First of all, Terri is in a vegetative state and can't feel anything. Second, the accounts of her bleeding out of her eyes are dubious at best and come from the parents. Both sides have released statements about her condition, both sides have biased reasons for such reports, and both accounts of her condition are wildly different.

Some of those wanting this seem to be under the mistaken impression that she was a vegetable, that she was brain dead. Doctors say that was not so. Her ex is just a slow motion Scott Peterson, he's moved on, he should have let it go, it wasn't his business.

I don't see why Michael Schiavo did not divorce her and move to another state with his common law wife? If her parents were willing to take custody of her, then why does that concern him? I honestly doubt that he loves his wife, and his behavior, to me, is sickening.

By the way Archie, love the signature. Shall I change mine?

Sure, go for it.

This is the third time I've mentioned this, but he is her current husband, not her ex. It IS his business. And it's not like it's really any of yours.

There were repeated rulings that she is in a persistent vegetative state, and we know that she said she would want to be disconnected if she were in this state. Her husband, her legal guardian, is doing exactly as she wanted.

People are also making a horrible assumption that Terri's husband doesn't love her.

PEACE, Mike

I'm not saying he doesn't love her, but I just wish there was a more humane way for her to die. Do I think it is right for her to be left alive for 15+ years? No. Should she be starved to death? Absolutely not.

Only in a technical sense, he has what is essentially a common law current wife who he has a kid with. He has clearly moved on, he should have stepped aside. It's not my business either, or yours, it's between the parents and their child, and not the essentially-ex or a bunch of guys in robes.

First of all, out of the two of us, I'm not the one trying to make it my business. You are. I want this to be between the husband and the wife and the doctors. The parents and you seem to want otherwise. They're the ones who dragged the courts, the Congress, and the president into this, not Michael Schiavo.

Second, when are you guys going to realize that continuous misrepresentation of the facts does not bolster your case or your moral grandstanding. Michael Schiavo is her husband and legal guardian, not her "ex." It is between him and the doctors and them alone. The only reason the judges, Congress, and the president were brought in at all is because of her parents, who have ZERO say in what happens to her. That's what happens when people become adults and get married. And thank god for that. I don't want my parents meddling in my business. That's my wife's business, not theirs. I don't want that precedent to change.

And whatsmore, neither do any of the hypocritical, moralizing douche bags in Congress or the hypocritical moralizing douche bag of a president. They KNOW that they aren't going to win the legal battle. This is about scoring political points (which seems to have backfired on them severely, even with the religious right). I hope they pay for this travesty with their jobs. Douche bags.

As for the parents, I understand their grief. But they need to ask themselves if they're really doing this for her or for themselves and their inability to deal with the reality of their daughter's condition. I can even understand not liking the husband, although that's no excuse for vilifying him.

Btw, my wife and I have discussed this sort of thing before, as have probably most married couples. Even though we don't have living wills, I know what my wife would want and she knows what I would want. I have never discussed this with my parents; when you're married such an issue is between you and your wife. Michael Schiavo didn't appeal to have the feeding tube removed until 1998, 8 years after she was declared brain dead. That's enough time to believe that she has no hope of recovery and that if she wouldn't want to be kept alive that she shouldn't be kept alive. He would know that. Probably not her parents. Certainly not you. It's HIS decision to make on her behalf as her husband.

As someone else pointed out, there WOULD be a more humane way for her to die if the same hypocritical moralizing douche bags didn't ban them all. These guys oppose assisted suicide as well, which is essentially what this would be.

Correct. Although she can't feel this, they made sure that we can't let people rest easily, but instead must let life be in God's hands...

This is awful...I feel for both sides


But death is a part of life...she has been in this state for 15 years...I know I would not want to be in a vegatative state this long.

Also, the religious right wanna use this as ammunition???? If they want to put it in "Gods hands" wouldnt there be no need for a respirator...tubes...etc in the first place???

^^^Also


There are PLENTY of cases like this....only this gets so much coverage because she and her family are white and upper class.

Just like the disgraceful Petterson trial, and the big case about the little girl getting kidnapped


ALL.....UPPPER....CLASS.....WHITE.....PEOPLE

I'm not sure if that's why, although there is enough circumstantial evidence to make it debatable.

But there are clearly other right-to-die cases. In fact, when George "err on the side of life" Bush was governor of Texas, he signed into law the Texas Futile Care Act (I think that's what it's called), which allowed hospitals to override the decision of the parents/spouses when the hospital deemed that further care was futile and the families couldn't pay for continuing life support. This law was exercized last week when a Texas baby born with severe dwarfism was taken off life support against the mother's wishes.

As it happens, the family was black, but I don't think that really is the factor here. The hypocritical douche bags on the right probably haven't made a big deal of it because the case happened too quickly to build up any sort of media frenzy (days compared to the years that the Schiavo case has been going on) and because their hypocritical douche bag president is the one who signed that law in the first place. In fact, the National Right To Life committee helped draft the law, adding a provision that allowed the family 10 days to seek an alternate facility or alternative diagnosis. But there were certainly no protracted protests when the law was enacted, no cries of mercy, no calling the governor a "murderer." None of that.

