
What “rush to kill?” Michael was spending time with Terri for YEARS before removing the feeding tube was even mentioned. Nor did I see much “rush” in the additional years of hearings, appeals, dealys, new allegations, dismissal of new allegations as absolute rubbish, etc. etc.
As for “doubt,” there was, in the end, no doubt that Terri was gone, never to return. Brain-scans showed nothing but fluid where most of the cerebral cortex should have been, and she was totally unresponsive to her environment.
June 15th, 2005 at 4:07 pm
Removing the feeding tube WAS the rush, and it doesn’t matter when it happened. Sustenance won’t keep ANY of us alive forever (healthy brain or not).
As for not being responsive, that is obviously subjective as not nearly everyone agrees with you on that.
June 15th, 2005 at 4:12 pm
dick durbin a traitor? The guy has always been anti-bush, freak!
June 15th, 2005 at 4:12 pm
Just because “not everyone agrees with me” on a point, does not make it “subjective.” Not everyone agrees that the Earth is round, either.
No credible evidence of responsiveness was EVER brought up in court.
June 15th, 2005 at 4:19 pm
Well, to the degree that it is “round” is debatable much like the degree to which Terri was “dead”. I wouldn’t want to stake my life on anyone’s idea of what round is unless you give me a clear cut definition of what that is (making it all the way around without dropping off would be about as specific as I’d care for). You, nor anyone else has verified responsiveness in any clear-cut manner. Unresponsiveness to you may not be the same to me.
June 15th, 2005 at 4:28 pm
Sorry, Judd, but saying “it’s all a matter of opinion” is an admission that the facts don’t support your beliefs. That dodge (suddenly pretending everything is subjective) worked for me in grade-school, but I’m a bit old — and not post-modern enough — to fall for it now.
June 15th, 2005 at 4:29 pm
Also, saying “Removing the feeding tube WAS the rush, and it doesn’t matter when it happened” is utter nonsense.
June 15th, 2005 at 4:33 pm
The point at which one criticizes another’s argumentative style is when they’ve lost the argument.
The fact of the matter is there was no factual evidence that Terri was brain-dead. There is no magical number for how much a brain has to weigh to be alive. There is no magical test for responsiveness. The point of the matter is that she should have been allowed sustenance and to die when her organs failed, like the rest of us.
I’ll have to go back to kindergarten to a time when I might have taken exception to someone taking exception to my argumentative style.
June 15th, 2005 at 4:36 pm
And another thing, it’s an argument I always mistakenly get into. It’s an argument that someone who stands for Terri can’t lose and, let’s face it, the game isn’t that fun if you can win with even a lackluster effort.
June 15th, 2005 at 4:40 pm
Personally I am glad for Michael Schiavo. If he didn’t abuse Terri I’m glad there’s nothing to say otherwise in the autopsy. I am only for the Truth and preserving life in cases where we aren’t 100% sure it’s absent (with a reasonable effort). Ultimately Mr. Schiavo will have to answer for it and I can only pray that he has repented before that time (as well as the courts, lawyers, and anyone else who actively or passively participated in the murder).
June 15th, 2005 at 5:05 pm
I think it’s time for Michael Schiavo to start calling lawyers and start filing law suits.
Sean Hanity would make a good first example.
June 15th, 2005 at 5:07 pm
The fact of the matter is there was no factual evidence that Terri was brain-dead.
Apart from the fact that she didn’t have any frontal lobes, or measurable brain activity.
Apart from those facts.
June 15th, 2005 at 5:20 pm
According to the medical examiner, Schiavo’s brain was only half its original and healthly size and, “Her brain was profoundly atrophied. This damage was irreversible.”
You could easily offer the same diagnosis of Frist, DeLay and the other Congressional jokers who politicized this family tragedy. Of course, now we can expect DeLay to rip the left wing field of medical examination and doctors in general. The report must be biased, right?
June 15th, 2005 at 5:22 pm
“I question it based on a review of the video footage which I spent an hour or so looking at last night in my office,” he said in a lengthy speech in which he quoted medical texts and standards. “She certainly seems to respond to visual stimuli.”
Ah, good memories of the doctor’s diagnosis.
Why does Frist still have a liscence to pratice medicine?
There should be an investigation itno this.
June 15th, 2005 at 5:29 pm
Not that wingers have any respect to “science” and “reality”, but Michael Schiavo has more ammunition to use against the hordes of idiots who viciously slandered him during the emotional battle. I still hope he sues all their asses.
June 15th, 2005 at 6:01 pm
“There is no magical test for responsiveness.”
