Young Man, I STRONGLY suggest YOU go to LAW school! You are EXACTLY RIGHT! When a man and woman Marry, HE Becomes her Immediate Family, and SHE/HIS. This applies ABOVE genetics. Legally, in some states if not MOST! "Immediate Family" takes the legal presidence.
In most states this is true, I don't know the law for unmarried people or those who have same sex partners. ALSO, one can choose someone OTHER THAN their legal spouse to be their next of kin and make decisons if something this horrible happens to them. The problem with automatically making the spouse "next of kin" is that in less than happy marragies, this could lead to the caregiving spouse to make very selfish decisions. The best thing to do is to have a living will, and if you can't trust your spouse (and there are people who can't) have someone else declared your next of kin. These laws ASSUME that all marraiges are happy and that married people would NEVER hurt each other, something that more than half of our population KNOW simply isn't true.
Looks like according to the autopsy there was no chance of recovery for Terri. Also there were no signs of abuse. http://www.cnn.com/2005/HEALTH/06/15/schiavo.autopsy/index.html 'He said his examination turned up no sign of abuse or trauma -- allegations leveled by Terri Schiavo's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, against her husband and legal guardian, Michael Schiavo... Schiavo's brain damage "was irreversible, and no amount of therapy or treatment would have regenerated the massive loss of neurons," Thogmartin said. He said, the vision centers of her brain were dead, meaning she was blind. And his examination showed she would have been unable to take nourishment by mouth because of the danger she might aspirate the food.' And also, considering that there was no sign of abuse, there was no reason why her husband should have not been able to remian her legal gaurdian. I think it is safe to say the right decisions were made by the courts in this case.
Not in the state of Virginia! Any contract between same sex individuals that "resembles" any right provided by marriage is now null and void if contested by ANY 1 individual or the state.
Much of the damage in her brain, including the "shrinking" could well have been caused by the massive dehydration which killed her. Doctors were saying before she died that if they did an autopsy, it would be basically useless, because the dehydration would do so much damage to her brain itself. It can now never be known in what state she was in. I heard some ass on TV saying he "knew" she had "cortical blindness" which he said was a given in her state. Yeah, that's why she moved her eyes and looked at people and smiled. Yeah, you get cortical blindness when you are almost dead of thirst, but there was no evidence she had it while she was being hydrated. Also, IMO, just because she may not have ever "recovered" wasn't a reason to kill her outright. I am not going to talk about this any more. My FIL has terminal cancer and one of the hospices is already sending us shit about cutting off his food and water, and he is totally alert and fine, just sick! (Yep get as much money from Medicare as possible and then KILL the pateints, and make room for more Medicare payments, is the way they do business, I guess!) We're going with the Catholic Hospice, which will not cut off his fluids.
Maggie, people who are comatose are taken off of life support all the time, with the decision being made by the legal guardian. I myself have had 2 family members removed from feeding tubes. My family wanted to respect their wishes and religious beliefs, and knew they would want us to let them go to heaven (they are christian) rather be stuck in some comatose limbo. Should that ability be taken away from people just because the media blew one case out of proportion? Not every human being should make the decision YOU would make in this situation. There are no right or wrong decisions in this case, just hard ones. 15 years is a long time to let her come back, and at this point there is nothing wrong with letting her move on. Also, other's in similar situations have shown far less brain damage after death then Terri had (around 20% shrinkage). Her's was far more severe than similar cases. The brain was half the EXPECTED size after her death, I am sure the doctors are educated enough to consider the dehydration in autopsy results. The autposy also showed that the vision centers in her brain were dead, so the "ASS" on TV was right. Blind people can move their eyes around too, doens't mean they can see anything. Just becuase her body gave some movement and reaction does not mean she was conscious or sentient at all.
WHO WHAT WHERE WHEN WHY AND HOW NO LONGER MATTER!!! She's GONE. Let her rest in peace. Jeb Bush is STILL trying to figure out how to prosecute Michael Schaivo. Let's just take whatever nice memories there are of this incredible woman and smear them all over the sidewalks of Florida because regardless of what happened to her, it's all wrong in the eyes of Jesus... You have no idea how pleased I am that I got out of that scumbag state on my 18th birthday.
Hmmm, I agree to an extent. But isn't the question more about HOW Terri got into this state in the first place and if she could have recovered if she had been offered therapy? There are so many reports and different opinions that not one of us can say what really happened. We'll probably never know. I too think after a certain time of no recovery the patient should be allowed to die IF and only if they have had all possible therapies there are available. Only in that case one can say "let her die in peace" I don't know if her husband really was such a bastard or not, but I am wondering why people, for example that nurse, would make such accusations, i don't think they'd have anything to gain from it. luvndrumm, you have been accusing other people of only seeing one side and only believing what they want to believe, but aren't you guilty of the same thing? Fact is, noone of us knows the truth. Reports can be faked, people can be bribed or blackmailed, there's so much that can cover up the truth, that we cannot assume we know all about it. Everyone of us may believe what they chose to believe, but don't be rude to others who don't share your opinion. It won't change anything for Terri.
Why is this thread still going on? luv, IF you had read what I posted, you would read that I asked people to follow the link I provided that opened the PDF file of the Guardian Ad Litum's report and read what a professional, both in law and medicine, had to say about the case. And I, as you say, accused people of holding on to what they got from pundits with an agenda in spite of what an official report, backed up by numerous other professionals, had discovered. Those pundits hadn't done any research that they could produce or have verified; they just kept on talking the same line they had been talking. And people seemed to want to go with them. And it seems to me that the only reason was because the talk was what they wanted to hear. I was open to reading another view that could have been verified by a source that was knowledgeable, that had bona fide credentials. None was presented to me. In the absence of that/those source(s), I stuck to what I read. If that's what you consider being one-sided, so be it. The woman has gone back to the Creator and is now in no more pain. Replaying this tragedy serves absolutely no positive purpose. I am out of this thread.
I think the parents need to grieve, mourn, accept, and move on. They have put this woman's husband through the wringer. And they have also run the justice system ragged. Let Go !
What pissed me off the most is the descision made to "put her out of her misery" by removing her feeding tube, hence slowly starving the poor girl to death. Irony at its best. What also pisses me off is the endless publicity and allegations that sorrounded Terri and her family. I say if she was going to get killed in the first place, the second very least they could have done is given her some peace. Unfortunately, they did the very first least thing they could do: nothing. And that's what's so wrong about it all.
look at all the people who say she wasn't brain dead. bill frist is an asshole. he knew she was a vegetable and wasn't going to get out of it. he is a dishonest man and should take a long, hard look in the mirror and ask himself "what the hell am i doing? i knew i couldn't tell from that video. why am i lying for the right. i shouldn't be lying to myself and everyone like this." i can't believe he considers himself a doctor. he shouldn't be making decisions that aren't in the best interest for terri schiavo.
ahhh, with the liberal media, it seems like everyone is so sad for her. i think we should let her die. why? because that's the law. he has the right to decide, and he did. that's how it should be. i agree with him. he's moved on and he should have. after 15 years! i dont think the law needs to be changed.
The woman's husband was the legal guardian in this case. The right-wing is using this case to shove a neo-conservative agenda down our throats.
