My grandmother died last year from dehydration. She stopped eating and refused to drink anything. She would drift in and out of consiousness. I spent everyday with her during the last two weeks of her life begging her to eat somthing. I would ask her constantly if she was hungry. She always said no. Her skin was so thin the nurses could not put an I.V. in to hydrate her. She fought any help the nurses tried to give her. It was actually kind of funny to watch my granmother who weighed maybe 100 lbs. smacking the 250 phlabotimist and calling him a vampire whenever her tried to do a blood draw. She called those family who were there and told us “no more! You need to let me go!” I held her hand when she took her last breath.

No body questioned her descision. None of the nurses quesiton the families descision. In the state I live in it would have been extreamly easy to desclare her incompetent and override her choices, but we didn’t.

What people are having such a hard time with is that Terri was in the “prime” of her life when this tragedy struck. She is young an very photogenic so its easy to get emotionally invovled.

Two years before I had to make that same type of descision for my firstborn daughter. It was much easier to let my grandmother go than my daughter. You don’t want to give up hope. But letting them die is not giving up hope it is saying I love you enough to say gooby even though it hurts more than anything in the world.

Terri schiavo’s parents scare me. Thier testimony in the first trial was frightening. Her father would cut off her limbs to keep her alive. And her mother testified that she didn’t care if Terri had a written directive she would fight to keep her “alive” anyway. That is not the aurguments of two people who have Terri’s best intrests in mind. They are treating Terri like she is a golden calf and worshipping at her beside.

I know this post is going to ilicit some angry responses. Keep in mind that I hav not once called anyof you any names, yet you cannot refrain from doing the same to me. I am not a “compassion Nazi” whatever that means. What I am ,besides being in the leagal proffesion, is a councilor for a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. While I usually help those whose infants have entered the world too early (All five of my children did, only one is living.) or under distress, I sometimes council those whose older children have been injured.

It is always harder to even think of disconnecting a child from life support, than a elderly adult. Call it agism if you will, but it seems to fit better with how people view the natural order of things.

Raven at And Rightly So is a medical professional who cares for old and sick people. She has experience and ha…

My point is very simple…which is why it went over your head. A feeding tube is no more “extraordinary life support” than a tongue depresser.

And to judge: Where did this fallacy about Terri having no brain start? I’ve read moonbat stories about Terri’s brain being “liquefied.” This is nuts. A cursory look at the CAT scan found in the link below and an examination by a competent neurologist, shows that Terri’s brain is not atrophied:

The physician, Dr. Boyle, found what may be one view of Terri’s CT scan performed in 1996 and which has apparently posted at University of Miami Ethics program website. Dr. Boyle has read at least 10,000 CT scans and he concludes, in part:

I HAVE SEEN MANY WALKING, TALKING, FAIRLY COHERENT PEOPLE WITH WORSE CEREBRAL/CORTICAL ATROPHY. THEREFORE, THIS IS IN NO WAY PRIMA FACIE EVIDENCE THAT TERRI SCHIAVO’S MENTAL ABILITIES OR/OR CAPABILITIES ARE COMPLETELY ERADICATED. I CANNOT BELIEVE SUCH TESTIMONY HAS BEEN GIVEN ON THE BASIS OF THIS SCAN.

http://caosblog.com/archives/2005/03/22/terris-ct-scan-from-a-physician/

Why not read something besides Democratic talking points. You might learn something.

Well, I’m glad that SOMEONE has now come up witha scientific way to measure consciouseness. Whew…I was getting worried that nobody would EVER figure that one out.

Don’t be daft. The major problem here (and it’s pretty obvious “ignorant” was an apt characterization of the state of your knowledge on this issue)is that the tests needed to determine whether or not Terri is PVS HAVE NOT BEEN DONE!

This from Father Robert Johansen on what 45 board certified neurologists have said:

Terri?s diagnosis was arrived at without the benefit of testing that most neurologists would consider standard for diagnosing PVS. One such test is MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging). MRI is widely used today, even for ailments as simple as knee injuries ? but Terri has never had one. Michael has repeatedly refused to consent to one. The neurologists I have spoken to have reacted with shock upon learning this fact. One such neurologist is Dr. Peter Morin. He is a researcher specializing in degenerative brain diseases, and has both an M.D. and a Ph.D. in biochemistry from Boston University.

?That?s criminal,? he said, and then asked, in a tone of utter incredulity: ?How can he continue as guardian? People are deliberating over this woman?s life and death and there?s been no MRI or PET?? He drew a reasonable conclusion: ?These people [Michael Schiavo, George Felos, and Judge Greer] don?t want the information.?

So shut your yap, read, and learn something before you start talking about things that you’re only guessing at. Unless you want to try and convince the rest of us that you not only understand what conciousness is, but that you can determine, like the Doctor with ties to the Hemlock society can, without the proper tests what exactly is the state of Terri’s mind and what are the prospects for rehab.