I swear to Goddess, if I live to be 100...

[themostepotente]

I will never understand how some people think. Has anyone been following the Terri Schiavo case?

For those of you that haven't the slightest clue as to what I'm talking about, here's a brief synopsis.

Terri Schiavo has been, and I quote, in a 'persistive vegetative state' for FIFTEEN years, and her poor husband who just wants to move on has been given shit in large doses for wanting to end her suffering. And now there's this big brouhaha over reinserting her feeding tube.

This woman is not going to just to snap out of it. She ain't getting better.

Fifteen years? How is relying on a feeding tube considered 'living?' Where is the fucking 'quality of life' these assholes protest in favor of by taping the word 'LIFE' over their mouths?

Oh, this fucking pisses me off. The staunch Republicans would have us live in the fucking stone age, I swear.

--P

Comments

[triestine.livejournal.com]

It makes sense in the mindset that will support foetuses no matter what but not give a shit about children once they're born. Vegetate for fifteen years and the Congress will sing you lullabies; struggle with daily work and stress for fifteen years? Who cares.

[themostepotente.livejournal.com]

Pull the plug and give peace to 'two' lives, I say.

[themostepotente.livejournal.com]

My mistake. I was led to believe otherwise. Still, it doesn't negate the fact that she needs to be 'let go.'

Any decent society would have a reasonable policy for euthanasia that would allow her to die quickly and painlessly. We give our pets death with dignity, why not people? *shakes head*

In a case such as this, I fully support euthanasia.

[xochiquetzl]

I agree that the feeding tube thing is horrifying and barbaric-sounding, but...

No cerbral cortext. None. Just a bunch of spinal fluid where it used to be. She has enough brain to breathe, but not swallow. 0_0

Stone age....

[stargategirl82.livejournal.com]

Just as long as they don't also have to live in the fucking stone age. They get to live in the 22nd century.

Re: Stone age....

[themostepotente.livejournal.com]

Well, that's the Bush Administration for you. Twenty-second century technology with neolithic values.

[alasandalack.livejournal.com]

"look! it twitches! sacrosanct!"

*scared* livingwill livingwill livingwill livingwill and even if i do remember to get one it'll probably count for nothing in the Bush because i'm fucking GAY and my relatives will contest it.
*freaks the fuck out and hides under the table*

just give her a whole lot of something already.

[xochiquetzl]

Yeah. Every time I think about the extent of her brain damage I start to feel a bit freaked out.

OMGSOHORRIFYING.

[schmoo999.livejournal.com]

Darling my hubby and I have been following this and can't believe how her family can think she can get any better. She has the mental capability of a 6 month old and her brain stem is liquid, there is no coming back from that.

I can't believe they would doom her to decades of being trapped in her broken mind and body like that instead of letting her move on the hereafter.

I would never do that to my own children.

Her husband had tried everything that doctors suggested for 4 years to try and bring her back.
Yes he has moved on with another woman but stay legally married to Terri so she could be let free. He went through the money her parents claim he wants through her death to care for her.

I hate it when these holier than thou people claim it is a mortal sin and God's will for her to live..no God's will was for her to die 15 years ago when she had the heart attack. Free will that we as human beings have made the advances in medical science that has kept her alive and now it is time to let God's will be done and for her to pass on.

The federal gov't is stomping all over the State of Florida's courts and that is not right. They are stomping all over a family's personal matter that has been settled over and over again by 10 different judges and I pray to those above that the federal courts uphold them.

In the end..I have learned to make my wishes clear to all of those in my family..all and to have a DNR and Living Will...I never ever want to trapped like poor Terri.

Whew. /rant

[dphearson.livejournal.com]

God's will for her to live..no God's will was for her to die 15 years ago when she had the heart attack.

God is not that cruel. There is no religious ethics that could support this sort of thing, family proest or no. It's horrid.

[chuffing.livejournal.com]

The staunch Republicans would have us live in the fucking stone age, I swear.

What amuses me most about this whole thing is that if she did, in fact, live in the Stone Age, she wouldn't be forced to suffer for years on end, possibly knowing she's there and can't move. She would have succumbed quickly, without any decent medical or governmental intervention ages ago.

