Free Republic

”For MEDICAL and LEGAL purposes, partial brain “impairment,” MUST be distinguished from complete and irreversible loss of brain functions or “WHOLE BRAIN DEATH.”

Countering "The Right to Die" The following excerpts are from Attorney James Bopp's keynote address to the Christian Life Resources convention on October 14, 1989. His points are still worthy of the reader's consideration. More than a majority of the states in the United States have had what we call the "right to die" cases -- cases brought where a third party is trying to cause the death of another, usually by court ordered starvation and dehydration of the patient. These patients are [normally] ones that have suffered some injury or illness that has resulted in them having a diminished...

I'm sick and tired of all the whining and flailing about! I just can't take it anymore! You wanted it, fine - here's MY opus:

Terri Schiavo is not the first innocent victim of murder sanctioned by judicial fiat, although the heroic efforts of her parents alerted the world about her heartbreaking death sentence. Almost four decades ago, the fallacious concept of "brain death" was introduced to pry open the legal doors to the killing of another group of unnoticed innocents — people who agree to donate their vital organs at death. People are encouraged to consent in writing to allow another person to benefit from their vital organs, such as the heart or liver, after they die. Potential donors overcome their discomfort about the...

Marylander Kept Alive For Nearly 20 Years Through Feeding Tube BALTIMORE -- A Maryland case involving eerily similar circumstances to the case of Florida's Terri Schiavo led to changes in state laws. Ronald Mack was kept alive for nearly 20 years through a feeding tube. As in the Schiavo case, his spouse fought to let him die while his family fought to keep him alive, WBAL-TV 11 News reporter Kate Amara reported. Mack was newly married: a healthy, athletic father of two. But just after getting out of boot camp in 1983, the 20-year-old was involved in a car accident,...

Top Neurologist's Report on Terri Released NewsMax.com Wires Wednesday, March 30, 2005 Here is a comprehensive report by Dr. William Hammesfahr, a world-reknowned neurologist, on Terri Schiavo's condition as of September 12, 2002: Re: Terri Schiavo Story Continues Below I was asked to examine Terri Schiavo per the request of the Second District Court of Appeal. They requested that current information about her present medical condition be obtained. They also requested that an evaluation be performed to ascertain treatment options. HPI: Ms Schiavo was in her usual state of good health until 2/25/90, when her husband reported that he was...

The diagnosis of the permanent vegetative state is primarily clinical, with repeated neurological examination necessary over a period of time to establish absence of cognitive functions and irreversibility. Laboratory studies may be useful and confirmatory in some cases. For example, EEGs will show severe background slowing. When monitored over a few years, CT scans and MRIs will show progressive cerebral cortical atrophy. While the degree of cerebral cortical atrophy does not necessarily correlate with the complete loss of cerebral cortical functions, it does, however, help to confirm that the underlying process, given the severity of destruction seen on these neuroimaging...

<p>I watch nourishment flowing into a slim tube that runs through a neat, round, surgically created orifice in Ms Schiavo's abdomen, and I'm almost envious. What effortless intake! Due to a congenital neuro-muscular disease, I am having trouble swallowing, and it's a constant struggle to get by mouth the calories my skinny body needs. For whatever reason, I'm still trying, but I know a tube is in my future. So, possibly, is speechlessness. That's a scary thought. If I couldn't speak for myself, would I want to die? If I become uncommunicative, a passive object of other people's care, should I hope my brain goes soft and leaves me in peace?</p>

A federally funded watchdog group is investigating the recent deaths of four disabled Floridians amid an aggressive campaign by the state to cut millions of dollars from programs that provide medical care for disabled people in community settings. Saturday, March 26, 2005 (Herald.com)

First, this case has boiled down to Michael Schiavo's testimony that it was Terri Schiavo's wish not to be put on life-prolonging technologies, including feeding tubes. He and his attorney said Terri made it clear years ago that she would not want to live in such a condition -- even though she never made a living will. They said she once made the comment to her best friend after seeing a movie in which a character was in such a state. "She said, 'No tubes for me,' " Michael Schiavo said. Her feeding tube was inserted on February 25, 1990....

