# It's the Feds turn for a whack at Terri Schiavo **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [March 17, 2005, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-the-feds-turn-for-a-whack-at-terri-schiavo/295015 "2005-03-17T18:01:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2005, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-the-feds-turn-for-a-whack-at-terri-schiavo/295015/141 "2005-03-20T06:55:10Z")
> [@woodstockbirdybird](#): > > I have children, and if one of them was in a vegetative state for 14+ years, I can’t fathom what principles would prevent me from removing the tubes. Honestly, I can’t. I don’t imagine it can still be denial after so long a period. Amen. As Kings of Denial go I’m fucking Rameses the Great but the Schindlers have stripped me of my title. ---
**Author:** ![Unregistered\_Bull](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3da27b/32.png) [@Unregistered\_Bull](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unregistered_Bull)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2005, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-the-feds-turn-for-a-whack-at-terri-schiavo/295015/142 "2005-03-20T07:01:01Z")
Republican actions on this burn me up to end. It’s enough for me to quit voting for the dumb motherfuckers. :mad: Keeping this poor woman alive is nothing more than cruelty supported by ignorance and stupidity. ---
**Author:** ![infamousmom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/d6d6ee/32.png) [@infamousmom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/infamousmom)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2005, 7:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-the-feds-turn-for-a-whack-at-terri-schiavo/295015/143 "2005-03-20T07:24:25Z")
I would just like to see all those wailers and moaners start questioning why all those other people’s lives were ended prematurely. You know, the 1500 or so lives that ended prematurely in Iraq. But then again, in the mind of a conservative, a person quits being innocent the minute he or she enlists. ---
**Author:** ![DoctorJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctorj/32/2904_2.png) [@DoctorJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DoctorJ)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2005, 7:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-the-feds-turn-for-a-whack-at-terri-schiavo/295015/144 "2005-03-20T07:30:51Z")
> [@](#): > > I’ve been checking into the Schindler’s site ( and the abstract appeal site) on and off and noticed today there is a list of Senate contacts…what say we use them? I’m already ahead of you, composing a more polite rant for their consumption. Of course, my Senators are Richard Burr and Elizabeth Dole, and my Congressman is famous for stating a couple of years ago that he agreed with the Japanese internment, so I might as well flush my letters down the toilet, but at least I will have tried. ---
**Author:** ![Silentgoldfish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@Silentgoldfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silentgoldfish)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2005, 7:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-the-feds-turn-for-a-whack-at-terri-schiavo/295015/145 "2005-03-20T07:45:53Z")
I’d hate to be one of the staff looking after her. We had a similair situation arise on the neurological ward I work on where a woman had a massive stroke and her daughters kept pushing for rehab etc despite every single doctor telling them that almost all of their mothers brain was dead. It was a very frustrating few months until she finally got transferred to a different hospital and became someone else’s problem. ---
**Author:** ![Apos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/838e76/32.png) [@Apos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apos)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2005, 8:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-the-feds-turn-for-a-whack-at-terri-schiavo/295015/146 "2005-03-20T08:10:54Z")
This story clinches it: [http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/nation/11175595.htm](http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/nation/11175595.htm) (registration required) This is her ACTUAL guardian, the court appointee who made the decision about her state and was meant to look out for her interests. Her parents are deluded. They say she attempts to speak. He says that is a very troubling fiction. He tried many many many times to get some response from her, find any sign that she had cognition or control. He found none. Not to him, and not to her parents when they came in. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2005, 8:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-the-feds-turn-for-a-whack-at-terri-schiavo/295015/147 "2005-03-20T08:41:06Z")
Elsewere on the web, I noticed that Fox had trouble finding experts in favor of this: In Geraldo it was reported that the two legal analists ripped a new asshole to the leadership of congress for this stunt! (it is looking more and more that this was orchestrataded by the REPUBLICAN leaders of the house and senate) So much for the FOX experts, what about the viewers? [http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,101826,00.html](http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,101826,00.html) > [@](#): > > Three times as many Americans think Terri Schiavo’s feeding tube should be removed as think it should remain and — if in her place — most Americans say they would prefer the tube be removed. Well, there is hope for America. As for the current leaders: you would think this group of clowns would have learned to check the most reliable information instead of going off the deeper end like they did in Iraq, this case worries me in the sense that gut feelings are still guiding Bush and Co, and we will have 4 more years of leaders who are proud of being ignorant of the facts. ---
