Pool is now open

[Corlyss_D]

I'm betting that Michael Schiavo and Judge Greer are assassinated before summer so vicious has become the atmosphere around the Schiavo case. So far I have heard only 2 Republicans criticize the rhetorical excesses: Monica Crowley and Chris Shays. It's a disgrace that more haven't spoken out.

If there are assassinations, Delay ought to be held personally responsible. In 1995 I denounced Clinton for trying to make conservative talk radio responsible for Ok City. It was ridiculous then and still is - Ok city was al Qaeda's first hit on American soil even tho' it is still not publicized that McVey got his bomb making instructions, if not outright help in constructing the bomb, from Ramsi Yussef's minions. But the manner in which Republicans have lied, distorted, and misrepresented the facts in the Schiavo case have led to increasingly violent rhetoric from the supporters of the Schindler family, calling on Gov. Bush to invade the hospice and take Schiavo under force of arms. What's next? Bombing the federal courthouse in Tampa? Atlanta?

[Barry]

Man Tries to Steal Gun to 'Rescue Schiavo'

Fri Mar 25, 7:00 AM ET U.S. National - AP



SEMINOLE, Fla. - A man was arrested after trying to steal a weapon from a gun shop so he could "take some action and rescue Terri Schiavo," authorities said.


Michael W. Mitchell, of Rockford, Ill., entered Randall's Firearms Inc. in Seminole just before 6 p.m. Thursday with a box cutter and tried to steal a gun, said Marianne Pasha, a spokeswoman for the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office.


Mitchell, 50, told deputies he wanted to "take some action and rescue Terri Schiavo" after he visited the Pinellas Park hospice where she lives, Pasha said.


The feeding tube that has kept Schiavo alive for more than a decade was removed March 18 over objections from her parents. Schiavo's husband has said his wife would not want to be kept alive artificially.


Doctors have said she would probably die within a week or two of the tube being pulled.


Randy McKenzie, the owner of Randall's Firearms, said Mitchell pulled out the box cutter and broke the glass on a couple of display cases.


"He told me if I wasn't on Terri's side then I wasn't on God's side, either," McKenzie told The Associated Press.


McKenzie said he then pointed his own gun at Mitchell and ordered him to lie on the ground. But Mitchell fled out the store's back door before police arrived, he said.


Mitchell was later arrested in a parking lot and was scheduled to appear in court Friday. He was being held on $125,000 bond on charges of attempted armed robbery, aggravated assault and criminal mischief, officials said.


It was not known if he had a lawyer.


Seminole is about 5 miles west of Pinellas Park.

[Corlyss_D]

Man Tries to Steal Gun to 'Rescue Schiavo'

Man arrested in alleged Schiavo case murder plot
U.S. attorneys: He offered bounty for judge, Michael Schiavo

(CNN) -- Authorities said a North Carolina man was arrested Friday by FBI agents on charges of soliciting the murder of a judge and the husband of Terri Schiavo, the severely brain-damaged woman at the center of a legal and moral tug of war.

Authorities said Richard Alan Meywes of Fairview, North Carolina, offered $250,000 for the killing of Michael Schiavo and another $50,000 for the death of Circuit Court Judge George Greer, who ordered Schiavo's feeding tube removed a week ago.

Meywes was arrested without incident at his home about 5 p.m. on charges of solicitation of murder and sending threatening communications, authorities said.

He is expected to make an initial appearance Monday in U.S. District Court in Asheville. He will remain in the custody of U.S. marshals until then, authorities said.

A conviction on the charges could bring up to 15 years in prison and up to $500,000 in fines.

The charges were announced by the two lead prosecutors on the case: Paul Perez, U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Florida; and Gretchen Shappert, U.S. attorney for the Western District of North Carolina.

An affidavit filed in support of the charges alleges that Meywes wrote an e-mail Tuesday that said a "bounty with a price tag of $250,000 has been taken out on the head of Michael Schiavo." It also alleges he said an "additional $50,000 has been offered for the elimination of the judge who ruled against Terry in Florida," an apparent reference to Terri Schiavo.

The affidavit also says the same e-mail refers to the recent killings of a judge in Atlanta and family members of a federal judge in Chicago.

Greer, a Pinellas County circuit judge, has been under the protection of two U.S. marshals at all times in recent weeks due to increased threats against his life by those unhappy with his handling of the Schiavo case.

