615 Grams
The Jackson trial ended just in time for Terry Schiavo's triumphant return to the news.
The results of Schiavo's autopsy were revealed on Wednesday. For those of you that missed the story – and how could you? – the report found that Schiavo had severe and irreversible brain damage. By the time she died, her brain had shrunk to half its normal size. In fact, the fluid in her skull weighed more than her brain. Remember Karen Ann Quinlan? For you younguns out there, Karen Ann was the original poster child for the right to death. When she finally died in 1985 – nearly 10 years after they "pulled the plug" – her brain weighed 35% more than Schiavo's. The St. Petersburg Times summed it up with the line, "She would never have recovered."
Not that the Schindler's – Terri's birth family – are buying that bullshit. They have lived too long in the limelight to be swayed by simple scientific evidence. Her parents maintain that Terri recognized them and tried to speak with them. Presented with the evidence that she was most likely blind by the time she died – and indeed for some years before – they took it as proof that Terri was not only conscious, but somehow super-conscious, because she knew when they came into the room even without sight. They are threatening some unspecified legal action, but since that has become their reflex reaction to every bit of news that has ever been presented to them, the response is no surprise.
The Schindler's are even more upset that there's no evidence that Michael Schiavo, Terri's husband, tried to kill her, either before or after she went into the hospital. The medical examiner – who reviewed reports dating back to her initial collapse in 1990 in addition to performing the autopsy – could find no evidence that Schiavo strangled his wife, as her parents have asserted. Nor was there any evidence that she was doped up in the hospital in order to speed her end. The toxicology report found nothing in her system but acetaminophen; i.e. Tylenol. The report also found conclusively that she could not swallow, and that any attempts to feed her by mouth would have been harmful. So much for the guy who tried to bust into the hospital with a glass of water during her final days.
Terri's family has taken a cue from the war on Iraq, and is now revising their rationale for having wanted to keep Terri alive. Back in March, the family was saying that with proper therapy, Terri could recover. Now her brother Bobby is telling the media, "We knew all along that Terri was profoundly brain damaged." As a side note, this is the first time that anyone in the family has called her brain damaged. Their lawyer still refers to her as "brain injured." Bobby goes on, "We simply wanted to bring her home and care for her. It all goes back to this quality of life." Quality of life, eh. The most optimistic reports on Terri's condition say that she had the brain function of a six to ten week old infant. If I am ever reduced to the brain function of a six to ten week old infant, please put the pillow over my face.
David Gibbs, the lawyer for the Schindler family, made a point of Schiavo's overall health, as revealed by the autopsy. The M.E. said she could have lived another decade had her feeding tube not been removed. "It demonstrated she had a strong will to live," Gibbs said. Near the end of her life, my mother, who died of Alzheimer's disease, recovered from a bout of pneumonia that was expected to finish her off. Just because the body survives doesn't mean it has anything to live for.
The autopsy sheds some doubt on Terri's initial collapse being due to an eating disorder. Actually, if you read it, the report specifically says she was probably not bulimic; there's no evidence that she "purged." Indeed, the M.E. said she had "lovely teeth," which counters a claim by the Schindlers that she was not given proper dental care in the hospital, but we'll let that pass, as they have. Although her potassium levels were extremely low at the time of her collapse, the M.E. says that could have been due to the drugs she was given in the attempt to revive her. Because the M.E. could not find a definite underlying cause that led to her collapse in 1990, he listed the "manner" of her death (though not the cause) as "undetermined." (Mind you, he rules out strangling, drug overdose, and nearly everything but Jedi mind trick.) Because of this, the Schindlers are now calling for an investigation into Terri's collapse, blindly seeking one last thing to blame Michael Schiavo for.
