# Schiavo autopsy released **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [June 15, 2005, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/schiavo-autopsy-released/308390 "2005-06-15T15:35:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2005, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/schiavo-autopsy-released/308390/21 "2005-06-15T16:15:59Z")
> [@John Mace](#): > > Just to play devil’s advocate here, you have to be careful about jumping to conclusions based on brain size alone. The CNN story doesn’t give much detail, and doctors are continually amazed at patients who suffer sever brain trauma and who do recover. There’s the famous case of the boy with just one half of his brain intact who functioned pretty normally. I’m not saying that TS would fall in that category necessarily (I doubt she would), but there simply isn’t enough detail in the CNN story to determine who was vindicated in this case. I don’t remember you being one of the folks accusing Schiavo of abuse, so I’ll take this at face value. How much detail would it take? The many tests performed before her death aren’t enough. The autopsy results aren’t enough. There is more detail to come, at any rate. **NurseCarmen** mentions that at the press conference it was said that her ocular center was pretty much gone, and that hasn’t been worked into an online story yet. Does that detail help? ---
**Author:** ![Binarydrone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3da27b/32.png) [@Binarydrone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Binarydrone)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2005, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/schiavo-autopsy-released/308390/22 "2005-06-15T16:16:10Z")
> [@Mehitabel](#): > > How do you know what religion I am? Or who I vote for?.. OK, what religion are you? Who do you vote for? I will admit that I was making some assumtions based on your shocking lack of facts. Here is your chance to set me straight. ---
**Author:** ![GaWd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f08c70/32.png) [@GaWd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GaWd)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2005, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/schiavo-autopsy-released/308390/23 "2005-06-15T16:17:00Z")
I don’t think we care who you vote for, what religion you are or anything of that nature. We care that you happen to be one of the most willfully ignorant and obtuse motherfuckers on the forum as of late. If he were to divorce her, the care of his wife could not be reassured. He decided to take it upon himself to assure that care. Would it not matter to you that your brain-dead husband would be skullfucked by his perverted step-father every night were you to divorce him? Hello? is this thing on? Sam ---
**Author:** ![Mockingbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c68b51/32.png) [@Mockingbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mockingbird)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2005, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/schiavo-autopsy-released/308390/24 "2005-06-15T16:17:45Z")
> [@Mehitabel](#): > > How do you know what religion I am? Or who I vote for? And the honest thing to do was to get a legal divorce. If he truly believed he was dead then how could it matter what her parents did to the corpse? Just like this liar who continues to drag Michael through the mud, LifeNews, which is really a heavily biased news source for others who bear false witness in the name of ‘God’ headlined their story on this information: _Terri Schaivo Autopsy Results Inconclusive_. They give all the same information about Terri’s brain, the massive atrophy, and the fact that Michael was cleared of all abuse allegations. STILL, these dishonest fuckers have the BALLS to title their story with a headline that’s a manipulative lie. ---
**Author:** ![catsix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e19b73/32.png) [@catsix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/catsix)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2005, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/schiavo-autopsy-released/308390/25 "2005-06-15T16:19:28Z")
> [@](#): > > **Mehitabel** said: > Terri Schiavo, though, died fifteen years ago, so she wasn’t the best example. Since you said this, I am going to reasonably assume that you actually believe this. Terri Schiavo died in 1990. If it is as you claim, that Terri Schiavo was dead for 15 years while in the nursing home, then > [@](#): > > (her husband taking a mistress made me very suspicious of him) and > [@](#): > > Yep, married men who have two children with other women are fine upstanding citizens. He didn’t divorce her because he wanted the settlement money. Deal with it. Are both bullshit. He couldn’t possibly have ‘taken a mistress’ when his wife was, by your accounts, dead at the time. He also couldn’t divorce her, because it is not possible to divorce a dead person. His wife, _as you stated in your opinion_ was dead. That’d make him a widower. ---
**Author:** ![casdave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c6cbf5/32.png) [@casdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/casdave)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2005, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/schiavo-autopsy-released/308390/26 "2005-06-15T16:20:13Z")
> [@](#): > > How do you know what religion I am? Or who I vote for? I wonder what religion advocates the animation of a corpse, the one to which you subscribe, obviously. As for the politics, well, we have the answer to that already. ---
