Today is March 25, 2005 and one of the great spectacles of the news right now is the death by starvation of a minimally conscious woman, Terri Schiavo.
What makes this case vitally important is that it touches some of the most important concepts of humanity.
What makes a person a human being and when does the person stop being a human being? Is life sacred?
Is the cost of care for a disabled person the reason to end that person's life?
Should the American Juriprudence system only protect people who are cognizant and functioning normally?
Do disabled people have the same rights to an appeal before they are put to death as a common murderer?
There are tens of thousands of people similar to Terri Schiavo being cared for today in hospitals. Is this case the signal to restart Adolf Hitler's mass execution of "lesser souls"?
There are many other philosophical aspects of this case that are fundamental and should be considered. But let's begin with information I've learned over the last several months and days.
Terri Schiavo married Michael Schiavo, a 6'7'' spousal abuser who works as a jail nurse November 1984. Terri was seen often to have bruises on her body from frequent fights. In the malpractice suit that Michael won against the MD's who treated her it was
mentioned that they didn't want word to come out that the couple were getting close to divorcing because it could throw the case. The night before Terri collapsed they had a big fight.
According to some accounts she was trying to starve herself to lose weight without medical supervision. Women who are severely emotionally abused often put on lots of weight finding solace in food. However, the X-Ray studies of her body show many fractures that were not the result of falls or accidents. It is likely the result of extremely violent physical abuse. One of the articles below points out a couple of sickening observations: when Terri was taken to the Emergency Room she had a very stiff neck, this could have been the result of trauma. The second thing I felt was very important was that Michael Schiavo, a Registered Nurse, didn't perform CPR on his wife despite his training.
In any case, in 1990 the combination of physical violence, unsupervised dieting possibly with buliemia which her family denies she ever had, and depression combined in a horrible catastrophe on the day of her collapse. It resulted in a Potassium shift in her blood leaving her with a serum K of about 2.6. She suffered either/or/both a cardaic event and/or seizure because of the K imbalance and probably other factors. In any case she suffered severe hypoxic brain damage.
It seems that Terri's husband hired a quack MD to say that she was in a persistent vegetative state. Recent research on this MD revealed that he is an advocate for euthenasia and was an officer in the Hemlock Society. This in turn shows the doctor had an agenda to "help" Terri die. Later MD's who examined her declared that this was a misdiagnosis and termed her condition "minimally conscious" and not vegetative after a lengthy 10 hour exam. The previous MD made his diagnosis in 45 minutes and said she was a vegetable. Since that time a fierce battle has been waged to get her feeding removed.
Several nurses and nurse's aids who worked with Terri in her hospitalizations described her as having awareness, humor, an
ability to understand and cooperate with her care and an ability to swallow fluids and jello. They described her as being able to say several words besides moans and grunts that the mainstream Deathocrat media will only repeat to the public. Another thing reported by the hospital staff was the often repeated question by Michael, "When is that bitch going to die? She's costing me money!"
Apparently he sued the MD's who initially treated her claiming that their treatment of her resulted in her brain injury. I've heard numbers from $1 million to over $2 million as the award he was given. This was to finance the care of his wife for the rest of her life. Apparently Michael also took out a life insurance policy on Terri that would also give him a very big payoff, perhaps in the seven figure range as well. At that time Michael Schiavo presented himself as the ideal loving husband and requested the feeding tube be put in. As soon as he won the fortune he put a "Do Not Resuscitate" order on Terri and disallowed MRI's, antibiotics for severe infections, all physical therapy and finally, food and water with the help of criminal named Judge Greer. Judge Greer, the night before he ruled in favor of Michael accepted a large donation of money for reelection from Michael Schiavo's attorney.
So what DID Michael do with a million plus bucks? He went out and got into a relationship, bought a house, had two kids with this "other woman" who the mass witless media calls his "common law wife" ignoring the fact that Michael is already married. He made comments to several people that Terri is standing in the way of his "good" life of nice cars, travel, and luxury. This naturally begs the question, does this make Michael a bigamist which is a federal crime in the US? Are his children bastards?
Michael recently was offered $1 million and later $10 million dollars to give up his fight to end Terri's life. However, the impression I get is that either he couldn't accept the money because the case was out of his hands and in the hands of the courts or a much more sinister motive also is apparent. Another MD who saw her said that with therapy he could help Terri regain her ability to talk. The thought is that Michael fears this because she might talk about his abuse of her and possibly event instigate a legal battle against him.
Terri reacted happily to her caregivers and her parents who want to keep her alive. However after a visit by her husband, Michael, she reacted by withdrawing from everyone, curling up on her side and exhibiting pallor and clammy sweaty skin.
One of the nurses related a story that they literally posted a "lookout" to watch for Michael's approach to the hospital so they could give Terri "forbidden" physical therapy and try her on swallowing fluids and jello which the nurses reported she enjoyed immensely. The rooms curtains were ordered shut constantly and no television has been allowed by Michael to minimize any mental stimulation for his wife.
