If you think the Schiavo case will "backfire" on Republicans, you're a fool

Damn straight.

And I’d love to see the outcry if we started starving terminally ill animals to death (hey, cheaper than taking them to the vet and having 'em put down). Terri is literally being treated worse than we treat dogs.

I guess if you ignore the “wishes” part of an issue that’s fundamentally about someone’s wishes, yes, you could arrive at that moronic reading.

Except that dogs can feel pain, stupid. They also demonstrate little reading comprehension, but you’re not showing a lot of that either.

I agree. What kind of sick fuck would keep a dog with no brain activity on a feeding tube inserted into it’s stomach for fifteen years?

My GOD, your side is so full of fucking shit that you don’t know whether you’re coming or going! There are 15 YEARS of court records on this case, miles of medical testimony, enough eyewitness testimony of Terri’s wishes to convince 20 judges as to her actual wishes in a case like this, and plenty of expert opinion on exactly what she’s capable of feeling or not feeling right now, and the best YOUR side can come up with is “Gosh, ain’t those Lib’ruls a buncha criminal-lovin’, PETA-freak nutcases, so eager to kill this gentle flower of womanhood who is obviously only having a 15-year case of the FREAKIN’ VAPORS!”

Everyone who buys into the Congressional Republican bullshit side of this disgusts and sickens me and I kind of hope we never get to meet in person, because I’d hate to have to be rude in a public place and move to the other side of whatever bar the damn dopefest is being held in.

Just when you thought it was safe to back to the waters…
One born every minute…

Abbie, you are a fucking moron.
Try reading some threads on the subject and inform yourselve before spouting of some of this tired diatribe.
You might want to talk to people who work with the elderly and especially people who deal with euthanasia.

Anyone who believes Michael Shithead’s word over everyone else is a fucking moron. The sooner she’s in the ground, the better for him. He has an interest in seeing her dead, they were considering divorce when this whole mess started and we’re not exactly sure what happened to her to begin with. The EMT’s certainly thought it was fishy. He’s about as credible as OJ.

Oh forgive me. I wasn’t aware you’re a mind reader and magically know whether or not Terri is feeling pain.

Oooh, some random jerk on a message board with nothing better to do than go to Dopefests doesn’t like me, and he’d “move to the other side of the bar” if I were around. Damn, I guess I won’t be sleeping much tonight. :rolleyes:

Slandering cuntbreather…

Exactly. My concern is that now they’ll push to change the laws.

And if she were a murderer, the right would be moving mountains to cut off any further appeals or re-examination of the case, arguing that she’s had too much due process, and that there is no need to order those potentially exculpatory DNA tests in view of the fact that so many courts have already found her guilty. When the President was governor of Texas, he didn’t see any need to “err on the side of life” in death penalty cases. Hell, he even wanted to elevate to the federal judiciary a woman who thought there was no problem if a capital defendant’s court-appointed counsel slept through the trial.

So, what’s your point?

Some people speak to the moral, legal, and medical issues of the case with scrutiny of known facts and reflection on the issues. Others ignore all those in exchange for unsupported rumors, gossip, and name-calling.

And who is calling whom a “fucking moron”?

To be fair to Bush, he said “in cases like this, we need to err on the side of life.” By “cases like this,” he meant, “cases where it is politically expedient to do so.”

It’s not “magic,” it’s medical science. That’s one of the problems with your side; your inability to think rationally or to understand how the world works. Early brain scans showed that Terry Schiavo’s cerebral cortex ceased functioning soon after she had the heart attack that put her in her present state. No cerebral cortex, no awareness, hence, no pain. You ignorant religious nuts need to wake up and start reading medical texts for yourselves instead of relying on the mixture of supposition and superstition you get fed by your pastors and the GOP.

I say keep Terri’s body going and reinsert the tube. It won’t “save Terri”–there’s no Terri left to save–but since her body cannot feel pain and because her delusional parents are willing to shoulder the medical bill, I say let them maintain the pretense that they have a daughter who “communicates” with them. Keeping Terri’s body going doesn’t hurt her, it will make her parents happy, it will pacify the credulous masses, and it will foil the machinations of the GOP and their henchmen, who won’t have this particular bloody shirt to wave.

It’s not “magic,” it’s medical science. That’s one of the problems with your side; your inability to think rationally or to understand how the world works. Early brain scans showed that Terry Schiavo’s cerebral cortex ceased functioning soon after she had the heart attack that put her in her present state. No cerebral cortex, no awareness, hence, no pain. You ignorant religious nuts need to wake up and start reading medical texts for yourselves instead of relying on the mixture of supposition and superstition you get fed by your pastors and the GOP.

I say keep Terri’s body going and reinsert the tube. It won’t “save Terri”–there’s no Terri left to save–but since her body cannot feel pain and because her delusional parents are willing to shoulder the medical bill, I say let them maintain the pretense that they have a daughter who “communicates” with them. Keeping Terri’s body going doesn’t hurt her, it will make her parents happy, it will pacify the credulous masses, and it will foil the machinations of the GOP and their henchmen, who won’t have this particular bloody shirt to wave.

Abbie, I understand where you’re coming from and found (obviously) that many people agree with your position. But I have a few questions, if you don’t mind.

