Michael Schiavo Interview

For those of you who missed it, the transcript of last night's interview between Larry King and Michael Schiavo has now been posted to the Larry King Live website.

Michael Schiavo on Larry King Live Tonight

Michael Schiavo, husband of the late Terri Schaivo, will be interviewed on tonight's broadcast of Larry King Live. The program begins at 9:00 PM, EST (check local listings for time and channel).

He will be on the show talking about "life, his new wife and his new book."

I must end here and omit all personal commentary....that sentence alone makes me sick to my stomach.

Jeb Bush Probes Schiavo Collapse

CNN is reporting this story.

Tallahassee, Florida (AP) -- Gov. Jeb Bush asked a prosecutor Friday to investigate why Terri Schiavo collapsed 15 years ago, calling into question how long it took her husband to call 911 after he found her.

In a letter faxed to Pinellas-Pasco County State Attorney Bernie McCabe, Bush said Michael Schiavo testified in a 1992 medical malpractice trial that he found his wife collapsed at 5 a.m., and he said in a 2003 television interview that he found her about 4:30 a.m. He called 911 at 5:40 a.m.

"Between 40 and 70 minutes elapsed before the call was made, and I am aware of no explanation for the delay," Bush wrote. "In light of this new information, I urge you to take a fresh look at this case without any preconceptions as to the outcome."

Schiavo Autopsy Results

Fox News has reported:

Terri Schiavo died from dehydration and was not abused before her 1990 collapse, an autopsy report revealed Wednesday.

The autopsy report also showed there was no evidence Schiavo was given harmful drugs or other substances before her death. The severely brain-damaged woman, who was at the heart of a right-to-die battle, died March 31, 13 days after being disconnected from her feeding tube.

Jon Thogmartin, the Pinellas-Pasco medical examiner, told reporters that the 41-year-old Schiavo would not have lived after her feeding tube was removed even if she had been fed or given liquids by mouth.

"Removal of her feeding tube would have resulted in her death whether she was fed or hydrated by mouth or not," Thogmartin told reporters.

The autopsy also confirmed that Schiavo's mind was compromised at the time of death. "There's nothing in her autopsy report that is inconsistent with a persistent vegetative state," said Dr. Stephen J. Nelson, a medical examiner who assisted in the autopsy.

Thogmartin also said Schiavo was blind, her brain was half its normal size and she was suffering from severe osteoporosis at the time of death. Her "bones were pulpally soft from severe osteoporosis," Thogmartin said.

"The brain weighed 615 grams, roughly half of the expected weight of a human brain. ... This damage was irreversible, and no amount of therapy or treatment would have regenerated the massive loss of neurons."

Her parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, had fought their son-in-law, Michael Schiavo, in court for seven years over her fate.

The Schindler family's attorney, John Gibbs III, said the report still leaves many questions unanswered.

Gibbs questioned the finding that there was no abuse, and said the window of time where Schiavo was unconscious after her Feb. 25, 1990, collapse is troubling. Gibbs said Schiavo collapsed at 4:30 a.m. but her husband did not call for help until 5:40 a.m. and she did not receive medical attention until 5:52 a.m.

"Those 70 minutes are very, very troubling," Gibbs told reporters Wednesday. "Clearly, when you have a brain that is not getting blood, these are emergency moments and every second is precious. 4:30 to 5:40 is a significant time period."

He said the family plans to discuss the autopsy with other medical experts and may take some unspecified legal action.

"We are, at this point, examining every option and no decisions have been made," Gibbs said.

Michael Schiavo's attorney, George Felos, said his client "was pleased to hear the hard science and evidence of those findings."

"It's a hard fact, it's a scientific fact that Terri Schiavo was blind," Felos said. He said Michael Schiavo plans to release autopsy photographs of her shrunken brain in the near future.

In Washington, White House press secretary Scott McClellan said that the autopsy results did not change the president's position on her case.

"Our thoughts and prayers remain with her family and friends," McClellan said. "The president was deeply saddened by this case."

