Terri Schiavo Thread

[Fairweather]

I'm troubled to see that the Legislative and Executive branches of the Federal Government are meddling in the processes of the courts. This does not bode well for the future of our system.

 

Huh??

 

I'm vexed....

ya' don't say?

[knelson]

Aside from all the ethical and religious view points. Who here would want to be kept alive? I think that this is the most important question. Simply, "What would she want?" Obviously there is a difference in opinion between the parants and husband. The courts have debated and decided (as far as I know). My pickle with this whole scenario is the government imposing on what is a court matter. From what I can tell, kurt is the lawyer of the bunch (just guessing here). Is this common and in your opinion appropriate.

 

Me... a lawyer? Ahhh... I've finally found the perfect use for the graemlin.

 

 

Anyway... I, a humble engineer, seem to be in the same boat as you AllYouCanEat. Personally, I wouldn't want to be around if I was in her situation. Give me some good meds and harvest my organs, please.

 

In my book, if we don't know what she wants, the legal guardian gets to make the call. And umpteen courts have said her husband is the legal guardian. And he made the call. And now Congress has decided that it has to interfere in State court decisions - the same Congress that is supposedly all for State's rights.

 

Dave_Schuldt said:

 

I have an apoitment this week to make a will and a living will. Been thinking about the will for a few years and am finaly going to do it.

 

 

-kurt

 

PS - Norman, as mentioned previously, thanks for your comments and insight. I think Christianity is far from the root of people not being prepared for death, though. You'll find the same gammut of personalities in a church as anywhere else... some are in denial, some are not. But that's another thread, me thinks.

[glacier]

I think Christianity is far from the root of people not being prepared for death, though. You'll find the same gammut of personalities in a church as anywhere else... some are in denial, some are not. But that's another thread, me thinks.

 

Found this article yesterday while searching the topic - religions leaders overall are divided on the whole topic.

[Peter_Puget]

This should give pause to those who think that our democratic processes can effectively produce informed policy, even when the electorate is highly uninformed. In this case, as in many others... policy reflects the uninformed position.

 

link

 

This short paper raises some interesting issues. I wonder how the press will react over time to this issue.

[catbirdseat]

In this morning's PI I read a story about the wife of an enlisted man in the Navy who was carrying an anacephalic fetus. For those of you who don't know, an anacephalic fetus usually dies within minutes of birth because it lacks a brain. These pregnancies may go up to a year because the fetus doesn't trigger normal birth at nine months.

 

This woman needed an abortion and the Navy wouldn't pay for it. She sued and won. The government was forced to pay but is appealing.

 

Why is it the government wants so badly to preserve brainless organisms?

[rbw1966]

Why is it the government wants so badly to preserve brainless organisms?

 

Its a republican administration. Thats why.

[Skeezix]

Yeah, Bush is afraid that if brainless organisms are discarded, he'll be next.

[Dave_Schuldt]

More good news.

WASHINGTON - Deciding on the last outstanding appeal, a state judge in Florida ruled Thursday that Gov. Jeb Bush and Florida's social services agency don't have legal ground to take custody of Terri Schiavo, the seriously brain-damaged woman at the center of a court battle. Hours earlier, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to order the reinsertion of Schiavo's feeding tube, rejecting an appeal by her parents to keep their daughter alive.

[Norman_Clyde]

"Policy reflects the uninformed position."

 

A good slogan for the Bush administration. Actually, for both parties much of the time.

[KaskadskyjKozak]

"Policy reflects the uninformed position."

 

A good slogan for the Bush administration. Actually, for both parties much of the time.

 

She's hung on since Friday - almost 6 days. Pretty amazing - it won't be long though.

[Off_White]

Does anyone else perceive the strangeness of the situation: a woman who's vegetablehood is largely self-inflicted due to bulemia will ultimately starve to death?

[markinore]

I can't watch Tom DeLay and Bill Frist pontificating on this subject without thinking about "Weekend at Bernie's." I can just see Terry Schiavo being dragged around between them as a prop while they engage in their hilarious hijinks.

[catbirdseat]

Does anyone else perceive the strangeness of the situation: a woman who's vegetablehood is largely self-inflicted due to bulemia will ultimately starve to death?

Ironic, indeed.

[Alex]

I personally am shocked that the various courts have stuck to their guns in the face of acts of congress, midnight signatures by the President, and so on.

