Posted on 04/01/2005 7:42:27 AM PST by Tumbleweed_Connection
Public opinion may be shifting on the decision to disconnect Terri Schiavo's feeding tube and starve her to death, according to a new Fox Opinion Dynamics survey - with a significant percentage of Americans now saying it was "murder."
When asked about the "decision to remove" Schiavo's feeding tube, 38 percent of Americans told Opinion Dynamics that they disagreed with the decision, with 42 percent backing the move.
A full 20 percent said they were unsure.
A widely circulated ABC News poll last week asked if it was right to pull Schiavo's feeding tube, noting that she's been "on life support for 15 years" with a condition that is "irreversible."
Phrasing the question like that, 63 percent backed the decision to remove her tube, with 28 opposed.
In perhaps the most startling finding on the survey, fifty percent of African Americans told Opinion Dynamics that removing Schiavo's feeding tube was "an act of murder."
Thirty-nine percent of Republicans agreed. Even among Americans under 30, more than a third of the population [35 percent] believe that Schiavo was murdered.
Opinion Dynamics surveyed 900 registered voters on March 29-30, the day before Schiavo died.
Gee, maybe they got the facts straight on this poll!
Once people find out the facts about this case, their mind quickly changes. When one finds out that MS waited 7 YEARS to say that his wife wanted to die and that he went to nursing school to take care of her when he apparently knew she did not want to live...etc...just too many unanswered questions....
Yep.
The politicians who did not intervene are going to find out that the public thinks they abetted in murder.
Which they did.
Well, isn't that nice that they all realized this AFTER she died?!
Maybe they allowed people who weren't DNC employees to be polled.
Well said.
What we needed WHEN TERRI WAS ALIVE was for a huge public clamor calling it what it was....murder.
Or a political leader(read Jeb) with the stones to just do it and let the handwringers sort out the "constitutional crisis".
You're absolutely right...every ignorant co-worker to whom I explain the facts quickly change their minds!
Ahh yes polls. This same one was posted here yesterday, except with the accompanying Fox story that stated: "By an overwhelming majority, Americans viewed removing the feeding tube as an act of compasion." Funny how when you change the accompanying story, suddenly the poll takes on new meaning. Still, many here yesterday noticed the trend that this Newsmax story now reports.
A co-worker has a wife that's a nurse. She says that most of the poor souls in hospices are put on feeding tubes because they tend to aspirate (suck food/liquid into the lungs) and need to be taken to a hospital when it happens. The families get upset and get the lawyers involved and....well, you know the rest of the story.
I knew two weeks ago that the worm would turn - just as soon as Terri's cold body was wheeled from the hospice room.
I surfed the news shows last night. I detected a pro-Terri trend. A little late, though.
Me too. Even my mother, when I told her the facts, she quickly changed her mind. Especially when I told her that these same people are coming after the alzheimers patients next, which my grandmother is one, that really got her going.
So did my husband when I gave him some background.
There are some who are blind and chose not to hear.
Quote: "NewsMin really obfuscates the "murder" question. If you look at the original FOX News story instead of the NewsMin reinterpretation, 29% of individuals polled considered removal murder, versus 54% calling it an "act of mercy"."
As I said above, that is the funny thing about polls, the accompanying stories seem to push toward one direction or another. All Newsmax did was take the poll and lead with a different trend than Fox did.
I hope this is the beginning of the end for the judicial tyranny.
I also bet the final action of not letting her family be with her when she died got folks wondering about the "facts" previously presented.
That's all NewsMax does with 75% of their stories. They take a mainstream article and carve out the parts that make conservatives look good, and retitle the story. As a result a lot of context is lost. I think most people are intelligent enough to read mainstream articles and cancel out the liberal bias in their own minds. In this particular instance, the FOX story gives a lot more information, by clearly posting the results for each question. NewsMax (or Min as i call it) just strips out certain numbers.
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