Thogmartin said doctors treating her in the hours after her collapse tested her thoroughly for signs of abuse and trauma and did not find anything.

Thogmartin said the investigation was unable to determine what caused Schiavo's collapse.

The autopsy revealed there was no conclusive evidence that Schiavo had an eating disorder. Thogmartin said Schiavo reportedly drank a lot of tea and caffeine could have led to her collapse in 1990, but is unlikely.

"No one observed Mrs. Schiavo taking diet pills, binging or purging, or consuming laxatives," Thogmartin told reporters.

Thogmartin said a review of hospital records of her collapse showed she had a diminished potassium level in her blood. But he said that did not prove she had an eating disorder, because the emergency treatment she received at the time could have affected the potassium level.

The cause of her collapse has never been definitely proven, but testimony in a 1992 civil trial indicated that she probably was suffering from an eating disorder that led to a severe chemical imbalance.

The Schindlers, though, don't believe she had an eating disorder and have accused Michael Schiavo of abusing his wife, a charge he vehemently denied.

Speaking before the report was issued, Michael Schiavo's attorney, George Felos, said the Schindlers continue to engage in a "smear campaign against Michael to deflect the real issues in the case, which were Terri's wishes and her medical condition."

Bill Pellan, chief investigator for the medical examiner's office, said Tuesday that Thogmartin reviewed police reports, medical records and other documents in trying to determine the cause of her brain damage.

During the long legal battle, numerous abuse complaints made to state social workers were ruled unfounded.

Michael Schiavo convinced the courts his wife would not want to be kept alive artificially with no hope of recovery, contending that she made statements to that effect before her collapse.

Her parents doubt she had any such end-of-life wishes and also disputed that she was in a persistent vegetative state. They believed she could get better with therapy.

Over the years, the Schindlers had sought independent investigation of their daughter's condition and what caused it. Abuse complaints to state social workers were ruled unfounded and the Pinellas state attorney's office did not turn up evidence of abuse.

During the seven-year legal battle, federal and state courts repeatedly rejected extraordinary attempts at intervention by Florida lawmakers, Gov. Jeb Bush, Congress and President Bush on behalf of her parents.

Supporters of the Schindlers harshly criticized the courts. Many religious groups, including the Roman Catholic Church, said the removal of sustenance violated fundamental religious tenets.

About 40 judges in six courts were involved in the case at one point or another. Six times, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to intervene. As Schiavo's life ebbed away following the final removal of her feeding tube, Congress rushed through a bill to allow the federal courts to take up the case, and President Bush signed it March 21, but federal courts refused to step in.

The autopsy report was based on 274 external and internal body images, and an exhaustive review of Terri Schiavo's medical records, police reports and social services agency records.

Schiavo Autopsy

The results of Terri Schaivo's autopsy will reportedly be released some time today. There are many motivating factors revolving around the results. Terri's husband hopes that the autopsy will prove that Terri was indeed in a Persistent Vegetative State and that she suffered her stroke as the result of an eating disorder. Her parents and siblings hope the findings will prove that Terri was abused by her husband and was not brain dead. With Terri's life taken, this last remaining battle seems a bit superfluous.

Fox News has a story posted regarding the autopsy and will no doubt keep us posted once the official results have been made public. CNN also has a story posted as well as a live feed of the autopsy report being read (however, you must have a subscription to CNN's audio feature in order to listen).

Poles Apart

A recent Zogby poll shows that, contrary to the Fox Poll, most Americans in fact do not agree with the decision to remove nutrition from Terri Schiavo (or those like her). It seems that we have once again fallen victim to the "fuzzy math" of the mainstream media statistics.

Polls leading up to the death of Terri Schiavo made it appear Americans had formed a consensus in favor of ending her life. However, a new Zogby poll with fairer questions shows the nation clearly supporting Terri and her parents and wanting to protect the lives of other disabled patients.

