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Terri Schiavo, Dec 3, 1963 - Mar 31, 2005 At 11:58 PM by: Hiro |
Today we present to you a Pleasant Interruption premiere. This is the first of what will henceforth be called a teampost.
Unless you're Amish, you most likely would have heard on the news or the radio about the Terri Schiavo(pronounced Shy-vo, not she-avo) affair. About 15 years ago Terri fell into a coma and suffered severe brain damage due to cardiac arrest and loss of oxygen to her brain among other things, brought on by chemical imbalances due to an eating disorder. Since then she has been in a persistent vegetative state(this being disputed) and has been in hospice care, kept alive artificially by use of a feeding tube.
The heart of the issue is that her husband, Michael Schiavo has been fighting for years to have the feeding tube removed so she can be laid to rest. Michael contends that before her accident she had told him she would never want to be kept alive in such a condition if it were to ever happen to her. Michael was fighting to carry out her wishes. On the other side of the war are the Schindlers - her parents - fighting to have the feeding tube kept in, arguing that they believe she can make a recovery with proper care.
As her legal guardian, Michael has won all court battles for the right to decide whether or not the feeding tube would be removed. The courts also stated that on advice of court-appointed neurologists that she was indeed in a persistent vegetative state with no hope of recovery. The feeding tube was removed years ago but was reinserted. It was again removed 2 weeks ago, sparking the most chaotic right-to-die battle ever fought.
She died today.
For further details please read this Wikipedia article on Terri Schiavo.
Hiro This issue has been bugging me for weeks since it first came into the spotlight. This case has taken up almost every minute of every news show on tv and every inch of every newspaper. Wow, talk about sensationalism. Hundreds of millions of people dying around the world and all they can think about is this one woman. And for what? Politics and religion. This ain't a battle of Michael Schiavo and the Schindlers and it most certainly never was about the well-being of Terri. It's just another battle in the war between the liberal left and the religious right.
Let's get the facts straight. Terri is no longer the person she once was. She is a mindless body, an artifact of her former self. It is absurd that people actually believe she has a conscience by watching some extremely selective home videos showing her "laugh" and "react." Such actions are merely random signals being sent to different muscles in her body. The fact that they have coincidentally ocurred at the same time as some external event means absolutely nothing. I'd like to see the hours of footage of her not reacting to what they did. To convince half a country that she is still a conscious human being is quite impressive. Notice how they try to personify her by saying things like "she's fighting for her life." Give me a break. Even conscious people do not "fight" for their life. Nobody has direct control over their organs, their nervous system, their heart, etc. It is simply a figure of speech. The only thing fighting for her life is the feeding tube.
As far as the debate on who should have say on her fate, I think it's pretty clear cut. The laws strictly state that husband and wife have full guardianship over each other. And the courts agree. It is kind of ironic that the same people fighting against Michael's guardianship are the same people fighting for traditional marriage. What does traditional marriage state? That the husband and wife belong to each other and nobody else.
What truly irks me is how they try to paint Michael Schiavo as some murderous devil while they try to paint themselves as some life-saving crusaders. They also try to give it a "disability" spin. Let's get serious. Terri isn't disabled. She's dis-human. They also love asking the question "If Michael has moved on with his life, why not let Terri live and let her parents keep her alive?" Well hmmm, maybe because the whole reason why he's doing this is because this is what she wanted. Given the amount of flak he's getting, I'd wager he would have said screw it by now and just given up. He has nothing to gain from her dying except knowing that he carried out her wishes.
Terri Schiavo, rest in peace.
Nana A friend of mine commented that it's interesting that those people who wanted Ms. Schiavo to be kept alive are now saying that she is in "a better place now." If "heaven" (cause that is the "place" they are referring to) is better, then why wouldn't they have wanted her to have died 15 years ago, instead of barely fitting the definition of what we call living, and being trapped in a useless body?
Many of these "pro-life" people are the same people who are against scientific advances (because they are unnatural, and they don't fit in with God's plan for life) which prolong life, yet they insisted upon keeping Terri Schiavo alive (using... SCIENCE), lengthening the duration of her natural life by 100%. If that isn't hypocracy, then I don't know what is.
Tony Another day, another life.
