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Journal btlzu2's Journal: I was wrong... 17

Journal by btlzu2

This post has pretty much defeated my reasoning for being appalled that Terri Schiavo should be let go.

My reasoning was not based on anything religious, but on the hope that she could possibly survive and that, since she had no will, we don't know if she had changed her mind. As Abm0raz and others have stated, it looks as if her brain is mush. There is evidence for it--it's in the above link.

I'm sorry for not having the facts straight; however, I'm not sorry for arguing my position. If Terri Schiavo did not have a living will and her brain were intact, I would still argue against killing her. When there's no brain (or most of it's gone) there's no hope. It's enough to convince me.

I also don't think Congress intervening is a solution. I was mainly arguing the morality of it, not how it should be solved.

This discussion was created by btlzu2 (99039) for no Foes, but now has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

I was wrong... More

I was wrong...

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  • I've been thinking about that too.

    The vet's criticism sounds plausible to me; i.e. the comparison of the two CT scans is a little misleading since they aren't showing cross-sections in the same place -- if they were the ventricles would appear larger in the "normal" scan. That said, you can't ignore that Terri's scan is still in pretty bad shape.

    I suppose it's easy for me to say what I said in the earlier posts, but I'm blessed that I don't have to make this kind of decision myself right now.
    • It's so hard to get good objective analysis regarding her medical condition - on the way home from work yesterday I was flipping back and forth between NPR and Sean Hannity, and there were medical professionals on each channel claiming to have spent a great deal of time with Terri and studying the case, and they gave completely opposite appraisals of the situation.

      The NPR guy said it's a classic persistent vegitative state, while Hannity's guest enthused about how alert and responsive this woman is to her
      • You *can* however trust the CT scan which shows huge gaps in her brain where most of her cognition functions are. Unfortunately, a huge chunk of her brain is filled with spinal fluid and that's a fact. That's when I realized it is a lost cause and it's very over-politicized (as you said). There's no way she'll recover and I tend to believe that her responses are merely involuntary reactions to light and images. There's nothing behind it. Very sad.

        • We can probably trust the CT scan, but I'm wondering how much faith we're placing in a naive reading of it. The more I hear from people with the relevent medical background [blogs.com], the less sure I get.

          • Hmm, I ought to have let this thread lie fallow, frankly. But since I didn't I may as well retract the above, having read all the comments on that post now. I think I'm firmly back to not being quite sure of anything...

  • Some of us who are not opposed to pulling the tube might probably sound like hardasses. However, I read the same stuff you did, and I thought it was insane to let her die. But sometime last year Boortz had a couple shows about it and I read up on it and realized that the family that are trying to keep her alive are nuts. Well meaning, but nuts. She's gone. The lights are still flickering but no one is home.

    It's time for her to rest. I'll steal a paragraph from Neal's Nuze [boortz.com] which I think offers a different p

  • Beyond reading the interesting journal entries, I haven't kept up with her case much. I would add however that it sounds like her brain is gone. One thing that keeps popping into my head: even though she smiles/laughs/reacts when the family is around, does she also do so when no one is around? I kinda doubt they bothered to tape her and see if that is the case. If she does it all the time, it would imply that it is just an automatic function wouldn't it? But I doubt the family wants to hear that; they would

    • It can be an automatic response without being an automatic function. She might respond to sound, light, touch, or pain the way a plant will respond to similar stimuli. So it's very possible that without the stimuli she wouldn't respond at all.

    • Even though she smiles/laughs/reacts when the family is around, does she also do so when no one is around?

      According to this link [slashdot.org] posted in slashdot and to references [blogspot.com] from following that link, the answer is yes. The few minutes in the video shown is hand picked from a 4-1/2 hour video. The courts that in the past allowed removal of the feeding tube saw the whole video, not just the selected few minutes that show her appearing to respond appropriately to stimuli.

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • Personally I have a tough time with Congressional grandstanding (regardless of party).

    What I heard a few days ago (not MSM) consisted of a few anecdotal stories about people who have recovered.

    The evidence you point to would seem to preclude that being the case. If so, then it is a quality of life decision. She should be able to pass in peace.

    This is regardless of how one feels about 'life'. There are degrees.

    Thanks for posting. Regardless, I'm still sickened by the whole affair. A pox on both hous
  • Hey, we've not always agreed on political stuff, but I'm really glad to see someone who reads and evaluates the opposing viewpoint. Kudos to you and your willingness to post this.

    I hope someday I can be wrong and demonstrate this too. (JOKING! ;-p)
    • One thing that was hard for me to learn, but I've *hopefully* learned is that you won't die if you realize you're wrong. You also will never grow if you don't admit it. Unfortunately, I think I'm wrong more often than I'm right which kind of sucks.

      Thanks for pointing it out to me though. I appreciated that what you gave to me left no doubt in my mind.
      • No problem... it has been interesting to watch how the media spins this to make it so contentious. They're either incredibly bad at research (doubtful) or they're leaving out key facts to make the debate more heated. Pretty disgusting.

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