The Zogby poll found that, if a person becomes incapacitated and has not expressed their preference for medical treatment, as in Terri's case, 43 percent say "the law presume that the person wants to live, even if the person is receiving food and water through a tube" while just 30 percent disagree.

Another Zogby question his directly on Terri's circumstances.

"If a disabled person is not terminally ill, not in a coma, and not being kept alive on life support, and they have no written directive, should or should they not be denied food and water," the poll asked.

A whopping 79 percent said the patient should not have food and water taken away while just 9 percent said yes.

Did Terri Schiavo Really Die a Painless Death?

A year ago, April, I began reading through the book of Genesis, six verses at a time, five days a week. I read the passage, read all the associated cross-reference passages, look up mentioned places on the map, and jot a short journal entry regarding the passage.

This evening, my passage fell on Genesis 47:13-18. How odd that I should be reading about the famine in Egypt on the day of Terri Schiavo's passing.

With that as my backdrop, the passage took on a new light. In verse 14-15 we see the Egyptians hand over every dime of their money to Joseph in exchange for grain. By verse 16-17 they are out of food and next give up all of their horses, flocks, donkey, and livestock in exchange for more grain. The food runs out again, and in verse 18, the people give Joseph all of their land and by verse 19, they have all sold their very bodies into slavery.

I think this commentary denies the euphamistic lightheartedness that recent news articles have claimed Terri Schiavo's death was calm, painless, and peaceful. Look at these Egyptians, selling their very bodies for a bucket of grain. That, my friends, is called hunger.

The story of the famine in Egypt is reminscent of another biblical story: Esau. He was so hungry that he sold his birthright to his brother Jacob for a bowl of stew. Again, it seems like extreme hunger leads people to do irrational things

It would seem that these are uneven exchanges. A birthright for a bowl of stew; life-long slavery for a bucket of grain. But is it? Food is sustanance, sustanance is life, and according to Paul in the book of Philippians, "To live is Christ." To rob a person of food is to rob them of life and their God-given opportunity to experience, fellowship with, and know Christ.

I read a book last summer entitled, Flyboys by James Bradley. It tells tales of Japanese soldiers, abandoned by Japan, weak with hunger, going mad and killing people for food. There is one particular paragraph in the book that I considered writing here to prove my point (and believe me, it would prove my point) but I just reread it now and have determined that it is far too horrific to repeat. So, just take my word for it -- you don't want to cross the path of a man starving to death.

Hunger doesn't merely lead to a growling stomache, irritability, fatigue, and one nasty headache. When deprived of food, men literally go insane. We see it in war stories, we see it in stories about planes crashing on deserted mountaintops, we see it in Somolia when food copters are highjacked, we see it in Genesis 47.

It is interesting to me that of all the names we have for bodily functions: hungry, tired, thirsty -- hunger is the only one that is the mere adjective for the real cause at work - pain. When our stomach growls, we call it hunger pains. Hunger is recognized, even in our most casual of terms, as painful.

We even catch of glimpse of this in the New Testament. Matthew 6:17-18a says, "But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that it will not be obvious to men that you are fasting..." This verse acknowledges that going without food affects a person's attitude and appearance. Lack of food so manifests itself bodily that other people can look at you and know without being told that you have gone without food.

We see more evidence of the grueling pain of hunger in Revelation 6:8, "I looked and there before me was a pale horse. It's rider was named Death and Hades was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine, and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth." Does it alarm you that hunger is listed among the short list of ways that Death will go about destroying a fourth of the earth?

In a country like America, where well more than half of us are obese, and we have so much food that we eat simply because we are bored, we may never be able to truly grasp this concept. But, it would seem to me, that going without food is about one of the cruelest forms of punishment man could possibly inflict upon another human being. It would have been more humane to have wheeled Terri Schiavo in front of a brick wall and killed her via a firing squad.

It scares me to be living in a country where I start to blog about our legal system and end up talking about one of the four horsemen of the Apocolypse.