[ol]
[li]According to at least one prior cite in this thread, *several[/] judges have determined that the witnesses are credible and have presented enough evidence that confirms the courts ruling. I believe there were, at minimum, five. Have you considered the opinion of those who have a profession deciding such things?[/li][li]If her husband truly is after the money, why has it been established that all of the insurance settlement has gone for her care? And for long periods of time, her therapy. Again, this is an observation that is well documented and fact checked. Plus, there’s the constant offer of people who feel her parents are in the right and have offered him large sums of money to relinquish her to their care as guardians? He’s done this several times too. IMHO, he doesn’t sound like a gold-digger from the many (hopefully unbiased, in most cases) sources I’ve perused.[/li][li]Lastly, I thought it’s a common knowledge thing that closure is needed when one chapter of your life has ended. Like in death. Though folks might argue that his children with the new woman in his life constitutes him “getting on with it,” I beg to differ. Problems that undoubtedly occur… his new SO being highly uncomfortable with the situation and this making to unable for her to proceed with her half of “getting on with it.” I’m sure the children don’t understand, which probably causes more confusion added to everything else. This case went on for years before the national media and grandstanding politicians latched on to it. I think that would mean that he’s hating the additional attention and making Terry some sort of pawn. Especially since he didn’t seek it out himself.[/li][/ol]

I’m sure there’s other issues that I’ve left out, but I’ll leave those to our more intelligent Dopers. These are just some observations that I hope you’ll give some thought.

Thank you.

But it will also go against Terri’s wishes, who is the only fucking person in this whole mess whose wishes should be granted.

Isn’t magic at all. Ms. Schiavo (I don’t know her as well as Mr. DeLay et. al., so I feel a bit uncomfortable referring to her as “Terry”…) has a very rare and unusual brain injury. Another few moments, and the lights would have gone out, the door would be unlocked, and she could go Wherever. As it happened, just enough of her brain “died” (not really accurate, but close enough) to shut down everything that makes the difference between a human being and an organ donor. There’s nobody home, there is no “Terry”. What there is a lump of flesh with the organic circuitry humming, she was very unlucky, firstly, to have the kind of “stroke” that she did, and secondly to receive care at just precisely the moment between death and its closest cousin.

You’ve probably been decieved by that video clip so ubiquitous, that seems to show her responding, grunting, trying to communicate, recognizing faces and responding to love. What you don’t see is the rest of the story, which is that persons afflicted as she was frequently do just that even when there is no one in the room to respond to, its just a very complex sort of reflex. Facial recognition is not an intellectual activity, there are people with certain brain injuries who cannot recognize faces at all, but are pretty much normal in every other regard.

And she responds to love. Perhaps it isn’t the brain that responds to love. An interesting aspect, oddly comforting, oddly disturbing, but too metaphysical for our discussion.

Like Bill “Laughing Boy” O’Reilly, who got his network to file a grudge lawsuit against Al Franken that was so transparently meritless that the judge in charge summarily dismissed it? Yeah, the right is REAL good about laughing at itself. :rolleyes:

I hesitate to dip my toes in this trainwreck of a thread, but here goes.

TS does NOT feel pain–TS has NO AWARENESS–PERIOD. TS has not eaten a thing in j15+ years. TS is fed–that is not the same at all. Her caloric needs and nutritional requirements are reviewed periodically by a registered dietician and adjusted accordingly. She has no pleasure in eating, no sensation of hunger satisfied/thirst quenched. And yes, we DO treat dogs better in this country–we euthanize them. That is another thread. Noone would advocate putting a PVS dog on a feeding tube for 15 years–why does a human have to suffer such treatment?

Yep-she sure LOOKS like she is looking at you, she sure looks like she is turning her head purposefully–BUT SHE ISN’T. See below.

TS is in a PVS–that is not the same as coma (Haven’t I typed this somewhere before, MULTIPLE TIMES?)

But, Abbie --apparently, YOU know better than the docs and the courts and MS who has been her advocate for 15 years and counting.

I would ask on what basis you come to this conclusion, but I really don’t want to know. I do ask that you read the many threads about this situation and inform yourself on the FACTS of PVS vs coma vs MCS etc.
To my mind, willful ignorance equals stupidity. I would hate to think of any Doper as stupid–despite political differences etc.
Get educated; get informed. Get a living will, at the very least, and get your wishes down in writing–with a copy at the doctor’s office. For all elective admissions (or planned ones), insist on a doctor’s order ON YOUR CHART stating your end life desires.

Sorry, went OT.

As to the OP–sadly, I think he’s right. America has the attention span of ADD afflicted 2 year olds–what will be remembered is that the Right tried to save a life and the Left (those demon people) tried to end it.

God, I wish I lived in a smarter country sometimes. Make that a better educated one.

Tom DeLay is starting to decompensate and I am enjoying every minute. I think he is (or could be) a wedge to break the bunker mentality of the neo-con/GOP. Let’s hope he starts raving and then watch the fur fly. I’ll buy popcorn for that spectacle.

<crosses fingers> I can only hope.

Well, yes, you’re 100% percent correct, and in an ideal world that is exactly what should happen. I’m just throwing out my evil Machiavellian pragmatism to frustrate the GOP and the religious right.

I’d just like to point out that abbie’s M.O. on this whole issue has been to do one or two drive-bys in each thread that comes up, spew her uninformed, hysterical horsehit all over the participants, and then run away with her fingers stuck in her ears. Don’t waste your time.

As for the OP - I have no basis to either support or discredit the assertion. I’m way too divided internally to have any objective P.O.V… I’d really love for this to be a stumbling block as eluci and other’s comments contend, but I’m far to cynical about my countrymen and their maleability. And THAT truth has been objectively supported as long as I can remember.