Comments on: Terri Schiavo’s Feeding Tube Pulled

By: Jeri Massi

Jeri Massi — Sat, 19 Mar 2005 11:20:42 +0000

If she’s brain dead, she won’t feel pain. If she feels pain, she’s not brain dead. It’s that simple. So if she needs pain killers, she’s not brain dead.

The machines that measure her are only as good as machines can get. There can be brain activity that they are not able to measure.

Let this be a lesson to young people. Beware of who you marry.

By: Buzz

Buzz — Sat, 19 Mar 2005 05:26:49 +0000

Hi! I’ve been following this story closely for the last couple of years, and I just wanted to add a few thoughts. Mainly, I wanted to point out that you talk about people being “kept alive artificially” and “unwanted medical care.” However, the ONLY thing that Terri relies on is a feeding tube, and that is because her husband refuses to allow her to receive therapy that may lead to her eat orally. I want people to remember that she can breathe on her own, and her body functions normally. Simply put, Terri is not terminal. So this would not be “letting nature take its course.” Also, you refer to her husband’s statements. First, this man has already fathered children with another woman. Second, the circumstances the led to her illness are far from conclusive. Newsday had this to say about the case. “For years, the Schindlers have repeatedly suggested that their son-in-law strangled their daughter the night she collapsed 15 years ago this Friday. That’s why, they have asserted, she lost consciousness and suffered the irreversible brain damage that has left her in what doctors say is a persistent vegetative state. That’s also why, they’ve said, Michael Schiavo won’t provide the treatment that would allow her to recover. He doesn’t want her as a witness against him.”
In addition, The Empire Journal details a list of evidence that points to the fact that Terri was the victim of domestic abuse. Here is a part of their article. “The night before Terri Schiavo was found face down in her Florida home under mysterious circumstances, her best friend says Terri had had a fight with her husband, Michael Schiavo and that she had talked about divorce. In testimony given in proceedings in the Sixth Judicial Circuit Court before Probate Court judge George W. Greer, Terri�s best friend Jackie Rhodes related under oath that Michael Schiavo was upset because Terri had spent $80 on her hair that day. Hours later she received a phone call that Terri Schiavo was in the emergency room.”
Finally, The Empire Journal also reports one very interesting piece of information about the whole situation. “In 1992, Michael filed and won a malpractice case in which a significant award was made for Terri�s rehabilitation and therapy. The award was based, in part, on expert testimony that she would live a normal life span.” However, “During the time he was seeking the malpractice award, Michael never indicated that Terri would want to die if she were severely disabled.”

By: Blog Jones

Blog Jones — Sat, 19 Mar 2005 05:00:27 +0000

You might be right about her being officially brain dead; a google news search for “Schiavo Brain Dead” turns up some 2500+ news articles with those words in it, so I assumed…

In fact, this article quotes Dr. Ron Cranford, a neurologist who was ordered by a court to examine Schiavo.

“She has no electrical activity in her cerebral cortex on an EEG (electroencephalogram), and a CT (computerized tomography) scan showed massive atrophy in that region,” he said. The cerebral cortex, which is the outer layer of the brain, is involved in higher brain functions, such as processing thoughts and storing memories.

“There is no medical dispute,” Cranford said. “She is in a primitive vegetative state, and she has been for 15 years.”

Sounds pretty clear to me.

And I’m most certainly not saying that being kept alive by extraordinary measures is a bad thing; I’m saying that if Schiavo did not want those measures taken, then she should not be receiving them.

By: Barbara H.

Barbara H. — Sat, 19 Mar 2005 04:14:33 +0000

No, she’s not brain dead. As I understand it, brain dead people are not responsive. She is very responsive, awake, alert.

I know of people alive and well accomplishing great things who are dependent on artificial means, like ventilators, to be kept alive (see http://www.makoa.org/jlubin/closeup.htm). Being dependent on ventilators or feeding tubes is not a criterion for “pulling the plug.”