The point of the dispute is that Schiavo's husband seemed to want to get rid of her as a matter of convenience. On the other hand, he was her legal guardian and entitled to make medical decisions on her behalf. I don't see how a good decision could have resulted in that case. I guess the rule of law was upheld, but I wish the husband had just turned over responsibility to the parents, as they requested. Maybe that would not have been a good solution, either, since there was a possibility that Terry Schiavo really was suffering.

Many people felt connected to or invested in the Schiavo case who really weren't connected to it and shouldn't have been invested in it. It was unique, after all, and deserved to be considered for its own unique circumstances. The same could be said of every right-to-die case. Each one should be considered on its own merits, without regard to the legal points and general hysteria that accompany other cases.

Each of us is an individual, and each of us deserves to live and die according to what we believe about dignity, religion, pain, etc. There's no way to guarantee we'll go out when we want, the way we want. At the least, we all deserve to be spared the three ring circus that surrounded Terry Schiavo during her last days.

I guess there are not many who are willing to argue with a dead woman about her right to keep on living! This was the ultimate case of vested interest for the author.

BUT: I understand her motivation is to protect the rights of the disabled, and that is honorable, but she was simply mistaken. Throughout her essay she refers to Terry Schiavo's life, her right to live, her feelings, and so forth. But her physicians had already confirmed several times that Terry was brain dead, and therefore had no life and no capacity to ever feel anything again. In the autopsy it was confirmed that her brain had atrophied down to the size of a walnut. Terry Schiavo died many years before they stopped keeping her corpse animated. Medical science has given us the capacity to keep organs alive for a number of days without a living body, but that is always done with the intent of transplanting the organs into a living patient. Keeping Schiavo's corpse alive without a brain was just the sickest perversion of Medicine possible.

Re: "The point of the dispute is that Schiavo's husband seemed to want to get rid of her as a matter of convenience."

That was a claim made by the Religious fanatics and their helpmates in Congress, all of whom had a political agenda, and still do in bringing this up again.

Shame on Slate for being a part of this contrived political ploy to try to arouse the Religious Right inthe run up to the November elections.

Terri Schiavo's husband's name is Michael. Did you ever meet him? Did you talk to him, or get to know him and, that way, conclude he was trying to 'get rid of her as a matter of convenience'? If you did, please accept my apologies for being rude. If not, how dare you pass judgement? You weren't there before, during and after Terri's illness. You didn't have to deal with the monsterous changes those times brought. Michael was there and did what he had to do. Maybe he did right, maybe he didn't. I wasn't there and I don't know enough to judge. I do, however, know that he was Terri's husband and it fell to him to make the call. That's not an easy call, but it was between Michael and his conscience. Terri's autopsy showed conclusively that she was long gone, and only the shell remained. This was emotional agony for everybody involved. Why people from both sides had to get their two cents in is beyond me. This was a case of well-intentioned people making a bad situation astonishingly worse.

Dear Michael Schiavo,

Please continue to pay thousands of dollars in bills each month to let us visit your dead wife for as long as we want.

If you dont agree to pay, we will ask every branch of state and federal government to force you over your obviously selfish assertion--demonstrated during the eight years of care provided before your first petition to remove the tube--that Terri preferred not to leave her engine running without a driver.

Signed,

Your loving parents in-law

================

<link>

All I can say is that because of this case I have a living will and detailed do-not-resucitate document, copies of which have been delivered to parents and spouse. If I become a vegetable I want to be in the ground before the bills deny my kids an education--measured in days under our current healthcare market.

My bad. The last line of the letter should have read "engine running without a driver--by means of jumper cables."

My Summary of the Terri Schiavo Tragedy

The Schindlers’ were not concerned in Terri’s interest. They were concerned with Terri’s trust fund and their livelihoods. They knew Terri’s true non-recoverable condition. IMO, as I’ve stated before, I believe the Schindlers were trying to get control of Terri’s trust fund and to do that they had to get control of Terri’s guardianship from Michael Schiavo (her husband by law). After they gained control of the guardianship plus the control of the trust fund, and a reasonable period of time they would come to a “revelation” that there really wasn’t any hope for Terri and have the tube (PEG) removed themselves. The trust fund would be theirs. Their next efforts were to vilify Michael Schiavo with slanderous and libelous statements to the media to make him give up and surrender the guardianship to them. But they lost their attempts in the courts. Under the leadership of Randall “Bullhorn” Terry, which was paid $10,000 for his services, rallied the RTL and RR staged protests in front of Terri’s hospice and several other locations. The Schindlers requested donations to pay for their legal expense which was already being paid by other foundations. All four of the Schindlers’s livelihoods are now being provided by those donations of millions of dollars, which they’re still requesting donations to their Terri Schindler Foundation and to which they’re all employed.

Explain why the Schindlers attempted to present a false display of Terri Schiavo condition with their highly edited 4-minutes of staged videos out of 4-hour of videos made by them. That was the Schindlers’ biggest distortion of the truth to the world. It worked with the media and public but not in the courts. That alone shows their intention were to falsify Terri true condition. That proves the Schindlers knew the TRUE condition of Terri Schiavo for them to even to create the video falsehoods.

