I've been following the Terri Schiavo case for a long time and have been troubled by the inconsistent testimony given. My first assumption was that Michael Schiavo believed that he knew what was best for his wife. Although I think that removing food and water from a human who is otherwise NOT sustained by life support is, well, murder, I can vaguely understand how someone might not agree with the opinion. Anyway, the more that I find out about the actual facts in the case, rather than the legal boilerplate farted out by the Judge Greer and Michael Schiavo's lawyer, the more I'm convinced that Michael wants to kill his wife in a horribly painful way and is looking for the state's blessing on this course of action. Reverend Robert Johansen has more. Excerpt:

Many people believe that Terri Schiavo has had “the best of care,” and that everything has been tried by way of rehabilitation. This belief is false. In fact, Terri has had no attempts at therapy or rehabilitation since 1992, and very little had been done up to that point. Terri has not even had the physical therapy most doctors would regard as normative for someone in her condition. The result is that Terri suffers from severe muscle contractures, which have caused her body to become contorted. Physical therapy could remedy this, but husband Michael has refused to provide it.

Terri has also suffered from what many professionals would regard as neglect. She had to have several teeth extracted last year because of severe decay. This decay was caused by a lack of basic dental hygiene, such as tooth-brushing. She also developed decubitus (skin) ulcers on her buttocks and thighs. These ulcers can be prevented by a simple regimen of regular turning: a basic nursing task that any certified nurseÂ’s aide can perform. The presence of these easily preventable ulcers is a classic sign of neglect. Bob and Mary Schindler have repeatedly complained of TerriÂ’s neglect, and have sought to remove Michael as guardian on that basis. Judge Greer was unmoved by those complaints as well.
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Terri’s diagnosis was arrived at without the benefit of testing that most neurologists would consider standard for diagnosing PVS. One such test is MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging). MRI is widely used today, even for ailments as simple as knee injuries — but Terri has never had one. Michael has repeatedly refused to consent to one. The neurologists I have spoken to have reacted with shock upon learning this fact. One such neurologist is Dr. Peter Morin. He is a researcher specializing in degenerative brain diseases, and has both an M.D. and a Ph.D. in biochemistry from Boston University.

In the course of my conversation with Dr. Morin, he made reference to the standard use of MRI and PET (Positron Emission Tomography) scans to diagnose the extent of brain injuries. He seemed to assume that these had been done for Terri. I stopped him and told him that these tests have never been done for her; that Michael had refused them.

There was a moment of dead silence.

“That’s criminal,” he said, and then asked, in a tone of utter incredulity: “How can he continue as guardian? People are deliberating over this woman’s life and death and there’s been no MRI or PET?” He drew a reasonable conclusion: “These people [Michael Schiavo, George Felos, and Judge Greer] don’t want the information.”

I don't really believe in karma, but in Michael Schiavo's case, I hope it exists. I want him licking the ass of the bacterium on the anus of dung beetles in his next life. And the life after that. And the life after that...

Update: Andy McCarthy has a great piece over at National Review Online. His point is that we treat mass murderers better than a defenseless, innocent woman. I reiterate: starving and dehydrating someone to death is fucking NOT in their best interest.

Michelle Malkin and Joe Gandelman have more. Much more.

Update: Gerard weighs in with a typically thoughtful post. He includes the current mindset infecting today's society wherein the political is personal, the party uber alles.

Update: From Spoons:

"If Jeb Bush were a truly courageous man, he'd send in the national guard to stand in the hospital room door and insure that those ghouls don't get to kill Terri Schiavo in cold blood."

And still more from Spoons, whose blue language is waaayyyy too mild for my tastes.

Update: Lileks weighs in as well. Excerpt:

I’ll stop here before someone feels compelled to send an email comparing Terry Schiavo to Spock in that horrible episode in which his brain was gone – but even then, you’ll note, they beamed down and looked around for the damn thing. In short: err on the side of life is not a bad motto to keep in mind. This seems simple enough. I respect those who nod, count to three, and offer a soft “however” so that we may refine the particulars. But I don’t have much time for those who hear “err on the side of life” and automatically bristle, because they hear the voice of someone who, damn their black and God-addled brain, once sent $10 to a politician who opposed parental notification law that did not have a judicial review.

You may not always agree with that sort of person. You may have no need for them. But you never think you have need of any chocks until you're in the truck, and you realize it's rolling down the hill. Backwards.