Nope. No magic needed at all. Just observe the lack of actual responses, and couple that with the demonstrable absense of most of the cerebral cortex.
And quit droning about “repentance.” You’re not the only one with a conscience.
June 15th, 2005 at 6:13 pm
“…now we can expect DeLay to rip the left wing field of medical examination and doctors in general. The report must be biased, right?”
The Freepers are already doing exactly that, and have been, literally as and since the report was announced. Or they were, until further responses were locked out. It’s the phony “culture of life” at its most pathetic. Go read their frantic denials and conspiracy stories — you’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll hurl…
June 15th, 2005 at 7:23 pm
I hope that she truly has been effectively dead all these years. What troubled me the most was the fear that she was indeed in some kind of a “minimally conscious” state, as some claimed–blind, probably cut off completely from sensory contact, confused, frightened, with just enough awareness to realize that something horrible was happening to her–and horribly maintained in this unnatural, tortured state for year after year.
June 15th, 2005 at 7:37 pm
Yeah, no shit
So the autopsy report on Terri Schiavo has been released, not like it adds much new to the discussion.
June 15th, 2005 at 7:52 pm
debunked? Maybe if you wish hard enough…
http://rawstory.com/exclusives/larisa/downing_street_documents_613
Yeah, I know its off the subject. But I’m just so sick of it all. Anymore it seems that if the truth is inconvenient (or incriminating), the answer is simply to start flinging crap all over the place until everything stinks.
June 15th, 2005 at 8:11 pm
jeff, here’s what NRO explained
http://www.nationalreview.com/robbins/robbins200506060801.asp
seems like your the one who wishes it was more than what it is.
June 15th, 2005 at 8:42 pm
The issue here is the Schiavo autopsy… not the Downing Street Memo.. keep the talking on topic please…
June 15th, 2005 at 8:42 pm
tgibbs: yet another good point that Terri’s so-called supporters avoided like a live grenade…
“She’s Alive, she’s conscious, she’s responding! Look, she’s smiling, she has feelings!”
“So is she conscious of being paralyzed and trapped in an inert body, with no sensory inputs, no ability to communicate, and severely compromised mental abilities?”
“Um…well…SHE’LL ONLY SUFFER IF YOU LET HER STARVE, YOU HEARTLESS MURDERING BASTARD!!”
June 15th, 2005 at 8:52 pm
Forgive me, Matt, this is the last I’ll say on the subject.
Bass, please stop flinging crap on me.
June 16th, 2005 at 2:11 am
Hi Raging Bee,
I admire (and agree with) your sane, sensible and rational arguments. That certainly sets you well apart from the rightwing nutters (especially those religious extreme nutters who were only trying to get their hands n a lot of money, which is always their agenda). God and Jesus are nothing more than salable commodoties to them. “Send Money NOW! And your sins will be forgiven and your soul redeemed!” Yeah, right! LOL
I don’t remember Jesus EVER asking for money. I do remember what he did to the Money Lenders in the temple though.
I hate hypocrites BTW, can you tell?
LOL
Thanks again.
June 16th, 2005 at 8:45 am
Me, sane and rational? You must be thinking of some other Raging Bee.
Actually, I’m pissed as hell at all those “right-wing nutters” who faked a monopoly on righteousness and love of “life” and trashed the very culture, institutions, and freedoms in which they “grew up.” They promised that this autopsy report would be the final word, and now they’re freaking out and saying it’s all part of the evil conspiracy to kill sick people or something. “Doctor” Bill Frist, especially, has some explaining to do.
I think the whole country should rub those nutters’ faces in this report until they apologize and beg forgiveness from every American they insulted (which, according to most polls, means a clear majority of us). Just my Fair’n'Balanced (TM) assessment of the facts, of course…
Anyway, thanks for the compliment and [shameless plug] check out my LoveJournal; you don’t have to be a member to join the fray.[/shameless plug]
June 16th, 2005 at 8:50 am
The vilification of Michael here was a clear case in which the position our “social right” had staked out wasn’t coherent without a set of supporting facts that just didn’t exist — so, they made those facts up to fit the gaps in their position. After a couple of laps through the echo chamber, the defamatory rumors (strangulation, a history of abuse, and so on) reinforced one another to the point where no amount of respect for individual conscience (as if that particularly worries our right wing at this point) could shine through the welter of hateful, and grotesquely wishful, thinking.
