I’ve tried to search for SD archives on this, to no avail, so if this has been asked before already, please accept my apologies.
I watched the (local Canadian) news last night and Terry Schiavo was asked if she wanted to live. The news anchor said she apparently responded with a guttural sound like “ohhh”. When asked if she wanted to die, she made another sound that was like “ahhh.”
While obviously one can’t interpret these sounds with one hundred percent accuracy, it would seem that apparently Terry has enough brainpower to respond to questions.
My next thought was obvious… “why not two “ohhh’s” for yes I want to die, and one “ohhh” for no, I don’t? It would seem that the professionals contemplating this case would have thought about this already.
What am I missing here?
Have you told your loved ones what you would like to have happen if you were in Terry’s position (ie, live or die and under what conditions)?
If, as a result of Terry’s unfortunate situation, we informed our loved ones of our own wishes – should this happen to us – then I think that her struggle would not be in vain. I told my parents and fiancée.
What you’re missing is that this claim is unsubstantiated (AFAICT) and that doctors have previously determined her vocalizations to be random vocalizations typical of patients in a PVS.
If I am wrong, and someone knows of some corroboration of the parents’ story, I’d be interested in becoming more informed.
But I haven’t yet seen any evidence to back up their claim that she actually responded to their promptings – which was to repeat the phrase “I want to live” if she could understand them.
It seems to me that one has no way to interpret these sounds at all (even if the event took place as stated). There is no indication that they were anything other than inarticulate moans, or were actually uttered in response to the questions rather than being random.
The thing with this is how to communicate to her that two “ohhh’s” actually mean yes, and that one “ohhh” is for no. How do we know that she isn’t responding in a way that states that she wants to die? The doctors don’t know that either.
Yes, they do. So much of her brain has atrophied at this point that it is impossible to credit the claim that she is capable of perceiving her surroundings, much less responding to language.
Oh I know, I was just making a point that teaching of the number of “ohhh’s” just wouldn’t work. I guess my last question should have been directed to someone who would state that her “ohhh’s” mean that she wants to live. The question would have been a counter-question to that… er whatever…
In order for that response to be meaningful it would need to be repeatable. If you ask the question morning afternoon, and evening for three days in a row and get the same, or substantially the same, response every time then you could have some confidence in claiming that she was congizant of the question and responding to it.
View the videos in their entirety, not just heavily edited portions that have been cherry picked and you’ll see the groans and laughs are random. Because on occasion she’ll groan when someone says something they can film that and make it look like she understands what’s going on. They don’t show the dozens of other times the question is repeated and all she does is stare off into space.
My understanding is that they are a matter of public record with the Florida Court this matter was initiated in. But I don’t know how a member of the public could go about getting a copy.
In the baloon clip, I notice they don’t show where the balloon is. I can hear the fellow holding the balloon, however, often correcting her with phrases like “c’mon Terri, no no, c’mon”, “look over here, look over here”, “c’mon over here, c’mon over here”, which indicates to me that she’s probably not tracking the balloon very well at all. It’s also possible for someone performing such a test to (even unconsciously) sense how she’s turning and “lead” in that direction.