Terry Schiavo

[Craig Benfer]

I don't understand! This woman is not braindead,she is braindamaged. She is not being kept alive artificially, she is being fed artificially. All they are doing is starving a woman to death that can't feed herself. All of this is based on the word of a husband that claims she said that she didn't ever want to be kept alive artificially? I just don't get it.

[aggiesjc]

This is a painful situation, for sure. I find myself thinking of her many times a day.

[Tony Cartmill]

Bill O'Reilly's solution would solve everything, as usual.

If there is not some big-deal money promised to the hubby to see this through by the secularist movement, why doesn't he just bow out gracefully to stop all this nationwide division and let the family and private donations take care of Terry?

And who's going to buy his book after he's been villified by half of the country?

As Bill says, "The way this is playing out now, everybody loses..."

[Dougjack]

Craig,

Isn't she in fact essentially brain dead? If her cortex is liquified, if she's been this way for 15 years with absolutely no improvement? Countless doctors have examined her, and all have said basically the same thing. Its just recently that a lot of people who weren't there and don't know the facts are trying to use this woman for their own political agenda. I agree with the 70-80% of the public that says this should never have even made the news. It's the private business of this woman and her family. And if it was me, I sure wouldn't want to be kept "alive" (if you can call it that) this way.

Most of all, it really drives home the fact that we should all have a living will done so our families wouldn't have to fight over us if this kind of thing happened.

Jack

[Dougjack]

Bill O'Reilly's solution would solve everything, as usual.

If there is not some big-deal money promised to the hubby to see this through by the secularist movement, why doesn't he just bow out gracefully to stop all this nationwide division and let the family and private donations take care of Terry?

Tony,

O'Reilly couldn't solve his way out of 2-piece jigsaw puzzle. The problem with what you (or is it Bill) are suggesting is....what does Terri want? What if the husband isn't the lying, abusing, money-grubbing adulterer that some folks are making him out to be? What if Terri did actually tell him that she wouldn't want to be kept alive in her current state? Everybody keeps talking about the parents vs. the husband, but what about what Terri wants? Wouldn't your plan just prolong the needless suffering?

Jack

[mannoman]

Craig,

Dougjack is correct. Her cortex is liquified. She is way beyond brain damaged.

The media, as usual, has made a circus out of a situation that goes on hundreds of times daily in the U.S. This is a very, very sad situation.

The political fall out will be heavy but not in ways many people think.

When we get into the topics of religion and politics we are opening a pandora's box that I personally don't believe belongs on this board.

Ted

[Tony Cartmill]

When 2 state-appointed temporary guardians say on the record that Micheal's motives are insincere, and soon after he wins the 1 million dollar mal-practice judgement, he stops all physical therapy and starts a 10 year legal battle to kill wifey, against her family's wishes...Why give all Terry's money to LAWYERS to fight to kill her, instead of spending it to give her better care? Nobody knows including DougJack, whether Michael's "hear-say" claim that Terry made is the truth. Michael should just bow out and move on to his new life with his kids and new wife. The parents and brother want Terry to stay on this earth the way she is. If she feels no pain with the feeding tube, or feels no mental anguish with part of her brain gone, what is the down side to having their daughter/sister around to visit?

[oldblue]

At the risk of sounding remarkably callous, I'm sympathetic to all parties involved, but I'm basically sick of all this.

I'm sick of this poor woman being used as a political football (for both the right and left of center), sick of judgements being pronounced on Terry's parents and husband, and sick of media mavens capitalizing incessently on the grief of all concerned. This tragedy which lasted for 14 years proves more than anything else the need for every adult to consider making a Living Will at their earliest possible opportunity, so that other families can be spared this type of rancor.

[-Laury-]

I have wondered about the other patients at the Hospice where Terry Schiavo is. There is a media circus outside, police and security, drums beating and people praying and shouting loudly. What of the rights of those other patients who need peace and solitude in their own final days. No one has given a thought to those other familie's struggles inside the hospice.

I was with both of my parents in their final days, hours and at the final moments, a family and dying family member need those moments to be sacred. I feel for Terry, her parents and husband, but the family has allowed her plight to supercede everything and everyone. They are not the only family going through a difficult time, they did choose to play it out in a very public and politically charged forum.

Those other families in that building deserve serenity and peace in their own difficult and private moments.

[oldblue]

I tend to agree with you, Laury, and I can't help but think as well that Terry's parents have been purposely exploited by both media and various factions on the political right...and to the left's discredit, they played right along with it.

It's time for the circus to stop.

[Bob Allen]

...here's the deal kids: fill out a health care proxy form today. simple as that. if terri schiavo had had one, no one would know her name. this is the greatest lesson from her -- and her family's -- ordeal.

[Tony Cartmill]

I don't know, I'd like to be famous for something before I die. Terry will be remembered by millions for awhile. I'll probably be lucky to have 100 people show up for my funeral...And 50 will be there for the yummy buffet:(

Grab it while you can Terry.