Like it or not, the version of this story that made sense and matched the history was that Michael thought he was doing the right thing by Terri in letting her die. Maybe we all don’t agree with that. Maybe it was a human decision and therefore as flawed and deeply troubling as the whole situation. But to summon defamatory stories from thin air to deny that Michael had any conscience at all, to call him a murderer and imply, bizarrely, that he was “after the money,” that’s what I’d not be afraid to call “evil.” Resorting to those expedient fabrications is as much as saying the ends justify the means. (Speaking of that Downing Street memo…)
As an example of what runaway, gravity-free, propagandistic public morality can do to moral decisions, this was horrifying. The fact that, at the edges of conservatism, there were voices like this blog asking questions of conscience about it all, and that those voices have been drowned out — that should tell us something about where our right is today. This political machine’s weight can crush the people who think they control it.
June 16th, 2005 at 9:06 am
Hi there, just me again. I got this quote from Drug WarRant, and figured it might add a bit of perspective:
“Isn’t it interesting that Angel Raich, totally cognizant and aware of her pain, didn’t arouse as much sympathy from our public servants as Terri Schiavo did?”
June 16th, 2005 at 11:16 am
For Michael Schiavo to have spent all those years and efforts in an attempt to ‘do away with’ his wife or ‘get rid of the burden’ ‘or get rid of evidence of abuse’, he would have to be an INCREDIBLE MONSTER.
Or, you could look at evidence from the exams, and the court testifying, and reasonably decide that he was actually doing exactly what he claimed to be doing - trying to see that his wife got the peace she would have wanted.
Why do so many people take the NON-PROVEN, CONVOLUTED, ILL-SUPPORTED path necessary see him as a MONSTER? Where is benefit of the doubt? Why do they obviously WANT to see him that way?
Michael Schiavo’s life has been made a circus and a torment by prejudice and suspicion that he never deserved, according to all the evidence. Why are so many pro-lifers so uncaring about hIS life? The life of his family? The fact that he received death threats, and was crucified in the media? That he had to hide, move, have guards? Where are the resounding apologies he should be receiving?
The same people who talk the loudest about the divine values of life, forgiveness, and charity are the same ones who are NOT GIVING IT, time and time again.
June 16th, 2005 at 11:29 am
I hope I am never falsely accused of a crime - for with jurists totally willing to ignore evidence and be swayed by emotion, like many on the right have been, I would be found guilty, and thrown in prison.
What a reassuring thought.
June 16th, 2005 at 12:12 pm
For those who say “everyone should be kept ‘alive’ (whatever that means) until organ failure”, I ask this question: Would you end all organ transplants?
If everyone was kept on life support until organ failure, it would immediately put an end to all organ transplants, as there would be no point in transplanting failing organs.
How does that serve a “culture of life”?
June 16th, 2005 at 12:52 pm
didjman: Their argument is totally dishonest, and I suspect the “culture-of-lifers” know it. I’m sure it goes without saying that the second a vegetative patient actually shows signs of “organ failure,” they will demand immediate aggressive medical treatment, and accuse you of “murder” and worse if you repeat their “everyone should be kept alive until organ failure” mantra back to them.
Their argument that giving Terri a lethal injection would have been “better” than allowing her to die of dehydration, is similarly bogus.
June 16th, 2005 at 3:00 pm
Matt: You’re right and LaShawn is wrong. Not only that, LaShawn is a coward. When I responded to allegations in an article referenced in another comment, she deleted my response. When I asked why she would delete my response without deleting the comment to which I was responding, she deleted my question. I love watching wingnuts implode on contact with reality.
June 16th, 2005 at 7:13 pm
La Shawn is not a coward. I’ve met La Shawn, and respect what she does. I may not agree with all her views, but I respect her views. I also believe that she wouldn’t delete comments unless they were obnoxiously rude and/or included profanity. I would guess you might have a different story, so I’m not going to debate that.
June 16th, 2005 at 11:22 pm
Michael Shaivo was conflicted. Morally he gave up his rights to Terri when he moved on to another woman. He was within his rights under Florida law to do what he did. That was the basis of the entire conflict. He should have given Terry back to her family the morning after he slept with someone else. This conflict didn’t have to happen.
June 17th, 2005 at 12:11 am
Matt: LaShawn can do what she wants with her blog, of course, but my responses were no more obnoxious than her calling both of us “death-culturists” at the top of her main post. She lowered the bar, not I, and if others call her out on her needless insults, and those of her other guests, she has only herself to blame.
June 17th, 2005 at 1:06 am
Around The ‘Sphere June 17, 2005
Links are from sites with varying viewpoints. Opinions expressed do not necessarily express the views of TMV or its co-bloggers.