Statement From Tom DeLay

Republicans, many of whom led the charge to focus federal attention on Terri Schiavo, are vowing to hold the judiciary system responsible for rulings in the case that some believe were tantamount to murder.

"This loss happened because our legal system did not protect the people who need protection most, and that will change," House Majority Leader Tom DeLay said Thursday after receiving news of Schiavo's death.

"The time will come for the men responsible for this to answer for their behavior, but not today. Today we grieve, we pray, and we hope to God this fate never befalls another."

Show No Partiality

I was reading the latest Fox News poll that claims 59% of Americans think removing Terri Schiavo's feeding tube was an "act of mercy." As I was reading the article, my eyes drifted to a side bar. Right there, on the very same page, right next to the statistics of Americans who believe Schiavo's life was not worth living, is a photo of the ailing Pope with the tagline, "Half of Americans say they have said a prayer for the Pope." Hmmm...

The article clarifies that, in fact, 51% of Americans have prayed for the ailing Pope's health.

Terri: Had a feeding tube
Pope: Has a feeding tube
Terri: 41 years old
Pope: 84 years old
Terri: Not on life support
Pope: Breathes with the aid of a breathing tube
Terri: Did not have ability to communicate verbally
Pope: Is losing his ability and cannot speak much now

From this scenario, 59% of Americans were routing for the demise of Schiavo, but praying that God will restore the Pope to health. Is there some reason why we couldn't have prayed to God to restore Terri to health? Isn't reviving a 41-year old women from a brain disorder more feasible that preserving the life of a man who is nearing the end of his life and will eventually, inevitably die?

Here's where it gets even more amazing. 34% of Americans believe that the ailing Pope is still an effective leader and should continue in his role as Pope and not step down and retire. Unbelievable! An 84-year old man on a respirator and feeding tube who can no longer speak or get out of bed can still effectively lead and shepherd the global Catholic Church, while Terri Schiavo, in a similarly unproductive state of being, was sentenced to death.

If removing Terri's feeding tube truly was an "act of mercy" shouldn't the Pope, of all people, be the recipient of mercy? And if you consider it sacrilege to even speculate about removing a feeding tube from the Pope, then doesn't that add further weight to the argument that removing a feeding tube is in fact not an act of mercy at all?

Aren't the lives of Terri Schiavo and the Pope - both created in the image of God -- equally important to the Lord? James 2:1-5 offers us some sobering insight into our of partiality.

My brothers, as believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, do not show favoritism. Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in shabby clothes also comes in. If you show special attention to the man wearing the fine clothes and says, "Here's a good seat for you," but you say to the poor man, "You stand there," or "Sit on the floor by my feet," have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? Listen, my dear brothers. Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised to those who love him?

Terri Schiavo Has Died

CNN, Fox, and all major news stations and websites are reporting.

CNN
Fox News
Drudge Report
MSNBC

Please keep Terri's family in your prayers.

Al Mohler Weighs In

Even as Terri Schiavo edges closer and closer to death, the questions posed by this tragedy represent long-term challenges for this culture and its moral conscience.

These questions will not go away, even as the headlines and media attention inevitably subside. Issues of life and death confront us all, and the court-mandated death of Terri Schiavo will, I believe, go down as a landmark on America's moral landscape. Her death will either lead to a recovery of moral sanity or a further slide into a moral abyss. Several vexing questions frame where this culture is headed.

That was the into paragraph to a three-part article series written by Dr. Al Mohler. In these articles, Mohler takes up the following questions:

· What does this mean for the culture?

· What does this mean for the future?

· What does this mean for the courts?

· What does this mean for conservatism?

· What does this mean for other patients?

· What does this mean for doctors?

Click here to read Part One, Part Two, and Part Three.

(Hat tip to JT)

Liberal Agenda Now on Life Support

Opinion Journal has been following the Schiavo case from a political perspective. Very interesting.

