Posted on 06/01/2006 7:20:27 AM PDT by 8mmMauser
I know this must get old for you people. But does Terri look "dead"? I believe you stated she was, correct?
I hope you don't end up like Cranford when you lie about it.
I don't know what goes on at some funerals, but I've never seen a corpse do that. Well, there was that one episode of Twilight Zone, but I don't think that counts.
Hmmm, which episode was that?
Don't reply. I know.
Ronald Cranford Passes Away
"Ronald Cranford died last night in a hospice near Minneapolis. He was a good man and a good sport. We are all in his debt for his work in fighting to improve dying in america. Ron got in the trenches and helped people. We should learn from his example." - Arthur Caplan
Does she "look" dead? What kind of a question is that? Do we treat patients on how they "look"?
I don't care how she "looked". She "was" dead.
Uh, yeah, there is.
What does he have to do with the article?
In some cases like w/Ms. Vo, they rush to subjective judgment.
That was a clear case of MEDICAID FRAUD but that was covered up because it would have also gotten DCF, ACHA, the courts and many death lobbied republicans in Florida in trouble.
By killing Terri, everybody else gets a pardon for her murder. If Terri lived, many "fine" public servants would have been investigated eventually. They had to get rid of the body and burn/shread all investigative files.
Attorney General Gonzalez has an open investigation re: Terri's Civil Rights. That is either another whitewash investigation or a real one.
If Judge Greer is ever impeached and convicted which he should be, then I'll know it was a REAL investigation.
This was Medicaid fraud at its finest if you consider she was in a terminal six month or less facility for FIVE YEARS not getting any therapy at all because Mikey ordered no therapy back in 1993. Hospices cannot do therapy and they are not licensed for chronic care. Terri was in a bad place for five years without the right treatment.
MEDICAID FRAUD so taxpayers did pay. Mikey and his lawyers made Terri a pauper so they could stick her in a hospice. Finally, when Mikey filed joint tax returns, he didn't share part of the tax refund with Terri. He took it all. Mikey didn't even get Terri's wheelchair fixed because if it was fixed, she could have gone outside, gone anywhere, even into judge greer's courtroom so that the crooked judge and everyone else would have noticed that Terri was alert and aware of her surroundings.
Terri was caged and nobody could see her because the secret would have been out that she was not pvs.
FIVE YEARS IMPRISONED by the hospice, courts, medicaid, DCF, and ACHA systems. Terri would be alive today if they hadn't taken away her Ensure and water.
But, the cops at Hospice Woodside were only there to make sure that Terri would die. They weren't there to protect and to serve. They were there to back up murderous Judge George Greer, a republican who I'm hoping will get impeached and thrown in jail before long. It could happen when the Bushes term out. It could easily happen.
So, we lost Dr. Death and Mr. Ethics (bioethics).
The medical providers don't seem to be noting "vital signs". That's the best indicator if someone is near death or not.
It's supposed to be about the downside of organ donation. It's even bad for the recipient in many instances. (I wonder if they will discuss the organ harvesting in China of Christians and dissenters.)
"The body is still alive, yes, and deserves respect. But, clinically, the person is dead."
Trouble is, "clinically" could be wrong.
This was in "Our Sunday Visitor," the April 10, 2005 edition, & the author is Lori Hadacek Chaplin.
It was suggested to a doctor that they pull the plug of a little baby's ventilator, because he had flat brain waves. The doctor did not, and little Joseph not only lived, but went on to receive straight A's in school, run track and play baseball.
The doctor, Dr. Byrne, is now a clinical professor of pediatrics at the Medical College of Ohio and HAS BEEN A PERSISTENT VOICE against using brain-wave criteria for DETERMINING DEATH.
So how should that determination be made?
Homicide.
I might have thought so once. Now I don't, for two reasons.
One, "brain death" was an invention (1960s) for the specific purpose of harvesting body organs for transplantion. In other words, there is an ulterior motive for the diagnosis of "brain death." The ulterior motive is not for the good of the patient but for the purposes of the hospital. It is not to be trusted.
Before that, everyone knew what death was -- when ALL body function ceased. But when the body dies, the organs spoil. So, a committee at Harvard invented "brain death" in order to assert that a comatose patient was "dead" and carve him up for his organs while they are still fresh.
Two, organs for transplantation are worth a great deal of money. By carving up a live "brain dead" patient for his organs, a medical facility can (a) eliminate the cost of care for that person and (b) make a big profit on his organs. Obviously, money now becomes a factor in what should be purely medical decisions. In insurance, this is called a Moral Hazard. The prospect of profit leads hospitals (and especially their so-called "ethics" committees) to cut corners, gloss over moral questions and otherwise make decisions that may actually kill a viable patient.
The original Harvard conditions for diagnosis "brain death" were fairly rigorous, but with that strong money incentive to get transplant organs, standards have loosened. The "ethics" committees rationalize a kind of medical cannibalism, arguing that even if they do kill some innocent patients, those patients' organs help to save other lives. For one example in my own extended family, a person was chopped up for organs despite being able to breathe on his own (= not brain dead) and also despite written refusal to donate his organs. They paid no attention to his wishes.
You are right that the diagnosis of "PVS" is highly subjective. No two medics call it the same way. It is so sloppy and vague that the "PVS" diagnosis mostly seems to be an excuse to euthanize unwanted patients. It ought to be tossed out.
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