**Author:** ![Giraffe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giraffe/32/129_2.png) [@Giraffe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giraffe)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2005, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/schiavo-autopsy-released/308390/27 "2005-06-15T16:21:31Z")
> [@John Mace](#): > > Just to play devil’s advocate here, you have to be careful about jumping to conclusions based on brain size alone. The CNN story doesn’t give much detail, and doctors are continually amazed at patients who suffer sever brain trauma and who do recover. There’s the famous case of the boy with just one half of his brain intact who functioned pretty normally. I’m not saying that TS would fall in that category necessarily (I doubt she would), but there simply isn’t enough detail in the CNN story to determine who was vindicated in this case. I don’t think anyone is jumping to conlusions based on brain size alone. People are jumping to conclusions based on the testimony of every doctor who has ever examined Terri Schiavo, and now the medical examiner who confirmed their findings by performing a thorough medical examination of the body. It’s not like he had an assistant weigh the brain, and made his determination based solely on that single number. He performed an autopsy, and released his professional opinion of what he found. ---
**Author:** ![Mehitabel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8797f3/32.png) [@Mehitabel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mehitabel)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2005, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/schiavo-autopsy-released/308390/28 "2005-06-15T16:23:33Z")
OK, I’m a Democrat who is a liberal Catholic. I can’t stand rabid right-to-lifers either. But I had a lot of doubts about this case and feel for the parents. They might have been wrong as it turns out, but that instinct in them to preserve their daughter’s life is something that I pity anybody who can’t understand. It’s a hard issue and it’s so easy just to parrot “The parents and their supporters are right-wing nutjob monsters and the “husband” a shining paragon of logic and reason!” And you wonder why we lost the last election. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2005, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/schiavo-autopsy-released/308390/29 "2005-06-15T16:23:55Z")
> [@John Mace](#): > > Just to play devil’s advocate here, you have to be careful about jumping to conclusions based on brain size alone. The CNN story doesn’t give much detail, and doctors are continually amazed at patients who suffer sever brain trauma and who do recover. There’s the famous case of the boy with just one half of his brain intact who functioned pretty normally. I’m not saying that TS would fall in that category necessarily (I doubt she would), but there simply isn’t enough detail in the CNN story to determine who was vindicated in this case. The findings suggest severe atrophy, concluded to be irreversible. That’s a lot different than traumatic damage that leaves the residual brain tissue intact and functional. No apologies will be forthcoming from anyone in Schiavo’s family who wanted to keep her body alive indefinitely. Even if the autopsy had found only a cystic space in her skull, there’d have been true believers arguing that she had a viable life based on brain stem function. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2005, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/schiavo-autopsy-released/308390/30 "2005-06-15T16:25:31Z")
> [@Mehitabel](#): > > OK, I’m a Democrat who is a liberal Catholic. I can’t stand rabid right-to-lifers either. But I had a lot of doubts about this case and feel for the parents. They might have been wrong as it turns out, but that instinct in them to preserve their daughter’s life is something that I pity anybody who can’t understand. Who said they can’t understand it? Ask me about the parents, I’ll give you my opinion of the parents. But you were repeating pernicious lies about Mr. Schiavo; I’ll call you on that. Go ahead. Ask me about the parents, and THEN decide whether you pity me. Daniel ---
**Author:** ![Wartime\_Consigliori](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/9d8465/32.png) [@Wartime\_Consigliori](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wartime_Consigliori)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2005, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/schiavo-autopsy-released/308390/31 "2005-06-15T16:26:34Z")
> [@This Year's Model](#): > > I expect that the Schindler’s and various numbskulls on this message board will be apologizing to Mr. Schiavo forthwith. I anxiously await the beginning of today’s “Sean Hannity Show” on the radio, when Mr. Hannity surely will offer a wholehearted apology for his reckless implications of physical abuse by Mr. Schiavo. Ahh, who the hell am I kidding? ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2005, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/schiavo-autopsy-released/308390/32 "2005-06-15T16:27:58Z")
> [@Giraffe](#): > > I don’t think anyone is jumping to conlusions based on brain size alone. People are jumping to conclusions based on the testimony of every doctor who has ever examined Terri Schiavo, and now the medical examiner who confirmed their findings by performing a thorough medical examination of the body. > > It’s not like he had an assistant weigh the brain, and made his determination based solely on that single number. He performed an autopsy, and released his professional opinion of what he found. True, but what do you think an autopsy report on [this boy](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/low/health/880478.stm) would have said? Probably pretty much the same thing. There’s a lot about the brain and how it works that we just don’t understand. ---
**Author:** ![Greathouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greathouse/32/2992_2.png) [@Greathouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greathouse)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2005, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/schiavo-autopsy-released/308390/33 "2005-06-15T16:28:08Z")
Hey **LHoD** , What are your feeling about the parents in this case? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Slacker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6bbea6/32.png) [@Slacker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slacker)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2005, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/schiavo-autopsy-released/308390/34 "2005-06-15T16:31:06Z")
lol… Sean, shut up and get back to work. You have a radio show this afternoon and a TV show tonight to prepare for. ---
