I was going to post something earlier but really didn't have the time to do it. After letting things stew all night, I come home and the thread I was going to post in has been locked. Ah well, same subject here and I can make my point just as easy. Let me set up my soapbox.
First, let me repeat that I do not criticize the judges involved in all this for their decisions. As I've said before, I don't know the ins and outs of what's admissible in court and what's not, they base their decisions on what the law is and to criticize them for that is like criticizing a carpenter for hammering a nail. That's what they are suppose to do.
I'm also not going to fault congress. I don't really like the fact that it got to that point, but at the same time I don't think it's the horrific "abuse of power" that some see it as. They didn't break any law, they didn't change any law, they didn't do any that was unconstitutional, and, as we now know, they really didn't have much of an effect. As I see it, they only made sure every avenue of hope had been opened.
Now, to get to my point...and I do have one...I have to tell a little story. Actually, a rather long one. About three years ago, a boy named Michael, the son of a good friend of mine, started having muscle spasms in his right arm. It got worse after a couple of weeks and eventually started to move to muscles in his neck and legs. Three months into it, the seizures started. The best way I can describe it is it was very much like an epileptic seizure, however he was in no pain and alert the entire time. He could calmly hold a conversation, all the while his arms and legs were jerking and flailing out of control.
His doctor was in Wichita Falls, Texas. After about five months of tests and examinations, the doctor called Michael's mother, symbolically throwing his hands in the air and saying, "I don't know what else to do. I can't figure out what's wrong with him." Michael saw two other doctors in Wichita Falls, one that took only a couple of visits to give up, and another that took a stab in the dark and started medication for Parkinson's Disease. After 6 weeks, there was no change and Michael was starting to get physically ill.
A visit to a children's hospital in Fort Worth brought nothing, so I recommended trying Parkland Memorial in Dallas. Out of 9 Dallas doctors, 6 walked away frustrated, having no clue what was wrong or what to do about it. Two claimed it was all psychosomatic. One threw a fit about the Parkinson's medication and treated it as Progressive Multifocal Myoclonus, but couldn't say why Michael had it. It became apparent that this doctor only seemed interested in making Michael a guinea pig and teaching aid. All of them at one time or another had him on some kind of medication, which was constantly changing. They would take him off one, put him on another, increase the dosage, decrease the dosage, increase the potency, decrease the potency...Not only were his seizures getting more frequent and lasting longer, they were now starting to hurt and all the changing medication certainly wasn't helping the way he felt when he wasn't having seizures.He was 13 years old and looked like an 87 year old man when he walked across the room.
Somewhere along the way, Michael's mother came across the name of a doctor in Houston. He was a highly paid specialist and supposedly one of the best in his field. After literally months of both of us trying to contact him, she finally managed to do so and the doctor agreed to see Michael. They drove from Wichita Falls to Houston, essentially from one end of Texas to the other, for a doctor appointment. When they came home, the news was not good. This doctor said Michael had some kind of brain disorder and there was nothing that could be done. He wanted to prescribe a drug that would, quite literally, lead to a chemical lobotomy. When you're convinced someone will have the answers, it's very disheartening when a lobotomy is the answer you get.
Enter Dr. Brian Bernard. He was not a specialist in any high paying field. In fact, he was a new chiropractor in Wichita Falls, just a couple of years out of school and just opening a clinic. Somewhere along the way he heard about Michael and had an idea he might know what was wrong and offered his services. Willing to try anything, my friend took Michael to see this young doctor, and after one visit, for the first time since all this started, they heard the words, "I think I can help." A month later, the seizures were all but gone and there was no more pain. Two months, and Michael was back where he started with only a spasm in his forearm. Three months, and you couldn't tell there had ever been anything wrong with him.
He is now an average 15 year old that enjoys video games, pizza, and girls in bikinis. This is less than two years after a doctor recommended a lobotomy.
I'm not saying Terri Shiavo could have fully recovered had she been given the right treatment. I don't know if she would have or not. What I am saying is all possibilities should have been exhausted. There is talk of what the majority of doctors say. Well, in Michael's case, the majority of doctors had no clue what to do. The majority of doctors working with Michael were putting him on medication that was doing more harm than good. It was one doctor, a doctor that said "I can help" that made Michael better. Shouldn't Terri Schiavo have been given that chance?
When it comes to Terri's life, one person had more power than anyone in the world. More power than the President, congress, any judge, or even Terri herself. That person was Michael Schiavo. He and he alone had the power to pursue any and all chances that were presented. Even if it was just one doctor that said, "I believe I can help her", it was up to him to take that chance. Instead, he listened to the majority who said there was nothing that could be done.
Is there a person here that wouldn't listen to that one doctor? It doesn't matter who you were responsible for. Your spouse, your child, your sibling, it doesn't matter. If there are 20 doctors or a 1,000 doctors telling you there is no hope, wouldn't that one that said there is have a louder voice to you?
A law should not be changed because of one case, but we can learn from that one case and see the bigger picture. People tend to throw around the term "playing God". Going unchallenged, Michael Shiavo would have the far to close to literal power of God when it comes to Terri Schiavo's life. Frankly, that is not the power any one person should have. Even murderers have police officers, lawyers, a judge, and a jury to go through before they might be sentenced to death. Terri Schiavo had Michael Schiavo. This is a law that needs to be changed and there are far to many examples of a spouse not deserving a life or death decision for their partner to support that change.
One last thing for the people that like to cloak themselves in phrases like "putting her out of her misery". When you sit down for supper tonight, making sure you have a nice big glass of water to go with it, give a thought to Terri laying in her bed. Think about her getting weaker by the minute, her skin getting pale, her tongue swelling as she dehydrates. Then see what other phrases you can come up with to take the place of "She's starving to death."
Bon appetit.
They find based on hearsay that these were her wishes. That's a fact to you?
