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Zogby Poll: Americans Not in Favor of Starving Terri Schiavo (poll with fair questions)
LifeNews ^ | April 1, 2005 | Steven Ertelt

Posted on 04/01/2005 8:05:46 PM PST by FairOpinion

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Polls leading up to the death of Terri Schiavo made it appear Americans had formed a consensus in favor of ending her life. However, a new Zogby poll with fairer questions shows the nation clearly supporting Terri and her parents and wanting to protect the lives of other disabled patients.

The Zogby poll found that, if a person becomes incapacitated and has not expressed their preference for medical treatment, as in Terri's case, 43 percent say "the law presume that the person wants to live, even if the person is receiving food and water through a tube" while just 30 percent disagree.

Another Zogby question his directly on Terri's circumstances.

"If a disabled person is not terminally ill, not in a coma, and not being kept alive on life support, and they have no written directive, should or should they not be denied food and water," the poll asked.

A whopping 79 percent said the patient should not have food and water taken away while just 9 percent said yes.

"From the very start of this debate, Americans have sat on one of two sides," Concerned Women for America's Lanier Swann said in response to the poll. One side "believes Terri's life has worth and purpose, and the side who saw Michael Schiavo's actions as merciful, and appropriate."

More than three-fourths of Americans agreed, Swann said, "because a person is disabled, that patient should never be denied food and water."

The poll also lent support to members of Congress to who passed legislation seeking to prevent Terri's starvation death and help her parents take their lawsuit to federal courts.

"When there is conflicting evidence on whether or not a patient would want to be on a feeding tube, should elected officials order that a feeding tube be removed or should they order that it remain in place," respondents were asked.

Some 18 percent said the feeding tube should be removed and 42 percent said it should remain in place.

Swann said her group would encourage Congress to adopt legislation that would federal courts to review cases when the medical treatment desire of individuals is not known and the patient's family has a dispute over the care.

"According to these poll results, many Americans do in fact agree with what we're trying to accomplish," she said.

The poll found that 49 percent of Americans believe there should be exceptions to the right of a spouse to act as a guardian for an incapacitated spouse. Only 39 percent disagreed.

When asked directly about Terri's case and told the her estranged husband Michael "has had a girlfriend for 10 years and has two children with her" 56 percent of Americans believed guardianship should have been turned over to Terri's parents while 37 percent disagreed.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Front Page News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: euthanasia; poll; polls; schiavo; schiavopoll; zogby
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To: supercat
Because he has deliberately inflicted far more agony on Terri in the years he's been trying to have her killed than she would have experienced in decades living with parents who actually loved her.

How do you know?

Terri's brain was damaged beyond repair. She wasn't coming back.

Maintaining her in this state of limbo for years could very well have been more cruel than just letting her go now.

301 posted on 04/01/2005 10:17:40 PM PST by Jorge
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To: PleaseNoMore
You based the whole thing on how you "feel", you lack any other reason.

By the way...if the day should ever come (God forbid) when you must make a decision like this for a loved one, what right to second guess you do I have?

If your son had told you that he never wished to be sustained alive by artificial means, what power on Earth could stop you from carrying out his wishes?

I can answer that question for myself.

Not you, not anyone on this forum, not the government, not the weight of the entire Catholic Church.

As long as I acted within the letter of the law, no one could stop me from carrying out his wishes.

I'll answer to my God for the decision...but not to anyone else.

302 posted on 04/01/2005 10:18:48 PM PST by Luis Gonzalez (Some people see the world as they would want it to be, effective people see the world as it is.)
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To: FairOpinion
HELLOOO!!!!!!! That was while the malpractice suit was in process. The minute he had the money, all he wanted is to kill Terri.

I'm glad you and some (many) others have noticed this. I do not consider this to be irrelavant.

Michael should never have been allowed to be Terri's guardian. There was a clear conflict of interest from the start, and it became more more clear with every day.

Disgusting.

Hopefully she is now in a better place. This place has its limitations.

303 posted on 04/01/2005 10:19:00 PM PST by The Other Harry
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To: HiTech RedNeck; Luis Gonzalez

Sirs, Jeb Bush signed said law in question (the pulling the feed tube for PVS patients law).


304 posted on 04/01/2005 10:19:23 PM PST by Destro (Know your enemy! Help fight Islamic terrorism by visiting johnathangaltfilms.com and jihadwatch.org)
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To: Luis Gonzalez
They had testimony from several different people, including one of Terri's best friends, who corraborated the fact that Terri's wish was NOT to be sustained alive by artificial means.

What evidence is there, other than her own say-so, that Michael's sister-in-law was ever Terri's best friend?

305 posted on 04/01/2005 10:20:00 PM PST by supercat ("Though her life has been sold for corrupt men's gold, she refuses to give up the ghost.")
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To: Dr. Frank fan

What does the Declaration of Independence (Which by the way IS NOT THE LAW OF THE LAND) have to do with when life support is pulled from terminal patients? And yes Terri was deemed terminal because she was in a PVS. Happens dozens of times each week in America.


