I feel really bad for the Schindlers

I don't agree with them--I think the feeding tube should be removed, but I understand how hard this must be for them, especially since they truly believe that their daughter is still in there somewhere. I think it's reprehensible what the republicans did to them. Instead of allowing them to use this time to cope with their daughter's death, they were given false hopes by congressional republicans, who passed this measure knowing that the courts wouldn't accept it, in an attempt to call attention to "activist" judges.

I can't imagine what the Schindlers are going through, and I can't believe that republicans have the chutzpah to to take advantage of their hope and agony like this.

I guess they thought Bush would send in Federal officers or something. You reap what you sow. Instead of taking this time to step all of the last minutes available with Mrs. Schiavo, they are fooling around with the courts and appearing on TV.

THEY chose this path. It wasn't chosen for them

Was brought on by the Schindlers. Death should be a private matter, and they decided to make it a public issue. Fuck them. Had they kept this to themselves I would have felt sorry for them, as I do for any family dealing with a long death.

used, however, the fact remains that is EXACTLY what these bastards have done! So- maybe they've been using eachother. If this is what it takes to expose the RW political BS- then so be it!

Peace!

who have been unable to come to terms with the fact that the relatively intact looking body in a bed has no cerebral cortex and no hope of recovery. Their life soon revolves around trying to interpret every twitch or groan as communication, proof that their family member isn't really gone.

Sometimes the hospitals themselves step in and fight this through the courts; more often the family stays mired in false hope, using the focus on the severely damaged individual as a means of dodging the real issues in their lives, and the person is shipped off to a nursing home for the duration, until pneumonia or heart failure intervenes.

Yes, they brought this whole circus on themselves by appealing to the church and then to right to life nutters. However, no family deserves this stuff, not even them.

They will be devastated when their daughter finally slips away. They have nothing else in their lives.

who think she's still "alive" can come back with just people praying and God can magically regrow her brain and the cerebal cortex. They don't understand the science of it and how God can't do something like that no matter what. And besides: how do they know God doesn't want her to come home already? :shrug:

<They will be devastated when their daughter finally slips away. They have nothing else in their lives.>

Stop and think about it. If someone you love dearly is dying - your parent, spouse, child - you kind of know deep down that they really are going to die. Can you accept that? Can you envision "moving on" in your life?

The thing that disturbs me is this over-involvement by the parents.
Why are they so completely consumed by what happens to Terri? What is their relationship to each other like? Where are their friends? What other relationships are they ignoring?

Codependency is awful, but when it's hyped like this case is, it becomes a monster. I don't feel sorry for them, but I am afraid of what may become of them.

They've been pumped up by all of this political BS and given all of this hope- just to see it slip away! The repubs should be held accountable for this outrage! It is truly a tragic event...

BTW- have you seen the polls re: Do the American people believe that the politicians really care about Terri or are they using her to advance their political agendas? Over 80% voted for advancing political agendas! Pretty telling!!!

Peace.

...their pain must be unimaginable. Those crazies (and their right wing agendas) gave those people a false hope.

I also agree that the feeding tube removal (honoring her wishes as expressed through her advocate) is the right thing.

the most sad thing is they're giving this family all this false hope that she'll recover with this fake doctor and all that. :( I do feel bad with that and they're driving this family over even more. Think of how it'd be when she does die.

the RW Fundies for their own political ends. Their love for their daughter has been used as a wedge to turn them into puppets for a cause in which they might not otherwise have had the least bit of interest.
At this point they are probably emotionally and physcially drained, and it is the Fundie lawyers that are making all the decisions. They are old and feeble, and just devote themselves to their daughter and her memory and care.

the Religious Right who have commandeered them and are using them as pawns.

(My grand father was a clergyman who felt that most clergymen were crooks and charlatans - needless to say, he never had a congregation)

in this undignified state, but that's just me.

I do have some sympathy for the Schindler's, though. They are parents and they are hoping for a miracle. The politicians used their pain and hope in a very despicable way.

These people said they WOULD HAVE HER LIMBS CUT OFF rather that let her die, DESPITE ADMITTING it would be against her will to stay alive in this state.

Sorry, but how selfish are these poeple?

They let this happen to their daughter purely out of their own selfish needs to not let her die in peace. They are promoting her around and it's disgusting. No dignity at all. If they really loved their daughter they wouldn't be using this like they are because they're so despearte and out of reality. They don't understand the word "no" and there's no chance of her ever coming back. I was listening to a news report on AAR sometime last week when all this first began and the mother was saying "please don't use this as political gain issue" and talking about the democrats! :wtf: She's talking to the wrong people! I guess she really believes Tom DeLay and Bill Frist really care about her. :eyes:

No way around it, though, they did many bad things including the demonizing of Michael Shiavo..

In this whole absurd case, I can't blame anybody who is _actually_ close to her. They are in their minds, no matter how deluded, fighting to save the life of their child. And they'll take any help they can get.

I'm sorry for them because of the tragedy of having a child in this state for so long. It must be very hard to let go.

But they have been slandering their son-in-law up one side and down the other. Moral people don't do that kind of thing. It is simply wrong.

I assume they chose to ignore the fact that this may one day happen. So in one sense I feel their intense tragedy, I have children also, but I also have to believe that they are aware of the realities of Terri's situation and have chose not to face it.

and they are about to spit them out. It's hard to fault them, they are deluded and having hope is a proper thing to do. They have been used in the worst way.

--IMM

are beginning to shame themselves. They are allowing their daughter no privacy nor dignity. Its too bad. They are becoming more pathetic than their problem.

but it occurred 15 years ago.

For whatever reason they feel the need to keep the body of their daughter prisoner on earth, I suppose the media attention and all of the quacks coming out of the woodwork are giving them some measure of hope.

I would hope if it was my child, I would be spending her last hours by her bedside, and let the lawyers battle it out.

Which is exactly what her husband is doing. Yet the MSM is, by proxy labeling him an abusive husband and a murderer. I wouldn't be surprised if the parents think the same about Michael. It's pathetic.