On Friday, March 25, 2005 at 08:13:15 (-0800) adrienne lauby writes:
>This action by the right is a dangerous governmental precedent.
>This can become an important wedge issue against the Administration and
>the religious right on many levels, because the right wing supreme
>court didn't take up the call from the right wing congress.
>
>Nonetheless--
>Did you also know that Terri's case has also been taken up by the disability
>organization, "Not Dead Yet"? They see her husband's willingness
>to kill her as a dangerous precedent for killing disabled people
>because someone else thinks someone's quality of life is not "something
>I would want to live with."
Her husband's willingness has been to allow her to die as Terri wished,
which courts of every stripe and persuasion have confirmed. How does
this become his "willingness to kill her"?
As to her looking like disabled people you know and love, the NY Times
had an article yesterday about her condition that included remarks by
a neurologist who had examined her in detail, and refuted the
irresponsible claims by Dr. William P. Cheshire Jr., a fanatic brought
forward at the last minute by Jeb Bush, that Schiavo had been
misdiagnosed:
Dr. Ronald Cranford, a neurologist and medical ethicist at the
University of Minnesota Medical School who has examined
Ms. Schiavo on behalf of the Florida courts and declared her to
be irredeemably brain-damaged, said, "I have no idea who this
Cheshire is," and added: "He has to be bogus, a pro-life
fanatic. You'll not find any credible neurologist or neurosurgeon
to get involved at this point and say she's not vegetative."
He said there was no doubt that Ms. Schiavo was in a persistent
vegetative state. "Her CAT scan shows massive shrinkage of the
brain," he said. "Her EEG is flat - flat. There's no electrical
activity coming from her brain."
---A Diagnosis With a Dose of Religion, John Schwartz and Denise
Grady NY Times, March 24, 2005
Bill