**Author:** ![Rusalka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ecd19e/32.png) [@Rusalka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rusalka)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2005, 9:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-the-feds-turn-for-a-whack-at-terri-schiavo/295015/148 "2005-03-20T09:49:51Z")
I’m just curious - why do you all think that Terry’s husband has her interests more at heart than her parents? I keep hearing “let the poor woman die” - but if it’s as you say; she can’t feel anything, it’s your discomfort, or society’s discomfort, not hers, which is the issue. ---
**Author:** ![DoctorJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctorj/32/2904_2.png) [@DoctorJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DoctorJ)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2005, 10:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-the-feds-turn-for-a-whack-at-terri-schiavo/295015/149 "2005-03-20T10:15:29Z")
> [@](#): > > I’m just curious - why do you all think that Terry’s husband has her interests more at heart than her parents? I think that her parents honestly believe that they have her interests at heart, but they have been criminally misinformed and are in tremendous denial. Her husband is more in touch with reality, and is her next-of-kin, and is thus the one who should have the final say. I also have trouble coming up with another motive for him. If he wanted to be divorced, he could be. If he wanted money, he’s out of luck on the settlement (not much left), and he could have taken the million someone was offering last week. Everything I have read about him that hasn’t been filtered through the machine leads me to think that he probably has his wife’s interests at heart. Why do you think otherwise (if, indeed, you do)? ---
**Author:** ![Apos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/838e76/32.png) [@Apos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apos)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2005, 10:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-the-feds-turn-for-a-whack-at-terri-schiavo/295015/150 "2005-03-20T10:36:20Z")
Here’s Wolfson, Terri’s court-appointed guardian, reporting his findings: "One thing Wolfson never doubted was that for all their intense, mutual antagonism, both Michael Schiavo and Terri’s parents love and adore her. She was cared for incredibly well, Wolfson said. Her hair was always combed, and after 15 years of being incapacitated, she never developed a bedsore. In fact, Wolfson said until about seven years ago, Michael Schiavo had Terry’s makeup and hair done regularly, and her clothes changed every day - to the point that hospice staff protested that he was being overly demanding about her care." Yep, sure sounds like he just wants to do away with her for some cold hard… wait how is he supposed to get cash out of this again? Oh right, a book deal. ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2005, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-the-feds-turn-for-a-whack-at-terri-schiavo/295015/151 "2005-03-20T11:55:40Z")
> [@DoctorJ](#): > > I think that her parents honestly believe that they have her interests at heart, but they have been criminally misinformed and are in tremendous denial. Her husband is more in touch with reality, and is her next-of-kin, and is thus the one who should have the final say. I don’t think that they have been criminally misinformed. IMO, they are colluding in complete denial–I highly doubt that if there was only one parent, that this would have gone on so long. They feed each other in their denial. The amazing thing to me is that they have managed to suck so many other people in. Thank God for that survey–I was beginning to doubt that the ground I walk on was firm… ---
**Author:** ![furlibusea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@furlibusea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furlibusea)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2005, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-the-feds-turn-for-a-whack-at-terri-schiavo/295015/152 "2005-03-20T12:07:09Z")
With the recent debates over gay marriage, and this current argument about Terri Schiavo, I am starting to feel very afraid for my country. I see a sense of morality that is so absolutlly and completely removed from my own, that I begin to wonder how on earth we can continue living together. Maybe the other side knew that all along. Is it possible that is what this fight has been about all along? Have we not been fighting about gay rights or right to life or freedom of speach or any of the other things the far right has been pushing, but that they believe one morality has to reign or the country will stop, and they are damn well determined that it will be theirs? Our fore fathers must be spinning. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2005, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-the-feds-turn-for-a-whack-at-terri-schiavo/295015/153 "2005-03-20T16:49:48Z")
> [@Rusalka](#): > > I’m just curious - why do you all think that Terry’s husband has her interests more at heart than her parents? > > I keep hearing “let the poor woman die” - but if it’s as you say; she can’t feel anything, it’s your discomfort, or society’s discomfort, not hers, which is the issue. Michael has her interests at heart because _he is the one who’s trying to carry ot her wishes._ I haven’t seen anybody on the pro-Michael side suggesting that Terri is suffering, by the way. Cite? My sympathies are with Michael because I wouldn’t want the governmemnt trying to tell my wife what to do with me if I were in that situation. The parents are just deluded, lying, interfering cunts as far as I’m concerned. ---
**Author:** ![LavenderBlue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e95f7d/32.png) [@LavenderBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LavenderBlue)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2005, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-the-feds-turn-for-a-whack-at-terri-schiavo/295015/154 "2005-03-20T20:10:44Z")
I just want to thank those people who’ve posted in this thread and the others about the Schiavo case. Thanks to the many comments and articles people have pulled up I feel really quite informed about it. I think it should almost go without saying that I’m now truly horrified at Republican actions. Not especially surprised but horrified nevertheless. ---