"Mr. Meywes' use of the Internet to convey threats and solicit violent acts is a clear violation of federal law," Perez said in a written statement.

"Regardless of any one person's stance on the complex and heartfelt issues involved in Ms. Schiavo's case, the matter must be resolved within the bounds of our democratic system and rule of law," the statement read. "The use of threats and other scare tactics cannot and will not be tolerated."

Shappert said, "Threats made in interstate commerce will not be ignored by federal law enforcement."

Authorities said the case was a joint investigation by the FBI's Tampa and Charlotte offices, and the Sheriff's Department of Pinellas County, Florida.

Find this article at:
http://edition.cnn.com/2005/US/03/25/arrest.schiavo

Barry, yours is the second report I've heard. I had not heard of any death threats when I put up my post. This afternoon, I heard of Meywes. These two gentlemen are too stupid to find their asses with both hands. But I assure you that there are killers out there who are not this stupid. The true-believers that the rhetoric in this case has brought out are the pro-life crazies who are known mostly for 3 things: endless demonstrations, assassinating doctors, and bombing abortion clinics.

[A.LaPorta]

This entire case is frightening just for the extent to which facts have been distorted. As a scientist it is particularly disturbing to see the expert analysis of neurologists who examined Ms. Schaivo dismissed by Mr. Delay, who pronounced Ms. Schiavo "lucid" after watching a 30 second video clip. Without information democracy is a sham, and I fear we are approaching that state of affairs.

You can see some of the clips here.

http://www.terrisfight.org/center.html

The disturbing thing about these clips (particularly the one in which she supposedly reacts to her mother) is that it is obvious that Ms. Schaivo does have some residual brain function, although it doesn't appear to me that there is any indication of cognition, and her CAT scan shows only a relatively small fraction of her brain is still there.

[Corlyss_D]

This entire case is frightening just for the extent to which facts have been distorted. As a scientist it is particularly disturbing to see the expert analysis of neurologists who examined Ms. Schaivo dismissed by Mr. Delay, who pronounced Ms. Schiavo "lucid" after watching a 30 second video clip.

I totally agree with you, A. I have been appalled at how willing these people have been to trot out faith healers, and nurses, and pastors to pronounce medical judgments after watching the tapes and to totally disregard the expert opinions of trained neurologists who routinely diagnose brain conditions. If Bill Frist attempted a diagnosis of a heart patient without ever examining her personally, on the basis of a video tape, he'd be hauled up on malpractice so fast his head would snap off. I have been encouraging people to read the Wolfson report to get an idea of what the facts are and how purposefully, and truly wickedly, the Republicans have misrepresented the facts. I'm sure the clarity and honesty of Wolfson's report was the reason Bush didn't keep him on as a GAL.

I believe that all of the distinguishing characteristics of the Republicans' tactics have analogies, an emotional link they are trying to create and promote, like a habit of thought, in the voters' minds. The parading of the scientifically illiterate to rebut the neurologists' evidence equates to the Evolution vs. Creationism debate. Here is Faith testifying to a result that [liberal agnostic secular] Science rejects as impossible.

Without information democracy is a sham, and I fear we are approaching that state of affairs.

Some authors of this lurid affair, as well as the silently complicit, have been watching the poll numbers. I am convinced that the Democratic leadership took a calculated gamble that this whole thing would blow up in the Republicans' faces and that's why they were MIA in the media as well as in the vote.

MSNBC.com
Schiavo case tests GOP alliances, priorities
Public reaction to federal intervention surprises many lawmakers

ANALYSIS
By Shailagh Murray and Mike Allen
The Washington Post
Updated: 11:43 p.m. ET March 25, 2005


WASHINGTON - A week after their unprecedented intervention in the Terri Schiavo case, Republican congressional leaders find themselves in a moral and political thicket, having advanced the cause as a right-to-life issue — only to confront polls showing that the public does not see it that way.

"How deep is this Congress going to reach into the personal lives of each and every one of us?" asked Rep. Christopher Shays (Conn.), one of only five Republicans in the House to vote against the Schiavo bill.

Fractured alliances

Republican lawmakers and others engaged in the debate say an internal party dispute over the Schiavo case has ruptured, at least temporarily, the uneasy alliance between economic and social conservatives that twice helped President Bush get elected.

"Advocates of using federal power to keep this woman alive need to seriously study the polling data that's come out on this," said Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, who has been talking to both social and economic conservatives about the fallout. "I think that a lot of conservative leaders assumed there was broader support for saying that they wanted to have the federal government save this woman's life."

