# Farewell, Terry Schiavo **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 24, 2005, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/farewell-terry-schiavo/286419 "2005-01-24T16:01:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Random](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/57b2e6/32.png) [@Random](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Random)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2005, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/farewell-terry-schiavo/286419/101 "2005-03-19T01:35:40Z")
> [@Cartooniverse](#): > > Based on quotes recently from President Bush, I am inclined to guess that in the next 24-36 hours he will issue an Executive Order demanding the permanent replacement of her feeding tube. That cannot be rescinded. I think you have a misunderstanding of the President’s powers in this regard. ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2005, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/farewell-terry-schiavo/286419/102 "2005-03-19T02:32:23Z")
Putting aside the debate about whether or not she’ll ever recover. Putting aside the debate about who has the right to make this decision. Putting aside the debate about whether this life, as it stands, is life or not. What I can’t get my head around is this, if whoever we’ve decided has the right, has made this choice (God help them), why on earth are they going to starve her to death? If your horse broke it’s leg you’d be entitled to shoot it, let it starve to death and you’re a heartless bastard and likely to end up on the wrong side of the law. I don’t believe for a moment she won’t suffer as she slowly starves. If anyone proposed that we starve Scott Peterson to death instead of a lethal injection people would be marching in the streets. In every court in the land that would be considered cruel and unusual punishment. Even a man who has murdered his pregnant wife and unborn child will receive more mercy it seems to me. If they’ve decided to do this thing, and it appears they have, and they want us to see it as a mericful act, where, I ask is the mercy? Wouldn’t it be more merciful for everyone, certainly for her and her parents, to just end it? An injection? A pillow? I know it’s an overt act but so is removing the tube. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2005, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/farewell-terry-schiavo/286419/103 "2005-03-19T02:32:56Z")
It’s not legal for one, and for another I am not sure you’re right about the pain. ---
**Author:** ![Harborwolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@Harborwolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harborwolf)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2005, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/farewell-terry-schiavo/286419/104 "2005-03-19T02:39:01Z")
**DoctorJ** posted this in the one of the pit threads. I’ll post it here too. > [@](#): > > From an ethics standpoint, there is a huge difference between doing something that will intentionally kill the patient (active euthanasia) and removing something that is keeping the patient alive (passive euthanasia). The former is why Jack Kevorkian is in jail, and the latter is something I did probably a dozen times last year. > > All of this talk about bullets in the head makes me want to post a longer Medical Ethics 101 about euthanasia, nonmalfeasance vs. patient autonomy, and futile care. Don’t have time to do it right at the moment, but I’ll see what I can do later. Simply put, doctors cannot actively kill a person. Removal of the feeding tube is allowing nature to take it’s course. Also worth noting, she will feel little pain from the starvation. Her awareness is highly limited. As I understand it she won’t suffer much if at all. ---
**Author:** ![OtakuLoki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ac8455/32.png) [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2005, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/farewell-terry-schiavo/286419/105 "2005-03-19T02:45:35Z")
As has been mentioned in at least one of the other threads active about this situation - critically ill patients rarely feel hunger. Additionally, at the moment all that Terry Schiavo has is her autonomic nervous system - she has some reflexes (Not all, or she’d be swallowing on her own.) but to feel pain, even discomfort is, AIUI, a matter of the cerebral cortex - something that Terry no longer has. ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2005, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/farewell-terry-schiavo/286419/106 "2005-03-19T04:18:46Z")
> [@Random](#): > > I think you have a misunderstanding of the President’s powers in this regard. Perhaps. The next 7-10 days will prove one way or the other, won’t they? The President will not sit still for his personal agenda being flogged in his brother’s State… That feeding tube will be inserted back into that poor woman by Monday morning, I’ll WAG. ---
**Author:** ![lorinada](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b5e925/32.png) [@lorinada](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lorinada)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2005, 9:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/farewell-terry-schiavo/286419/107 "2005-03-19T09:58:32Z")
> [@DoctorJ](#): > > “Coma” is a word that is thrown around pretty haphazardly. In a true coma, there are no sleep-wake cycles and the patient is unarousable. Of course, there is a spectrum from a PVS to a coma, and PVS can be a “transition state” from coma to consciousness. That’s probably where you were if you were showing such “cycles”. Thanks, DrJ. Now that you explain it that way I realize that’s probably exactly what was going on. ---
**Author:** ![Carm6773](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/2bfe46/32.png) [@Carm6773](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carm6773)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2005, 11:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/farewell-terry-schiavo/286419/108 "2005-03-21T11:30:17Z")
Well, it happened. [Link.](http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=578&e=1&u=/nm/20050321/ts_nm/rights_schiavo_bush_dc) :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2005, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/farewell-terry-schiavo/286419/109 "2005-03-21T12:37:08Z")
I am horrified at the arrogance of the Congress. Florida judges have been reviewing this case for years, but they’re a bunch of yokels who wouldn’t understand a statute if it jumped up and bit them. So Big Brother needs to march in and clean up the mess. Christ on a pogo stick. ---