Who'll Remember Terri Schiavo?--II

Yesterday we speculated that the Terri Schiavo case may help Republicans and hurt Democrats among voters who suffer from disabilities, who have obvious reasons to look skeptically at claims that a low "quality of life" makes life not worth living. We actually visited this issue last year: In September, we noted that President Bush was doing surprisingly well in a Harris Interactive poll of disabled Americans. He led John Kerry 48% to 46%. A similar poll a month earlier had given Kerry a 50% to 40% lead.

Our thought then was that disabled voters were put off by Kerry's clumsy exploitation of the wheelchair-bound Max Cleland, but blogger Ed Jordan offered a better theory, which we noted the following week: that the swing was owing to the Florida Supreme Court's striking down a law designed to save Mrs. Schiavo's life. As Jordan wrote, "there is good reason to believe they are sensitive to the fact that liberals like Senator Kerry want to give them the right to die, while conservatives like President Bush want to give them the right to live."

More reason comes in a Nov. 9 press release from the National Organization on Disability:

In a dramatic shift in support toward a Republican presidential candidate, a clear majority of voters with disabilities chose George W. Bush over Sen. John Kerry in last week's national election. According to a survey conducted by telephone between October 29 and November 1, 2004 by Harris Interactive, likely voters with disabilities preferred President George W. Bush over Senator John Kerry by 52.5 percent to 46 percent. . . .

In past presidential elections, people with disabilities have consistently supported Democrats over Republicans by solid majorities. According to Harris Interactive, in 2000, Vice President Al Gore was preferred 56 to 38 percent by likely voters over then-Governor George W. Bush. Bill Clinton carried the disability vote 69 percent to 23 percent over Senator Dole in 1996, and 52 percent to 29 percent over President H.W. Bush in 1992.

NOD's president, quoted in the release, ignores the Schiavo issue and tries to explain the shift in terms of the same issues that affect all voters: terrorism, greater GOP turnout, high turnout among the elderly, who have a disproportionate rate of disability.

This seems unpersuasive. Overall, voters swung from a 0.5% Democratic plurality in 2000 to a 2.5% Republican one in 2004, a shift of three percentage points. The disabled, according to the NOD poll, went from an 18% Democratic plurality to a 6.5% Republican one--a shift of 24.5 points, and of 16.5 points after the Florida Supreme Court acted to bring about Terri Schiavo's death.

To be sure, there is a good deal of imprecision in these polls. They have a small sample size (253 disabled likely voters in the last pre-election survey), and the definition of "disability" leaves considerable room for interpretation. But the shift is so striking, it's hard to discount--and hard to explain except as a response to issues of particular concern to voters with disabilities.

Food For Thought

According to the press, needing to eat food in order to live now qualifies as "life support." Technically, yes, I guess being dependent upon nutrition is "life support" in the most literal semantic definition. However, with that liberal definition, we must acknowledge that every human being on the globe is then "on life support."

Notice the way Fox News further blurs the lines in an article they posted on their home page this morning.


Many More Cases Like Schiavo's
Data suggest thousands are taken off life support each year


Notice how the headline leads us to believe that there are many more cases like Terri's, but the tagline specifies that, like Terri (supposedly) these similar cases are people being taken off of life-support. When in reality, Terri Schiavo is not on life support!

Reading the entire article does nothing to clear up the confusion, but in fact, simply adds more to the deceptive word-smithing of these journalists. I will give the article an "A" for consistency, but a "D-" for accuracy and integrity. The writer uses "life support" as a synonym for people who have feeding tubes.

I am amazed reading this and realizing that it was written in the 21st century by an educated individual in a civilized country. It is reminiscent of the missionaries who used to speak in my Sunday school class as a child who would tell gruesome stories about savages who buried men and women alive because they were too uneducated to recognize a heart beat and would pronounce sleeping people dead simply because their eyes were closed or they hadn't gotten out of bed for a week.

Let's take a look at the article.

The opening two paragraphs say:

Terri Schiavo is not the first person to have a feeding tube removed, although the public may be left with that impression because of intense media attention and her parents' emotional pleas to have the tube reinserted.