What really astonishes me about this whole situation, is how many outsiders that don't even know the family at all, are so adamant that the government steps in and intervene in this issue that should be a private family affair. Being bombarded everyday with details about the issue, repeated again and again till our ears bleed.
Seriously now, isn't there a war going on that is a hell of a lot more important, and that the government has more important issues to deal with beyond this one case.
Now why should the government get involved in the issues of an individual, speaking in the mindset of many Americans, the government has no place in the lives of individual, unless the person(or people) infringe the rights of others, this is a part of conservative (neo-liberalism) ideology. Michael Schiavo was the legal guardian of Terri, so technically it was his choice to do this. Easy as that. No government intervention needed, but soo many people decide to go out of their way to try and get the government to intervene so that they could keep her alive. The parents' lawyers even went out and said Governor Jeb Bush should defy legislation, like how his brother defied the United Nations to go to war, in order to save Terri's life. Now such reckless abandonment for the law, and such radical ideas could lead way to regular people just breaking the law and base their actions on the example of their president, thus leading to a breakdown in society and its laws.
It was really unfortunate what happened to her, and it was really unfortunate that the media turned her into a circus, for all to see. For some reason Americans prefer to get distracted in these issues, which do no concern them at all, and try to justify government intervention into individuals' lives. Now again, speaking in an American mindset, Conservatives (the main body responsible for the uproar) shouldn't be out there in the first place asking the government to intervene, because according to Conservative ideology, the government has no place in individuals' lives, and like I said before, Michael was her guardian, so he would have represented her when it came to certain legal proceedings concerning her. If they are willing to let the government intervene in other people's lives, then they damn well should be able to intervene in your life, and make you pay taxes for useful things like health care, and social security.
This whole issue has been blown out of proportion, and is bound to be talked about a lot more in the future, regarding the issue of euthanasia, and who's responsibility it is to deal with people with disabilities. The root cause of her to be in this state was because she was Bulimic, and that a potassium imbalance in her system caused her heart to stop, and oxygen didn't get to her brain, causing irreparable damage. So speaking out against bulimia would help.
This entire debacle has only served in distracting American's from real issues that would actually concern them! Things like Social Security, cost of prescription drugs, health care, unemployment, violence, and I almost forgot they are also at war! These issues (and many more) actually concern basically all Americans, but for some reason they decide to go on a march to try and "Do God's work" by making a big issue out of something that should have been dealt with through the family and the government alone. This really shows where their priorities are, and if the majority of Americans don't care about issues that could affect the future of the country, it really tells you that something is wrong.
I don't see groups of people gathered in front of the houses of American soldiers who died in Iraq, nor do I see anyone (besides immediate family) crying over their "unnecessary" deaths as well.
Why? You tell me.
Unless you're Amish, you most likely would have heard on the news or the radio about the Terri Schiavo(pronounced Shy-vo, not she-avo) affair. About 15 years ago Terri fell into a coma and suffered severe brain damage due to cardiac arrest and loss of oxygen to her brain among other things, brought on by chemical imbalances due to an eating disorder. Since then she has been in a persistent vegetative state(this being disputed) and has been in hospice care, kept alive artificially by use of a feeding tube.
The heart of the issue is that her husband, Michael Schiavo has been fighting for years to have the feeding tube removed so she can be laid to rest. Michael contends that before her accident she had told him she would never want to be kept alive in such a condition if it were to ever happen to her. Michael was fighting to carry out her wishes. On the other side of the war are the Schindlers - her parents - fighting to have the feeding tube kept in, arguing that they believe she can make a recovery with proper care.
As her legal guardian, Michael has won all court battles for the right to decide whether or not the feeding tube would be removed. The courts also stated that on advice of court-appointed neurologists that she was indeed in a persistent vegetative state with no hope of recovery. The feeding tube was removed years ago but was reinserted. It was again removed 2 weeks ago, sparking the most chaotic right-to-die battle ever fought.
She died today.
For further details please read this Wikipedia article on Terri Schiavo.
Let's get the facts straight. Terri is no longer the person she once was. She is a mindless body, an artifact of her former self. It is absurd that people actually believe she has a conscience by watching some extremely selective home videos showing her "laugh" and "react." Such actions are merely random signals being sent to different muscles in her body. The fact that they have coincidentally ocurred at the same time as some external event means absolutely nothing. I'd like to see the hours of footage of her not reacting to what they did. To convince half a country that she is still a conscious human being is quite impressive. Notice how they try to personify her by saying things like "she's fighting for her life." Give me a break. Even conscious people do not "fight" for their life. Nobody has direct control over their organs, their nervous system, their heart, etc. It is simply a figure of speech. The only thing fighting for her life is the feeding tube.
