Terri Schiavo

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AuthorTopic: Terri Schiavo
By Committee
Member # 4233
Profile #0
This poll duplicates one that I saw on the Wall Street Journal, but I'm curious to know what the community thinks about this issue. At its core are several issues: Right to life, custody issues, states' rights issues, the role of the judiciary, political grandstanding. In other words, it's thick with possibilities.

Let's keep it civil.

Poll Information
This poll contains 1 question(s). 50 user(s) have voted.
You may not view the results of this poll without voting.

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Posts: 2242 | Registered: Saturday, April 10 2004 07:00
Infiltrator
Member # 2836
Profile #1
Uh, I'm sorry, but I have absolutely no idea what this poll is about.
Posts: 587 | Registered: Tuesday, April 1 2003 08:00
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
Profile Homepage #2
Do a Google search. Any recent news will have it.

I haven't actually taken the time to read about it, because of a sort of visceral reaction of "Ew." I don't really have an opinion.

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Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00
Shock Trooper
Member # 3980
Profile Homepage #3
While I do understand the perspective of the husband and I think that "emergency" legislation made for a single case is unconstitutional and promotes totalitarianism - this may be a test run to allow for a lifelong W.-presidency by Diebold plebiscite - I do have my doubts about the medical side of the case. How come that the patient has been able to survive so long? What is the experience in similar cases?
Assume she is irreversibly dead, then the person as a legal subject does no longer exist. What is the argument against keeping her bodily functions going and accomodate emotional needs of the parents? There is no written will.
This is regularly done for organ donors.

I am afraid that it has become more of an emotional political and ego show than a reasonable discussion about moral values.
What about the money?
Imho, a lot of good could come from a campaign to keep her alive - with sponsored TV-spots on a live cam and proceeds going to real sex education including contraception.
That would be real pro-life activism.
Posts: 311 | Registered: Friday, February 13 2004 08:00
By Committee
Member # 4233
Profile #4
quote:
Originally written by The Stew Boy:

Uh, I'm sorry, but I have absolutely no idea what this poll is about.
Terri Schiavo has been in a "vegetative" state for fifteen years. Her doctors consider her legally braindead. She breathes on her own, but requires feeding and water tubes in order to remain alive. Her husband, citing a conversation they had prior to the circumstances leading to her current state, claims she would not have wanted to "live" like this, and is trying to get the tubes removed and let her die. Her parents disagree.

The Florida state courts have ruled in favor of the husband. The governor of Florida, Jeb Bush, tried to intervene, but his executive order was also countermanded in court. The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to take the case. Now, the U.S. congress has passed a bill that the President has signed allowing for the case to be taken to federal court.
Posts: 2242 | Registered: Saturday, April 10 2004 07:00
Bob's Big Date
Member # 3151
Profile Homepage #5
I'm very leery about the lack of respect either of the other branches have been showing for the judicary lately. I would have disagreed with a law being passed over euthanasia in general in that direction, because I know it would have the same kind of shadowy motives shared by every other Republican bill on moralistics, but an act of Congress overriding a judicial decision is patently ridiculous. It's unconstitutional on at least three levels and, as someone said earlier, seems to be the first step towards a more totalitarian system.

Is it just me, or has the GOP gotten seriously drunk on power since 2004? They seem to believe they're working on a mandate, and whether that mandate is coming from below or above doesn't seem to matter to them.

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Posts: 2367 | Registered: Friday, June 27 2003 07:00
Guardian
Member # 3521
Profile #6
I'm rather horrified by the massive media and government attention dedicated to what amounts to a family drama. All of this has very little importance on the international level, and yet it's all one seems to be able to find on the news nowadays. The practice of elevating dramatic trivialities into "big news" is fast becoming an American tradition- for more evidence, remember the ridiculous media circuses that formed around the O.J. Simpson and Scott Peterson trials.

In terms of Schiavo and the euthanasia issue as a whole, I feel that families are given far too much control over the fates of their loved ones in these situations. When a medical professional certifies that a patient is largely brain-dead and will never recover simple brain function, it becomes a quality of life issue. Since it seems impossible that Schiavo will ever recover to the point where she has a reasonable quality of life, it is right to disconnect the feeding tube and save the resources being wasted for those who actually have a shot at recovery.