But getting an accurate picture of how often this procedure or stopping other forms of life support takes place in the United States is extremely difficult, partly because of privacy concerns.

Notice how the article states as fact that having a feeding tube removed is just one of the many forms of life support? Since when has eating breakfast been defined as "life support?"

By the third paragraph, the transition is complete. The writer (now envisioning his sheep-like readers in a zombie-like state, eyes ablaze with spinning red spirals, both arms raised horizontally in front of them as they march blindly forward, pulling scraps of mummified cloth from their lips so their faint groans can be heard more audibly) now refers to a feeding tube as "life support" throughout the rest of the article.

Amazing. Simply stunning.

Next thing you know, people who need gravity and oxygen in order to function will be declared comatose.

Irony at it's Worse

How's this for irony, Fox News is reporting that the Pope is going to have a feeding tube inserted into his stomache due to his difficulty of swallowing. According to the definition supplied to us by the Florida Supreme Court, the aging Pope is now dangerously close to a court-appointed death sentance. Thankfully, unlike Terri Schiavo, he has friends in higher places than Florida.

VATICAN CITY — Pope John Paul II may have to return to the hospital to have a feeding tube inserted, an Italian news agency reported Tuesday. It stressed that no decision had been made.

The APcom news agency, citing an unidentified source, said the 84-year-old pope might have to have the tube inserted to improve his nutrition since he is having difficulty swallowing with the breathing tube that was inserted Feb. 24.

APcom said the idea of inserting a feeding tube was a hypothesis that was being considered. The procedure involves inserting a tube into the stomach to allow for artificial feeding.

Earlier Tuesday, the Italian daily Corriere della Sera reported that the pope's doctors were considering a new hospitalization next week both to perform tests on the breathing tube and to adjust his diet because of problems swallowing.

Reality Check

I have been pretty disgusted with all the reports today from the major news networks describing death by starvation as a 'peaceful' and 'painless' way to go. How stupid do they think we are? Have you ever fasted for even one day? It is excrutiating!

Raven, who runs a blog called And Rightly So is a Licensed Nursing Assistant in New Hampshire who works with patients living in a Persistive Vegetative State and other serious brain injuries. She has also personally witnessed patients die of starvation.

Here is an excerpt from her latest blog entry:

I have been asked to write about the situation involving Terry Schiavo. Since I work with people who are in the condition Terry is in, I have some things to say. I have been following this story for 5 years now and I also have been in contact with aides who have worked with Terry. It’s sickening.

When people think about COMA’S, they often assume the victim is unconscious and unaware of their surroundings. This is true in many cases, as I have described here before. I work mainly with younger people, but do “float” over to the Adult Brain Injury unit quite a bit. I see lots of Terry’s there. People like her are indeed alive; they are living breathing humans who have survived an often tragic event. Are they who they used to be? No. Will they ever be who they used to be? Probably not. Do they respond to stimuli? Yes. Do they respond to people? Yes. Do they talk? Not usually, but they make eye contact and smile and laugh. And they reach out to you. They are human beings, who tend to like the company of others and…well…like to be alive. Terry smiles a lot, and she seems happy almost all the time. She is not hooked up to any machines.

I have seen some pretty sad things in my work. I have seem little children with G Tubes put to death by their parents, who had decided that their child is not living a “valuable” life. The state often has to get involved in cases like this, but with kids it’s pretty cut and dry: The parents have the final say. All ethics put aside, all arguments about what is a life and what isn’t-the very worst part of what I do is watching others die a slow death. It is horrible and I don’t deal well with it.

By removing nutrition and hydration via the tubes, patients take days to die. They literally dry out. There skin becomes dry and scaly; their lips dry out and then the mouth can no longer open. The person either rolls in the fetal position and stays that way, or they lay out flat. They no longer void and their eyes become sunk in very deep.
I won’t go into anymore details as it is kind of gross, but it isn’t a pretty thing. Usually the docs and nurses do a “terrific” job with pain killers. The dying, supposedly, feel no pain. I don’t think that is ever true. I see them moaning and I have seen little tears rolling out of their dry eyes. The last patient I witnessed being put to death like this took 3 weeks to go. How sweet.