Some Republicans said they do not believe the vote to allow a federal court to examine whether any of Schiavo's constitutional rights had been violated will become a political issue, especially since 47 House Democrats voted for the measure, while 53 voted against.

An issue of 'conscience'

"It was not a partisan issue. It was one of conscience," said Rep. Eric I. Cantor (R-Va.), the chief deputy whip. "People will remember that the majority attempted to address a very difficult situation and did it with a real seriousness of purpose."

Democrats struggled with their own internal divisions over whether to join Republicans in urging federal courts to consider the Schiavo case — or to oppose it as a dangerous legislative overreach. The decision of so many Democrats to support Republican action represented a rare moment of detente between the two otherwise warring parties.

Even House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (Tex.), one of the most partisan politicians in Washington, conceded, "There's been incredible cooperation by the Democrats and Republicans." Aides in both parties say a shared concern about the fate of incapacitated people could lead to bipartisan legislation addressing their rights.

On rocky ground

The fracas over congressional involvement has taken many GOP lawmakers by surprise. Most knew little about the case and were acting at the direction of their leaders, who armed them with the simple argument that they just wanted to give Schiavo a final chance, and that they wanted to err on the side of life. But because of the rush to act and the insistent approach of the leadership, Republicans had no debate about whether their vote could be seen as federal intrusion in a family matter, or as a violation of the separation of powers between the judicial and legislative branches. Both issues are concerns of many voters responding to polls, and of some members themselves.

Republican leaders knew from the outset they were entering new and possibly rocky terrain. DeLay said that he told Judiciary Chairman F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-Wis.) two weeks ago, "We have to do something for Terri Schiavo," but that the chairman was reluctant because, as DeLay recounted, "we don't have a precedent for doing private bills in these matters, and he didn't want to violate that precedent."

The majority leader's response to Sensenbrenner: "Be creative."

Resentment among friends

One senior GOP lawmaker involved in the negotiations, who did not want to speak for the record, said that DeLay, who is fighting ethics charges on several fronts, faced considerable pressure from Christian conservative groups to respond to pleas by the parents of the brain-damaged woman to intervene before her husband, Michael Schiavo, removed the feeding tube that kept her alive. The lawmaker said that DeLay "wanted to follow through" but added that many House Republicans were dubious and suspected that the leader's ethics problems were a motivating factor.

Republican concerns grew, the senior House GOP lawmaker said, as a succession of federal judges, some of them conservative appointees, rejected Congress's entreaty. "A lot of members are saying, 'Why did you put us through this?' " said the lawmaker, who agreed to recount the events on the condition that he not be named.

There has been similar grumbling in the Senate, where the Schiavo effort was led by Majority Leader Bill Frist (Tenn.), a former transplant surgeon who is retiring in 2006, presumably to run for president; Sen. Rick Santorum (Pa.), a conservative Catholic who also may harbor presidential ambitions; and freshman Sen. Mel Martinez (Fla.).

Aides to other Republican senators said there was little discussion of the matter outside that group. "It definitely would have gone down differently had it actually been considered," a senior aide to a moderate Republican senator said.

Long-distance diagnoses

The stakes could be particularly high for Frist. Even as he shores up support with one crucial presidential primary voting bloc — Christian conservatives — he may have repelled another: small-government conservatives, who are particularly key in the New Hampshire primary. "A lot of Republicans who vote up here would be inclined to see this as a personal matter . . . and would be uncomfortable with what Congress did," said Dante Scala, a political scientist at St. Anselm College in Manchester, N.H.

One wild card in the Schiavo debate was the degree to which lawmakers, including DeLay and Frist, questioned Schiavo's medical condition — a persistent vegetative state with no hope for recovery, according to the doctors who examined her. DeLay said of Schiavo, "She talks and she laughs and she expresses happiness and discomfort," and he blamed her inability to speak on the fact that "she's not been afforded any speech therapy — none!"

In a Senate floor statement March 16, Frist referred to a videotaped exam he had seen of Schiavo and suggested there could be questions about her true condition. He described Schiavo as having "a severe disability similar to what cerebral palsy might be." Neurologists and other experts say that Schiavo's facial expressions, captured on videotapes that her parents are circulating, are nothing more than involuntary movements. Scans show her cerebral cortex has been severely damaged, and other tests indicate no normal electrical activity in her brain.