Sentimentality on the part of Schiavo's parents is standing in the way of the correct action in this case. Clear-headed and unbiased experts in ethics should be charged with making decisions in these situations, not family members blinded with grief and emotional trauma.

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"Delusion arises from anger. The mind is bewildered by delusion. Reasoning is destroyed when the mind is bewildered. One falls down when reasoning is destroyed."- The Bhagavad Gita.
Posts: 1798 | Registered: Sunday, October 5 2003 07:00
Infiltrator
Member # 4637
Profile Homepage #7
If it's true she's braindead, then, technically speaking, it wouldn't be called "euthanasia" stoping the machinery that supports her life. She's dead. Artificialy alive, but dead. It's different from a coma.

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Posts: 483 | Registered: Tuesday, June 29 2004 07:00
...b10010b...
Member # 869
Profile Homepage #8
Basically her situation is that there's enough brainstem activity that she keeps breathing on her own if life support is disconnected, but that's about it. The whole cerebral cortex seems to be pretty much dead, which many but not all doctors accept as essentially equivalent to brain death.

[ Monday, March 21, 2005 15:28: Message edited by: Thuryl ]

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Posts: 9973 | Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00
Agent
Member # 3364
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I think it is good for congress to intervene now, not for the sake of saving Terri's life, but for the sake of getting the supreme court ruling so that all the fighting can be put to rest. It will save future families from fighting over the same thing even for as rare as the cases are. I sympathise with both sides and can honestly say that if put in the situation, I would not know what to choose.

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Posts: 1001 | Registered: Tuesday, August 19 2003 07:00
Law Bringer
Member # 335
Profile Homepage #10
Except this is Marbury v. Madison in reverse. By giving the Supreme Court the authority to rule on this case, the legislative and executive branches are essentially declaring themselves superior to the judiciary branch. That is not a good precedent at all.

—Alorael, who also finds it highly ironic that this is happening only a few short years after the Supreme Court basically determined who would hold the power of the executive branch.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Apprentice
Member # 5568
Profile Homepage #11
Personally, I am adamantly against what Congress and the President just did. The Executive and Legislative branches shouldn't be able to control what the Judicial branch does. We have Checks and Balances for a reason. I just see it has one more power grab by the current administration. I believe they are just trying to see how far they can get their fingers into people's personally lives before, the public cries foul. Hopefully, this is the breaking point. I think I read that 67% of the nation disagrees with their actions.

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Posts: 4 | Registered: Wednesday, March 2 2005 08:00
Shock Trooper
Member # 3980
Profile Homepage #12
Jewels of the Forest, you wrote:
quote:
I think it is good for congress to intervene now, not for the sake of saving Terri's life, but for the sake of getting the supreme court ruling so that all the fighting can be put to rest. It will save future families from fighting over the same thing even for as rare as the cases are.
How can a personlized law, which gives "any parent of Theresa Marie Schiavo" standing to sue in federal court to keep her alive help any other families?
quote:
The founders believed in a nation in which, as Justice Robert Jackson once wrote, we would "submit ourselves to rulers only if under rules." There is no place in such a system for a special law creating rights for only one family. The White House insists that the law will not be a precedent. But even that means that the right to bring such claims in federal court is reserved for people with enough political pull to get a law passed that names them in the text.

By putting Federal courts above state jurisdiction President Bush and his Congressional allies have begun to enunciate a new principle: the rules of government are worth respecting only if they produce the result we want.
I call that totalitarianism.

P.S. The second quote is from today's NYTimes editorial: A Blow to the Rule of Law.
Posts: 311 | Registered: Friday, February 13 2004 08:00
Triad Mage
Member # 7
Profile Homepage #13
quote:
How can a personlized law, which gives "any parent of Theresa Marie Schiavo" standing to sue in federal court to keep her alive help any other families?
It's called precedent.