Update: from Jonah Goldberg:

Look, I've had a very bad week which has distracted me from all of this Schiavo stuff. I need to read and think more about all of it. But I think it's fair to say I'm not exactly on the same page with a lot of my conservative friends and colleagues on many of the issues involved. I'll write more on the issue later. But I have to say I'm disgusted with the faux moral outrage from liberals who are stunned by the idea that the federal government might get involved in issues like this. This is the party which danced a jig over the Violence Against Women Act and which has defined a vast swath of its political raison d'etre around the idea that the federal government should jealously guard the right to abortion and the right to appeal a death sentence in federal courts. And it is now scandalized that the Republican Party is trying to prevent a state court from killing a woman. It's okay for Washington to meddle when a husband slaps his wife, but it's outrageous when Washington tries to stop a husband from killing his wife? It's mandatory that a federal judge make sure a minority isn't passed-over for a promotion, but it's a rejection of the rule of law for a federal judge to make sure that a woman isn't wrongfully starved to death? Thanks to the hard work of Democrats states can't set their own drinking age or voting age, but suddenly state judges should be The Word of God when it comes to slowly killing citizens. I don't get it.

I do think conservative Republicans are at a minimum inconsistent in their sudden love of the fourteenth amendment and an activist federal government. But liberals are no less inconsistent in their sudden love of states' rights on such issues. The difference is that Republicans are embracing a principle they've spent some time upholding -- a culture of life -- while Democrats are spending most of their time whining about the "hypocrisy" of their opponents. I would respect the Democrats more if they had the courage to argue that Terri should die. That is their position.

Ann Althouse offers a slightly different perspective on the federalism issue.

Update: One final link, and this time it's to Hog On Ice. Excerpt:

Thanks to liberals, I live in a state where I can be prosecuted for cutting a mangrove tree that pops up and obstructs my boat dock, but Michael Schiavo can kill his wife, with what appears to be inadequate reason, and not even pay a fine. People call Terri Schiavo a vegetable. Would that it were so. In Florida, the law protects vegetation.
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We need to investigate Terri’s condition. We need to investigate Michael Schiavo’s motivation. We need to be reminded—forcefully—that the value of a life is not related to how closely that life approximates an ideal existence. Brain-damaged people—at least those who are capable of consciousness—are human. They are human. Not one of us is any better than they are. Terri Schiavo is not three-fifths of a person or half a person or a third of a person. She is either a complete person or a dead body kept warm by artificial means. She should be presumed alive until proven otherwise. The burden of proof should be on those who want to starve her, not on her or her anguished parents.

Terri Schiavo is the Rosa Parks of the disabled. And the terrifying thing is that, like Rosa Parks, she has untold peers who have been less fortunate than she. Rosa Parks was arrested, but in the end, she was vindicated. But how many blacks were thrown off of buses before she made the news? And how many Terri Schiavos have been quietly disposed of?

She deserves a fighting chance and due process, not a death warrant issued by a kangaroo court. And maybe if the medical tests go her way, sheÂ’ll get to live as long as an average murderer appealing a death sentence.

Update: I lied. Sue me. I should have checked in at Victory Soap before declaring that I was finished.

Update: And Graumagus weighs in, too. Excerpt:

That said, the sticking point in this whole affair for me is the fact that, in 15 years, this woman's husband would not allow a MRI or PET scan to be done.

WTF?!?!

I'm sorry people, those of you who are screaming 'She's brain dead! The EEG and CAT scans blah blah" let me tell you something:
THEY CAN BE WRONG.

In 1996 my father had a very nasty left side stroke. The CAT scan showed a brain bleed the size of a fist and the EEG basically said he went from hard boiled to scrambled.

They said it was surprising he even survived

They told us it would be a miracle if he ever spoke again.

They told us he'd never walk again.

They were wrong.

His MRI came back and showed that the damage wasn't nearly as bad as was shown even on a subsequent CAT scan (after the MRI)
My father was speaking within two weeks and walking within three months. Now he speaks fine, walks with a cane, drives, and bitch/pisses/and moans about shit just as badly as he used to pre-stroke.

My point is, how can they advocate pulling this woman's feeding tube without even doing all of the basic necessary medical tests to properly diagnose her condition? That shit is criminal.

Yeah. It is.

Posted by: Physics Geek at 09:31 PM | Comments (20) | Add Comment
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