Rick and Tamie Hollis think they know how Terri Schiavo's parents feel. Their son, Dustin Hollis, now 22, suffered brain damage in a 2003 motorcycle accident in Oklahoma City. Unresponsive for months, fed through a tube in his side, he was not expected to improve, and his parents were repeatedly told to face the facts. "Against the advice of all of the doctors and medical experts, we brought him home," Rick Hollis said Friday. "The doctors said he was in a semi-comatose state. They said we would probably kill him." Instead, he has made gradual progress, and his improvement and...

Defense of adulterer Michael Schiavo's thirteenth public attempt to murder his invalid wife (with the aid and abetment of the Florida courts) only manifests that America’s conscience is in a Persistent Vegetative State. Depriving a cat of food and water for a week would see Schiavo in an orange jumpsuit by nightfall---with the torches and pitchforks of PAWS, PETA and Greenpeace at his jugular. Merely human, Terri has no such rescuer; tortured to death in Florida as the 300 million of us sit and watch. Not one man can be found in America. Had she, like Charles Manson, been imprisoned...

Judge George Greer ruled that the State of Florida has no right to take custody of Terri Schiavo, which ruling came hours after an appeal by Terri's parents to re-insert the feeding tube was refused by the U.S. Supreme Court. Meanwhile, another hearing was scheduled tonight before US District Judge James D. Whittemore .. the same judge who previously heard and denied the request subsequent to the 'de novo' intention of the law past last weekend by the Congress and signed by President Bush, in an effort to confirm that no stone was left unturned before Terri would endure legally...

STARVATION: DAY 8 Jeb Bush not likely to ride to rescue Florida governor indicates he won't defy court order Posted: March 25, 2005 1:00 a.m. Eastern © 2005 WorldNetDaily.com Those hoping Florida Gov. Jeb Bush will step forward to save Terri Schiavo from imminent, court-ordered starvation death are likely to be disappointed, based on his comments to a group of reporters following county court Judge George Greer's ruling against the state's effort to take custody of the brain-injured woman at the center of a worldwide euthanasia controversy. While Bush reiterated his motivation to save Schiavo, based on new evidence that...

Responding to Patients in the Persistent Vegetative State Donal P. O'Mathuna, Ph.D.     {This article was published in Philosophia Christi 19.2 (Fall 1996): 55-83. This journal is a publication of the Evangelical Philosophical Society.}      Modern medicine has provided people with many great benefits, but it has also forced people to make difficult ethical decisions. One of the hardest of these is to let a loved one die when medical technology could keep him or her alive. People must now decide if and when they would want certain treatments withheld or withdrawn from themselves or others. The ethical issues involved raise questions about...

Anyone watch the O'Reilly Factor tonight? I try not to watch O'Reilly too much anymore since he has become so smug and egotistical but I sometimes catch the first few minute of his Talking Points to see what the major topic is. Of course tonight was the Terri Schiavo situation and it's impact. I was almost horrified when O'Reilly laid out his feelings for what should happen to Terri Schaivo and people in Persistent Vegetative States, etc.. O'Reilly feels that the State and more important the Doctors should be the final arbiters of who should live and who should die...

Prayer for Terri Schiavo and the Schindlers In to your hands, O Lord, we commit our dear sister Terri and her loving family. Strengthen them, O Lord, for the days and tasks ahead, open the doors that the dark one has tried to shutter close and have mercy on this family. Bring mercy and wisdom to the minds of those who deal with her. May the judges who wrestle with these issues be gifted with respect for mercy and life. Terri and her family are such a symbol of life, of it's preciousness, and of the evil that men do...

I have the consent of Salamander to post this. In the interest of clarity for those undecided about Terri's quality of life and her potential for recovery, I post Salamanders story. A fascinating take on the nature of brain injury and its effects on consciousness.I have no frontal lobe. It was destroyed in an accident in 1981. All that's filling up the space is scar tissue and spinal fluid. Apparently I'm still functioning and "thinking" to some extent. I won't bore you with the details of the damage I also sustained in my temporal and parietal lobes and cerebellum. Suffice...

Prognosis for Recovery There are two dimensions of recovery from a persistent vegetative state: recovery of consciousness and recovery of function. Recovery of consciousness can be verified by reliable evidence of awareness of self and the environment, consistent voluntary behavioral responses to visual and auditory stimuli, and interaction with others. Recovery of function is characterized by communication, the ability to learn and to perform adaptive tasks, mobility, self-care, and participation in recreational or vocational activities. Recovery of consciousness may occur without functional recovery, but functional recovery cannot occur without recovery of consciousness. In some instances, during the early stages of...