 

As the husband of someone who has chosen me as a life partner, I would be pretty incensed if the courts favored other family members, even my spouse's parents, over me to make difficult decisions for myself and my partner.

[ChrisT]

I for one applaud the courts - for not dragging politics into the matter, for remaining unemotional, for being able to truly separate church and state and for upholding the law and the constitution. Congress and GW had no business getting involved in this matter and they only did it for political gain.

 

GW couldn't be bothered to get out of bed when the Tsunami hit, but he was able to rush cross country to sign the Terri Schiavo law which he could have easily done from Crawford.

[Dr_Flash_Amazing]

GW couldn't be bothered to get out of bed when the Tsunami hit, but he was able to rush cross country to sign the Terri Schiavo law which he could have easily done from Crawford.

 

Typical American nationalist attitude--human life is of utmost value and to be protected at all costs, as long as it's American life. They decry abortion but have no qualms aborting thousands of lives--fetal and otherwise--with bombs. Although their insistence on keeping someone with zero quality of life "alive" does perhaps work well with their hearty endorsement of torture.

 

It'll be interesting to see if the Pope elects to go on serious life support as his end draws near, or if he opts to go naturally. That'll throw a pretty little wrench in the talking points.

[Gidget]

It'll be interesting to see if the Pope elects to go on serious life support as his end draws near, or if he opts to go naturally. That'll throw a pretty little wrench in the talking points.

 

Awesome point

[murraysovereign]

It'll be interesting to see if the Pope elects to go on serious life support as his end draws near, or if he opts to go naturally. That'll throw a pretty little wrench in the talking points.

 

Awesome point

 

...and His Holiness responds: Pope "abandons self to God's will"

[Dave_Schuldt]

I heard on the news this morning that polling results show that 70% in favor of letting her die. Looks like the polititains screwed up. Bush's approval rating has gone down as well.

[Harry_Pi]

Hello capitalist!

Take a biology class morons. link

Thank you for allow me to post.

[Bogen]

Saw it on the news this morn.

[iain]

I thought this would be about some gridbolting epidemic in hospitals.

[rbw1966]

Parents of Schiavo allow direct-mailing firm to sell list of supporters

 

WASHINGTON The parents of Terri Schiavo have authorized a conservative direct-mailing firm to sell a list of their financial supporters, making it likely that thousands of strangers moved by her plight will receive a steady stream of solicitations from anti-abortion and conservative groups.

 

"These compassionate pro-lifers donated toward Bob Schindler's legal battle to keep Terri's estranged husband from removing the feeding tube from Terri," says a description of the list on the Web site of the firm, Response Unlimited, which is asking $150 a month for 6,000 names and $500 a month for 4,000 e-mail addresses of people who responded last month to an e-mail plea from Schiavo's father. "These individuals are passionate about the way they value human life, adamantly oppose euthanasia, and are pro-life in every sense of the word!"

 

Experts on privacy and law said the sale of the list was legal and even predictable. "I think it's amusing," said Robert Gellman, a privacy and information policy consultant. "I think it's absolutely classic America. Everything is for sale in America, every type of personal information about everybody."

 

Executives of Response Unlimited declined to comment. Gary McCullough, director of the Christian Communication Network and a spokesman for Schiavo's parents, confirmed that Schindler had agreed to let Response Unlimited rent out the list as part of a deal for the firm to send out an e-mail solicitation raising money on the family's behalf. The Schindlers have waged a lengthy legal battle against their son-in-law, Michael Schiavo, to prevent the removal of the feeding tube from their daughter, who doctors say is in a persistent vegetative state.

 

McCullough said he was present when Schindler agreed to the arrangement in a conversation with Phil Sheldon, co-founder of a conservative online marketing organization, Rightmarch.com, who acted as a broker for Response Unlimited.

 

How much attention they paid to the matter is hard to assess, he added. "The Schindlers right now know that their daughter is starving to death, and if I ask about anything else, they say, 'I don't want to hear about it."'

 

Direct mail and mass e-mailings are ubiquitous tools of interest groups on the left as well as the right, and others in the business defended the sale of lists like the roster of donors to the Schindlers as a useful way for potential donors to learn of causes that might appeal to them.

 

Source

 

(edited to add source)

Edited March 30, 2005 by rbw1966

[olyclimber]

Sweet! Imagine how much the MoveOn.org people could make if they sold their list to spammers.

[Gidget]

The Pope is on a feeding tube. Is that abandoning to god's will?

I need a drink