Terri Schiavo

[olpluvr]

The first issue to be debated is the case of Terri Shiavo. The conflict had started when her husband, Michael Schiavo, wanted to get Terri's feeding tube removed because he believed that Terri would not want to live in a vegetated state for the remainder of her life. Her family lost many battles with the court to reinsert Terri’s feeding tube and

Comments

Re: Your Concerns

[xratedouroboros]

The bit about Mrs. Schiavo dying shortly after the Schindlers were ushered out, for example. They had a pre-arranged visitation schedule. It can be nothing other than a coincidence that Schiavo's heart stopped when they weren't in the room. There is simply no way for it to be blamed on a sinster plot hatched between Mr Schiavo and a personified Death. To present a baseless conspiracy theory as a rational alternative is to introduce bias.. whether you gave a competing viewpoint "equal time" or not.

It's mostly word usage and sentence structure, though. I can't really blame you, since a lot of it is just a representation of how you originally heard it.

The Schindler's are frequently referred to as "Terri's Family". "Family video tapes..." etc. Thus, Michael Schivo is symbolically excluded as part of Mrs. Schiavo's family.

Second. You say the family videos show Mrs. Schiavo was responsive, but that Michael Schiavo was reported to be with Mrs. Schiavo during the duration of her body's death. This is odd. The videos are far more disputed than the amount of time that Mr Schiavo spent at his wife's bedside... yet you insert the waffle-word with the less contentious point.

Where's the part where you talk about how Michael Schiavo got nurses training so he could more effectively care for his wife? Where's the part where you talk about how Michael Schiavo would sleep in the same room as his wife for weeks? Where's the part where you remark on the fact that Terri Schiavo didn't die of an infected bedsore a decade ago? Where's the part where you ascribe anything other than the purest of motives to the Schindlers?

OTOH, none of that would have much bearing on the questions you asked other than the one about transferring custodial rights. Why bother presenting any of it at all?

There're probably also issues with active v. passive voice, but I'm too lazy to actually tally up and weigh the results.

For the most part, I'm just so very very tired of Terri Schiavo. Please, she'd already dead... let her die.

Re: Your Concerns

[olpluvr]

“It can be nothing other than a coincidence that Schiavo's heart stopped when they weren't in the room. There is simply no way for it to be blamed on a sinster plot hatched between Mr Schiavo and a personified Death.”
I agree with you on this statement. However, Mrs. Schiavo was “planned” to die any day since she was carrying out her last few days and it would be medically impossible for her to live for another week at that point. In actuality, it was planned that her death would be done in a timely fashion, but it definitely was not a “sinister plot” on Mr. Schiavo’s part (or any family member at that).

mur·der (mûr'dər)
n.
1. The unlawful killing of one human by another, especially with premeditated malice.

As biased as my opinion may be, I cannot fathom letting a woman die when she is guilty of nothing. This is one topic I can’t bear to hear about because a woman who appeared to be happy with the new life given to her had it taken away. No one can know for sure if Michael had any cruel intentions, but my opinion is that he wanted to start fresh with a new family. The actual term “murder” doesn’t apply to this case when you take the law into consideration, but yet the term “manslaughter” does not apply since there was intent to do harm, intent to do away with her life.

man·slaugh·ter (măn'slô'tər)
n.
The unlawful killing of one human by another without express or implied intent to do injury.

”Terri Schiavo had no consciousness. She could react to her environment to the same extent that your knee reacts to being struck with a hammer.”
Her level of consciousness had no way of being tested. The way in which she reacted to her environment may be different than what “normally functioning” people are used to reacting, but what right does anyone have to say she didn’t deserve to live? She has a loving family who was willing to sacrifice everything just to keep her alive, while her husband probably wanted to dump her off as access baggage to his new family. It is ironic how he cared for her well- being UNTIL he started a new family. Who really knows, other than Mr. Schiavo himself, but maybe he truly did care about seeing his once vibrant wife and to know she was going to live that life forever hurt him so. He could believe he saved her misery.

Let’s talk about how people in general should be considered unhappy. When Terri had her injury years ago, maybe her brain was reduced to that of a 2-year-old child’s comprehension. Just because she didn’t live life like how we are used to seeing women her age do. Cases like this do not have black and white answers: when does the gray area get defined? At what shade of a person’s disability do we determine that they are not productive in life anymore and that it is better for them to not be alive?