I hate to use the term “put to death” but that is what it is. No need to beat around the bush here and don’t let anyone tell you it isn’t that simple. It’s wrong and it’s barbaric. Life is life, and anyone alive who has not made their wishes known should be allowed to live. As to quality of life, who are we to decide what that is?

The Truth is Stranger Than Fiction

Fifteen years ago, Terri Schiavo's fate was nothing more than a great Sci-Fi concept brewing in the minds of Rod Serling and Dalton Trumbo. Edgar Allan Poe was considered macabre for pondering the idea of being buried alive. Face it, this sort of horror story is what you expect to find printed among Metallica song lyrics - not the front page of a civilized country's newspaper.

But this once unthinkable storyline has escaped the pages of yesterday's novel and become a reality. World Magazine has just printed an article this week entitled, "Don't Let Me Starve." The article is about Kate Adamson, a recovered stroke victim who survived a fate similar to Terri Shciavo's. It is a chilling article.


A decade ago, Mrs. Adamson, then 33, suffered a double brain stem stroke that left her completely paralyzed, unable even to blink. Inside though, she was fully cognitive, able to understand doctors telling her husband she would either die or wind up "a vegetable." She wanted to, but couldn't, scream out when "people talked about me as if I wasn't a person, as if I didn't exist. . . . It was like being trapped underground and you're praying that somebody is going to be able to find you.

During 70 days of intensive care, doctors fed Mrs. Adamson through a tube. Then her digestive system failed, forcing them to remove the tube until her body could again eliminate waste. For the next eight days, she learned what it feels like to starve.

Unable to communicate, she remembers the terror of being "on the inside screaming out, 'Feed me something! I don't want to die! . . . I'm alive! I'm a person in here! Do not let me starve!' The hunger pains were unbearable," she said. "I thought I was going insane."

On the ninth day, doctors reinserted her tube. Now at age 43, Ms. Adamson has regained most of her physical abilities and become an advocate for the disabled.

The Truth is Hard to Swallow

National Right to Life has posted this information on their website.

MYTH
Terri is in a coma or comatose-like state.

REALITY
None of Terri’s doctors currently maintain that she is in a coma. Some doctors believe that Terri is in a persistent vegetative state while others disagree and believe that she is “minimally conscious.” Most Americans have seen footage of Terri interacting with her mother by now and it is hard to ignore the way in which she appears to light up at the sound of her mother’s voice.

Important note:

The definition of PVS in Florida Statue 765.101:
Persistent vegetative state means a permanent and irreversible condition of unconsciousness in which there is:

(a) The absence of voluntary action or cognitive behavior of ANY kind.
(b) An inability to communicate or interact purposefully with the environment.

MYTH
Terri is on life support. Terri requires machines to live.

REALITY
To state that Terri is on life support or that she requires machines to live implies that Terri is dependent upon what has traditionally been considered life support, such as a ventilator, heart machine, or kidney dialysis.

Terri is a healthy woman with a disability and she is not hooked up to any machines as has been widely reported. She breathes on her own and merely receives nutrition and hydration through a feeding tube, much the same as a baby is sustained by the nutrition he or she receives through a bottle.

MYTH
Terri’s parents refuse to let her go and allow her to die.

REALITY
Terri is not terminally ill — she is a healthy woman with a disability. To induce someone’s death by denying him or her nutrition and hydration is an act of starvation. Terri’s parents have asked for Michael Schiavo to step down as her legal guardian and allow them to care for their daughter.

MYTH
Terri’s case is a right-to-die case.

REALITY
This claim is disputed. Terri’s parents and siblings say that she does not want to be starved to death and are asking the courts to allow them to care for her.

MYTH
Death by starvation and dehydration is painless.

REALITY
Florida law does not allow a dog to be subject to death by starvation, so why should Terri, a human being, be sentenced to such a death?