That is one thing a lot of people don't understand. Once Michael Schiavo turned it over to the court it was out of his hands and control. The court proceeded to hearing and viewing the evidence then made a ruling in response to what was proven to represent Terri's "wishes."

The Schindlers distortion those procedures to vilify and make it appear that Michael controlled the events. The Schindler rhetoric and propaganda especially what the Anit-Choice is shoveling is a perfect example to this day.

It was proven in court that Terri had a virtual “Living Will.” Judge Greer made the ruling and either Michael or the Schindlers could change it. It was a court order to remove the PEG. Who ever had the guardianship after the court ruling it wouldn’t make any difference. They would have to honor and obey the count order.

Terri Schiavo’s Virtual “Living Will”

Terri’s self-determination is that her dying not be artificially prolonged under the circumstances set forth as Terri declared that, if at any time she is mentally or physically incapacitated and by any or all of the following: terminal condition, end-stage condition, persistent or vegetative state, and it is determined that there is no reasonable medical probability of her recovery from such condition, Terri directed that life-prolonging procedures be withheld or withdrawn when the application of such procedures would serve only to prolong artificially the process of dying, and that she be permitted to die naturally with only the administration of medication or the performance of any medical procedure deemed necessary to provide her with comfort care or to alleviate pain.

It was about Terri's Schiavo's Self-Determination.

Leporello

I have met Michael Schiavo several times and have been indirectly involved. Today there are several individual posting the truth about The Terri Schiavo Tragedy on the Topix Terri Schiavo Forum. You and all are invited to come and learn the truth. I will continue to follow this Forum also.

<link>

Randall Terry's Wave Of Hatred

From the demagogue Randall Terry, head of the reactionary cult Operation Rescue, on his group's agenda: "I want you to just let a wave of intolerance wash over you... I want you to let a wave of hatred wash over you. Yes, hate is good... Our goal is a Christian nation. We have a biblical duty, we are called by God, to conquer this country. We don't want equal time. We don't want pluralism." (The News-Sentinal, Fort Wayne, Ind., 8/16/93)

This is a Christian talking, I think not! I Know NOT! This is a opportunist and fanatic talking and someone the Schindlers befriended.

Who is Randall Terry? <link>

Monday, March 21, 2005 8:35pm ET

The Legal Expense Scam

The Schindlers were requesting public donations to pay for their legal expense which was already being paid by other rich foundations. Currently all four of the Schindlers’s livelihoods and retirements are now being provided by those donations of millions of dollars, which they are still requesting donations to their Terri Schindler Foundation and to which they are all employed. This was/is another fraud on these public donors.

From the Terrifight.org Web Site http://www.terrisfight.org/ during the court battles:
“Terri’s Foundation is in need of financial assistance to offset the costs of legal fees. Visit our donation page here or write to us 4615 Gulf Blvd #104-103 – St.Petersburg Beach, FL 33706”

From “Follow the Money” by Jon B. Eisenberg

Here are just a few examples:

Pat Anderson [lawyer for the Schindlers] works with the Alliance Defense Fund, which received $143,000 from Philanthropy Roundtable members that include the Lynde & Harry Bradley Foundation and the Richard and Helen DeVos Foundation. Wesley Smith works with the Discovery Institute, which received $175,000 from the Lynde & Harry Bradley Foundation. Diane Colemen’s “friend of the court” brief is signed by the World Institute on Disability and the National Organization on Disability, which are funded by the Scaife Family Foundations, the Richard and Helen DeVos Foundation, and the JM Foundations.

The other “friend of the court” brief supporting Governor Bush was filed by the Family Research Council, which was formerly headed by Bush’s lawyer Kenneth Connor and which received $215,000 from the Lynde & Harry Bradley Foundation. Rita Marker’s organization, the International Task Force on Euthanasia, received $110,390 from the Randolph Foundation, an affiliate of the Smith Richardson family. Bush’s lawyer Robert Destro has ties to the Council on Economic and Policy Education, which is funded by the Randolph and JM Foundations.

The two new Schindler lawyers, Deborah Berliner and Brett Wood, are affiliated with Judicial Watch Inc, which received $7,069,500 from the Scaife and DeVos Foundations.
And in the thick of this is Governor Jeb Bush, a former director of the Heritage Foundation. The Heritage Foundation is a creation of Joseph Coors and one of the most prominent member of the Philanthropy Roundtable. The Heritage Foundation has been funded to the tune of $47 million by among others – you guessed it – the Bradley, Schaife, DeVos and JM Foundations.”

Jon B. Eisenberg is an attorney who practices in Oakland, California and is an adjunct professor at the University of California Hastings College of the Law. His specialty is civil appeals, on which he publishes a widely-use California treatise. His work mostly involves commercial and liability disputes, but his occasional forays into pro bono work lead him to cases like Terri Schiavo litigation, where he filed a amicus curiae brief in the Florida Supreme Court on behalf of 55 bioethicists and a disability rights organization opposing Governor Jeb Bush.

