Posted on 03/30/2005 1:31:24 AM PST by Cincinna
It was impossible to look without grief at the images of Terri Schiavo starving slowly to death in a Florida hospice. It has, alas, become impossible in America to look at such a tragic set of circumstances without hysteria. Those of us who have long worried that unleashing religious fundamentalism into the bloodstream of American politics would lead to disaster can feel only that our fears have now come true.
Fifteen years ago Schiavo suffered a heart stoppage that was caused by her bulimia. Her brain was temporarily starved of oxygen and scans showed that her cerebral cortex had stopped functioning.
A scan shows that her brain has since shrunk massively. Her electroencephalogram reading was and is flat — she has no brain waves. She is not brain dead, but she has no ability to think, feel or communicate.
She can breathe on her own and random eye movements can give the impression of some kind of awareness. She has been kept alive by a feeding tube.
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
" He is a homosexual activist and dissenting Catholic"
- Sullivan's support for the murder of Terri Schiavo is based not on moral or ethical grounds, or even on the facts of the case, but rather on the fact that he doesn't want what he deems to be, "fundamentalist Christians" to win any court case which could encourage them to pursue other legal challenges - perhaps against gay marriages.
To Sullivan, this issue trumps every other consideration.
Your argument did not hold water with liberals when they charged the President with being a dullard. Could a Harvard MBA and a jet pilot truly be a dullard?
Of course not, and neither is Mr. Sullivan. He is using the liberal slapdown to make his point and convert the wishy-washy, of which I am not one.
vaudine
-When these parents find out that they can eliminate ie. abort homosexual children or simply choosing not to have homosexual children by manipulating the genes, then you will see members of the militant homosexual rights wing, like Sullivan, become the biggest pro-life/anti-gene manipulation boosters ever.-
Indeed - 'cept there IS no homo gene, and they know it; therefore, the danger is nonexistent.
Terri suffered her collapse at age 26.
Seven years later her husband "remembered" she had once said she did not want to "live on life support" or some such comment. How old was she when she supposedly made that comment?
I know it has been posted, but I can't find it in the mass of material now. IIRC they had been married only a couple (2?) years, so I suspect it had to be no earlier than age 24.
The reason I am asking is: It is claimed her alleged "collapse" due to Bulimia nervosa. How long was she bulimic? Had she been binging/purging for years? Bulimics often do and go undiscovered for a long time.
Bulimia is associated with personality disorders, particularly those featuring impulse control issues and rigid thinking (eg, borderline personality disorder). A disturbance in the neuropsychological domain of mental flexibility may underlie the spectrum of eating disorders.
It takes a long time for something so severe as this to have happened from bulimia. From the things I have read it appears that, although the act of self-induced vomiting may occur only occasionally and may be of little consequence, a long-term pattern may develop, leading to poor overall health, decreased muscle strength, dental erosion, serious electrolyte abnormalities, cardiac arrhythmias, and even death.
It doesn't happen, for example, just after six months or so. And, prior to this severe consequence there are often a number of other physical symptoms that are evident. I have not read about Terri demonstrating any of the other symptoms of Bulimia .
But, if she was bulimic at the time she might have made that statement, she was clearly also a victim of the psychosis of Bulimia Nervosa. And, thus not a person who was thinking clearly.
Hence, under the impression that one is not worthwhile unless one is "perfect" and most bulimics often state they would "rather be dead than fat." That is a very typical statement as they just do not have a good self-image.
With this in mind, and if she made her statement during the time she was Bulimic, I don't see how any court could consider her supposed desire to negate the need for life support to have been a rational statement. Bulimics are always living on the edge of a "death wish" in essence because they do not value their present condition and attempt to change it with life-threatening actions - which is not a rational way of thinking.
So if someone recalls the age at which Terri made that statement it might correlate to demonstrate that she was psychologically imbalanced at the time. Thus, whatever she said about "life support" should be worth no serious consideration.
For heaven's sake, criminals get away with the oft used plea that they were not in full possession of their mental capabilities, or had some psychological disturbance that made them predisposed to committing criminal actions or just poor judgement, etc. when they committed crimes. Why wouldn't this apply to Terri if she was, indeed Bulimic?
Her husband certainly fought to hard to prove this and won the court award for a substantial amount because of prior misdiagnosis. Which to me, indicates, that there must have been some recognition of the problem, and it could not have been something that just happened in a couple of months. Was she bulimic the entire time they were married? Prior to marriage?
We don't know for sure if there is or there isn't one. Remains to be seen. I suspect homosexuality is either genetic or hormonal. I would bet that only a small percentage of it is learned. The future will tell. But whether it is genetic or hormonal, if it can be discovered before birth, homosexual babies will be killed out of hand.