An uphill battle

Aggravating Republican frustrations are disturbing new polls, including a CBS survey that found that 82 percent of Americans — including a whopping 68 percent of people who identify themselves as evangelical Christians — think Congress's intervention was wrong.

Democrats, who note that the action is identified with the GOP-led Congress and the president, hope that the public's negative response could translate into a more general unease with Republican rule. "They look out of step," said Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.), a Clinton White House adviser who runs the House Democrats' campaign committee. "This Congress is getting involved in things they shouldn't be getting involved in, and not getting involved in things they should be."

Republicans are "going to get kicked around a lot," said Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia. On the other hand, he sees a silver lining in the otherwise miserable polls: The minority that does back congressional action probably supports it intensely, while the majority that disagrees "won't remember this woman's name in a few months."

Rep. Bob Beauprez (R-Colo.), who represents one of the toughest districts for Republicans and is exploring a run for governor, flew back to vote for the Schiavo bill and said he has no regrets.

"If civil rights issues are a federal issue, and I agree they are, how about the issue of life?" Beauprez asked. "If I'm going to be the only one standing up at the end of this that said, 'I stood for life,' I'm happy to do that."

© 2005 The Washington Post Company
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7297597/

Let's see what happens next. I sat down last night to detail for my own information the instances of lying, distortion, misrepresentation, etc. and I'm already up to 20 and I'm not done yet. Christopher Hitchens blasted Joe Scarborough last night - Joe with his boyish insouciance and bein' a lawyer too - Hitchens denounced him as a "megaphone for frauds." Scarborough was clearly shaken by the intensity of Hitchens' comments and he looked as though it suddenly dawned on him that maybe the way they went about this wasn't so clever after all.

The disturbing thing about these clips (particularly the one in which she supposedly reacts to her mother) is that it is obvious that Ms. Schaivo does have some residual brain function, although it doesn't appear to me that there is any indication of cognition, and her CAT scan shows only a relatively small fraction of her brain is still there.

The context of the tapes is deliberately falsified to create the impression of cognition. Several people have remarked that the tapes were made illegally in violation of a court order against the making of such tapes. The media keep showing the same clips over and over, never bothering to context them with rebuttal from the testimony in court or the "hours of tapes" made by the neurologists testifying that they found no cognitive behavior. How the Schindler's attorneys ever, ever, persuaded a licensed attorney and an officer of the court to perjure herself, to perpetrate a fraud on the court, with that rooster-and-bull affidavit that Terri strained to speak out when her feeding tube was removed is completely beyond me. I don't suppose Greer will ask for an ethical investigation of her behavior, but I wouldn't let her off so easy.

[Anne l.]

AOL news reports her tongue and her eyes are bleeding this morning.

[Corlyss_D]

AOL news reports her tongue and her eyes are bleeding this morning.

No disrespect to the agony on both sides, but the report comes from her parents, who have claimed that she is cognitive and that she's suffering horribly when their claims have been denied repeatedly by doctors and hospice workers. Nothing said by her parents in the last week has been credible, and neither is that. That specific claim has been specifically denied. That's simply not the way dehydrating people die.

[A.LaPorta]

AOL news reports her tongue and her eyes are bleeding this morning.

No disrespect to the agony on both sides, but the report comes from her parents, who have claimed that she is cognitive and that she's suffering horribly when their claims have been denied repeatedly by doctors and hospice workers. Nothing said by her parents in the last week has been credible, and neither is that. That specific claim has been specifically denied. That's simply not the way dehydrating people die.

Nothing said by the doctors representing the parents is credible either. The Neurologist representing Schiavo's parents said Terry was similar to Christopher Reed. Christopher Reed's sustained no brain injury and his mind was totally intact although a severed spinal chord left him paralized and unable to breath unassisted.

[Corlyss_D]

George Felos held a news conference today in which he was asked, among many other things, if he was going to seek disciplinary action against Barbara Weller, the attorney with big brass ones to lie to the court the way she did on that affidavit. He didn't answer the question.

[Anne l.]

AOL news reports her tongue and her eyes are bleeding this morning.

That's simply not the way dehydrating people die.

Corylss-D, why don't you or someone do us all a favor and research exactly what happens when people die of dehydration.

[Corlyss_D]

Corylss-D, why don't you or someone do us all a favor and research exactly what happens when people die of dehydration.

