Does anyone else find this whole Schiavo issue somewhat surreal?

I mean the many of the same people who are fighting to "keep her alive" do not seem to give a shit that more troops are dieing every day not to mention the hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians.

but you've hit the nail on the head!

Why?

1). Shiavo expressed a wish not to be kept alive in a vegetative state.
2). It was not written down.
3). Therefore, the husbands decision as to expressing her will in this matter is binding, as presumably he knows her best. If he thinks she didn't want this, then remove it. The decision is his to make. All attempts by Florida or the government or her parents to say otherwise is an infringement on his rights as her husband to make medical decisions on her behalf.
4). I understand that her parents are not happy with it. However, I doubt my parents would be happy that I want to be cremated either, but that doesn't mean that their wishes on the matter should be preeminent over my own. Her parents are used to making such decisions for her, no doubt, but the lost that right when she got married and someone else took responsibility for her in that regard.
5). Therefore the court made the correct decision. Further delay of tube removal, if that is the husbands decision, is absolutely unconscionable.

The issue here is who has the authority to decide what Terry's wishes are and the authority to determine whether a tube or life support in general should be removed in the absence of clear legal directives in writing. In both cases, that person is her husband. NOT her parents, and certainly not the government of the State of Florida or the United States. Therefore, the court is right in supporting his right to make this decision. If it is wrong to disconnect the feeding tube, then that is a moral question that is between Terry, her husband, and God. Kind of like the decision to abort is between a woman and God, not the business of the right-wingers.

and I'm a bleeding heart in most instances. I know she won't recover, I know the Husband has the authority, but I just have a hard time knowing that her life will be extinguished by denying her sustenance.

I feel the same about the death penalty - which I support when there's at least DNA evidence to prove guilt. I still however mourn when each person dies.

What I really HATE is how the right wing has politicized this issue!

She has NO BRAIN left. In a normal world her very natural refusal of sustenance would extinguish physical function. "Sustenance" is being FORCED upon her. She will naturally dehydrate, not "starve." There is no "pain" involved. She LACKS the wherewithall to even experience it!!!

This is the flip side of the PSYCHOSIS inaMurika. Perfectly potentially HEALTHY, productive, loving, sentient beings are being BLOWN OFF EN MASSE, left languishing in the VA system or living in their cars being CHARGED $$$ by the Pentagon for time not served due to injury and Amis are in a tizzy over a woman who has been DEAD, for all intents and purposes, FOR 15 FUCKING YEARS. This HAS to be the SICKEST scenario I've seen yet. But I've stopped pounding my head saying, "It can't get worse." Y'all ALWAYS prove me wrong. :SIGH: :argh:

now and he's ripping the Congress a new asshole. Said if Dems allow Terri to be hooked back up on the feeding tube they deserve to be the minority party. Said the House of Representatives acted in an odious fashion. Give 'em hell, dude! Urging everyone to write their congressmen to say they can't walk over dying peoples' wishes.

The fucks are just baby killers, as long as they aren't in the womb.

Bush cuts funding to vets with traumatic brain injuries

http://www.timesargus.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050318/NEWS/503180384/1016/FEATURES07

Welcome maddiejoan! :hi:

It's just disgusting!! If a veteran was in the same shape as Terri Schiavo -- they'd HAVE to pull the feeding tube on the kid, because there'd be no funding to keep them alive!!

I swear to jeebus, I'm goin' bald from tearing my hair out!

it's about controlling other people, like abortion and assisted suicide. If she were uninjured and pregnant with a life-treatening condition, they could not give two shits about her life. They just want to run people's lives for them because then they don't have to face themselves.

Invasion of our RIGHT TO PRIVACY. The individual or the guardian of the individual has the right to make decisions over their bodies. EXCEPT if abuse or neglect has been proven.

Court order meds will be next.

not two minutes ago.

Really. Randall Terry. Bo Gritz. The threat of a forced "rescue" of a woman in a persistent vegetative state. A Congressional subpoena for her, vegetative state and all. Calls for the National Guard to come and enforce the subpoena (does that mean they're done killing Iraqis?)

"Kafka on acid" pretty much sums it up for me.

edit: forced

Just like her life isn't about abortion? It isn't about soldiers either. She is one woman who has faced medical brain damage and legal hardship. We can all face it at some point in our lives, But I for one am sick of Terri Shiavo being a poster child for any cause. If she ASKED for it it would be a whole different ball game. Want to make the call for soldiers to come home against the rupukes? Do it. Want to make a point about life and death? You are free to do so. But I think using a brain damaged woman, who has suffered through the press and many opinions is not the way to do it. We need to be strong and talk about life and decision to make a point. Not her death and who can decide it.

on Hearsay evidence

LIE!
And by the way the court is not starving anyone to death. They are removing a feeding tube from a brain dead women. Big difference!

and I am against that too.

This woman IS dead.

and there is a real difference of opinion in the medical community.

I choose to err on the side of Terri's parents rather than condemning her to what might be a miserable fate

unanimous than you think.

Being in a persistive vegetative state isn't already a miserable fate?

that they could force someone into an existence like she's endured for the past 15 years based on hearsay evidence.

But I felt the same after Laci Peterson after a while. An alien visiting the planet would think Laci Peterson and Terri Schiavo were queens of the planet ( Princess Diana, too).

We blow up people left and right in wars, step over people who are homeless and starving, take WIC money away from pregnant women and children, execute people (though we've learned innocents do make their way onto death row), cut health care for the poor and disabled, but no one wants to talk about that.

It's beyond bizarre. It truly is. If these jerks who are obsessed with keeping this poor woman "alive" would just put a little effort into feeding, clothing, and healing people who actually have a chance. . .

I read a book written by a nurse and she talked about keeping someone like poor Terri Schiavo alive. A doctor said to her, sanctimoniously, we can't play God; we must wait for God to call. She said something like, "Well God called when he gave the patient a heart attack! He pounded on the door and yelled."

It is the pure height of absurdity.

Every day thousands die of starvation and disease. The 'freeps' don't care one whit about those.

It's all a show, a big media show.

Which is what the democratic leadership should be saying.