This is the video that should be shown on the news everynight - it is even more powerful than the balloon video.
http://web.tampabay.rr.com/ccb/videos/Terri_Big_Eyes.rm
This is not reflex action - she heard the doctor, she opened her eyes as wide as she could to impress him.
Even Fox news has ignored this clip.
WOW...What the heck is wrong with FOX? This is sooooo powerful!
The CT Scan - Proof of PVS? A $100,000 Challenge
Today he responds to the neurologists that both the courts and MSM have relied upon to interpret images of Terri's brain with a $100,000 challenge:March 30, 2005
The CT Scan - Proof of PVS? A $100,000 Challenge
Terri Schiavo's CT Scan has been grossly misrepresented in the mainstream press.
Previously, Codeblue applied his expertise in radiology to interpret Terri Schiavo's CT scans that have been released to the public and are being used in a public relations campaign to justify her starvation:
The most alarming thing about this image, however, is that there certainly is cortex left. Granted, it is severely thinned, especially for Terri's age, but I would be nonplussed if you told me that this was a 75 year old female who was somewhat senile but fully functional, and I defy a radiologist anywhere to contest that.I HAVE SEEN MANY WALKING, TALKING, FAIRLY COHERENT PEOPLE WITH WORSE CEREBRAL/CORTICAL ATROPHY. THEREFORE, THIS IS IN NO WAY PRIMA FACIE EVIDENCE THAT TERRI SCHIAVO'S MENTAL ABILITIES OR/OR CAPABILITIES ARE COMPLETELY ERADICATED. I CANNOT BELIEVE SUCH TESTIMONY HAS BEEN GIVEN ON THE BASIS OF THIS SCAN.
Here's the problem with these experts: THEY DON'T INTERPRET CT SCANS OF THE BRAIN. RADIOLOGISTS DO. ...
What I'm saying is that Terri Schiavo's CT could be the brain of an eighty or ninety year old person who is not in a vegetative state. THOSE are the CT scans we should be showing next to Schiavo's, because in THAT case you would see similar atrophy and a brain much closer to Schiavo's.
Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?Any takers?To prove my point I am offering $100,000 on a $25,000 wager for ANY neurologist (and $125,000 for any neurologist/bioethicist) involved in Terri Schiavo's case--including all the neurologists reviewed on television and in the newspapers who can accurately single out PVS patients from functioning patients with better than 60% accuracy on CT scans.
I will provide 100 single cuts from 100 different patient's brain CT's. All the neurologist has to do is say which ones represent patients with PVS and which do not.
If the neurologist can be right 6 out of 10 times he wins the $100,000.
I Said What I Meant, And I Meant What I Said
My points are what I first said about the image from Terri Schiavo's CT scan:
- It is NOT as bad as the neurologists and bioethicists play it up to be; and,
- There are many elderly patients with various levels of mental functioning who have severe atrophy that is difficult to distinguish from Terri Schiavo's atrophy
I stand by what I said. And I'm putting my money where my mouth is.
Thank you. Will do. FReegards....
I am trying to copy that link to send to a zillion places. However I cannot get it to work once I copy it. Can you help? Is there a more direct link? Thanks
Does your computer have Real Player? It does sometimes take a few minutes to load, depending on your internet speed.
I think you ought to up the requirement to 10 out of 10. If they only got 9 right, then that would mean in the best of circumstances, 1 10% probability that Terri, for example is not PVS. "Blind Luck" could arrive at 6 out of 10 correct.
Sadly, the still doesn't tell the story of what happened there.
Yep, and I have it. I was trying to copy the link and email it to others. But, Thanks. I just used the email service provided via RealPlayer to send it. Just WOW!
There are others, of course, those who know or have known an elderly relative in a PVS. But this case is so dirty, I don't see how somebody who actually knows the details can come to the weird conclusions about Michael Schiavo's motivations that Andrew Sullivan does. To wit:
Those of us who have long worried that unleashing religious fundamentalism into the bloodstream of American politics would lead to disaster can feel only that our fears have now come true.
I appreciate that Sullivan tells us what his motivations are up front so that we know that everything that follows is bunk.
Fifteen years ago Schiavo suffered a heart stoppage that was caused by her bulimia.
Just because Judge Greer says so, does not make it true. You would think Sullivan would at least put some sort of qualifier on this.She can breathe on her own
Uh, Andrew...
She is not brain dead, but she has no ability to think, feel or communicate.
Two out of four ain't bad.
