Terri, I’m Sorry ….
You said it perfectly! This whole thing with Terri makes my heart hurt.She is not a toy to be used like this and tossed back and forth for others to get in the spotlight. She is a person that deserves better then all this that has happened. It breaks my heart to see what is going on........
Posted by Wild Thing
03/26/2005 at 06:53 PM
"For the record: Terri can only take fluids intravenously and is incapable of swallowing.”
For the record: No one knows that. What is known is that a nurse fed her jello and other foods she had to swallow in the late 90’s. A judge in the case has since refused her families request to perform a test to see it see if she can swallow.
Posted by Jack Crevalle
03/26/2005 at 07:04 PM
Jack, you are absolutely right.
When the parents went to the judge he denied them the right to determine if she could swallow.
No determination can be made as to hewr abilities simply because the courts will not allow it.
There’s a lot to be said for living right here and getting the news on this.
Oh, and one more thing: does everyone know WHY the judge said what he did? “she might choke to death!”
What fucking arrogance! So starving and dehydrating to death is better?!?!?!?!
I have to disagree with Wild Thing, though. Although it is sickening to see her used like this, just think of the precedent it will set if we allow a court to kill her. You could be next.
I’d like that asshole judge and her husband to be forced to sit vigil next to her until she goes. MAKE them witness her slow and lingering death.
Jack & Vilmar: You are both WRONG! Stop spreading these lies that have no basis in fact. Terri cannot swallow. No nurse gave her jello or water in the late 90’s. That is a pure fabrication.
Terri could have possibly been “trained” to swallow but after her initial collapse she was continually denied rehabilitative therapy that may have given her the ability to swallow on her own. This denial of therapy created a dependence on the feeding tube. Medical experts have testified that Terri may still be a good candidate for being weaned from the feeding tube, but she has been denied this opportunity for therapy.
There is a very strong chance that she would choke to death because the throat muscles and the nerves controlling them have atrophied over the years. Therapy ten years ago could have helped. As it stands now, trying to pour water down her throat would surely kill her without an extended period of therapy to help her body “re-learn” how to swallow.
Get your facts straight, people. I’m sick and tired of everyone going off half-cocked over this woman’s misery.
http://www.family.org/welcome/press/a0028513.cfm
http://codeblueblog.blogs.com/codeblueblog/2005/03/csi_medblogs_co.html
SEE THIS MOVIE!!! It presaged this fiasco by over 50 years.
Posted by Steel Turman
03/26/2005 at 08:08 PM
OCM hit an important nail on the head—as soon as possible, I, too, am going to make a living will (which will include organ donations).
This whole affair stinks, from beginning to end. I trust the “husband’s” motives no further than I can throw them. I’m disgusted that so many are throwing their hat in at the eleventh hour, when there has been 15 years. Most of all, the uncertainties are what eat away at us. It forces us to confront things that have no easy answer.
We live by the rule of law, as we should. This case is as big a test of our checks and balances as we’ve had to face in a long, long time. And it will survive.
But, you know, you can’t truly err, if you err on the side of life. At the end of the day, that is where my conscience lies. I’d rather see the law bent or broken, than a human life lost.
And it’s not up to me to decide “quality” of life. It’s up to those who care for me most, if it were me in the same situation.
Maybe Terri’s parents ought to let her go. Maybe not. But they love her, and the “husband” doesn’t.
Allan, you could have written and re-written an essay full of the best-turned phrases in the world, edited to perfection—and still you couldn’t have possibly said it better than you did.
And Vilmar --
“I’d like that asshole judge and her husband to be forced to sit vigil next to her until she goes. MAKE them witness her slow and lingering death.”
What you said.
And Wild Thing echoes me too—my heart hurts for her.
Posted by Yankette
03/26/2005 at 08:28 PM
Maybe its time for a dose of old fashioned COMPASSION!!!
By that I mean for the disabled woman.
She cannot speak for herself, so the courts, loonies, and the assorted rights for whatever groups say that the humane thing to do is kill her.
Her parents have offered, pleaded to take her and look after her. But no. She must die. It is the right thing to do.Get a grip people!