I feel bad for the whole family, really, and I don't quite understand how the government has any say whatsoever regarding whether I live or die. If I want to swallow a box of razorblades, how is that any concern of theirs just as long as I do it in the middle of the woods, and no one else is hurt?

[themostepotente.livejournal.com]

How is anything anyone does behind closed doors that a concern of the government's?

They really need to amend the fucking Constitution.

[ceilidh]

I love how they want to have a 'culture of life' when they don't believe in stem cell research that, you know, might be able to help people like her. *massive eyeroll*

[webbapettigrew.livejournal.com]

WORD.

Michael Schaivo has been portrayed as a piece of scum because he doesn't want to watch her suffer anymore. I don't blame the man for wanting to carry on with his life. If he didn't care, he wouldn't still be around. He VISITS her, for God's sake! I as a parent can't understand how, after 15 years that her parents think that living with a tube inside her and watching her blink and her muscles twitch is living. Good grief.

[ceilidh]

I hope my parents never have to see that. I'd rather my husband/daughter/parents just let me die in peace, bury me, and move on with their *lives*.

[xochiquetzl]

Her parents are, um, well to be kind they're not coping well, and to be unkind they're no longer in touch with reality. They've gone to a lot of trouble to present her as disabled rather than vegetative, including a video on their web site which is something like 3 minutes of edited highlights out of a 4 hour tape. They claim she has the mind of a six month old.

Um, no. She has no cerebral cortex. 0_0 She no longer has enough brain left to swallow on her own.

[dphearson.livejournal.com]

They actually claim that?

Oh my god.

From I have seen from tv, that woman does not even the capacity of a baby, who brain is growing in leaps andbounds. She looks horribly just like what she is- a person who is a vegetable.

[odogoddess.livejournal.com]

Amen. Most people wouldn't allow a *dog* to live like that. They would say "put it out of it's misery, poor thing". This hanging on to the girl's living corpse is not merciful. It's desperation. And it's pathetic.

[themostepotente.livejournal.com]

Like any life altering decision, it's difficult, but necessary.

[moonlite-tryst.livejournal.com]

This case angers me immensely and I hope someone can do something discretely, and soon, to end this travesty (by that I mean situation Michael Schaivo's in).

[themostepotente.livejournal.com]

My heart really goes out to him.

[danxsunday.livejournal.com]

I don't know too much about the case (living on the otherside of the world) but isn't Congress intervening into judiciary matters seditious? Also let the poor woman die. Actually assist the poor thing.

No euthanasia but death penalty a plenty. I just don't get it

[themostepotente.livejournal.com]

Yes, they are -- and they need to butt-the-fuck-out.

[dphearson.livejournal.com]

Her parents are very desperate, and so they have taken to villifying the husband, and anyone who thinks the poor woman should be let go.

The horrible irony of this is that she got in this due to a heart attack- brought on by dieting! An imbalance of potasium, a mineral in all life giving foods, caused this horrid thig to happen, and now she has survived due to feeding tubes.

Just horrible, horrible, horrible.

[ani-bester.livejournal.com]

Dieting, oh hell, she had a flat out eating disorder (bulemia most likely)

When the parents claimed that starving to death would go against her religuous views (I don't understand either, something about suicide)my eating disordered friend made the rather crass comment that obviously that hadn't been a problem for her when she was awake and starving seemed a rather ironic way for her to go ^^;;;;

[thistlerose.livejournal.com]

I don't have any of the articles in front of me, so I may be getting some of this wrong, by in 1999, when he was Governor of Texas, Bush is supposed to have approved of this bill that allows hopeless patients to be taken off life support/feeding tubes/whatever if their families can no longer pay, regardless of their families' wishes.

I probably worded that poorly. I have a bad cold, and it hurts to think. >_<

Still, hypocrisy, anyone?

And, um, if the Bush Administration is so concerned about life, how about universal healthcare?

[untiemybinds.livejournal.com]

And, um, if the Bush Administration is so concerned about life, how about universal healthcare?

