On one hand I agree with the right for somebody to end his or her own life.
On the other hand she can't make that choice for herself, and also her parents want to keep her alive.
So I really don't know what the outcome of this should be.
This is more than just a "right to die" issue. The woman left no living will, how do we even know the husband's telling the truth? Even if he has no financial gains, it doesn't mean he's telling the truth. People don't always kill other people for money.
The fact that the husband is now living with another woman (with whom he's got a baby) tells me that he should NOT be this brain-dead woman's legal guardian. In fact, the state should charge him with adultery, file for a divorce, and give custody back to her parents.
Hey, how about a few FACTS on the subject, rather than speculation?
Fact number one:
She already made the fucking choice for herself. From
here
Was Michael the only person who testified about Terri's supposed statements on her views about living on life support?
No, others did as well, and when making the decision in the case, the trial judge took into account all of that testimony and additional evidence. As the Second District explained:
"We note that the guardianship court's original order expressly relied upon and found credible the testimony of witnesses other than Mr. Schiavo or the Schindlers. We recognize that Mrs. Schiavo's earlier oral statements were important evidence when deciding whether she would choose in February 2000 to withdraw life-prolonging procedures. See § 765.401(3), Fla. Stat. (2000); In re Guardianship of Browning, 568 So. 2d 4, 16. Nevertheless, the trial judge, acting as her proxy, also properly considered evidence of Mrs. Schiavo's values, personality, and her own decision-making process."
The parents keep pulling out the card that she's Catholic, and she'd want to do whatever the Pope says. I know plenty of parents who believe that their children are far more religious than they actually are, and I know plenty of Catholics who disagree with the Pope on a variety of issues.
Whatever her parents believe, it doesn't matter, because Terri told several people that she didn't want to live as a vegetable. That her parents can't get over her loss does not change the fact that SHE LEFT CLEAR INFORMATION ABOUT HER DESIRES WITH MULTIPLE PEOPLE.
Fact number two:
SHE'S GONE AND SHE AIN'T COMING BACK. As major-_-turnon mentioned, Terri Schiavo's brain is too severely damaged to ever recover. She has no cognition, no thought, and no chance of recovering such functions. The following is from an
article comparing her situation to that of the Kansas woman who woke up from a 20-year coma:
Brain scans show that parts of Schiavo's brain have atrophied and been replaced by spinal fluid. With such severe damage, Schiavo can't show the recovery that Scantlin has, said Dr. Michael Pulley, assistant professor of neurology at the University of Florida College of Medicine in Jacksonville.
"Those types of changes don't reverse," Pulley said. "If you lose big pieces of brain, regardless of what it is - trauma, stroke, surgery - it doesn't come back."
The only documented case of someone recovering from a permanent vegetative state came in the early 1980s, said Dr. Ronald Cranford, a neurology professor at the University of Minnesota Medical School who has examined Schiavo.
And in that case, the patient's scan showed no brain atrophy, Cranford said. "The one thing we learned from that, you look at shrinkage of the brain," he said. "Terri has massive shrinkage."
From
here:
Wolfson noted that she has no intellectual capacity. Neurological tests and brain scans, he said, ``indicate that Terri's cerebral cortex is principally liquid, having shrunk due to the severe anoxic trauma experienced 13 years ago.''
Most of her cerebral cortex has shriveled away. She's been in that state for fifteen years. SHE ISN'T GOING TO WAKE UP.
Fact number three:
Guardianship. IT DOESN'T MATTER AT THIS POINT. Neither Michael Schiavo nor Terri's parents get to decide her fate. ONLY THE COURT HAS THAT POWER. Their only role in this mess has been to try to convince the court of what they believe Terri wanted. Terri's husband won because he has lots of witnesses who heard her say that she wouldn't want to live like this. It's too late for switching guardianship to matter, unless the parents can magically produce new evidence of her intent.
Fact number four
Divorce. Terri's parents long ago offered to help Michael divorce Terri, as well as giving her all of the money in her estate, if he would back off. It's too late for it to matter now, of course, but he said no back then. Why? BECAUSE HE'S DOING WHAT HE KNOWS TERRI WANTED. Also, it's absolutely true that he started a new life with another woman, but it's kind of understandable considering that his wife's been braindead for 15 years. He spent the first several years trying to find a cure, flying her to specialists in California, and grasping at straws, just like her parents are still doing. He finally came to terms with the fact that she's gone, and he's moving on with his life.
Fact number five
The money. It's about fucking gone, and Michael Schiavo isn't getting squat. From
this article:
The $1-million received by her and her husband, Michael, in a medical malpractice case in 1993 is nearly gone, attorneys say, spent on her care and the husband's legal quest over the past seven years to stop her artificial feedings so she can die.
Her parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, want to keep her alive and accuse her husband of wanting Terri dead so he could inherit what was left from the malpractice award. Michael Schiavo has said the rift between him and his in-laws began because he refused to share with them part of the money he received from that award.
But the reality is that hardly anybody is getting paid anymore.
Michael Schiavo's attorneys say they have not been paid in more than two years. Schindler attorney David Gibbs III said he is working for free, although an anti-abortion group, Life Legal Defense Foundation, has paid some of his expenses.
Just $40,000 to $50,000 remains of the money won in the malpractice case after Terri's heart stopped in 1990 and left her in what court-appointed doctors say is a persistent vegetative state. Deborah Bushnell, one of Michael Schiavo's attorneys, said the money is being saved for legal expenses. It is held in a trust fund, and a judge approves all expenditures, from attorneys' fees to the woman's haircuts.
Terri Schiavo doesn't have an estate left to fight over, and a judge has had to approve expenditures every step of the way.
Also, Terri's parents have
offered to give Michael Schiavo the money in the past, but he declined because HE'S NOT DOING IT FOR THE FUCKING MONEY.
"We will sign any agreement you want, giving you all money related to Terri's collapse and any insurance money that may be forthcoming," Mary and Bob Schindler said in a written offer to Michael Schiavo yesterday as their 3½-year legal fight appeared to have run its course.
.....
And don't you dare pull any crap about her coma having been due to strangulation rather than heart attack, or about Michael abusing Terri prior to her heart attack. That's all right-to-lifer made-up bullshit to smear the man, and the courts have repeatedly said as much because the Schindlers don't have any real evidence for their claims. By all acounts other than the Schindlers and their supporters, Michael Schiavo has been a loving, caring, hardworking, and supportive husband who spent the first 8-9 years grasping at straws to help her. That he's finally accepted her condition and wants to carry out her wishes doesn't make him a monster.
