Well, it turns out that Terri Schiavo's parents were totally wrong about their daughter's mental capacity — and also wrong about their accusations that Michael Schiavo abused her:
TAMPA, Fla. - In a victory for Michael Schiavo, a coroner who performed an autopsy on Terri Schiavo reported Wednesday that she suffered from an irreversible brain injury and would not have recovered as her parents insisted was possible. It also found no evidence that she was strangled or otherwise abused.
I have a child. I love him more than anything. But if he were to be in a persistive vegetative state, I would rather him be dead than to be in that state; especially if there was evidence that he had stated that he would not want to kept alive in that condition.
There are some things worse than death. For me (and many others) being in a coma for years with no end in sight would be one of those things.
What really confounds me about the folks that were so adamant that Terri Schiavo be kept alive is that these are usually fundamentalist Christian Republican types. In other words, people who profess to believe in a Heaven.
You see what is so hypocritical about that? These people don't act in accordance with their beliefs. If they believed — really believed — in God, Heaven, and all that jazz, then would they not also believe that when Terri Schiavo died, she would be going to Heaven?
Are those folks, including Terri's parents, really so selfish that they would rather she be lying in a hospital bed in a coma, than in paradise?
Apparently they are.
Article comments
1 - Nancy
Amen to that! Yeah, they are that selfish - or that far in denial. I understand there was also a fight about money - the parents believed they were entitled to some of that settlement, so I suspect it wasn't entirely about parental love. Money can do ugly things.
2 - Tan Hoang
It's also interesting to find out that she didn't have an eating disorder which caused her chemical imbalance. It might be a while until they figure out what caused her brain damage.
3 - gonzo marx
brain weight , just over 600 grams, about half of a normal woman...cortical blindness, the areas of the brain that govern memory and Thought...gone, speech center...gone, evidence of abuse, drugs or neglect...none
so much for the Senate Majority Leader's, Doctor Bill Frist, "diagnosis"....note to the gentle Readers, do NOT let this man examine you or those you care about
so much for the protestations of the parents and "witnesses"
just watched an Interview with the parent's lawyer on MSNBC...still trying to spin, even when shown the video clip of the forensic neurologist stating that the damage observed fit "the clinical definition of a persistent vegatative state"
so, to all those that went nuts over this and villified the husband
you owe the man an Apology
nuff said?
Excelsior!
4 - Temple Stark
Schiavo who?
5 - DJRadiohead
Promoting a belief in human life does not seem to contradict a belief in an afterlife or God. At least not to me. Promoting life is not the same as fearing death. In my opinion anyway.
6 - Bill
To be fair, the parents did acknowledge she was in a PVS until a bunch of quacks filed affidavits saying they could literally cure her, provided she underwent their experimental and very expensive "therapies"
Of course, there was never any evidence beyond the affiants' word that their treatment worked.
One in particular, when under oath at trial, refused to name a single case where his experimental vasodiilation therapy had worked.
Yet the same practitioner had no trouble appearing on talk shows the last 2 weeks of her life, claiming he could have had her walking again.
Just how low do you have to be to exploit a family's tragedy for your own personal financial gain?
Don't be too harsh on the family since they were consistently lied to by those chasing the almighty dollar.
7 - Temple Stark
I kept think about Bill Frist's "diagnosis" by watching a video of her (non)activity. Charlatanesque, really.
I wrote at the time, certain politicians had overplayed their hand - and clearly had gone beyond even their own beliefs in order to suck up to what they thought Americans believed. Turned out, their EQ was very low.
8 - When Alex
"God, Heaven and all that jazz." What an ignorant statement. It shows that you have little understanding of Christian belief or probably any religious belief and even less respect. Selfishness is an interesting statement. It seems to me that M. Shiavo was the selfish one. Why didn't he just get a divorce and move on with his life and leave her to her parents? I would imagine he would have lost quite a bit in a settlement to his brain damaged wife. No one ever discussed the life insurance issue upon her death either. I wonder if there was any. Why did it take all of those years for him to finally say Terri said she didn't want to live under those conditions? There was no proof of that wish only the word of a husband with a new life and girlfriend. He is entitled to a new life. She was entitled to what life she had left or the chance of one. She had caring family memebers who were willing to take care of her, that should have made a difference.
9 - jeannie danna
So this, is the justification we found?
We all sat in front of our televisions, watching her parent's agony, while she was literally dehydrated to death;
10 - jeannie danna
The rest of my comment,
It took Terri thirteen days to die of dehydration.
At least, Dr. Kevorkian would have helped her to move on quickly and painlessly.