# Bill Frist: Perspective on extraordinary measures while in practice **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 24, 2005, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-frist-perspective-on-extraordinary-measures-while-in-practice/296042 "2005-03-24T15:14:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![choosybeggar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8c91f0/32.png) [@choosybeggar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/choosybeggar)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2005, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-frist-perspective-on-extraordinary-measures-while-in-practice/296042/1 "2005-03-24T15:14:02Z")
A striking feature of the Schiavo affair is Sen. Frist’s support for Ms. Schiavo’s parents. As a physician myself, my experience is that MD’s generally oppose such extraordinary means to sustain life. Does any record exist of Sen. Frist’s record on this issue while he was in practice? ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2005, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-frist-perspective-on-extraordinary-measures-while-in-practice/296042/2 "2005-03-24T15:21:36Z")
[Yes, he’s done it.](http://www.nydailynews.com/news/wn_report/story/292714p-250596c.html) > [@](#): > > Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, who has championed the “rescue” of Terri Schiavo, is a renowned heart surgeon who has pulled the plug on a “regular basis,” his office acknowledged yesterday. > > But Frist (R-Tenn.) ended life support only when the patient was ruled brain-dead, and he is convinced Schiavo is not brain-dead. > > “He certainly has a lot of clinical experience” in the withdrawal of life support, said Frist spokeswoman Amy Call. > … > In a 2002 interview with the Chicago Tribune, Frist recalled moral debate into “Why is somebody dead when there’s no brain activity, but everything else is warm and beating?” from the early days of organ transplants. “Finally, we came to a consensus, an ethical framework, that people can generally agree to and have faith in.” What that framework _is_, we don’t know. He has not actually, you know, technically_examined_ this patient. ---
**Author:** ![shelbo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3d9bf3/32.png) [@shelbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shelbo)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2005, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-frist-perspective-on-extraordinary-measures-while-in-practice/296042/3 "2005-03-24T17:56:02Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > He has not actually, you know, technically _examined_ this patient. Yet, “he is convinced Schiavo is not brain-dead.” I’ve never met Bill Frist, but I am convinced that he is a horse’s ass. ---
**Author:** ![Strainger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/strainger/32/244_2.png) [@Strainger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Strainger)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2005, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-frist-perspective-on-extraordinary-measures-while-in-practice/296042/4 "2005-03-24T18:18:27Z")
“I would cry, but then I’d have to put a condom on my face.” -Jon Stewart (from memory, so I may have botched it) ---
**Author:** ![John\_Kentzel-Griffin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ccd318/32.png) [@John\_Kentzel-Griffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Kentzel-Griffin)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2005, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-frist-perspective-on-extraordinary-measures-while-in-practice/296042/5 "2005-03-24T20:40:08Z")
> [@shelbo](#): > > Yet, “he is convinced Schiavo is not brain-dead.” > > I’ve never met Bill Frist, but I am convinced that he is a horse’s ass. **shelbo** , This is not the Pit. Watch your choice of words in this forum. Since **ElvisL1ves** ’s post and like provides an adiquate answer to the General Question, I’m going to close this before it becomes a debate or more Pit-worthy. **DrMatrix** - GQ Moderator