No kidding.

But then I'm hearing about this case on my Canadian news station, and well, I think our health care system is extremely screwed up but at least people actually get help here so...

I should just be thankful I live in Canada, I guess. :\

[biichan.livejournal.com]

Well, give her a lethal injection then! Starving to death isn't any less cruel than how she's living in that hospital!

[webbapettigrew.livejournal.com]

Where's Jack Kevorkian (sp?!) when you need him?

I thought it inhumane that they'd just starve her, honestly. Even though they say she can't feel it, people have to watch her waste away. Funny how Scott Peterson won't get that punishment and he killed a person...

[ani-bester.livejournal.com]

I got this from the neurologist at my University who has interest in this case because well, brain function is his specialty.

According to him, an infant born without a upper brain, as in hindbrain only will be able to: Smile, wink, breathe, respond to sound, basically *any* automated function caused by stimuli you can do with no functioning upper brain.

Which basically means this woman functions on the level of a goldfish at best.

All the "signs" the parents say prove theirs hope of recovery actually prove just the opposit. -_-

This whole mess is really _really_ sad.

I can't hate the parents for not wanting their child to die. That's got to be on of the hardest things a parent can accept. I can't blame the husband for wanting to respect his wife's husband.

I do think though, that the parent's are only seeing what they want to see and I think it's cruel of whatever doctor's and/or laywers are out there giving them false hope.

I think Congress and our dear president were completely and TOTALLY out of line and Bush's stance on this is totally incosistent with previouses stances on such issues, but of course, the big wealthy doctor's were losing moneys because people wanted their loved ones to remain on life support so he made it easier for doctor's to, in absence of a will, cut said life support over the wishes of family -_-

I say he, technically he was our governor then and Texa govenors are some of the least powerful and most figurehead like, so really more blame probably lies with our legislatures and vice ^^;;;

. . . and seriously, if Bush cares sooo much about human life how about, Medicade, Social Security, Health Care, HMO's, Wellfare, GUN F'EN CONTROL, etc etc etc etc

[themostepotente.livejournal.com]

I do think though, that the parent's are only seeing what they want to see and I think it's cruel of whatever doctor's and/or laywers are out there giving them false hope.

False hope in some ways is just medical-fucking-malpractice. The doctors aren't doing their jobs by allowing her to live.

[cravache.livejournal.com]

Bleh. I watched my mother suffer. I watched her rot in front of me. I watched her decay from a beautiful, stunning woman to a vegetable over four years. I watched her go from an intelligent, clever, vibrant person to a disease-riddled, bedbound invalid. I watched as she collapsed constantly into violent epileptic fits, vomited blood constantly, lost complete and utter use of her bowels, her mind and her life. I had to go to school during the day and then come home and nurse her while trying to do homework and assignments at the same time. I had to dress her wounds, bathe her, feed her. I watched her struggle to breathe with oxygen 24 hours a day. I watched her medication doses increase to astronomical heights, to the point where she was swallowing so many pills, the lining of her throat was peeling away. She was on morphine, Breathrough morphine, amatriptyline, MS Contin, a wide range of steroids, duphilax, enema cocktails because the morphine blocked her bowels and eventually was hooked up to an IV of morphine. But by that point, her body was so weak, her skin couldn't take to having the needle under it for longer than twelve hours and, very soon, her veins collapsed and...blah blah blah. I was thirteen when it all started. I was almost eighteen when it ended. It was the most horrendous four or so years of my life. Seven years has passed since she died and I still have nightmares about it.

I wanted her to die peacefully. She was suffering. I was suffering. But do you think they, the doctors, would offer her mercy? No. So I watched my mother disintegrate before my eyes like a rotting carcass.

Bleh. Can you tell I am pro-euthanasia? Stuff like what you've just mentionsed shits me to the high heavens. Christ on a motherfucking cracker.