**Author:** ![GaWd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f08c70/32.png) [@GaWd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GaWd)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2005, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/schiavo-autopsy-released/308390/35 "2005-06-15T16:32:16Z")
> [@Mehitabel](#): > > OK, I’m a Democrat who is a liberal Catholic. I can’t stand rabid right-to-lifers either. You’re sounding pretty “rabid” in this thread as a right-to-lifer. > [@](#): > > But I had a lot of doubts about this case and feel for the parents. You have doubt based on your judgement of Mr. Schiavo as a person. based on his moving on with one part of his life while trying to make sure that someone he once loved was cared for and not kept alive indefinitely. Also, your judgement-I thought religious people weren’t supposed to judge and to let your maker do the judging-is based on spurious claims; most of which have been cleared up through testimony, medical examinations, and the like. > [@](#): > > They might have been wrong as it turns out Might? :rolleyes: > [@](#): > > …but that instinct in them to preserve their daughter’s life is something that I pity anybody who can’t understand. I think most people can understand. I think most people feel for the parents in this way. Unfortunately, I pity the parents even more for another reason-their false piety, and their emotional stuntedness never allowed them to move on with their lives in the 15 years their daughter rotted away in a hospital. > [@](#): > > It’s a hard issue and it’s so easy just to parrot “The parents and their supporters are right-wing nutjob monsters and the “husband” a shining paragon of logic and reason!” And you wonder why we lost the last election. I don’t see that going on. We have people in one camp using religiously and smear-based “facts” of the case, buying into the bullshit, tarnishing a man who stuck by the side of his mostly dead wife for 15 years. We have another group that sees abuse in the way the parents acted in selfishly keeping someone alive though she had wishes of her own-proven in court-on how to dispose of the shell. Sam ---
**Author:** ![Slacker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6bbea6/32.png) [@Slacker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slacker)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2005, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/schiavo-autopsy-released/308390/36 "2005-06-15T16:33:13Z")
> [@Slacker](#): > > lol… Sean, shut up and get back to work. You have a radio show this afternoon and a TV show tonight to prepare for. Dammit - forgot the quote doesn’t work automatically here. That was directed at **Mehitabel**. ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2005, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/schiavo-autopsy-released/308390/37 "2005-06-15T16:33:36Z")
Enough of this self righteous, holier than thou, pseudo-religious bullshit. The autopsy exonerates Michael Schiavo even more, and verifies what the courts had already found through several hearings and many years. What next? Conspiracy theories about altered data and falsified reports?? Enough already. As for the “culture of life” assholes who made it a media circus to boost ratings and play political games, see below: “They make ready their tongue like a bow, to shoot lies; it is not by truth that they triumph in the land.” Jeremiah 9:3 “Woe to you…hypocrites! On the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of wickedness” Matthew 23:27:28 “You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God.” - Exodus 20:7 Deuteronomy, 18:19, 20. “And it will be the man who does not listen to My words, but who speaks in My name, I will inquire from him. However, a prophet who sinfully speaks a matter in My name which I did not command to speak and he speaks in the name of other God’s, you must kill that prophet.” ---
**Author:** ![GaWd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f08c70/32.png) [@GaWd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GaWd)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2005, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/schiavo-autopsy-released/308390/38 "2005-06-15T16:33:59Z")
> [@John Mace](#): > > True, but what do you think an autopsy report on [this boy](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/low/health/880478.stm) would have said? Probably pretty much the same thing. There’s a lot about the brain and how it works that we just don’t understand. Did you read Jackmannii’s post? ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2005, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/schiavo-autopsy-released/308390/39 "2005-06-15T16:33:59Z")
I’m so glad you asked, **Greathouse**! I think the parents were normal people driven mad by grief. Not “mad” in the sense of “belong in a nuthouse,” but “mad” in the sense of, “unable to consider the situation rationally.” And I don’t blame them a bit for that: when my maternal grandfather slipped into an irreversible coma, I saw a tiny bit of the same behavior among my own relatives (blessedly only over the course of a couple of hours). Nor do I blame them for taking their case to court. What I _do_ blame them for is for dragging Mr. Schiavo’s name through the mud in an effort to hurt him. Though their actions in doing so might be understandable, they are also inexcusable. Their actions in doing so were scurrilous, underhanded, and dishonest, and in fighting their battle in that manner, they became worse human beings. I also blame the assholes who latched onto the Schindlers and propelled their family into the public arena in order to advance a political interest. The Schindlers I condemn their actions; the politicians and zealots I hold in bitter contempt. Daniel ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2005, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/schiavo-autopsy-released/308390/40 "2005-06-15T16:35:53Z")
> [@casdave](#): > > I wonder what religion advocates the animation of a corpse, Morgathianism. Duh. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/schiavo-autopsy-released/308390.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/schiavo-autopsy-released/308390.md?page=3)