Great Message

This is a great article! I think it is well worth the read.

...snip
If Congress and the legislators in Florida made anything clear over the past few years of fighting about Schiavo’s fate, it is that they have no idea what they are talking about.

After the spectacle of senators second-guessing diagnoses without benefit of any solid information, a governor introducing people as experts who lacked real credentials or hands-on experience, state legislators giving the spotlight to anyone who had any claim — no matter how blatantly screwy — about how to cure those who are severely brain injured, there is not a legislature in America that is ready to say or do anything useful about the right to stop treatment.

If legislators cannot stand inaction in the wake of what has just taken place, then let them hold hearings in which those with claims to make are carefully cross-examined and the public is given a chance to learn how conditions like permanent vegetative state and coma are diagnosed and why nearly every doctor, nurse and dietician in America knows that a feeding tube is a form of medical treatment.
...snip

Inexcusable silence

In addition, organized medicine and hospice care in America need to reflect on their relative lack of participation in the national debate about Schiavo. With the exception of the California Medical Association, the New England Journal of Medicine,

...snip

And where were the patient advocacy groups and those who represent the interests of the disabled, the chronically sick and the brain injured? Not Dead Yet spoke up and let their views be known. But where were the many other groups who also speak for those with Alzheimer’s, Parkinson's, ALS, cancer, AIDS, spinal cord injuries, cystic fibrosis, Huntington’s disease and numerous other maladies where very hard choices about terminating treatment and even ending the use of feeding tubes have to be made. Ducking commentary on the Schiavo case should not be an option for those with the most experience in decisions to stop care. Cowardice in the face of controversy is not a virtue.

And yes, we heard from the Vatican about its thoughts concerning Schiavo. But where were the Christian Scientists, the Jehovah’s Witnesses and the fundamentalist Protestants who turn to prayer to express their views on the right to refuse any and all medical care including a feeding tube? And what were the views of the Lutheran Church, the United Church of Christ, reform Jews, Congregationalists, Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims, Mormons, Seventh Day Adventists, Unitarians, Presbyterians, and Episcopalians on the right to refuse treatment including feeding tubes? These groups owe it to us to end their silence and to weigh in with their thinking.

Those who suggested that any hospice would ever let a person die a miserable, painful death should simply recant. Hospice is one of the greatest institutions ever to appear in American health care. No one, whatever their motives or goals, should ever be allowed to suggest that those who provide care in hospices do so in a way that does anything other than put the control of pain and the maintenance of human dignity at the forefront.

...more

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7289351/

says,

By being silent, sometimes you can be screaming the loudest.

my bumper.

Thanks for replying to my post. It's really discouraging to me to see so many bs and repetitious posts with a ton of replies but something I think is worth reading and commenting on sinks like a rock with virtually no discussion.

Over time I've become discouraged enough I just about don't post anymore. I suppose every poster feels that way at times....but you do start to feel like your an outsider looking in. When I first came to DU I was so relived to find others that were thinking like me..it was my salvage. I guess that's why it's so disappointing to me.

Excuse my little tirade and thank you!!

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