I don't completely blame the Schindlers for their madness. If my sister, who seems to be in otherwise good health, were to have a sudden collapse, I would think there was foul play afoot. On the other hand, if I had a bad drug experience when I was in my early 20s and ended up in the hospital, my parents would be looking for someone other than me to blame. And they would be wrong. The more I see of the Schindlers, the more I understand Terri's desire to be free of them. Seeing them in action convinces me that Michael Schiavo knew things about their daughter that they could never imagine, and it's easy for me to believe that her end of life desires would be among them. This case is difficult, because while I doubt Terri Schiavo ever formally announced her will (here I tend to believe the Schiavo friend who quoted Michael as saying, "We were only 25! We weren't thinking about death!"), I do believe that when visiting an aged relation, she did say something like, "If I ever end up like that, kill me." That she lost 100 pounds between the time she graduated from high school and met Michael Schiavo in college makes me think she may have had "food issues."
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, in a rare moment of lucidity, has admitted that Schiavo had "devastating brain damage" when she died. This is a reversal of his opinion back in March, but although he offered his opinion at that time as a doctor, he now says it was not a diagnosis. Frist, like many others, depended on a ten minute video clip which appeared to show Schiavo as responsive. That the clip was edited down from a four hour videotape did not influence his belief. Frist can diagnose popular opinion, however, and now calls the case closed.
Not everyone in Washington is responding as sensibly. Representative Dave Weldon, another doctor politician, who sponsored the bill aimed at keeping Terri alive, questioned parts of the autopsy. "I stand by what we did," Weldon said. "You had the mother and father, brother and sister, screaming that she be kept alive, and the husband, I thought, was not credible." Despite the fact that the husband was, you know, right. So screaming trumps truth. This is all you need to know about our political system.
That Terri was in relatively good physical health, outside of a having a brain the size and consistency of a walnut, has brought back the popular analogy, "It's illegal to starve a dog to death." The autopsy revealed that Schiavo died of dehydration, not starvation, but we'll let that pass. It is illegal to starve a dog to death. But dogs are put to sleep every day. It is unfortunate that the humane procedures we use to put animals out of their misery are not available to human beings. Given the choice, I'm sure Michael Schiavo would have preferred to allow his wife to die with greater dignity. Unfortunately, in this country, the only legal way to kill someone is to starve them to death. As Bugs Bunny would say, "Ironic, ain't it?"
The results of Schiavo's autopsy were revealed on Wednesday. For those of you that missed the story – and how could you? – the report found that Schiavo had severe and irreversible brain damage. By the time she died, her brain had shrunk to half its normal size. In fact, the fluid in her skull weighed more than her brain. Remember Karen Ann Quinlan? For you younguns out there, Karen Ann was the original poster child for the right to death. When she finally died in 1985 – nearly 10 years after they "pulled the plug" – her brain weighed 35% more than Schiavo's. The St. Petersburg Times summed it up with the line, "She would never have recovered."
Not that the Schindler's – Terri's birth family – are buying that bullshit. They have lived too long in the limelight to be swayed by simple scientific evidence. Her parents maintain that Terri recognized them and tried to speak with them. Presented with the evidence that she was most likely blind by the time she died – and indeed for some years before – they took it as proof that Terri was not only conscious, but somehow super-conscious, because she knew when they came into the room even without sight. They are threatening some unspecified legal action, but since that has become their reflex reaction to every bit of news that has ever been presented to them, the response is no surprise.
The Schindler's are even more upset that there's no evidence that Michael Schiavo, Terri's husband, tried to kill her, either before or after she went into the hospital. The medical examiner – who reviewed reports dating back to her initial collapse in 1990 in addition to performing the autopsy – could find no evidence that Schiavo strangled his wife, as her parents have asserted. Nor was there any evidence that she was doped up in the hospital in order to speed her end. The toxicology report found nothing in her system but acetaminophen; i.e. Tylenol. The report also found conclusively that she could not swallow, and that any attempts to feed her by mouth would have been harmful. So much for the guy who tried to bust into the hospital with a glass of water during her final days.
