Journal bmetzler's Journal: Kate's Journey 16
It astounds me that the Schaivo debate is often framed in the argument that we shouldn't prevent someone from making their own decision about their life. But that's a stupid argument to use in Terri's case, because that's why we're still here after 15 years litigating the case. Unless you've forgotten, or haven't recognised yet, Terri *can't* make a decision.
The question that is being litigated is whether a legal guardian should be able to hide behind a familial relationship keep the government from interfering with abusive and pernicious choices that would otherwise be criminal. It looks like the precedent is going toward that interpretation, even though we have thousands of examples up to this point where interfering with familial relationships gone wrong have protected many families from abuse and death.
I suppose on the bright side, after our new era of enlightenment, and a fence around familial relationships, we can get rid of a few unneeded government services. Child Protective Services comes to mind, off hand. We can also reduce the load on foster homes, as we can put a lot of those children back into their families and no longer interfere.
Michael refused all therapy and rehabilitation for Terri. What might have been the result if he hadn't?
This is Terri Schiavo in 1990.
This is Terri Schiavo 15 years later.
This is Kate Adamson 10 years later
with a loving husband's support and
years of rehabilitation.
What did Kate have that Terri didn't?
In my last JE, the_mad_poster said that if we didn't agree with what was happening, we should write our senators. Well, we did, and congress responded to us. However, it's sad that we should have had to write our legislators over an issue as basic as human rights to food and water. Once again, familial relationships should not be a fence to prevent the government from protects a citizen's human rights.
I know that it's a matter of hundreds or years precedence that the law doesn't interfere in familial relationships to prevent abuse. I know that was the common law that the judges was ruling upon, but you'd think that after all this time we'd learn.
Maybe last weekend we reached a turning point in history. I can only hope and wait and see.
pvs (Score:2)
Also interesting and relavent is an article from the British Medical Journal: Misdiagnosis of the vegetative state: retrospective study in a rehabilitation unit [bmjjournals.com]
* Hopeful relatives frequently misinterpret reflexes and other coincidenta
Re:pvs (Score:3, Insightful)
I also wasn't commenting on whether schiavo should be allowed to reject further medical treatment, or whether her legal guardian should be able to make that decision for her.
I suspect that since not one judge has sided with schiavo's parents there is very little merit to their case and that we are getting superficial news reporting.
Food & Water != Medical Treatment (Score:2)
It's sad but... (Score:2)
I was right with you until I saw the CT scans. She can't recover and there's no way that she's aware any longer. Also, the husband is not the fiend the press has made him out to be. He tried tons of tests (experimental and otherwise) to see if they could help her...yet her condition declined to the point where her brain just deteriorated.
It's horribly
Re:It's sad but... (Score:2)
50%? One neurologist put the figure at 25% being non-functional; considering the level of redundancy built in, that's a long way from the whole thing being "goo", since people have gone on to lead normal lives with substantial chunks missing. Mind you, one of CNN's "experts" claimed there was "no electrical activity in her brain" - which, were it true, wo
Re:It's sad but... (Score:3, Informative)
No one is trying to make her look more dead. If anything, the sad people who aren't listening to the facts are trying to make her look more alive. I have a feeling that their hearts are in the right place, but their minds went bye-bye a long time ago.
Re: (Score:1, Flamebait)
Re:I hope you enjoy being euthanized. (Score:2)
I'm not being cold. I was all for saving her until I realized that those video
Re:I hope you enjoy being euthanized. (Score:2)
Re:I hope you enjoy being euthanized. (Score:2)
Re:It's sad but... (Score:2)
Untrue, as I pointed out: at least one site deliberately positions a slightly modified version of the CT scan you linked to (with larger black areas) next to a very different CT image to give a false impression.
If anything, the sad people who aren't listening to the facts are trying to make her look more alive. I have a feeling that their hearts are in the right place, but their minds went bye-bye a long time ago.
I'm just keeping an open mind, and trying to
Re:It's sad but... (Score:2)
Why let her die? Dignity. Her wishes.
What does he have to gain from this? If he wants to simply close a chapter of his life in a selfish fashion, how would it hurt him to simply turn over custody to the parents and divorce her? So, I'd say it's not that.
Insurance money? He claims that he w
Re:It's sad but... (Score:3, Insightful)
There's a bit of science that needs to be understood as to why she is really no longer there and not comparable to a temporarily damaged athlete. She is no more. Michael Schiavo performed tons of tests and therapies WHEN SHE HAD A BRAIN TO PERFORM THERAPY ON.
Now no amount of therapy will restore a missing brain.
Off-the-cuff comparison (Score:2)
Upper-level brain functions - EEG readings and CAT scans showing brain tissue. Kate was paralyzed, not vegetative. Kate could blink very deliberately in order to communicate. Her prognosis may not have been the miracle of her walking again, but there was no medical question of whether she was alive and aware and capable of communicating. Absolutely none of the images of Terri have ever shown this - they show her reacting to stimuli not acting of her own free will.