Terri Schiavo

[HeavyMetalParkingLot]

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.

She has the mental capacity of a 10 or 11 month old according to the doctors.

[Snee]

I spoke fluently when I was eleven months old.

All they have to go by are external data like responses and eyemovements, they can't actually read her mind, so it's just an approximation.

[HeavyMetalParkingLot]

I spoke fluently when I was ten months old.

All they have to go by are external data like responses and eyemovements, they can't actually read her mind, so it's just an approximation.

I am sorry Snny, but I find extremely hard to believe you spoke fluently at 10 months of age.

[Snee]

Just edited.

I skipped babytalk, and went right to speaking proper swedish before I was a year old. (Had the grammar and full sentence-structure completely sorted at maybe eighteen months according to my journal, was prolly a bit elliptic and whatnot before that, but I didn't do any of that baby gibberish thingie babies do).

Sry.
Checked some papers, and it turns out I was a bit early in doing that.


The point is that ten-eleven months isn't a very good measurement of mental capacity.



But even this description

Ten to Eleven Months

Your baby may:
* Understand simple directions
* Look at and follow pictures in a book
* Point to body parts (e.g., nose, ear, mouth, arm, etc.)

source
Points to a certain grasp of reality, and like I said, this is only the outward signs of what she can do, she may have retained certain areas of ability that doesn't show up in an exam, just like it's possible for someone with aphasia to know the language without being able to pronunce it.

[HeavyMetalParkingLot]

The point is that ten-eleven months isn't a very good measurement of mental capacity.

Actually it is a good measurement. As it shows the brains developement (if testing a child). For example, a one month old will realize that it has been left alone. A six month old is able to recognize faces other that it's parents.

In Terry's case, it shows her capable of recognition of faces, emotional displays of happiness or distress, her inability of speech, and so on.

[Snee]

Actually it is a good measurement. As it shows the brains developement (if testing a child). For example, a one month old will realize that it has been left alone. A six month old is able to recognize faces other that it's parents.

In Terry's case, it shows her capable of recognition of faces, emotional displays of happiness or distress, her inability of speech, and so on.

Yep, but an adult with a brain-damage is different. So while it does show her external functioning, it doesn't show anything about her perceptions of causality, deductive ability and suchlike.

There may be fully functional but disconnected areas in a damaged adult brain. Whereas a baby's brain is evolving, and developing the pathways that have already been established in her brain. Thus making her perception of reality a different matter.


Sorry 'bout the millions of edits, 'tis late and I'm very tired.

[RPerry]

In Terry's case, it shows her capable of recognition of faces, emotional displays of happiness or distress, her inability of speech, and so on.

its this that bothers me so much in this case. I have seen her smiling, and in the days since her tube has been emoved, she looks sad and weak

[Arm]

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.

Her brain stem works. The part of the brain that controls her breathing and heart. But now the part of her brain thet controls thought. The so-called "new brain," as opposed to "old brain" as ive heard them be called.

[HeavyMetalParkingLot]

Her brain stem works. The part of the brain that controls her breathing and heart. But now the part of her brain thet controls thought. The so-called "new brain," as opposed to "old brain" as ive heard them be called.

Sorry kid, the brain stem does not control recognition and emotions.

[UKResident]

A US federal judge today refused to order the reinsertion of Terri Schiavo's feeding tube, prompting an immediate appeal by the parents of the severely brain-damaged woman.

The ruling by district judge James Whittemore follows an intervention by President George Bush and the US Congress to try to prevent a hospital from allowing her to die.

The judge said Ms Schiavo's parents had not established a "substantial likelihood of success" at trial on the merits of their arguments.


Source and full article.