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Posts: 9436 | Registered: Wednesday, September 19 2001 07:00
Agent
Member # 1993
Profile #14
I would say, not only Terry Schiavo is in a vegetative and brain dead state, but also the congress including the Bushs (Jeb and the other Arschloch). It's absolutely cynical to keep a dead person for 15 years artificial "alive" - against her wish! Not to mention the costs. And it's even more abominable to abuse this braindead person for a spectacular media show and republican campaigns.
Poor America. My sympathy to all intelligent, incorrupt people who must live in such a hypocritical nation.

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Posts: 1420 | Registered: Wednesday, October 2 2002 07:00
Shock Trooper
Member # 4214
Profile #15
I'm starting to feel that President Bush is intentionally governing as corrupt as possible.

Terri is an unusually expensive houseplant, don't you agree?

[ Tuesday, March 22, 2005 05:21: Message edited by: Mind ]
Posts: 356 | Registered: Tuesday, April 6 2004 07:00
By Committee
Member # 4233
Profile #16
The Supreme Court did have a chance to consider the case. One route to the Supreme Court is through the federal court system; the other is through the state's court system. After the Florida Supreme Court decided in favor of the husband, the case was appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, and they chose not to hear it, because it's a states' rights issue.

I understand this morning that the District Court decided against the parents as well. We'll see whether the Court of Appeals will take it.

Also, for everyone who thinks that Terri will suffer as she starves, I'm pretty certain they'll fill her system with morphine, so even if she were capable of it, she won't feel anything.
Posts: 2242 | Registered: Saturday, April 10 2004 07:00
Agent
Member # 2210
Profile #17
What makes this case especially sad is that either her family or husband drove her into the coma with bulimia or possible abuse.

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Posts: 1084 | Registered: Thursday, November 7 2002 08:00
Shock Trooper
Member # 4214
Profile #18
quote:
Also, for everyone who thinks that Terri will suffer as she starves, I'm pretty certain they'll fill her system with morphine, so even if she were capable of it, she won't feel anything.
Terri's soul - her cerebral cortex - is decayed. She can no longer experience pain or even process any information.

[ Tuesday, March 22, 2005 08:36: Message edited by: Mind ]
Posts: 356 | Registered: Tuesday, April 6 2004 07:00
By Committee
Member # 4233
Profile #19
quote:
Originally written by Lord Baron Von Toast:

What makes this case especially sad is that either her family or husband drove her into the coma with bulimia or possible abuse.
According to what official report or court document?
Posts: 2242 | Registered: Saturday, April 10 2004 07:00
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
Profile Homepage #20
I thought that was kind of strange, too, AM, but this report on MSNBC seems to indicate something like that. Specifically,
quote:
Terri Schiavo suffered brain damage in 1990 when her heart stopped briefly because of a possible potassium imbalance brought on by an eating disorder.


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Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens.

Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me
The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever
Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00
By Committee
Member # 4233
Profile #21
The report of the Guardian Ad Litem of Terri Schiavo is revealing with regard to her Bulimia. Apparently, she had weighed 250 pounds in her teen years, and had worked her way down to 150 before meeting her husband.

[ Tuesday, March 22, 2005 10:26: Message edited by: andrew miller ]
Posts: 2242 | Registered: Saturday, April 10 2004 07:00
Triad Mage
Member # 7
Profile Homepage #22
This bulimia would not be a fault of her husband, though.

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"At times discretion should be thrown aside, and with the foolish we should play the fool." - Menander
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Posts: 9436 | Registered: Wednesday, September 19 2001 07:00
Shock Trooper
Member # 3980
Profile Homepage #23
Drakey wrote:
quote:
quote:
How can a personlized law, which gives "any parent of Theresa Marie Schiavo" standing to sue in federal court to keep her alive help any other families?
Tt's called precedent.
That is the problem either way as I had already mentioned
quote:
quote:
The White House insists that the law will not be a precedent. But even that means that the right to bring such claims in federal court is reserved for people with enough political pull to get a law passed that names them in the text.


Posts: 311 | Registered: Friday, February 13 2004 08:00
Triad Mage
Member # 7
Profile Homepage #24
The White House can insist all they want, but it would still set precedent.

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"At times discretion should be thrown aside, and with the foolish we should play the fool." - Menander
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Posts: 9436 | Registered: Wednesday, September 19 2001 07:00

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