306 posted on 04/01/2005 10:21:46 PM PST by Destro (Know your enemy! Help fight Islamic terrorism by visiting johnathangaltfilms.com and jihadwatch.org)
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To: Destro

To his shame. It sounds as though he relied on the word of a deceitful medical advisor. To be fair, it would have been difficult to follow without viewing it in context -- laws like this typically read as "section X is deleted and replaced with verbiage Y".


307 posted on 04/01/2005 10:21:57 PM PST by HiTech RedNeck (No wonder the Southern Baptist Church threw Greer out: Only one god per church! [Ann Coulter])
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To: maine-iac7
Of course he'd have to divorce her to marry his live in, and they couldn't marry in his church as a divorced man, and then there's the money in trust for Terri and a life ins pol?

Actually, Michael's girlfriend is divorced, so that kind of blows the whole idea that he couldn't get a divorce and still have a church wedding out of the water.

308 posted on 04/01/2005 10:21:58 PM PST by exDemMom (Death is beautiful, to those who hate their own lives.)
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To: Luis Gonzalez

Did the law allow for denial of hydration "by natural means" as Greer decreed?


309 posted on 04/01/2005 10:21:59 PM PST by hocndoc (Choice is the # 1 killer in the US)
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To: hocndoc
Watch very carefully for homicide bombers and snipers and hand over your watch to the mugger - and hope he's more honorable than Michael Schiavo.

These sort of meanspirited comments are unecessary.

You should watch carefully for fanatics who would maintain your existance in the most horrible state of suffering, because they think by not letting you go they are being pro-life heros.

310 posted on 04/01/2005 10:22:15 PM PST by Jorge
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To: Congressman Billybob
No. If a person has a lawyer representing him/her alone, that lawyer has the right to file appropriate pleadings in his/her name. To be specific, a husband cannot order counsel for a wife NOT to file a divorce action.

Only a guardian may file a divorce action on behalf of an incapacitated ward. The fact that grounds existed for divorce implied a conflict of interest with Michael's guardianship and should have disqualified him as guardian. Unfortunately, King George refused to let the guardianship challenge move forward.

311 posted on 04/01/2005 10:22:26 PM PST by supercat ("Though her life has been sold for corrupt men's gold, she refuses to give up the ghost.")
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To: EternalVigilance
" will never forget seeing Old Glory flying over the entrance to that death mill,...

NAZI doctors at Auschwitz determined that we could exist for 18 days by being starved in a hole during a series of experiments.

I suggest we stop the people that want to bring back those things. The NAZIs successfully desensitized the German population in the late 1930's to mass murder. That is why the camps were tolerated a few years later.

Christians, Jews, Catholics and Muslims better pay very close attention to this. Anyone could be in the next group for extermination.

312 posted on 04/01/2005 10:23:12 PM PST by BobS
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To: Dr. Frank fan
Um, "persistant [sic] vegetative state" is a label given by doctors to a class of disability.

By that standard, what class of disability do they call those people on a slab in the morgue, life-challenged? soul-deprived? Exceptionally dead?

313 posted on 04/01/2005 10:23:12 PM PST by Dave S
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To: Jorge

She showed no evidence of suffering anything more than normal aches and pains, until she was starved.


314 posted on 04/01/2005 10:23:39 PM PST by HiTech RedNeck (No wonder the Southern Baptist Church threw Greer out: Only one god per church! [Ann Coulter])
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To: Jorge

She showed no evidence of suffering anything more than normal aches and pains, until she was starved.


315 posted on 04/01/2005 10:23:40 PM PST by HiTech RedNeck (No wonder the Southern Baptist Church threw Greer out: Only one god per church! [Ann Coulter])
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To: hocndoc
hold on to your hats , in favor.
Bilirakus a lawyer and hospice Board member when
felos was board chair pass that bill in 1999.
who knew what and when is a question that only the fl senate staff
and terri know now.
316 posted on 04/01/2005 10:23:40 PM PST by BurtTpa
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To: Luis Gonzalez

We found something we agree on .


317 posted on 04/01/2005 10:24:07 PM PST by Destro (Know your enemy! Help fight Islamic terrorism by visiting johnathangaltfilms.com and jihadwatch.org)
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To: Luis Gonzalez
The fact that you don't agree with the standard carries no legal water.

I don't disagree with the standard, I disagree with the interpretation of what met that standard.

318 posted on 04/01/2005 10:24:21 PM PST by Dolphy (Fear The Greer(s))
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To: Luis Gonzalez
I advocate nothing more than Courts stand by the laws enacted by the legislatures

Are you aware that, in 2003, when michael had Terri's feeding tube pulled, that Jeb went to the legislature and they passed "Terri's Law" that made them put the tube back in - on the 6th day.

Now -there was your legislative law, legally passed.

Later, Greer threw it out!

Judges have no right to throw out or make laws. That's for the legislature.

Judges are to enforce the law - not negate them

319 posted on 04/01/2005 10:25:04 PM PST by maine-iac7 ("...BUT YOU CAN'T FOOL ALL OF THE PEOPLE ALL THE TIME." Lincoln)
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To: hocndoc

Why yes! It was pigeonholed as "unwarranted experimental treatment."

Goebbels would be proud.


320 posted on 04/01/2005 10:25:16 PM PST by HiTech RedNeck (No wonder the Southern Baptist Church threw Greer out: Only one god per church! [Ann Coulter])
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