The Money sure adds up…..and so did the donations.

Why was the Schindlers’“Terri Fight Foundation” requesting financial assistance (DONATIONS) with this kind of financial support already in hand?
What were the agendas of these rich foundations with this amount of money to hand out for the Schindlers?

With this amount of money and influence these FOUNDATIONS could have found and financed “real medical expertise” that could have helped Terri’s brain be regenerated, if that were a possibility – which it wasn’t.

The answer to these questions is: they were interest in the media coverage and “buying” of the support of the Right-To-Life and NeoChristian Right leadership and VOTES for the NeoPower Right (George W. Bush & Co., THEY, etc.).

The Schindlers produced and presented a false display of Terri Schiavo condition with their highly edited 4-minutes of staged videos out of 4-hour of videos made by them. That alone shows their intention were to falsify Terri true condition and also proved the Schindlers knew the TRUE condition of Terri Schiavo for them to even to create these video falsehoods.

These highly edited videos were the Schindlers’ biggest distortion of the truth to the world and their donors. Their video fraud worked with the media, politicians and the public but not in the courts. The courts viewed all 4+-hour of videos. If the Schindlers had releases all 4+-hours it would prove their fraud.

The Schindlers did make a living and retirement off their daughter name, Theresa Marie Schiavo. With their reported income sources drying up each Schindler will have trouble explaining their sources of income and no taxes paid. This will or should flag the IRS. However, we know how incompetent the IRS is, the Schindlers may just get away with their donation scam and income shell game.

Florida's law ultimately resolved the Schiavo controversy on good, just and moral grounds.

The law is that until somebody's condition is 1) vegetative and 2) unchangeable until terminal, their life must be preserved. Vegetative means incapable of cognitive thought: brain dead.

Medical tests and diagnosis and a contested court hearing established that that Mrs. Schiavo was in that condition. The judgment was reviewed by appellate benches and upheld. Her condition was regularly checked by physicians to ensure there was no change until she died.

When somebody is in a vegetative and unchangable state, only their personal wishes can govern end-of-life treatment decisions. If someone has executed a written utterance of those wishes, those wishes will be honored. Nobody is allowed to butt into the decisionmaking and replace the patients decision with their own.

If one has not executed a writen such an utterance, a court hearing can be held to ascertain the wishes of the vegetative citizen. The standard for determining that someone prefers to have life sustaining treatment withdrawn when vegetative and unrecoverable is "clear and convincing evidence" not the standard "perponderance of the evidence" standard used in most cases.

The court found that there was clear and convincing evidence that Terry Shiavo desired termination of life sustaining treatment were she ever in a irrversible vegetative state. She'd made statements to that effect, seperated by decades of time, to different witnesses and--most pertainently, when a member of her extended family had been in a vegetative state. The court's jugment was reviewed by appellate panels and affirmed.

What happened happened because Terry Shiavo's wishes were followed. Substituting her personal preferences for somebody else's (her husband's or her parent's or Congresses') was not allowed by the law.

I personally find it appalling and totalitarian that other people think they should be allowed to reach into situations like this and impose their distant will on a human being in such extreme circumstances; whether in service to the interloper's moral, religious or political views.

I wish people would take the time to learn the facts and think through the matter before they invest so much self-righteousness and anger into such situations. Our press is a co-conspirator in everybody's anguish for failing to inform and only exhibiting useless conflict. Sure the facts were available in the press, but only about 0.0005% of the coverage ever mentioned them.

It is sick that some people think they have God's ear and are entitled to tell all the rest of us what God wants even such very profoundly personal circumstances. Their self-appopointed self-important self-righteousness is almost limitless: they think they should get to tell us when we can die.

I do not credit their holiness or their supposed good will. They are totalitarians and ought to be repudiated as the monsters they are. They are citizens in a democratic republic under the rule of law. If they condemn based on their scrupples, the least they should do first is understand what they are condemning.

I appreciate values and morals and believe we must be very careful to ensure our laws are not amoral, but this law--and this situation, is clearly just and appropriate.

To hell with all the self-aggrandizers who feel othewise, because that's where they are headed when they themselves finally meet their God--to hell! They should read or re-read the book of Job and get some real fear of God in their hearts and start exercising a scintilla of humility.

[IMO, as I’ve stated before, I believe the Schindlers were trying to get control of Terri’s trust fund and to do that they had to get control of Terri’s guardianship from Michael Schiavo (her husband by law).]

Where do you think the trust fund came from? It was won in a lawsuit for the specific purpose of paying for Terri's care for the rest of her natural life! It wasn't money the Schiavo's had set aside "just in case."

The fact that Michael sued to get millions of dollars to care for Terri and then wanted to end that care and keep the money says an awful lot about the motivations of the people involved.

Her brain was the size of a walnut.

Thank GOD he took her off that awful tube.

This was all about the ideology, about some belief in "miracles" and it was very much a part of the general Bush ANTI-Science offensive.

The families were just cannon fodder in their fascist culture war, which is not over, I guess, in this round.