June 17th, 2005 at 1:06 am
Around The ‘Sphere June 17, 2005
Links are from sites with varying viewpoints. Opinions expressed do not necessarily express the views of TMV or its co-bloggers.
June 17th, 2005 at 1:47 am
Oh, nevermind
Is Bill Frist channeling Ernestine? You decide!
June 17th, 2005 at 3:03 pm
Yo, guess what — Governor Jeb Bush has pressured some overworked prosecutor to investigate…get this…the alleged time gap between Michael Schiavo finding Terri collapsed and his calling 911 back in 1990.
Read it and hurl: http://www.stcynic.com/blog/
June 17th, 2005 at 4:28 pm
Raging Bee, I read that this morning. He’s apparently having a hard time swallowing the fact that Michael Schiavo did not abuse his wife.
It’s really pathetic. I wish these psychos would let the poor woman rest in peace, without trying to use her for political gain.
June 17th, 2005 at 4:38 pm
I don’t know why Jeb is pursuing this anymore…
June 19th, 2005 at 8:39 am
Carrotsnapper, Michael Schiavo DID give Terry to her parents. They gave her back after two weeks.
The video of Mrs. Schindler moving the ballon around in front of Terry is only a snippet where Terry’s random eye movements and the ballon sync up. The rest of the time they don’t apparently.
June 19th, 2005 at 10:04 am
Jay, what really bothers me about that whole video thing, is that that balloon snippet was selected out of hours and hours of video… and there’s a good chance that she was probably blind at the time… so in my view, the parents were trying to manipulate public opinion by release fake evidence that Terri was responsive.
June 19th, 2005 at 3:51 pm
Someone posted on LaShawn’s blog (#80) that he had allowed his father to die because of the progression of his Alzheimer’s — and LaShawn explicitly condoned the decision (#81)! Not only that, she even said she would not want to be kept alive under such circumstances. Then, having explicitly condoned decisions such as Michael’s, she fell back on insisting that Michael had no credibility, due, of course, to all those totally made-up allegations that somehow kept on resurfacing on blogs like hers! The hypocricy is simply laughable.
I love the smell of imploding wingnuts in the afternoon…
June 20th, 2005 at 11:58 am
Matt, you are surmising what most of us have. I think Terry Schiavo was/is a cash cow for the religious right. Her parents sold the mailing lists of all those who sent them donations to groups like Focus On the Family and AFA. Randall Terry crawled out from whatever rock he’s been hiding under to try to give her water (she couldn’t swallow, if he gave her water she’d drown!). My own Senator Rick Santorum was down there mugging for the cameras and managed to raise $100,000 cash for himself.
June 24th, 2005 at 3:19 pm
Matt,
What’s your response to the writing on Terri’s tombstone? (I assume it was written by her adulterous husband, Michael.)
June 26th, 2005 at 11:02 am
Well, just because I believe that Michael Schiavo did not abuse his wife and that he was wrongfully villified, doesn’t mean I think he didn’t handle some things incorrectly.
July 9th, 2005 at 3:37 am
Matt;
Michael Schiavo got away with murder, period!
September 11th, 2006 at 3:00 pm
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April 3rd, 2007 at 4:35 pm
I worked for a couple of years at a state school for the mentally retarded (what it was called then). There were many non-responsive patients who received direct care that included feeding tubes and physical therapy. I’m sure they had no living will. They definitely had no money - no future - only the present. I can’t imagine at the time someone taking a look at them and deciding that these people probably preferred death and therefore food and water would be withheld so that they could die by starvation and dehydration.
How times have changed in twenty years.
By the way, it is not legal to do this to puppies. It is considered inhumane.
April 3rd, 2007 at 4:41 pm
oh, yes…Michael has been vindicated.
woo hoo - high five.
Stay healthy. Don’t become disabled and unable to speak for yourself. Someone will speak for you. You do prefer to die, right?
April 11th, 2007 at 1:03 pm
The people who talk like #70 are the same people who have living wills of their own so that they won’t have to go on like Terri, but it’s okay for Terri to exist like that. So, are we committing suicide by having living wills?
August 20th, 2007 at 9:45 am
#72 is under the illusion propogated by the media blab that a living will cleans up the decision making surrounding one’s death. If you’ve ever even had a traffic stop, you would know that any legal statement is still widely open to interpretation at every level of decision making.
This case placed on the American conscience the permission to deny food and water to the disabled.
I hope #71 will always be conscious during any incapacity so he/she can interpret his/her living will to all those concerned.