DeLay Engages Medical Ethics in the Schiavo Case

[wilkey]

[Ed Pettibone]

[wilkey]

[Dave Roberts]

[David Flick]

[Mark]

[Wade]

[David Flick]

[David Flick]

[wilkey]

[fox]

[bdfoster]

[mlovell]

[fox]

[wilkey]

[fox]

[Norm]

on Schiavo Bill. From the article:

Members of Congress have apparently also had super-analytical powers conferred upon them, as well. Senate Majority Leader, and heart surgeon, Bill Frist felt confident last week—after reviewing an hour of videotape—in offering a medical diagnosis of Schiavo's condition, blithely second-guessing the court-appointed neurologists who evaluated her for days and weeks. His colleagues are similarly self-appointed neurological experts. Years of painstaking litigation, assessment, and evaluation by state courts are dismissed by Tom DeLay as the activist doings of a "little judge sitting in a state district court in Florida." Only the most extraordinary levels of congressional hubris could allow a group of elected citizens to substitute their personal medical, legal, and ethical judgments for those of the doctors, judges, and guardians who have been intimately involved with this heartbreakingly sad case for years.

[bdfoster]

[Ed Pettibone]

[mlovell]

[Jonathan]

[Sandy]

Even the Florida lawyer who was appointed by Jeb Bush to monitor this case agreed with the findings of the many, many courts and judges, along with the medical team that has directly examined Terry Schiavo, that she is brain dead and not able to be revived. According to news reports this evening, a sizeable portion of her brain tissue has liquefied and been absorbed into her body.

The right wingers and conservatives who are making Michael Schiavo out to be the villian should be reminded that he worked along side Terry's family for three years, and the settlement money he recieved has gone exclusively to her care. His decision to get on with his life is a reasonable one, given the medical evaluation with which he was presented.

It is interesting that Jeb Bush sent a lawyer to monitor the situation, and remained aloof and uninvolved until this became a high profile political hot potato. Then, even though his own advisors told him they agreed with the medical experts, he interjected himself into the picture.

With polls showing that 63 percent of Americans think she is already technically dead, and the tube should be removed, and 67 percent believing that the only reason conservative politicians are involved is for political grandstanding (a fact confirmed by the discovery of a memo that was being circulated among Republican congressional leaders) the end result might not be as good for the right wingers as they were hoping it would be.

As for me, I'll pray for Michael and the Schindler family, and make sure my own living will is in order.

[wilkey]

CNN reported (Sunday I believe), that President Bush, while governor of Texas, signed a bill allowing the pulling of plugs on babies not expected to live. (Answer to Fox) Tom DeLay has pulled the plugs on many a cock roach in Houston and since thus he is an expert on when life ends. Bush coulda saved the life of the woman in Texas who reformed and got the needle a few years back but he refused. Meanwhile the state allows you to sit in front of your computer and kill wild game with your mouse at a Texas ranch. Killin is a rather complicated issue here in the state.