I think he belongs to the Church of Poontang.
Then you should see Snoopyfan’s comment. And Snoooopy’s.
It’s heartwarmimg, really, that these folks would live like monks and nuns for 13 years if thier spouses were in irreversable comas.
I just got one question:
Who is paying the 2 grand a day???
It sure as hell ain’t Jeb Bush or the Texas legislature. IMO, it’s probably the hubby and/or his insurance company.
But lets put that aside for a moment and talk about what is best. And that is disconnecting life support. Because THIS WOMAN HAS BEEN DEAD FOR MORE THAN A DECADE! Christ, this morbid and sick. The family wants to keep her from decaying so they can have “hope”? It’s delusional. There is no hope. They just don’t want to grieve.
The 2k per day benefits no one but the hospital. And I think that’s what Jeb is worried about. They ain’t worried about Terri, whose earthly cares are over.
I do not think that Terri has had the care she deserves, and if she has not has any rehabilitative care, we cannot know what she really wants. We do know what her husband wants and he comes off as the asshole choadmonkey of all time. Michael Schiavo should have divorced her ages ago if he truly wanted to get on with his life as Terri’s family is apparently very willing to take care of her, regardless of her ability to progress at any therapy, survival.
Having followed this story on the news and on the Dope, during the past couple of days, all I can say is I’m glad my family is prepared to honor my wishes. My parents have living wills themselves. From what I can gather, Terri Schiavo’s soul is gone. Let her body follow.
Oh, and if any Doper around here has any notions about keeping me on life support, rest assured that I will find someway to haunt you. Just picture every post you write either eaten by hamsters or transformed into something that would make Justhink look coherent! Bwu-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! 
CJ
Muddying the water slightly, we have this from CNN.
Can one of you tell dumb old me how a person can be vegetative AND responsive?
The lights are on but no one’s home, so to speak.
This is what little I’ve been able to gather here and from the various mostly identical articles on the web. There’s enough of her brain left to sustain life in the purely physical sense, but that’s about it. My understanding of the situation is that all of her higher brain functions are gone. She does apparently sleep and wake, even move around a little, grunt, laugh, etc due to signals from the remaining brain, but it’s reflex more than anything else. (Aside - I didn’t know laughter could be considered a reflex action - Qadgop, can you explain?)
Her apparent waking state leads one to believe that some recovery is possible, but most (all?)of the doctors who’ve examined her stated that the brain damage is too extensive for her to make any kind of recovery.
So, it’s not exactly a cut-n-dry situation. Do you believe those cold cat-scan results, or the warm living person who is looking directly at you?
Definitely a toughie.
I personally haven’t the slightest, but if you care to judge for yourself you can see videos of her here.
The money is from a malpractice settlement that Michael Schiavo filed on behalf of his wife after her collapse. She was awarded 1.2 million, I believe. The award was based on the costs of a 50-year life expectantcy and 17 years of rehabilitative therapy. Reports differ as to exactly how much of that money is actually left, but the vast majority of it has been spent on legal bills in the fight to have her feeding tube removed.
I can’t get the video here. Work PC and all…
Ummmm… I believe C3 had already adressed my concern about 11 hours prior. Also, judging by this…
Medical doctors aren’t quite as surefire positive about her condition as you would appear to be.
Wouldn’t you agree that some insurance that the person would not be suffering should be in order?
Well, if I may then, from my own impressions of viewing the videos: she is most definitely not unresponsive, and it is quite apparent that she can feel discomfort and agitation, as well as happiness and amusement.
In one clip she is quite clearly upset when a nurse wakes her up to swab the roof of her mouth with a q-tip. She puckers her mouth, raises her hands up as if to swat it away, and turns her head as far as she can to get away from it.
In another clip Terri is listening to music being played by her parents, and is quite clearly enjoying it. Her face lights up, she breaks into a great big smile and throws her head back and laughs. Hardly the picture of a woman in a coma.
I would urge anyone with even a passing interest in this case to at least check them out, to dispel the myth of her being in a ‘vegitative state’ and labelled ‘unresponsive’.
She has no cerebral cortex, and the parts of the brain that are left don’t allow her to react to things the way that you and I react to them. We hear music we like, recognize the piece of music, smile, think of the words or the melody, and enjoy it.
We do that with the part of our brains that Terri Schiavo doesn’t have anymore.
