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March 31, 2005

A final cruelty?

Michael Schiavo tossed Terri's birth family out of her room rather than let them be around in her final moments on earth. And now the Shindler family may never know what happens to Terri's body.

Terri Schiavo's ashes will be buried in an undisclosed location near Philadelphia so that her immediate family doesn't show up and turn the burial into a media spectacle, a member of the Schiavo family said Thursday.
....
Asked about perhaps never knowing where his sister might be buried, Bobby Schindler said, "We've already said goodbye. ... He's been doing this kind of stuff for 15 years. What would make him stop now?"
My question, where are the Women's Rights groups?

Posted by Darleen at March 31, 2005 06:12 PM

Comments

Darleen, will you respect the results of an autopsy or do you plan to challenge the credentials of the neuropathologists who examine her?

Posted by: Brad at April 1, 2005 12:05 PM

You don't get it, do you, Brad?

Whether Terri was PVS or minimally conscious is not the most important issue for me.

She WAS
~NOT terminal
~NOT actively dying
~NOT brain-dead
~NOT on life support

Her actual wishes were a point of contention. NO documentary evidence. And since there was a dispute, I believe the law should have erred to a default position for LIFE not DEATH.

An autopsy will reveal the physical nature of her brain, but I would question any conclusion that she was PVS (rather than minimally conscious) because one CANNOT TELL by physical alone because there is so much about the brain we still do not know.

For me this has been an issue of right to life under the LAW.

I believe Terri's rights, Constitutionally, were abrograted by Greer even as he was granted this power by FL law.

You may wish to argue from authority, but I can do the same thing.

Posted by: Darleen at April 1, 2005 01:02 PM

I kinda thought you'd say something like that.

Of course, you had maintained as one argument for keeping her on the feeding tube that she was not PVS. If the autopsy shows that she was PVS--and it will-- then you and the rest of the "culture of life" clan will simply dismiss the evidence ("there is so much about the brain that we do not know"). In other words, you will dismiss all authority but the one Higher authority that is unprovable in a court of law.

Now, as an issue of right to life under the LAW, the interpreters of the LAW said that the wishes of the spouse should be respected. And Congress and the Religious Right said "to hell with the law." Greer, you know, and those apellate judges and Supreme Court Justices are the interpreters of the Law.

I just can't wait to read your patronizing response...
Yeah, I just don't get it....I don't get any of your logic.

Posted by: Brad at April 1, 2005 01:42 PM

Brad wrote:
If the autopsy shows that she was PVS--and it will--

Can't be done, according to neurologists and neuropathologists. PVS can only be diagnosed when patient is alive. If you'd read and comprehended the Florida statute concerning PVS, you'd know that.

then you and the rest of the "culture of life" clan will simply dismiss the evidence ("there is so much about the brain that we do not know").

See reference to neurologists above.

In other words, you will dismiss all authority but the one Higher authority that is unprovable in a court of law.

Now, as an issue of right to life under the LAW, the interpreters of the LAW said that the wishes of the spouse should be respected. And Congress and the Religious Right said "to hell with the law." Greer, you know, and those apellate judges and Supreme Court Justices are the interpreters of the Law.

Yeah, those stupid God-believing right-to-lifers. Don't they know that there's nothing in our founding documents or constitution about some dumb Higher Power or right to life?

Don't they know that our rights are supposed to be granted and revoked at the graciousness and generosity of government?

I just can't wait to read your patronizing response...

Darleen's too nice to tell you what you need to hear, you'll have to make do with my patronizing response.

Yeah, I just don't get it....I don't get any of your logic.

You wouldn't, it requires real life experience, compassion, and thinking for yourself.

Posted by: Sue Dohnim at April 2, 2005 04:55 PM