In the first years that she was in this horrifying state, her husband Michael did all he could to find treatment, going from hospital to hospital trying new therapies. Terri was sent to California to have experimental platinum electrodes implanted to get her brain going again.
Not therapies, Andrew, therapy. That was it. Just that one. Then he stopped.
Michael slept next to her for five weeks.
Was this before or after he started sleeping with other people? I believe he started dating in 1991. He did have a ring on his finger -- made from Terri's engagement ring.
Eventually the husband acquiesced to near-universal medical opinion and came to terms with the fact that his wife would never revive.
"Eventually" seems to be the day after he got a huge malpractice settlement. And "universal" seems to be Dr. Cranford, I believe his name is, a huge player in the Cruzan case and a giant among the "right to die" crowd.
He said that when she was cognisant she had once told him that she did not want to be kept alive artificially for an indefinite period of time.
Well, at least Sullivan said "he said". Small favors. Of course, Sullivan didn't say that this little tidbit came up, what, 7 years after the collapse.
She frequently developed urinary tract infections, diarrhoea and vaginitis.
And I don't believe she was treated for any of it, certainly not for the invections.
The sight of a human being in a state of disintegration became too much for Michael Schiavo to bear. He decided to let her die with dignity.
Yes, the dignity of being starved and dehydrated while her "husband" lives with his girlfriend of 10 years and their two children.
The parents, who had at first encouraged Michael to date other women, then used his second relationship (he subsequently dated another woman and had two children with her) as a weapon against him.
Oh, come on Andrew, they encouraged him to divorce her. (Probably after he'd already started.) I suppose dating other women is part of that process, but let's be a little honest here.
a law subsequently overruled by the courts in Florida
This is part of the problem, of course. Part of the reason this is such a captivating case is that when the legislatures have attempted to pass laws, the courts have simply said "no" and had very little pretext for doing so.
But I recognised that this kind of decision can be made only by the person herself or by the family or spouse or legally appointed guardian.
Again, "legally appointed". Whatever Judge Greer says is right because he said it. You simply aren't permitted to have an opinion if it differs what has been "settled" by "law" (more specifically, the judiciary). Any judge (probate judge, no less) who (1) accepts hearsay testimony and (2) continues to allow a decade-long estranged husband to be his wife's legal guardian should be immediately (a) disbarred, (b) tested for drugs and (c) forcibly institutionalized.
But here's what really gets my goat:
The idea that government should have the final say, that the government could be swayed by political lobbies, strikes me as grossly inappropriate.
Hey, Andrew, you moron, the government IS involved. What do you think a judge is? Part of the Elks Club? The judiciary is part of the government and these newly-minted fans of "small government" seem to fail to realize that. Furthermore, it is the least accountable member of the government and should always be overridden by the legislature or executive, when they deign to do so.
he signed countless death warrants as governor of Texas, with the most cursory of legal reviews.
Cursory? Sullivan, you are pathetic.
He also signed a Texas law that gave next of kin discretion to remove life support from a terminally ill patient in the absence of a living will.
First, it was a compromise bill to remedy a much worse situation. Second, would any other court in the world call Michael Schiavo her husband? He cheats on her openly, but she can't divorce him because he speaks for her.
Last week an eight-year-old boy died in Texas after his tube was removed because his parents could not afford treatment, but the religious right seemed uninterested.
Actually, this shows the restraint of the "religious right" (can't have one word without the other, donchaknow). The parents made a decision to terminate the life. It may be based on money, but it was their decision. The Schindlers want to care for Terri and the courts, in perverse decisions, will not let them. Besides, based on Andrew's wild distortions (note this is a British paper, he couldn't have gotten away with such lies and omissions in the States) there's probably much more to the 8-year-old's case than he's telling us.
Your point by point rebut of Andrew Sullivan's fallacious argument are excellent.I would only disagree about the main motivation of the people behind this. They are part of the anti-life pro-Euthanasia movement. That is the agenda of the groupsd supporting Michael Sciavo, his legal counsel and funders. FOR THEM THIS IS A TEST CASE FOR EUTHANASIA which they euphemistically call the "right to die"
Please e-mail him and let him know how you feel about his being part of the anti-life right to die that is EUTHANASIA movement that is sweeping Europe.
I don't care how many degrees Andrew Sullivan has , he has scored a straight F in moral values, human decency, compassion and IMHO American jurisprudence and Constitutional Law.
it is only human arrogance, that keeps her alive.
For Andrew it is anti-religion and he makes that very clear. I think the players in this drama are certainly trying to push the envelope of euthanasia. I think the cheerleaders just want to poke a stick in the eye of Republicans or conservatives or both.
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