*twitches violently*

[themostepotente.livejournal.com]

Jesus, Toni. *just hugs you*

[bloody-american.livejournal.com]

You know, I've been hearing about this off and on for the past few years because it's here in Florida. First it was her parents who sued the husband because they didn't want him to "kill" her (which was stupid because he actually put if off for several years before he decided to follow her wishes) and then Jeb Bush came in out of nowhere and stuck his nose in it (which is when i stopped paying attention because it's just ridiculous) and now what? Congress is involved or something like that? I'm not entirely sure but it seems like the government (which means Republicans because there are so damn meany of them) is trying to decide her fate? They really don't care about her as much as they care about trying to run everyones lives which really? Makes me sick. My father, who is as republican as they come, even thinks this is absolutely ridiculous. The government has no business deciding any of this. They have no standing at all.

So yeah, I'm pissed off right along with you.

[themostepotente.livejournal.com]

Somebody needs to shoot the entire Bush clan. Seriously.

[lherelenfeline.livejournal.com]

The way I see it, they're trying to own her body, and her life, by forcing this torture on it ( her body) and her. If the Republicans win, then there will be case precedent for the gov't owning our collective bodies and lives, and is that anything but slavery?
If the tube is reinserted, it'll be another surgery for her. They've already done it to her once. Is that not cruel and unusual punishment for having the balls to tell your executor ( in this case her husband) that she doesn't want to be kept alive artificially?

The whole thing pisses me off.

[themostepotente.livejournal.com]

It really smacks of the abortion issue, doesn't it? The government telling you what you can and can't do with your own body.

I hate wearing a seatbelt, likewise a helmet when I ride my motorcycle. Granted, it's suicide on my part to insist on not wearing either, but shouldn't it be my decision if I'm willing to face whatever consequences?

[tiranog.livejournal.com]

Hi.

This is a really sad case. I understand the quality of life issue and that the woman's never going to snap out of it, but I can also see the other side of the issue. She doesn't have brain function, but her body is still working. She is going to suffer a hideous death that will take weeks to happen. Pain is pain, whether there is intelligence involved or not.

The mistake was made fifteen years ago when they didn't let the poor woman die in her time. I feel terrible for everybody involved in this case. It's weird, but if they were going to administer an injection that would allow the poor creature to pass on in peace, I'd be 100% behind the idea, because the bottom line is she is never going to wake up. I just can't see having anything suffer that kind of prolonged death.

I really don't think there's a right or wrong here. It's just horribly tragic.

Cheers.

[themostepotente.livejournal.com]

Well hello you :-)

The mistake was made fifteen years ago when they didn't let the poor woman die in her time.

It would have been so much easier on everyone involved. We like to cling to life though, even in the most hopeless of situations.

Look at all of the deathrow inmates. These people supposedly have no remorse and no fear of death, yet there is appeal after appeal that delays the process for 10-15 years?

[persephone-blue.livejournal.com]

The fact that they're pulling out her food tube and letting her starve to death is completely disturbing.

Why this way, huh? Why not a lethal injection? Why not something quick and painless?

This daughter is lying there, a good part of her brain damaged for years, and a guard is posted next to her. No family member can get close to rub ice on her cracked, dehydrated lips. What little could be going on inside her head, if there is anything left to "go on"...what does she think about it? Yes, she didn't want to live like this, but who wants to die in such a way?

[themostepotente.livejournal.com]

The only 'humane' way to end her suffering is euthanasia. That less than half life she's living now is WORSE than death

[florassecret.livejournal.com]

The parents are selfish assholes. they want the money that she has. I think she should be put to rest. Let her go. Let her husband that has suffered as long as she has to deal with her hospital bills and ect. I think he has that right as her husband to finally be able to make her mind up and let her go. I really don't think it's right to see someone suffer so badly on a feeding tube.

When my grandmother died, she was on a breathing machine, and a feeding tube, basically she was called brain dead. So, my grandfther did the right thing and let her go. She felt no pain.

Terri has no brain function, well as much as her brain will allow to let her breathe in and out. If I was Terri I'd not want people to see me in that kind of state every day. I feel for her more than her parents. Just let the woman die so she can finally rest.

I hate her parents for calling Michael a murderer because he wants to move on with his life.