Is euthanasia acceptable?

The people around Terri Schiavo, including her family and nurses who attended her state that she DID show signs of cognitive ability, she was not completely unconscious but woke and slept 'like a normal person'.

Terri also showed signs of recognition of people, responding positively to family and negatively to others including her husband, and following them visually around the room when they visited.

From the autopsy report
What diagnoses can be made in regards to the brain of Mrs. Schiavo? (see attached neuropathology report)
Mrs. Schiavo's brain showed marked global anoxic-ischemic encephalopathy resulting in missive cerebral atrophy. Her brain weight was approximately half of the expected weight. Of particular importance was the hypoxic damage and neuronal loss in her occipital lobes, which indicates cortical blindness. Her remaining brain regions also show severe hypoxic injury and neuronal atrophy/loss. No areas of recent or remote traumatic injury were found.

http://fl1.findlaw.com/news.findlaw.com/hdocs/docs/schiavo/61305autopsyrpt.pdf

From the Guardian Ad Litem report

The Schindler's new evidence ostensibly reflected adversely on Michael Schiavo's role as Guardian. It related to his personal romantic life, the fact that he had relationships with other women, that he had allegedly failed to provide appropriate care and treatment for Theresa, that he was wasting the assets within the guardianship account, and that he was no longer competent to represent Theresa's best interests

Testimony provided by members of the Schindler family included very personal statements about their desire and intention to ensure that Theresa remain alive. Throughout the course of the litigation, deposition and trial testimony by members of the Schindler family voiced the disturbing belief that they would keep Theresa alive at any and all costs. Nearly gruesome examples were given, eliciting agreement by family members that in the event Theresa should contract diabetes and subsequent gangrene in each of her limbs, they would agree to amputate each limb, and would then, were she to be diagnosed with heart disease, perform open heart surgery. There was additional, difficult testimony that appeared to establish that despite the sad and undesirable condition of Theresa, the parents still derived joy from having her alive, even if Theresa might not be at all aware of her environment given the persistent vegetative state. Within the testimony, as part of the hypotheticals presented, Schindler family members stated that even if Theresa had told them of her intention to have artificial nutrition withdrawn, they would not do it. Throughout this painful and difficult trial, the family acknowledged that Theresa was in a diagnosed persistent vegetative state.
The court denied the Schindler's motions to remove the guardian, allowing that the evidence was not sufficient and in some instances, not relevant. It set a date for the artificial life support to be discontinued, as of 24 April 2001.

In Re: Theresa Marie Schiavo, Incapacitated Report to Gov. Jeb Bush and the 6t` Florida Judicial Circuit 1 December 2003 Jay Wolfson, as Guardian Ad Litem to Theresa Marie Schiavo Page 14 of 38
http://fl1.findlaw.com/news.findlaw.com/hdocs/docs/schiavo/1203galrpt.pdf

Other legal documents
http://news.findlaw.com/legalnews/lit/schiavo/


this Dr. disagrees with the findings, but then, he didn't examine her.
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=4240
Thomas Zabiega, M.D., Vice President for Legislative Affairs for the Catholic Physicians' Guild The Catholic Physicians' Guild of Chicago is a local chapter of the 6000 member strong National Federation of Catholic Physicians' Guilds. Members are dedicated to the "Service of God and man". This goal is accomplished through prayer, serious examination of moral issues and camaraderie among guild members.
http://www.illinoiscma.org/Chicago.html


Also, one the arguments that kept coming up was the lack of of an MRI to diagnose a persistent vegetive state. It was noted in the findlaw docs that Mrs. Schivo could not be given an MRI because of a implant.

Now, with all that said, it's my opinion that the whole thing should have been handled differently. Mr. Schivo should have been removed as her guardian. He had moved on with his life and should have given her care over to her parents. I do believe as time went by and it became very apparent that they were not going to get their daughter back as she was, it might have become easier for them to let go of her and say goodby.

I agree that Michael should have been removed as guardian due to financial misappropriation of the money that was to have paid for Teri's rehab, and his obvious conflict of interest as a husband cheating on his wife.

You cite the autopsy report, which I have seen partially recounted as well.

My opinion is that the brain atrophy may not be inconsistent with one who was starved and deprived of hydration on several occasions (as the feeding and water were removed, then reinstated, then again, etc I forget how many times but at least twice I think food and water were withdrawn), and finally met her death thru starvation and dehydration.

It doesn't seem to be something that anyone has the courage to address much, but what would YOUR brain look like if several attempts had been made to starve you and then one attempt finally succeeded?

real life wrote:

I agree that Michael should have been removed as guardian due to financial misappropriation of the money that was to have paid for Teri's rehab, and his obvious conflict of interest as a husband cheating on his wife.

You cite the autopsy report, which I have seen partially recounted as well.

My opinion is that the brain atrophy may not be inconsistent with one who was starved and deprived of hydration on several occasions (as the feeding and water were removed, then reinstated, then again, etc I forget how many times but at least twice I think food and water were withdrawn), and finally met her death thru starvation and dehydration.

It doesn't seem to be something that anyone has the courage to address much, but what would YOUR brain look like if several attempts had been made to starve you and then one attempt finally succeeded?

I don't know. Since there's no "before" to compare it to, there's no way of knowing. But after watching the videos, to me it seemed there was no hope for recovery. I know her parents loved her very much, but they saw what they wanted/needed to see and just wanted her alive at all costs. I don't know if keeping someone in that shape alive just because you can't bear for them to die is the right thing to do. The daughter they loved was already gone. All that was left was a shell.

This whole thing was just handled badly.
P

Those who saw her daily, including some of her nurses, would disagree with your assessment that she was a 'shell'.

http://www.blogsforterri.com/archives/2005/03/former_nurse_re.php

As I said, I agree with you that it was handled badly. There was clear cause to remove Michael as guardian, due to both financial misconduct and due to conflict of interest, and any honest judge would have done so.

Oh yeah, and she was BLIND

Quote:

If you don't like that link, here are a few thousand more:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&sa=X&oi=spell&resnum=0&ct=result&cd=1&q=terri+schiavo+blind&spell=1

maporsche wrote:

Oh yeah, and she was BLIND

Quote:

If you don't like that link, here are a few thousand more:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&sa=X&oi=spell&resnum=0&ct=result&cd=1&q=terri+schiavo+blind&spell=1

I agree she was probably blind as she died.

Was she blind before she was forcibly dehydrated and starved for days?

And even if she had been blind for 20 years, is that a good reason to kill her?

real life wrote:

maporsche wrote:

Oh yeah, and she was BLIND

Quote:

If you don't like that link, here are a few thousand more:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&sa=X&oi=spell&resnum=0&ct=result&cd=1&q=terri+schiavo+blind&spell=1

I agree she was probably blind as she died.

Was she blind before she was forcibly dehydrated and starved for days?

And even if she had been blind for 20 years, is that a good reason to kill her?

Yes
Yes
No, not alone. But her following a balloon is one of the reasons that people used to keep her alive, and she was blind at the time.