What sort of society are we so called civilised westerners prepared to accept?
One where the weak and disabled are discarded?
I sincerely hope not.
Posted by r-send
03/26/2005 at 08:45 PM
Allan- I’m sorry but YOU’RE wrong.
If Terri had been given rehab-like she was supposed to-she MIGHT be able to swallow now!
Greer won’t allow anything by mouth because he said it was “experimental”!
If she can’t swallow then all it will do is help bolster thepro-murder
right to die proponents case-If she can it could save her life.
We don’t even know if she’s in PVS.
There are doctors on both sides-however the main doctor for the “prosecution’ is very active in the pro-euthanaisa movement-as is George Felos.
As Terri finishes her walk on earth I can only hope that M.Schiavo, Greer, and Felos are punished in hell for the the evil they are commiting on this disabled woman.
And for the record-If I lived in Floridawhile i would keep the BOY out of it-I would DEFINATELY be commiting acts of civil disobedience!
She can’t swallow-well let’s find out!!Posted by Annoying Little Twerp
03/26/2005 at 11:01 PM
Sorry Allan-I didn’t read your entire post.
I rarely feel as emotional about things-I AM autistic after all- that I do about this.
I also take back the “hell” remark.
I’m above that.Posted by Annoying Little Twerp
03/26/2005 at 11:03 PM
My almost 80 year old Mother called me today. And she was pissed. Her parents were full blown Christians and her Mom lingered fo 5 years as a vegetable. My mother is pissed because she equates this with the Elian Gonzales case. She said that this country was outraged that the Feds would do THAT and yet are screaming for the Feds to intervene in THIS. She also had a few choice words for the ‘Christians’ who she feels, are trying to use this case as a way to further their adgenda and NOT save Terri Schiavo. Now my Mother is NO LIBERAL. She is probably to the right of me. But it gave me pause. First, she was PISSED. Not like her at all. Second, she asked me what I thought would have happened had it been her in this case. Of course her parents would have gone through all that the Schindlers have and more. And she said even though she had divorced my father she knew he would fight for her wishes not to be kept alive with extraneous measures. The thing that really got me was the ‘state of her ire’ as regards this case. She takes it personally. She had to pull the plug on my father. And she is getting ever closer to the same day. It is very real to her. This conversation made me think all afternoon. I guess my problem with all of it is that I question Michael Schiavo’s motivation. Were that not so, I’d side with him. But it is so ... his word cannot prevail. Not for all the religious claptrap and such, but because he is suspect and so therefore his position. That the courts have followed this path is at once correct and also wrong. They have never taken Michael Schiavo’s motivation into consideration. Yet they are right in trying to see that a person’s desire to not be ‘kept’ alive honored. The other bothersome thing to me is that Terri has had no PET scan or MRI. That’s just wrong. The other thing is that Michael wants her cremated ... immediately with no autopsy. Wrong again. The most awful thing is that he has denied her last rights and communion on Easter. Most of you know I am longtime atheist. But I find THAT last abhorrent. To quote Peggy Noonan, ‘What is the harm in letting her live’? None that I can see. The euthanasia folks will still go on ... it’s not a defeat. Michael Schiavo will profit nicely. The Schindlers will have their wish. Terri? We will never know.
I will speak on this no more save to say,
I hope there is peace for Terri Schiavo.Posted by Steel Turman
03/26/2005 at 11:45 PM
Vilmar...”Although it is sickening to see her used like this, just think of the precedent it will set if we allow a court to kill her. You could be next.”
I don’t want to be next, and I don’t want anyone else to be next. I believe in life and giving a person every chance there is to be alive. Our courts, lawyers, and Judges have continuously shown the world how they are more for the criminal then the victim. How they let criminals out of jail and back onto the streets to do their evil to more innocent people (adults and children). Every time I hear on TV that the parents are seeking another court, another judge my heart holds tight to the hope that this time it will be a man of not only honor but one that brings in the humanity and not just his interpretation of the law. Then I hear the answer they get is no and my heart hits the floor in disappointment.