Good idea, although any number of hospice doctors and other experts have been pulsed by the media to provide the facts for over a week now.

The Schneiders and their supporters make better press describing a woman bleeding at the eyes and tongue, struggling to protest her condition, etc., than the calm unflappable scientific staff. It's not hard to find the media complicit in all this hoopla surrounding the Schiavo affair. Thank god they are finally getting tired of it.

Patient Refusal of Nutrition and Hydration:
Walking the Ever-Finer Line
American Journal Hospice & Palliative Care, pp. 8-13, March/April 1995.
Ira R. Byock, M.D.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In the midst of an increasingly heated debate over physician-assisted suicide (PAS) another option available to patients who are determined to end their lives is receiving serious attention -- the conscious refusal of nutrition and hydration. Patient refusal of nutrition and hydration (PRNH) is hardly new, indeed, virtually all hospice clinicians remember people who came to a point in their illness when they could be described as having "lost their will to live" and who recognized that continued eating and drinking was having an undesired, life-prolonging effect. In the hospice context, death that follows the decision to refrain from food or drink is not usually considered a suicide, however, by choosing to do so these patients were conscious that their death would likely be hastened.

The general impression among hospice clinicians that starvation and dehydration do not contribute to suffering among the dying and might actually contribute to a comfortable passage from life. In contrast the general impression among the public and non-hospice medical professionals is that starvation and dehydration are terrible ways to die. Scientific support for either viewpoint has been scanty, yet modern medical practice has reflected an aversion to allowing a person to "starve to death."

Indeed, during the era in which most hospice providers have trained and practiced, a patient unable to eat has been routinely treated with a feeding tube; the option of declining such intervention never having been offered or fully considered. The symbolic importance of offering food and fluids is well-recognized. While it has been utilized by people throughout human history, in public discussion and debates regarding physician-assisted suicide, hospice providers have wisely avoided suggesting PRNH as an alternative. There has been concern that in the political arena such a suggestion might appear as a self-serving way to deny hospice providers' "ultimate responsibility" to the suffering patient.

But the situation may now be changing. Several recent articles are serving to dispel fears of suffering and are making it more acceptable to speak more openly about this inherent ability of patients to influence the timing of their demise. Late in 1993 an article entitled, Patient Refusal of Hydration an Nutrition: An Alternative to Physician-Assisted Suicide or Voluntary Active Euthanasia, by Bernat, et. al. in the Archives of Internal Medicine reviewed the salient clinical literature and discussed the ethical implications of this option.[Bernat] The authors include PRNH within the ethical category of "voluntary passive euthanasia" since it involves not only the refusal of oral food and fluid but the associated refusal of non-oral (enteral or parenteral) alimentation and hydration. They assert that the critical moral and legal distinction to be made regarding a life-ending decision is not whether it involves an act of commission or omission on the part of the physician, but whether or not it constitutes the refusal of a medical therapy by a competent patient. Patient refusal of nutrition and hydration meets this criteria and, thus, can be considered among the commonly accepted practices of patient-initiated refusal (or withdrawal) of mechanical ventilation, renal dialysis, or antibiotic use.

A more extensive review of the scientific literature relevant to starvation and dehydration appears in an article by Sullivan entitled, Accepting Death without Artificial Nutrition or Hydration.[Sullivan] Published studies of healthy volunteers report that total fasting causes hunger for less than 24 hours. Ketonemia occurs and is associated with relief of hunger and an accompanying mild euphoria. When ketonemia is prevented by small feedings hunger persists, explaining the obsession with food commonly observed during semi-starvation occurring in times of famine or war. Animal studies also suggest that ketonemia may have a mild systemic analgesic effect. Experimentally induced dehydration in normal volunteers may report thirst, yet this sensation is consistently relieved by ad lib sips of fluid in cumulative volumes insufficient to restore physiologic fluid balance. One study of healthy subjects suggests there is a decrease in the severity of experienced thirst associated with older age.

Recently, two important clinical studies have been published which investigate the effects of fasting and dehydration in the patient population relevant to hospice. Burge surveyed patients at two inpatient palliative care units in Canada. Visual analog scales (100-mm) were used to assess seven symptoms: thirst, dry mouth, bad taste, nausea, pleasure in drinking, fatigue and pain. [Burge] Reported symptoms were studied in relation to potential confounding variables. Thirst was considered to be the principal outcome of interest. The mean symptom rating for thirst was 53.8 mm. In multiple linear regressions no statistically significant association between thirst and fluid intake, serum sodium, urea or osmolality was found. The presence of oral disease yielded the most significant association between thirst and examined variables.