As far as the debate on who should have say on her fate, I think it's pretty clear cut. The laws strictly state that husband and wife have full guardianship over each other. And the courts agree. It is kind of ironic that the same people fighting against Michael's guardianship are the same people fighting for traditional marriage. What does traditional marriage state? That the husband and wife belong to each other and nobody else.
What truly irks me is how they try to paint Michael Schiavo as some murderous devil while they try to paint themselves as some life-saving crusaders. They also try to give it a "disability" spin. Let's get serious. Terri isn't disabled. She's dis-human. They also love asking the question "If Michael has moved on with his life, why not let Terri live and let her parents keep her alive?" Well hmmm, maybe because the whole reason why he's doing this is because this is what she wanted. Given the amount of flak he's getting, I'd wager he would have said screw it by now and just given up. He has nothing to gain from her dying except knowing that he carried out her wishes.
Terri Schiavo, rest in peace.
Many of these "pro-life" people are the same people who are against scientific advances (because they are unnatural, and they don't fit in with God's plan for life) which prolong life, yet they insisted upon keeping Terri Schiavo alive (using... SCIENCE), lengthening the duration of her natural life by 100%. If that isn't hypocracy, then I don't know what is.
What really astonishes me about this whole situation, is how many outsiders that don't even know the family at all, are so adamant that the government steps in and intervene in this issue that should be a private family affair. Being bombarded everyday with details about the issue, repeated again and again till our ears bleed.
Seriously now, isn't there a war going on that is a hell of a lot more important, and that the government has more important issues to deal with beyond this one case.
Now why should the government get involved in the issues of an individual, speaking in the mindset of many Americans, the government has no place in the lives of individual, unless the person(or people) infringe the rights of others, this is a part of conservative (neo-liberalism) ideology. Michael Schiavo was the legal guardian of Terri, so technically it was his choice to do this. Easy as that. No government intervention needed, but soo many people decide to go out of their way to try and get the government to intervene so that they could keep her alive. The parents' lawyers even went out and said Governor Jeb Bush should defy legislation, like how his brother defied the United Nations to go to war, in order to save Terri's life. Now such reckless abandonment for the law, and such radical ideas could lead way to regular people just breaking the law and base their actions on the example of their president, thus leading to a breakdown in society and its laws.
It was really unfortunate what happened to her, and it was really unfortunate that the media turned her into a circus, for all to see. For some reason Americans prefer to get distracted in these issues, which do no concern them at all, and try to justify government intervention into individuals' lives. Now again, speaking in an American mindset, Conservatives (the main body responsible for the uproar) shouldn't be out there in the first place asking the government to intervene, because according to Conservative ideology, the government has no place in individuals' lives, and like I said before, Michael was her guardian, so he would have represented her when it came to certain legal proceedings concerning her. If they are willing to let the government intervene in other people's lives, then they damn well should be able to intervene in your life, and make you pay taxes for useful things like health care, and social security.
This whole issue has been blown out of proportion, and is bound to be talked about a lot more in the future, regarding the issue of euthanasia, and who's responsibility it is to deal with people with disabilities. The root cause of her to be in this state was because she was Bulimic, and that a potassium imbalance in her system caused her heart to stop, and oxygen didn't get to her brain, causing irreparable damage. So speaking out against bulimia would help.
This entire debacle has only served in distracting American's from real issues that would actually concern them! Things like Social Security, cost of prescription drugs, health care, unemployment, violence, and I almost forgot they are also at war! These issues (and many more) actually concern basically all Americans, but for some reason they decide to go on a march to try and "Do God's work" by making a big issue out of something that should have been dealt with through the family and the government alone. This really shows where their priorities are, and if the majority of Americans don't care about issues that could affect the future of the country, it really tells you that something is wrong.
I don't see groups of people gathered in front of the houses of American soldiers who died in Iraq, nor do I see anyone (besides immediate family) crying over their "unnecessary" deaths as well.
Why? You tell me.
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