**Author:** ![Casey1505](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dc4da7/32.png) [@Casey1505](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Casey1505)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2005, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/farewell-terry-schiavo/286419/110 "2005-03-21T12:50:47Z")
Does the phrase “Keep Congress the fuck out of my personal decisions” have any standing in a living will I plan on signing tonight? ---
**Author:** ![plnnr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@plnnr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/plnnr)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2005, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/farewell-terry-schiavo/286419/111 "2005-03-21T13:33:47Z")
I must confess that while I fully support Mr. Schiavo’s actions in this case, and am sickened by the actions of Congressional leaders, I also have an ulterior motive for wishing that everyone would kindly remove their noses from this woman’s business and let her die with some shred of dignity…I have her in Celebrity Death Pool 2005 and could really use the points. Oh stop it - you’re just sorry that you didn’t think of it first. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2005, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/farewell-terry-schiavo/286419/112 "2005-03-22T13:06:58Z")
And the saga continues… the federal judge has refused to re-insert the feeding tube. [http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/03/22/schiavo/index.html](http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/03/22/schiavo/index.html) Her parents will appeal, of course. ---
**Author:** ![ILovCoffee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e99b99/32.png) [@ILovCoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ILovCoffee)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2005, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/farewell-terry-schiavo/286419/113 "2005-03-23T01:48:26Z")
I live here in Florida and irony of ironies, I got married specifically for this reason–so my wishes about “extraordinary measures” would be followed. You see, they are “Pro-Life” and I am a straight ticket: –Give me the right to an abortion on demand –the death penalty for pedophiles, rapists, & murderers and –euthanasia for the terminally ill who want an express lane. I was concerned that if in an accident and left in a PVS they would keep me around. Now, Granma is in a nursing home and we had a bad February where we believed she would die and my parents signed the papers to remove the feeding tube. But, she is not in a PVS. She was just really really sick, really really old and feeble and weak and they felt it would be better to allow nature to do its thing. And can you tell? She is still with us. Her brain may not be firing on all cylinders and her memory is slipping but she still is the bitchy Granma I love. I tell you-the energizer bunny has nothing on this old broad. 5 years post-broken hip-still ticking. But talking to Mom & Dad today at lunch they both expressed disgust at the politicians who have used this sorry display of “love for one’s child” to bolster their agendas. 1996-Florida disses Clinton-loses Orlando Naval Training Center :smack: 2000-Florida fails Election 101 with poor ballot design, poll availability :smack: 2005-Orlando mayor Buddy Dyer indicted for vote fraud :rolleyes: Terry Schiavo’s Parents make asses of themselves and a load of other well- meaning if a bit dense people, and feed the hypocrisy of the GOP to a new level :rolleyes: I want a smarter set of fellow Floridians. ---
**Author:** ![OtakuLoki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ac8455/32.png) [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2005, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/farewell-terry-schiavo/286419/114 "2005-03-23T04:04:44Z")
> [@ILovCoffee](#): > > 1996-Florida disses Clinton-loses Orlando Naval Training Center :smack: \ FWIW, there really isn’t a need for three boot camps for the Navy. And once the boot camp in Orlando was closed, a lot of the rationale for keeping the rest of the training facilities there evaporated. Mind you, moving Nuc School back to Mare Island couldn’t have been cheap, but I can understand why the Great Lakes (aka Great Mistakes) training center and boot camp won out over Orlando. And, certainly, in the period from 1992-1994 there was a rather vocal group that wanted the Navy to close NOB Norfolk, and move all the operations down to Mayport (IIRC) instead. Which was a bit of pipe dreaming, as Mayport refused to allow nuc vessels to use the harbor - which ignores the difference in ancillary equipment and services available in Norfolk over anywhere else. The whole ‘Peace Dividend’ was poorly thought out, on any scale. IMNSHO, and YMMV. \ ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2005, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/farewell-terry-schiavo/286419/115 "2005-03-23T05:20:27Z")
> [@ILovCoffee](#): > > 1996-Florida disses Clinton-loses Orlando Naval Training Center :smack: > 2000-Florida fails Election 101 with poor ballot design, poll availability :smack: > 2005-Orlando mayor Buddy Dyer indicted for vote fraud :rolleyes: > Terry Schiavo’s Parents make asses of themselves and a load of other well- meaning if a bit dense people, and feed the hypocrisy of the GOP to a new > level :rolleyes: > I want a smarter set of fellow Floridians. What do you expect from “America’s wang?”\* \*[sub]It’s a Simpsons joke, honest. No offense to Florida. Some of my best friends are from Florida.[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![Carm6773](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/2bfe46/32.png) [@Carm6773](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carm6773)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2005, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/farewell-terry-schiavo/286419/116 "2005-03-24T21:08:47Z")
[Here’s the latest.](http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/03/24/schiavo/index.html) Godspeed, Terri. Your long journey is almost over. ---
**Author:** ![whiterabbit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/cab0a1/32.png) [@whiterabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whiterabbit)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2005, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/farewell-terry-schiavo/286419/117 "2005-03-24T22:41:39Z")
I find this whole situation incredibly disturbing. I can’t imagine what it would be like to lose a child, but even more, I can’t imagine living in the sort of denial her parents have been in all of these years. It’s very sad. I hope it’s all over soon. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/farewell-terry-schiavo/286419.md?page=5)