In the October 26 issue of JAMA, McCann, et. al. report a prospective study of patients in a ten-bed "comfort care unit" located within a long-term care facility. [McCann] The physical care described closely resembles benchmark hospice care. "Food was offered and if necessary fed to patients but was never forced. All patients received meticulous mouth care that included combinations of cleaning, various swabs, ice chips, hard candy, and lubricants. Narcotics were used for most of the patients to treat symptoms of pain and shortness of breath when present. The dose of narcotics was titrated to provide pain relief while avoiding sedation. When the window of providing pain relief and causing sedation was small, the patients' wishes were weighed regarding the discomfort of pain vs. the discomfort of sedation in determining subsequent doses and intervals of narcotic administration."

Of 32 patients assessed by this group during a 12 month period, 63% denied hunger entirely, while 34% reported hunger during only the initial part (first quarter) of their course in the unit. Thirst or dry mouth was reported by 66% of patients; 28% transiently and 38% throughout the terminal phase of their illness. Thirty-four percent denied either symptom. The authors found that in all patients reporting either hunger or thirst, these symptoms were consistently and completely relieved by oral care or the ingestion of small amounts of food and fluid. While patients could eat or drink ad lib, the amount of food or fluid ingested -- and documented to relieve associated symptoms -- was consistently less than that required to correct dehydration or to meet obligate fluid and energy requirements.

More at http://www.dyingwell.com/prnh.htm

I should point out that there's no implication because the protesters are not allowed in with their dramatic cups of water and ice that Terri herself is not receiving maximal care including small applications of water and ice to make her comfortable. It's my understanding from Felos' statements that Michael is at her side as much as possible administering these palliatives. I dunno, but it seems consistent with the other reports provided daily on where he is.

[Barry]

Protests Outside Schiavo Hospice Chaotic

Sat Mar 26, 7:57 AM ET U.S. National - AP


By JILL BARTON, Associated Press Writer

PINELLAS PARK, Fla. - Jennifer Johnson, barefoot and in her pajamas, ran to her grandfather's bedside once a hospice worker said his death was moments away. She got there — one minute too late. Johnson said the chaos outside the hospice where Terri Schiavo is dying kept her from saying goodbye.

When Johnson arrived, a police officer demanded identification; she had none. And after a hospice employee cleared her, another officer halted her for a search with a metal detector.


The delays lasted three to four minutes — the last of her grandfather's life.


"It's a terrible, extra obstacle to put in front of a family. ... Everything is about Schiavo," Johnson said. "It's all about her and in my family's case, it cost us dearly."


Woodside Hospice has 70 patients besides Schiavo, whose parents are desperately trying to have her feeding tube reconnected. Dozens of protesters have arrived from across the nation since the tube was removed March 18, and at least 15 have been arrested, prompting a police barricade around the facility and unprecedented security.


Family members visiting patients must pass through a police checkpoint to park, then show identification outside the door before another security screening inside. They also must walk by scores of signs decrying Schiavo's "crucifixion," "torture," and "starvation," plus navigate around hordes of media who have been camped outside.


"To have to maneuver through all of this and have a hostile environment outside when all they want is peace and quiet and to enjoy those few days they have left with a loved one is a horror," said Dr. Morton Getz, executive director of Douglas Gardens Hospice in Miami.


Getz said many people with a family member in a hospice have to make the same excruciating decision that courts have made for Schiavo.


"It's causing a lot of grief and questions in their own mind on whether they did the right thing," he said. "It's unconscionable to have a family member to be near the end stages of life and to get there, you have to walk through signs that say, 'Murderer.'"


Most protesters direct their signs and their chants against the courts and Michael Schiavo, Terri's husband, who insists she would not want to be kept alive artificially.


But walking through a hostile environment can only add stress to what's already an emotionally draining situation.


"It probably has the same psychological effect on the residents' families as it does on someone who is walking into an abortion clinic and facing signs and aggressive behavior," said Elizabeth Foley, a Florida International University law professor who specializes in bioethics.


Over the past few days, as Schiavo's parents' attempts to have their daughter's feeding tube reinserted repeatedly failed, signs outside the hospice have grown more desperate. Doctors have said Schiavo would probably die within a week or two of the feeding tube being removed.