Vegetative and responsive are not mutually exclusive, afaik, because ‘responsive’ refers also the reflex ability of the human body to react, withouth thought or recognition, to stimulus. If you shine a bright light into a comatose person, or a vegetative person’s eye, the iris should contract, right? (Any doctors here, correct me if I’m wrong), but that’s not something that indicates our cerebral cortex is there at all. The part of Terri Schiavo’s brain that made her Terri is completey gone, and it is never coming back. There’s no independent evidence whatsoever that points to Terri Schiavo being sentient at this point.
What is the point of keeping her body around like a living mummy?
Why would the Texas lege fund medical care mandated by the Florida legislature? 
Her care is being provided free of charge by the facility where she’s staying, at least according to NBC on Monday or Tuesday.
As to being responsive, but in a vegetative state, my grandmother suffered a massive stroke that effectively killed her except for reflexive movements. She would open her eyes, make sounds, move her hands, but without any coordination at all and not in response to stimulation - they were just the random firings of whatever portions of brain she had left. It was a heartbreaking decision to remove food and hydration, but a decision that had to be made. My family has never revisited the decision and second-guessed ourselves - we did the right thing.
My late M-I-L had a massive stroke, while in the hospital she suffered another one. She was unresponsive, didn’t even blink, the nurses had to put drops in her eyes to keep them mositerized.
Everyone in the family knew what her wishes were including in-laws. It came down to the LIONsob and his sister having to tell the hospital that they wanted life support withdrawn. I believe that was the hardest decision my husband and his sister had ever faced. And it was not one made hastily or without a lot of emotional anguish, even knowing it was what she told us all wanted.
The hospital staff refused to do so right away. There were 3 EEGs and only when those showed NO brain activity at all did they agree to disconnect all the machines.
That night was a living hell for the family.
Terri must have some brain activity left for her to be able to do what the video shows her doing. I wonder what her condition would have been had she recieved rehab. therapy from the start.
If it is true that her husband is following her wishes, I wonder why is it that he is the only one who knows what those wishes
were. I know I have let everyone from the LIONsob to my Son and my extended family know so there is no question should it come down to a choice.
No, she’s not in a coma. AFAIK, none of the doctors involved have said she’s in a coma. She’s in a persistant vegetative state. There’s a difference between the two.
If she were in a coma, she would have her eyes shut and would be totally unresponsive to everything around her.
Since her cerebral cortex has been destroyed, she is in a persistant vegetative state. She has ‘awake’ and ‘sleeping’ times. She may seem sort of aware of her surroundings, but it’s all just reflexes. The video that shows her mother (I think it’s her mother) stroking her face, and Terri responding - it’s just a reflexive response. She’s not thinking, “Oh, look, Mom’s here!”
She is not going to get any better. This is it for her.
Let the woman go. She’s been dead for 13 years. I think it’s cruel to continue to force-feed her, especially since they removed the tube for a few days and now have put it back in.
No, but it’s a misrepresentation that has been perpetuated by the media. A search for ‘Terri Schiavo Coma’ turns up 2,970 results.
News report headlines refer to Florida Coma Cas, Coma Victim on Verge of Death, and Overfor Comatose Woman Drags On.
In that same vein, I feel that although referring to her condition as a vegetative state may be correct terminology, it gives people the impression that she sits there all day like a bump on a log, which is patently false.
There is absolutely no way for you to know for sure. The fact that she responds differently (and appropriately) to different stimulus indicates that there is some level of awareness. And I sincerely hope that you’re not inferring you can read her mind, or what may be left of it, at any rate.
In my mind that’s reasonable enough doubt to suggest that starvation may indeed prove painful to her, and in the absence of a living will or other proof of her wishes I feel care should be continued.
There’s a really good article on NPR from yesterday’s All Things Considered. http://www.npr.org/display_pages/features/feature_1475130.html
In it they mention that the therapy the parents want for Terry has never been proven to work on someone in the state she is in.
Personally I think the parents are keeping her around because they refuse to deal with the fact their daughter is gone. Her husband may not be the most sterling of characters, but I think he is truly trying to uphold her wishes.
No, absolutely not. I didn’t mean that at all. The cerebral cortex is where her personality was. It was what made Terri “Terri.”
It has been replaced by spinal fluid (or cerebral-spinal fluid?). What made her “Terri” is gone, and with pretty much no hope for a meaningful recovery, I think (just my opinion, of course) keeping her alive like this is cruel.
Sure as heck looks like it to me. I watched them too and she is showing appropriate responses to varying stimuli in a very non-random way.