In addition many sources said that the nurses literally were screamed at by Michael Schiavo for providing any nursing care to his wife. Michael appears as an archvillain from their depictions. He got several nurses and staff fired. The Director of Nursing told her staff to listen to whatever Michael wants and not to what the MD's orders were. Among the MD's orders were for Physical Therapy. Michael Schiavo violently objected to any form of PT on his wife, even simple range of motion. The hospital, in my opinion, therefore should have been decertified as a convalescent home for violating many aspects of the Nurse Practice Act and not acting in compliance with state and federal laws to protect defenseless hospital patients. The nurses also submitted in their signed affadavits that they had witnessed Michael enter his wife's room, close and lock the door for about 20 minutes then leave. The staff then found on at least two occasions that Terri was in Insulin shock and found injection bruises under her breasts, groin, and other hidden parts of her body. Her blood sugar tested zero and she was given glucose and she recovered. They also found an empty Insulin bottle in the trash in her room although she was not a diabetic. Being a Registered Nurse myself I find this highly unusual. Insulin bottles can break and injure the janitorial staff if they are in trash and are routinely disposed of in sharps containers along with needles, scalpels and the like.
Bone scans of Terri's revealed several anomalies on her body in 2002, possibly healed areas secondary to blunt force trauma committed by her huge, angry husband.
In the meantime, since her initial brain damage she's been sustained on liquid food and water supplied by a gastric percutaneous feeding tube. This is common practice for patients having dysphagia which is difficulty swallowing. She remained in very good condition in spite of her husband's vicious personality because of good nursing care.
Currently Terri's parents have tried every court all the way up to the US Supreme court and lost every time. In the case of one Florida judge he apparently did so in contempt of US Congress and there is legislative action in the works to bring this recalcitrant judge for questioning in front of the US Congress.
Anyway it goes on and on and on. I've cared for many brain injured patients on g-tube feeding in my career. This case is the very first one where a man wants to starve his wife to death and gets full backing from all the lawyers and courts and not a single liberal left wing organization has raised a finger to protest this. On the contrary, the New York Times editorial glorifies starvation as painless. Wouldn't you just love it if all those fat assed liars were forced to discover the joys of starvation themselves?
Police Officers Arrest 10-Year Old Boy for Trying to Give Terri Schiavo a Drink of Water
Evidence of Physical Abuse Haunts Michael Schiavo
Michael Schiavo: Loving Husband Or Monster? One medical expert testified that a diagnosis of a heart attack was never made. Another testified that Terri’s rigid neck indicates she may have been the victim of strangulation....“If Terri were to be allowed to die, as Michael has been desperately struggling to achieve for years, it could help him escape detection. This would be a grave miscarriage of justice.”
Killing for No Compelling Reason
"Human Non-Person": Terri Schiavo, Bioethics, and Our Future
The Empire Journal Keeping up with the story.
Polls Distort Terri's Life and Death
Disabled Woman's Family, Former Nurses Seek Inquiry
Torturing Terri Schiavo: She'd Be Better Off if She Were a Terrorist
The Worms Triumph and a Woman Dies
Doctor Says Examination Changed His Mind
The Assault on Terri Schiavo Continues
Reports, Polling Biased on Patient
Fake but Accurate...Again? Deathocrats crassly use this tragedy to create dirty tricks to smear the Republican'ts.
How Liberalism Failed Terri Schiavo
"Evolving Standards of Decency"
The Politics of the Schiavo Case
Terri Bleeding From the Eyes and Mouth
Michael Schiavo Plans to Cremate Terri
The MainStreamMedia's Life and Death Distortions
Friend: Terri Often Had Bruises
Judge Greer Got Donation From Mike Schiavo's Lawyer
Prior Greer Ruling Led to Wife's Death
It's Murder...That's the Ugly Truth
Mel Gibson Passionate About Keeping Terri Schiavo Alive
Terri's Passion on Good Friday
Terri Schiavo is Dying for Our Sins
Activist Judge Greer Plays 'God' as Arbiter of Life and Death
The Case of Terri Schiavo: A Debate Between a Bioethicist and a Disability Rights Activist
Violations of Florida Statutes Against Terri Schiavo
Terri Schiavo's Doctors & the Hippocratic Oath
Friend: Terri Wanted Divorce Before Accident
Congress Won't Enforce Its Own Subpoenas
Terri Schiavo Case Information
Schiavo's Brother: Starvation 'Part of Death Process'
Is Terri Schiavo Minimally Conscious? And Does It Matter?
Vatican: Pulling Plug on Terri Akin to Capital Punishment
Democratic Party Exposed by Schiavo Case
Schindler's Lawyers Drop Federal Appeals
Florida Officials' Attempt, Fail to Seize Schiavo
NO SHOCK: State Supreme Court: TYRANNY CONTINUES
Odd Felos: Michael Schiavo's Very Strange Lawyer
Courts Side With Rapist Murderer BUT NOT TERRI SCHIAVO!
The Good Samaritan Goes to Jail
Starved For Justice "Given the country's fetishism about court rulings, this may be a rash assumption, but I presume if Greer had ordered that Terri Schiavo be shot at her husband's request--a more humane death, by the way--the whole country would not sit idly by, claiming to be bound by the court's ruling because of the "rule of law" and "federalism." President Bush would order the FBI to protect her and Gov. Bush would send in the state police."
Judge Greer: Tyrant on the Bench
HPA's Terri Schindler Schiavo Documents and Links Page
If Michael Schiavo Had Met Yacov the Jerusalemite
Getting Away With Murder by Death
Schiavo Case: Should Government Pay?
Agency Had 89 Abuse Reports on Michael Schiavo
Schindler Coroner Nixed From Terri Autopsy
Fear and Fanaticism at the Times