Terri's family has taken a cue from the war on Iraq, and is now revising their rationale for having wanted to keep Terri alive. Back in March, the family was saying that with proper therapy, Terri could recover. Now her brother Bobby is telling the media, "We knew all along that Terri was profoundly brain damaged." As a side note, this is the first time that anyone in the family has called her brain damaged. Their lawyer still refers to her as "brain injured." Bobby goes on, "We simply wanted to bring her home and care for her. It all goes back to this quality of life." Quality of life, eh. The most optimistic reports on Terri's condition say that she had the brain function of a six to ten week old infant. If I am ever reduced to the brain function of a six to ten week old infant, please put the pillow over my face.
David Gibbs, the lawyer for the Schindler family, made a point of Schiavo's overall health, as revealed by the autopsy. The M.E. said she could have lived another decade had her feeding tube not been removed. "It demonstrated she had a strong will to live," Gibbs said. Near the end of her life, my mother, who died of Alzheimer's disease, recovered from a bout of pneumonia that was expected to finish her off. Just because the body survives doesn't mean it has anything to live for.
The autopsy sheds some doubt on Terri's initial collapse being due to an eating disorder. Actually, if you read it, the report specifically says she was probably not bulimic; there's no evidence that she "purged." Indeed, the M.E. said she had "lovely teeth," which counters a claim by the Schindlers that she was not given proper dental care in the hospital, but we'll let that pass, as they have. Although her potassium levels were extremely low at the time of her collapse, the M.E. says that could have been due to the drugs she was given in the attempt to revive her. Because the M.E. could not find a definite underlying cause that led to her collapse in 1990, he listed the "manner" of her death (though not the cause) as "undetermined." (Mind you, he rules out strangling, drug overdose, and nearly everything but Jedi mind trick.) Because of this, the Schindlers are now calling for an investigation into Terri's collapse, blindly seeking one last thing to blame Michael Schiavo for.
I don't completely blame the Schindlers for their madness. If my sister, who seems to be in otherwise good health, were to have a sudden collapse, I would think there was foul play afoot. On the other hand, if I had a bad drug experience when I was in my early 20s and ended up in the hospital, my parents would be looking for someone other than me to blame. And they would be wrong. The more I see of the Schindlers, the more I understand Terri's desire to be free of them. Seeing them in action convinces me that Michael Schiavo knew things about their daughter that they could never imagine, and it's easy for me to believe that her end of life desires would be among them. This case is difficult, because while I doubt Terri Schiavo ever formally announced her will (here I tend to believe the Schiavo friend who quoted Michael as saying, "We were only 25! We weren't thinking about death!"), I do believe that when visiting an aged relation, she did say something like, "If I ever end up like that, kill me." That she lost 100 pounds between the time she graduated from high school and met Michael Schiavo in college makes me think she may have had "food issues."
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, in a rare moment of lucidity, has admitted that Schiavo had "devastating brain damage" when she died. This is a reversal of his opinion back in March, but although he offered his opinion at that time as a doctor, he now says it was not a diagnosis. Frist, like many others, depended on a ten minute video clip which appeared to show Schiavo as responsive. That the clip was edited down from a four hour videotape did not influence his belief. Frist can diagnose popular opinion, however, and now calls the case closed.
Not everyone in Washington is responding as sensibly. Representative Dave Weldon, another doctor politician, who sponsored the bill aimed at keeping Terri alive, questioned parts of the autopsy. "I stand by what we did," Weldon said. "You had the mother and father, brother and sister, screaming that she be kept alive, and the husband, I thought, was not credible." Despite the fact that the husband was, you know, right. So screaming trumps truth. This is all you need to know about our political system.
That Terri was in relatively good physical health, outside of a having a brain the size and consistency of a walnut, has brought back the popular analogy, "It's illegal to starve a dog to death." The autopsy revealed that Schiavo died of dehydration, not starvation, but we'll let that pass. It is illegal to starve a dog to death. But dogs are put to sleep every day. It is unfortunate that the humane procedures we use to put animals out of their misery are not available to human beings. Given the choice, I'm sure Michael Schiavo would have preferred to allow his wife to die with greater dignity. Unfortunately, in this country, the only legal way to kill someone is to starve them to death. As Bugs Bunny would say, "Ironic, ain't it?"
posted by John Bliss at
9:16 AM
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