I meant what I said and stay true to it, I agree with Allan in what he said above at the start of this page. For me it is just as wrong for the right to use their children to make a point, and wrong of the minister to say where are the blacks on this as it is to see the left and what they are saying and doing. Those are the people in my opinion that are turning this into a circus and it makes me furious as well as sick to my stomach. The media is using Terri too in all of this, a chance to get better ratings, the same with talk shows and radio and that sickens me too. IMO it is completely about Terri and as for her sicko vile husband he can burn in hell along with the courts that are too quick to follow the interpretation of the law instead of giving life 100% chance. It scares me to watch this it could happen to any of us and I agree with Oldcatman too that we all need to make sure we have a living will, or something written down at any of our ages anything could happen to us. It scares me to see how any court has so little value on human life in this country. We are NOT Islam and send out children strapped with bombs as WMD for pete’s sake. We at least on the right respect life but the left and their abortion hungry have already shown the world how little value they place on life.
Yankette, thank you and I agree with what you said as well.
ALL of you have said things that show me we all agree !!!!! I see no difference in our opinions at all. We all want Terri to live, we all want these decisions of these #$%^@&* courts / Judges to be different then they have done. We all feel Terri was not given a chance from the beginning as far as I can tell in what you all have written on this page. We all are furious about the husband, the Judges and I am only adding that I am also upset about the children being used and the remark about the blacks getting involved that crosses the line. I sure as heck have not sat here and wondered where is Jessie Jackson. I could care less where he is. My life is better not to hear him spew.
What is going to happen in the future is going to make this even worse if that could even be possible. There will be a film made of this , count on it, heck Hollywood does that and we all know it. And I hate that !!!!!
America is not the America I knew as a child. I miss that America with all I am. The PC crowd has destroyed so many things and this is just one more notch in the gun of the left, the enemy within and it was done using Terri and that breaks my heart. My prayers are for Terri, her family and as for her husband and his ilk they can jump off a cliff.
Posted by Wild Thing
03/27/2005 at 12:59 AM
Barb:
Settle down. I’m trying to pull everyone back from the brink of madness here. Conservatives and Christians are not doing themselves (or Terri) any good with these emotional outbursts, recriminations and blame games. All of these “what-if” and “why-don’t-they” games are simply knee-jerk emotional reactions to a distressing situation. Gossip, rumors and innuendo are no basis for any reasonable dialogue.
Your reaction is exactly what I am talking about. People like you all over the country are reacting based on emotion first without knowing all the facts and rushing off to judgement and rash acts without thinking. This is typical behavior for the Moonbat crowd that we despise so much. Are we now to become just as looney as them?
If so, then I have just wasted an entire year of my life trying to preach common sense and my efforts to encourage intelligent dialogue and cooperation have been in vain.
Up until now, I had thought that only half the country was insane. Now, I’m not so sure. I’m beginning to feel like the one-eyed man in the land of the blind.
"[...] and somewhere in the middle is a fragile, defenseless soul lying in a hospice bed, waiting for something none of us seem to understand.”
“If I could speak to Terri, all I could try to say would be, “I’m sorry, truly sorry for the behavior of all of us. Please forgive us, dear.”
To a Christian, does a body without a mind have a soul? How would what’s left of Terri be waiting for anything? Even if you could talk to her, by what means is she able to comprehend let alone commiserate with your feelings on this matter?
Posted by Anthony Neville
03/27/2005 at 06:46 AM
Allan,
two of the three URLS you provide don’t agree with you:“14 independent medical professionals (6 of them neurologists) have given either statements or testimony that Terri is NOT in a Persistent Vegetative State. Additionally, there has never been any medical dispute of Terri’s ability to swallow.”
“Michael Schiavo has also prevented Terri from undergoing a barium swallow test, a procedure necessary to ascertain the consistency of foods able to be taken by mouth.”
and the only mention of swallowing on the third are comments in a blog such as this that contradict each other.
On FOX news yesterday they interviewed one of the nurses from the nursing home and if you go to http://www.glennbeck.com/news/03142005.shtml you can see the affidavit of this nurse and follow links to the families website to see an affidavit from another.
Posted by Jack Crevalle
03/27/2005 at 08:33 AM
