Has the Schiavo case Become a Political Football?

Mae Magouirk has not had food or water since March 28, even though her living will states that food and water not be discontinued unless she enters a coma or a persistent vegetative state.

Quote:

A more extensive review of the scientific literature relevant to starvation and dehydration appears in an article by Sullivan entitled, Accepting Death without Artificial Nutrition or Hydration.[Sullivan] Published studies of healthy volunteers report that total fasting causes hunger for less than 24 hours. Ketonemia occurs and is associated with relief of hunger and an accompanying mild euphoria. When ketonemia is prevented by small feedings hunger persists, explaining the obsession with food commonly observed during semi-starvation occurring in times of famine or war. Animal studies also suggest that ketonemia may have a mild systemic analgesic effect. Experimentally induced dehydration in normal volunteers may report thirst, yet this sensation is consistently relieved by ad lib sips of fluid in cumulative volumes insufficient to restore physiologic fluid balance. One study of healthy subjects suggests there is a decrease in the severity of experienced thirst associated with older age.

Mysteryman, there is very little pain. Read up on it.

HERE

Quote:

Mae Magouirk has not had food or water since March 28, even though her living will states that food and water not be discontinued unless she enters a coma or a persistent vegetative state.

http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2005/apr/05040806.html

mysteryman- And therein lies the difference. Mae Magouirk had a living will, what stated her desires explicitly. Therefore, IMO the granddaughter had no right to make the determination that she did. Terri Schiavo left no living will, so the law had to adhere to the instructions of her husband. Get the difference?

I'm not aware of what Tico may have done either.
Of course,I came into this discussion fairly late.

So,I would appreciate some examples of what I am supposed to be aware of also.

Dookie,
For the record,I am not opposed to what the judge did.
I AM opposed to letting her starve like was done.
A lethal dose of morphine would have been better,IMHO.

Gelisgesti wrote:

Quote:

A more extensive review of the scientific literature relevant to starvation and dehydration appears in an article by Sullivan entitled, Accepting Death without Artificial Nutrition or Hydration.[Sullivan] Published studies of healthy volunteers report that total fasting causes hunger for less than 24 hours. Ketonemia occurs and is associated with relief of hunger and an accompanying mild euphoria. When ketonemia is prevented by small feedings hunger persists, explaining the obsession with food commonly observed during semi-starvation occurring in times of famine or war. Animal studies also suggest that ketonemia may have a mild systemic analgesic effect. Experimentally induced dehydration in normal volunteers may report thirst, yet this sensation is consistently relieved by ad lib sips of fluid in cumulative volumes insufficient to restore physiologic fluid balance. One study of healthy subjects suggests there is a decrease in the severity of experienced thirst associated with older age.

I hope this makes you feel better about it ....


Mysteryman, there is very little pain. Read up on it.

HERE

I wasnt concerned about the pain,as I was the DURATION of the event.
She lived for 13 days,and that seems cruel to her family and her "husband".

If starvation is so painless,why dont we use it to execute condemned prisoners? Would you advocate that?

Perhaps the most persuasive of recent articles is that entitled, A Conversation with My Mother.[Eddy] It is a narrative written by Dr. David Eddy regarding the progressive illness and dying of his mother. Initially published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, it was subsequently reprinted in the New York Times, eliciting substantial discussion and notably favorable public response. Mrs. Eddy was suffering from progressive debilitation, chronic depression, anemia, recent surgery and recurrent rectal prolapse. She expressed a desire to die and, in the course of relentless decline, asked her son for help. Dr. Eddy sought to provide his mother with the means to end her life peacefully. However, prior to obtaining a lethal prescription, she developed pneumonia and was hospitalized. Antibiotics were begun (we are not told why), but quickly withdrawn at the patient's request. When she began to improve despite the lack of life-prolonging intervention, Mrs. Eddy asked her son about the option of refusing food and fluids. (It was her idea.) He assured her that without nutrition and, especially without adequate fluid, the end would come quickly. She was elated and, following the celebration of her 85th birthday and with the support of her primary physician, she stopped eating and drinking. (Her last morsel was chocolate.) She died, peacefully, six days later. The description of her last few days is compelling. "Over the next four days, my mother greeted her visitors with the first smiles she had shown for months. She energetically reminisced about the great times she had had and about things she was proud of... She also found a calming self-acceptance in describing things of which she was not proud. She slept between visits but woke up brightly whenever we touched her to share more memories and say a few more things she wanted us to know. On the fifth day it was more difficult to wake her. When we would take her hand she would open her eyes and smile, but she was too drowsy and weak to talk very much. On the sixth day, we could not wake her. Her face was relaxed in her natural smile, she was breathing unevenly, but peacefully. We held her hands for another two hours, until she died."

Interesting to do a search on the words "kill terri" here at A2K.

Appears the one who's entered those words most often is Foxfyre. (14 entries)

following along

Brandon (9 entries)

Debra Law (8 entries)

I thought Cyclo would make it into the top 5, but Cyclo was quoting Foxfyre, so that didn't really work.

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So who's in this oft-mentioned "Kill Terri" club? (classic rhetorical question)

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Each time I read the thread title, I think it should really read "Why did the Terri Schiavo case become a political football? and did it work out the way anyone expected it to"

The split here at A2K has not been along political party lines, and not along religious/not religious/religion lines. If that fragmenting of the groups reflects what's happening in the U.S. generally (which the polls seem to suggest), this case could have repercussions that the punters did not anticipate.

Interesting to watch.

WHAT ARE YOUR MEDICAL CREDENTIALS?

. . . The obvious significance of listing one's medical credentials is to establish oneself as an expert and the rest of us without similar medical credentials as morons.

Might be my opinion, but I identified the facts that support my opinion, and the rationale I used to arrive at same. . . .

Your opinion is hardly fact and that is all you have given. Each person that frequents this thread is aware of the fact thata all you do is accuse with nothing but your opinion to back up your charges.

That's about as cheap and low as it gets and I don't care to wallow in the sewers with that ilk.

I thought Cyclo would make it into the top 5, but Cyclo was quoting Foxfyre, so that didn't really work.