**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 20, 2005, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-the-feds-turn-for-a-whack-at-terri-schiavo/295015/155 "2005-03-20T21:06:52Z")
I have a question-while I think this is complete bullshit, where do [these claims](http://www.theempirejournal.com/03200561_unlawfulness.htm) come from? Now, I do NOT believe for one second that Schiavo is another Scott Peterson, but where does this claim that he wouldn’t let them put towels in her fists coming from? ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2005, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-the-feds-turn-for-a-whack-at-terri-schiavo/295015/156 "2005-03-20T21:17:11Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > I have a question-while I think this is complete bullshit, where do [these claims](http://www.theempirejournal.com/03200561_unlawfulness.htm) come from? > > Now, I do NOT believe for one second that Schiavo is another Scott Peterson, but where does this claim that he wouldn’t let them put towels in her fists coming from? Probably the same source as the Schindlers’ lawyer’s claim that Terri was chatting with him – out of the anal orifices of reality-challenged half-wits. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2005, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-the-feds-turn-for-a-whack-at-terri-schiavo/295015/157 "2005-03-20T21:56:46Z")
> [@EddyTeddyFreddy](#): > > Probably the same source as the Schindlers’ lawyer’s claim that Terri was chatting with him – out of the anal orifices of reality-challenged half-wits. Oh, I don’t believe for a _second_ that he’s reality-challenged. If he was, he wouldn’t have followed that up with, “I won’t be able to answer any questions.” He knows damn well she’s unresponsive, and is lying through his teeth about. ---
**Author:** ![Tenzin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Tenzin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tenzin)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2005, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-the-feds-turn-for-a-whack-at-terri-schiavo/295015/158 "2005-03-21T01:21:37Z")
This is such a tragic case. If it were me or mine, I would want to be let off the mortal coil, pronto. Two points, and maybe these are covered in Great Debates threads; forgive me, I don’t have time to read them all, nor read all court transcripts. So, if someone with that knowledge can link to that info, much appreciated. One: if one believes in a Soul, inhabiting the body until the bitter end, and it’s cruel to deny that Soul it’s expression in a human body by allowing a death without life support, how is it less cruel to deny that Soul a meaningful life in a body that is essentially worthless? Two: Terri’s heart attack was brought about by severe bulimia. She was mentally ill and starving herself to death. I’ve known women with bulimia, and it is often a desparate measure to gain control, in combination with a poor sense of self-worth, often brought about by over-controlling parents. To be fair, could be an over-controlling spouse as well. I would think these aspects of the case were explored in the courts. Again, anyone have links? In light of the above, it seems so tragic that her illness pre-heart attack, starving herself, is now so ironically echoed, and she is in a hellish limbo. I hope she can have peace soon. Since this is the BBQ Pit: Bill Frist just disgusts me lately. Hippocratic Oaf… ---
**Author:** ![DoctorJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctorj/32/2904_2.png) [@DoctorJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DoctorJ)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2005, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-the-feds-turn-for-a-whack-at-terri-schiavo/295015/159 "2005-03-21T02:48:57Z")
> [@](#): > > Hippocratic Oaf… Love it. Plan to steal it. Would any of our Doper legal-types be interested in offering up their interpretation of the bill passed today? It just seems so unconstitutional, but I can’t say how. I also don’t understand the deal with putting it in the Federal courts–didn’t the Federal courts already decline to review it? ---
**Author:** ![widdleytinks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a4c791/32.png) [@widdleytinks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/widdleytinks)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2005, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-the-feds-turn-for-a-whack-at-terri-schiavo/295015/160 "2005-03-21T02:59:19Z")
> [@DoctorJ](#): > > Love it. Plan to steal it. > > Would any of our Doper legal-types be interested in offering up their interpretation of the bill passed today? It just seems so unconstitutional, but I can’t say how. I also don’t understand the deal with putting it in the Federal courts–didn’t the Federal courts already decline to review it? Doctor J, Check the “simple debate” thread. I have a question for you. On that thread there are comparison photos of Terri’s CT scan and that of a healthy brain. On Terri’s scan, I see something around the edges that resembles brain tissue. Would you mind taking a look and interpreting that for us? I’d appreciate it. Also, when I view the video snippets I see the responses of an infant approximately 6 months of age. Based on what you see in the CT scan, is there any chance at all that what is left of Terri’s brain could rewire itself and allow her to live life let’s say, at the developmental stage of an infant or toddler? I am clearly out of my depth here, I would appreciate your reply. regards, widdley [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-the-feds-turn-for-a-whack-at-terri-schiavo/295015.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-the-feds-turn-for-a-whack-at-terri-schiavo/295015.md?page=9)