[darlene]

Oh, Tony, Aunt Antonietta will be weeping over your handsome form in the casket. Wait, maybe SHE'LL go first. At any rate, all the Cleveland Cuties will be weeping, and that's even better.

We luv ya, Cartmill. (Tiny Castnill?!)

--Darlene

[darlene]

My heart breaks for Terri Schiavo. It really brings home the need for a definitive document that states one's wishes no matter what. One can never tell what one's family, friends or even one's spouse is going to do or whose motives will be pure in such a case. We would all hope those closest to us would have our total interest uppermost, but things happen and the motives of people can change. The best thing any of us can do for ourselves is to file such a document with an attorney while we are young enough that the scenario seems unlikely. When things start to happen, it's too late.

My aunt and uncle always told Herman and me that, having seen and respected the way we took my uncle and mother into our home and cared for them, they wanted us to care for them, not my aunt's brother and sister, who basically shoved everyone into a nursing home. We kept telling them that since we are only niece and nephew, they had better put it into writing, and they said, "We have time yet." She fell at home and broke her hip, and during a stay at a rehab facility, started spiralling into Alzheimers and he went completely into depression. Her brother came in (the uncle had no living relatives) and took over, made all the decisions they didn't want (put them both in the same nursing home, when they wanted to come live with us), had them declared incompetent, and they died shortly thereafter, broken-hearted. So were we. Do it while you still think you don't need to.

--Darlene

[Danny S.]

My feelings...

1)There is alot more that will come out of this for sure.

2)MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A LIVING WILL!

3)the federal government should not EVER be allowed to make the decision whether you live or die.

[Carmen Smalley]

I dend euthanasia and I´m against capital punishment.People who defends capital punishment and is against euthanasia is punishing people to die or to live against their volition.

[Carmen Smalley]

Tony,You now are saying Luther King was a hero(he´s dead)and you sure are thinking Kofi Annan is crap,so you also make a myth of dead people!

[darlene]

Everyone is sure to have exceedingly strong feelings about these issues because they are at the very heart of life and death. Whatever else happens, it points out the need for each and every person to make certain they have themselves covered by stating what they want in no uncertain terms, so situations don't get convoluted and complicated.

--D

[marlene]

Darlene, I completely agree. No matter what our personal feelings might be about this case, and I think some of us have pretty strong opinions about it...I believe every family member, parents, husband, siblings...all had Terry's best interest at heart. They just couldn't agree about what SHE would have wanted. The pain on their faces said it all. Living wills/advance directives are easy to complete...and can prevent this kind of additional pain for loved ones when a situation such as this occurs.

[Tony Cartmill]

Annan, seems to follows King's "non-violence, no matter what" philosophy. Yet he let's his UN do backroom oil deals with psychotic killers like Sadaam and stands by while Radical Muslims slice the heads off of reporters and dessenters in Middle East countries, then tries to shame America for getting revenge. Annan has let monetary greed cloud his mind just like some of those "evil" American corporations making money off the Iraq war. "Money, money changes everything..."

Carmen, what should be done the guys who blew up your people at the train stations? Should we put them in a nice prison and allow them religious tolerance and a nice supply of weed to mellow out with?

[Tony Cartmill]

And Carmen, euthanasia is ok as long as everybody is SURE that is what the person dying really wants! Which is not the Schaivo case.

Carmen is probably one of those people who would stand out there and protest for "Abortion on Demand! Power to Women!" and "Put the Old and Useless Out of their Misery!", But then would cry out to stop the execution of a serial killer who liked to torture his victims...

[Carmen Smalley]

Of course I defend the right to abortion in EVERY case,then I´d choose three cases.If they raped me,If I could die if I have the baby and if the contraceptive pills I take failed.

BillÓ´Reilly is a serial killer.He kills Liberal´s ideology!

And of course Power For Women.!Who would male chauvinists like you rape or torture if we didn´t existed?Who would you give any pleasure when you f...,etcPower For Womwn.Women from this forum!Let´s make our husbands/boyfriends/lovers/special friends iron our clothes,cook our food,clean our house´s floor,etc!!!!!

[Tony Cartmill]

I'm in favor of putting Carmen on a leash and confining her to her apartment...Part for kinky fantasy, but mostly to protect her neighborhood...and country...from Carmen.

[James]

Carmen Smalley, EC.Com's own Fascista is back with a vengeance!

Mr. Cartmill's leash reference was utterly out of place for a fragile Spanish flower like Carmen...no matter that she called him a rapist.

Anyway, Carmen...next time you get dumped give me a call...I'll hook you up with one of my ex -girlfriends ...they'll teach you that it's not healthy to take your frustration from being dumped out on the entire male population.

[Tony Cartmill]

Then Carmen would hit on your ex...Free Love, Free Drugs, Free STD's, Free from responsibilty.

The "Fragile Fascista"...I like that James