Death by Dehydration: The Terri Schindler-Schiavo Case

Newsmax.com ^ | 10-30-03 | Glueck,Michael, and Cihak, Robert

[Theodore R.]

Death by Dehydration: The Terri Schindler-Schiavo Case

Michael Arnold Glueck and Robert J. Cihak Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2003 The Terri Schindler-Schiavo case is not a "death with dignity" issue.

So says Jane M. Orient, M.D., executive director of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS), who issued this statement in response to the emergency action of the Florida legislature to reinstate feeding and hydration of Terri Schindler-Schiavo:

"Terri Schindler-Schiavo has won a temporary stay from execution by a method too cruel to be used for convicted criminals. And yet her husband's attorney is trying to spin it into a 'death with dignity issue' with his comments on Tuesday last week."

Her husband says it's cruel to begin rehydration. The opposite is true - dehydration is a cruel, painful death. It is unconscionable that the state ordered removal of her feeding tube in the first place – it's nothing less than state-sponsored euthanasia.

Terri is not dependent on advanced medical interventions. Nothing is mechanically pumping her blood, or forcing oxygen into her lungs. She is simply being fed through a gastrostomy tube. This is not an extreme or extraordinary means of life support. Would we allow a retarded child to be starved to death?

Some physicians believe that Terri could be rehabilitated to some extent, at least so that she could swallow oral feedings and eliminate the need for the tube. She should be allowed to try, but so far her husband has blocked every attempt to see whether she can swallow. Doctors have offered pro bono treatment, if money is the barrier for her husband.

Although severely disabled, some believe that Terri does have the capacity to communicate a desire to live. Her husband has obstructed efforts at rehabilitation or independent assessments of his wife's true state. This does not mean we should be without compassion and concern for her husband, who has also suffered immensely.

Notes Dr. Orient, "Where are the 'compassionate end-of-life' groups such as the Robert Wood Johnson 'Last Acts' initiative, and why aren't they weighing in on this?"

The ethical question for her nurses and physicians – prior to the Jeb Bush "reprieve" – was whether they would cooperate in carrying out a death warrant. And the ethical question for all of us is whether we will allow the state courts to obstruct the efforts of people who want to provide the minimum of medical care to a patient who should receive it.

If we go down that path, who's to say what treatment the state will prevent you from getting?

And ultimately, looking to the future, would it not be far better for the courts, legislatures, governors and lawyers to stay out of medical care and leave the difficult decisions to those trained in the health-care professions and to their patients?

* * * * * * Michael Arnold Glueck, M.D., is a multiple-award-winning writer who comments on medical-legal issues. Robert J. Cihak, M.D., is a past president of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons.

Contact Drs. Glueck and Cihak by e-mail at GlueckAndCihak@newsmax.com.

[looscnnn]

I remember one article about this case. The judge stated that food and water (fluids) were not considered "medical treatments". This is incorrect, due to the following:

Dehydration (by an athlete, etc.) is treated with lots of fluids.

Anorexia nervosa, etc. is treated with foods, among other things.

Also, while I think someones wishes to not live like this should be honored, I think that this is more of a "he said, she said" thing. He is the only one that she supposedly said this to, I think she would have talked to her parents about it also.

[Steely Glint]

The Left's position on the death penalty: it's okay to kill the helpless and the unborn, but you must spare convicted first-degree murderers.

Insanity.

[tuckrdout]

Also, in the first court case brought on by Terri Schiavo's parents, Michael Schiavo showed his hand when he said, "I don't think Terri would want to live this way"....he did not mention that Terri had told him she didn't want to live like this...the fact is, HE didn't want her to live this way.

[Burn24]

Anybody remember (I think it was Bobby) Sands, the IRA prisoner who starved himself to death in his cell block to protest the British presence in Ireland? At the time, there was an enormous outcry about what a terrible way to die starvation was - there were descriptions in all the newspapers of the hellish pain that would be endured.
Why hasn't more attention been given to this, I wonder?

[Theodore R.]

Yes, Sands starved himself to death in the spring of 1981. It took about 40 days. He drank water but declined food. The 18-year-old (at the time) Michael R. Schiavo of PA must have been taking notes!

[Ethan_Allen]

Good article here:

Intentional Medical Killings in US Hospices: questions, discussion and search for solutions http://www.hospicepatients.org/mass-killing-issues.html

I don't know if you have noticed, but the media whores have stepped up the drumroll for national health insurance in the last couple of weeks, because of the problem of the uninsured. Medical tyranny/Hillarycare/forced euthanasia coming to all of us if they get their way.

[nickcarraway]

ping

[RLK]

I agree with their position.

[rneilwhitt]

Why has all activity on Terri tapered off? Now is the time to start a fury against the deathmongers.People can't wait until they start trying to kill her again.The killers are busy plotting new approaches and, I fear, they may succeed this time. Contact the citrus growers associations and the Florida State Citrus Commission. Do a search and you will find hundreds of addresses and a lot of links. BOYCOTT Florida Citrus! I have been sending a flury of e-mails to them promising a boycott. Put your message in the header because they probably will not open the mail itself. Promise them a worldwide permanent boycott if they kill Terri. The citrus lobby is the most powerful lobby in rotted Florida and they are begging the Politicos for 90 million right now to fend off cheap imported citrus and news broke about them using sewer trucks to transport juice. (not new sewer trucks but trucks that have been used to transport sewage). The only God these people worship is mammon so we should strive to separate them from their god.

[RLK]

Why has all activity on Terri tapered off? Now is the time to start a fury against the deathmongers.People can't wait until they start trying to kill her again.The killers are busy plotting new approaches and, I fear, they may succeed this time.

--------------------------

As I have said, there needs to be backup legislation and legal work or this woman is dead.

[rneilwhitt]

I am lost in Linux-land and I arrived here again. I will never return to MS and I am going to make Linux work so forgive me for an enigmatic message that I will find a little later. I appologize for the stupidity.I have to find this transmission,

[rneilwhitt]

I AM totally on Terris side. I am am being an advocate erring on the side of our constitution that they will use. It is there and we have to progress beyond the introduced clause. The Floriduh legislature refused to address a statute addressing an all encompassing bill addressing everyone in a similiar situation,such as Terri. I want an all-encompassing bill to pass, not a namby-pamby one at a time rotted thing they are trying. Let us work together to save her life first, and stop repeated court battles in the future