Well that would be people like me then. I am opposed to abortion, except in cases of incest or where the mother's or the child's death is imminent.

As for this case, I do support medically assisted suicide if there is no hope for recovery. For example, if I was paralyzed and on a respirator and there was no hope of recovery, I would ask to be removed from the respirator. If it gets to the point where there is no hope, then yes I believe that you have the choice and the right to end your own life.

The hypocracy on the right is amazing.

They say that all life is precous and should be protected while they promote the death penalty.

They complain about the cruel way she is dying while they outlaw humane ways for her to die.

They yell about state's rights being so important and they appeal the state's judge's decisions and try to get the federal courts involved.

And you wait -- when there is an opening on the Supreme Court, they are going to yell about not having "activist judges" while today they are complaining that the judges aren't writing the laws the way they want to keep her alive.

How the hell these people keep getting elected is beyond me.

That's not the only hypocritical thing about it either, and it's not soley the Reps considering half the people in Congress who wished to interfere were Dems.

The really hypocritical thing is this:

Bush allowed retards to be executed in Texas: OK.
Being Recklessly Pro-War: OK.
Abortion: AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! EVIL! MUST PROTECT SANCTITY OF LIFE!
Terri Schiavo's feeding tube being removed: AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! EVIL! MUST PROTECT SANCTITY OF LIFE!

Also, for marriage:

Government Interfering In A Husband's Right As Caretaker: OK.
Gay Marriage: AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! EVIL! MUST PROTECT THE SANCTITY OF MARRIAGE!

By the way, Terri Schiavo is dead, everyone. Terri Schiavo died when her cerebral cortex was gone. The only things left alive is a thoughtless mass of bone and flesh that only has a heartbeat and breath, and the circus the media made out of her.

Republicans are the ones who've mad the issues of state's rights, less intrusive govt, anti-judicial activism, and the sancitity of marriage part of their platform and have now turned around and completely dismantled all of it. That's the hypocrisy.



And let's not forget that Bush signed a law in Texas that not only allowed for feeding tubes to be removed in the event that further care was determined to be futile, he allowed hospitals to do so WITHOUT the consent of immediate family, including the parents.

I know, but I had to narrow down the oh-so-dense hypocrisy into one little post.

BTW-are you the Beeblebrox of the JoBlo forums? Good to see you here.

As if we needed any more examples of massive Republican douche baggery, here we go.

From MSNBC: Tom Delay Agreed to Let Comatose Father Die

LOS ANGELES - House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, who has helped lead a congressional effort to keep Terri Schiavo alive, joined members of his own family nearly 17 years ago in allowing doctors not to take extraordinary measures to extend his father’s life, a newspaper reported Sunday.

DeLay had just been re-elected to his third term in Congress in 1988 when his father, Charles DeLay, was severely injured in an accident. As the elder DeLay’s vital organs began failing, the family chose not to connect him to a dialysis machine or take other measures to prolong his life, the Los Angeles Times reported Sunday, citing court documents, medical records and interviews with family members.

“There was no point to even really talking about it,” Maxine DeLay, the congressman’s 81-year-old mother, told the Times. “Tom knew, we all knew, his father wouldn’t have wanted to live that way.”

Doctors advised that he would “basically be a vegetable,” said the congressman’s aunt, JoAnne DeLay, who suffered broken bones in the crash.

DeLay helped push through Congress a special law allowing Terri Schiavo’s parents to ask federal courts to order their brain-damaged daughter’s feeding tube reinserted after state courts allowed it to be removed. However, after hearing their pleas, federal judges refused to intervene.

The Texas Republican also accused Schiavo’s husband and the courts of “an act of barbarism” against Schiavo, who doctors say is in a persistent vegetative state.

The congressman declined to be interviewed about his father’s case, but a press aide said it was “entirely different than Terri Schiavo’s.”

“The only thing keeping her alive is the food and water we all need to survive. His father was on a ventilator and other machines to sustain him,” said DeLay spokesman Dan Allen.

Like Schiavo, Charles DeLay had no living will, but he had reportedly expressed to others his wish not to be kept alive by artificial means.

He died on Dec. 14, 1988. He hadn’t shown any signs of being conscious, except that his pulse rate would rise slightly when younger son Randall entered the room, Maxine DeLay said.

“There was no chance he was ever coming back,” she said of her husband.

Note the explanation of how this is "entirely different." Schiavo was on a feeding tube. Delay's father was on a ventilator. Both were being kept alive artificially by machines. Air is as basic a necessity as food and water. In other words, there is no difference between these two cases except for Tom Delay's actions.

We should start a new post about conservative republican hypocracy, since there are so many examples. (Not to say there aren't some examples of liberal hypocracy as well, especially concerning affirmative action and censorship, but in comparison, it's nothing)...

Personally, I'd rather keep it relevant to the topic. Otherwise it turns into a "oh yeah, well what about..." back and forths that go nowhere. There are enough of those on the internets without us adding our own.

Making a thread on liberal or conservative douchebaggery would be too much of an undertaking. Democrats and Republicans alike, the politicians are trying to take over our personal lives.

My theory on the Trilateral Commission is gaining more ground every day.

Someone break out the foil hats.