Messages compare Michael Schiavo to Scott Peterson (news - web sites), convicted of killing his wife and unborn child in California, and John Evander Couey, who allegedly murdered a 9-year-old girl in Homosassa.


One woman in a wheelchair regularly moves up and down sidewalks in front of the hospice yelling in a megaphone, "We're disabled, not disposable!" and "Terri is a person, not a vegetable!"


Relatives of hospice residents say the clamor — intended to rattle Michael Schiavo — rattles their patience.


"It's a real pain in the neck," said Bill Douglass, whose mother-in-law is a resident. He said the only consolation is that she is "oblivious" to the outside scene.





Police and hospice officials say they are trying to minimize the intrusion on hospice residents and their families, and that the security measures are meant to protect the privacy and safety of all residents, not just Schiavo.

But Johnson, 24, said her 73-year-old grandfather, Thomas Bone, was restricted from moving freely around the hospice grounds during his final days. He died just hours after Terri Schiavo's feeding tube was removed and protests intensified.

"They've taken away hospice's greatest quality, that it is peaceful and serene and quiet and calming — and it's not fair," Johnson said.

[A.LaPorta]

There was also a study in the New England Journal of Medicine by Sandra Jacobs in which hospice workers were polled the quality of death by denial of food and water.

Of 429 hospice nurses in Oregon contacted to participate in the survey, 307 (72%) returned the questionnaire, and 102 of these (33%) reported that in the previous four years they had cared for a patient who deliberately hastened death by voluntarily refusing food and fluids. Reasons for this decision included feeling ready to die, viewing continued existence as pointless, and considering their quality of life to be poor.

Most patients (85%) died within 15 days of refusing sustenance. On a scale rated by the nurses from 0 for a very bad death to 9 for a very good death, the median score was 8. Compared with 55 patients who died by physician-assisted suicide, patients who died after refusing to eat or drink were older (74 vs. 64 years of age; P < .001), less likely to want to control the circumstances of their death (P < .001), and less likely to be evaluated by a mental health professional (9% vs. 45%; P < .001).

Again, neurological examinations and CAT scans indicate that Ms. Schiavo does not have significant higher brain function, so it seems unlikely that Ms. Schiavo would even recognize that she is being denied nutrition.

[Corlyss_D]

Protests Outside Schiavo Hospice Chaotic

Sat Mar 26, 7:57 AM ET U.S. National - AP

It's a shame it has to be this way for others at the hospice. They are like unwilling extras in the Schindler's frantic efforts to avoid confronting the fact of Terri's death.

[Corlyss_D]

One area of Republicans' deliberate obfuscation is this notion that feeding and hydration tubes are not artificial life supports or "extraordinary means" within the meaning of the definition in most Right to Die statutes. Never mind the simple logic that if people in a coma or PVS aren't fed, they die. Let's just set that aside for a minute.

Until 2 years ago, there was aboslutely no question whatever that feeding and hydration tubes were indeed artificial and extraordinary means of life support. It's in my AMD and I'll bet it's in yours too. [You do have one, right?] Yet the conservative commentators and pro-life advocates and politicians and media figures like Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, Fred Barnes, and Joe Scarborough, have deliberately and repeatedly stated that feeding and hydration tubes are not artificial and extraordinary means of life support. That's a damned lie! Not a difference of opinion, but a damned lie! But aside from blatant misrepresentation of the state of the law, what's going on here? Why the difference? Why does it matter?

Two years ago Pope John Paul issued an encyclical dealing with end-of-life issues. http://www.sdnewsnotes.com/ed/articles/2002/0101cz.htm In it he distinguished between feeding and hydration tubes on the one hand and respirators on the other. He labled as euthanasia the removal of the former from people who were not already medically dying. This position has reenergized religious conservatives to redefine the terms in state statutes under which you get to decide how you want to be treated in the endstages of your life. It's entirely likely that if we let this trend take hold, and we should end up in a coma or PVS, even an AMD specifying that we wanted no such means would not save us from the prospect of years, even decades on life support, whether we want it or not.

The legion of conservative commentators is aiming their statements at Catholics who are drifting into the Republican party in increasing numbers with every election on these "moral issues" at the expense of accuracy and understanding.

[Kevin R]

They are like unwilling extras in the Schindler's frantic efforts to avoid confronting the fact of Terri's death.

Cor,

How true. Just let her go.