Terri Schiavo

[HeavyMetalParkingLot]

The womans dead in the brain. Now let her body follow.:

Umm, hmm, last I recall people who are brain dead tend to need to be on breathing machines. And they have a tendency not to move. Neither of which applies to her.

[vidcc]

I still say its a matter of what she really wanted, and the proof of it. Under normal circumstances I would believe her husband, but he basically left her side already

I agree fully, her wish first and her husband stopped being that when he started a new relationship.......
however the wishes aside I am asking about state rights to rule over fed rights to dictate. This is after all close to the euphanasia debate as much as the abortion debate as to if it should be up to individual states to decide to allow or deny the individual "choice"
I purely used this case because it seems that the ones wanting federal intervention are the same people (mostly) wanting to overturn roe v wade.

[Busyman]

Wtf!!! I just saw Terry Shiavo and she's alive. I mean she isn't brain dead from what I see.

I would have thought that she would not be blinking and (seemingly) smiling or at the very least making sort of facial expressions and is somewhat responsive. She reminds me of a person with a lobotomy.

The problem is that I liken this to the gentlemen that might be implaled and when you remove the impaling instrument, he dies.

[RPerry]

this is the other part of the problem, she is not brain dead. Terry is severely brain damaged

[SideSwiped]

To the original topic. I stand by and say it SHOULD follow state law.
But, this is a tricky case. Since, the husband no longer wants her alive and the parents are willing to take responsibilty, he should put an end to all the debate and sign a divorce decree so that he is no longer responsible for her in any way shape or form.

[Snee]

To the original topic. I stand by and say it SHOULD follow state law.
But, this is a tricky case. Since, the husband no longer wants her alive and the parents are willing to take responsibilty, he should put an end to all the debate and sign a divorce decree so that he is no longer responsible for her in any way shape or form.

Yes, but what would people think of him if he divorced his poor, damaged wife?

Better then to kill her off and make himself a widower, maybe.



Too cynical?

[RPerry]

Yes, but what would people think of him if he divorced his poor, damaged wife?

Better then to kill her off and make himself a widower, maybe.

guess your not following the story, he is already screwing someone else, which is why I believe he is wanting so badly to have this over

[Snee]

guess your not following the story, he is already screwing someone else, which is why I believe he is wanting so badly to have this over

Well, I am, sort of, as much as is possible, but the point was that it might be even more frowned upon if he just leaves her, whereas if he does things "according to her wishes", he gets to be all noble in the eyes of certain people.

[RPerry]

I guess its cause I'm not so sure what her real wishes were. would have been much easier situation if there was a will on record.

[Snee]

She isn't dead.

Unless you waste every patient with advanced alzheimer's in american hospitals, she shouldn't be terminated either.

Is it even certain that there isn't some part of her in there that has a grasp on what is happening around her? The impression I have is that she has retained some kind of awareness of the world around her. Maybe she just can't communicate. The brain is a strange organ, we don't know what it can compensate for by using alternate neural pathways and suchlike.

The way medical breakthroughs sometimes pop up today, it wouldn't be unimaginable that there'll some day be a means to reconnect her to the world if so.


Any wishes she might have made in event of brain-death don't apply here.