In Wesley J. Smith’s book, Forced Exit, St. Louis neurologist William Burke said:

“A conscious person would feel it [dehydration] just as you or I would. They will go into seizures. Their skin cracks, their tongue cracks, their lips crack. They may have nosebleeds because of the drying of the mucous membranes, and heaving and vomiting might ensue because of the drying out of the stomach lining. They feel the pangs of hunger and thirst. Imagine going one day without a glass of water! Death by dehydration takes ten to fourteen days. It is an extremely agonizing death.”

Vatican Calls for Keeping Terri Alive

VATICAN CITY - The Vatican newspaper on Monday criticized the removal of a feeding tube from a brain-damaged Florida woman, saying nobody can claim the right to decide whether a human being lives or dies

Who can, before God and humanity, pretend with impunity to claim such a right?" L'Osservatore Romano said. "Who — and on the basis of which criteria — can establish to whom the 'privilege' to live should be given?"

The remarks from the Vatican paper, which reflected earlier comments from several Vatican prelates, came after the U.S. Congress passed a law in an emergency session giving Terri Schiavo's parents the right to file suit in federal court over the withdrawal of nourishment and medical treatment needed to sustain their daughter. President Bush has signed the bill.

"Who can judge the dignity and sacredness of the life of a human being, made in the image and likeness of God? Who can decide to pull the plug as if we were talking about a broken or out of order household appliance?" the paper said.

"In a Miami hospital there's a woman who is about to die from hunger and thirst. There is the slow dying of a person — not a 'vegetable' — which an impotent world is witnessing through TV and newspapers."

The 41-year-old woman's feeding tube was removed Friday on a Florida judge's order. Schiavo could linger for one or two weeks if the tube is not reinserted — as has happened twice before, once on a judge's order and once after Gov. Jeb Bush signed "Terri's Law," which was later declared unconstitutional.

The paper said that the case "is shaking America" but added that "in the ongoing debate, the lowest-level political controversy and the subtle game of legal tricks often end up prevailing."

Schiavo suffered severe brain damage 15 years ago. Her husband says Schiavo told him she would not want to be kept alive in a vegetative state. Her parents say she needs treatment and another opportunity for life.

"Terri's long, heartbreaking agony today is the agony of the meaning of God, the lord and creator of life," the paper concluded. "It is the agony of the love that can bend over the frail and needy. It is the agony of mankind."

Earlier this month, the Vatican's point man on bioethical issues, Monsignor Elio Sgreccia, said removing Schiavo's breathing tube would be a direct act of euthanasia and "a pitiless way to kill."

Terry's Cry For Help

The Empire Journal is reporting a thorough account of Terry's last visit with her attorney.

On Friday, March 18, less than an hour after Sixth Circuit Court Judge George W. Greer defied subpoenas issued by a Congressional committee for Terri Schindler-Schiavo to appear as a federal witness in a Congressional investigation, attorneys for Terri’s parents, Mary and Bob Schindler, visited Terri to tell her that the death order was going to be executed and that she would die.

When asked by her parents and their attorneys if she wanted to live, Terri Schiavo made two conscious attempts to say “Yeah” and began to cry when told that her husband, Michael Schiavo, would be removing her feeding tube on orders of Judge Greer, which would result in her death by starvation.

The Empire Journal has obtained an exclusive, first hand last visit narrative by Barbara Weller who with David Gibbs III of the Gibbs Law Firm of Seminole, Fl., is representing the Schindler family in their efforts to save Terri’s life.

The most dramatic event of this visit happened at one point when I was sitting on Terri’s bed next to Suzanne. Terri was sitting in her lounge chair and her aunt was standing at the foot of the chair. I stood up and learned over Terri. I took her arms in both of my hands. I said to her, “Terri if you could only say ‘I want to live’ this whole thing could be over today.” I begged her to try very hard to say, “I want to live.” To my enormous shock and surprise, Terri’s eyes opened wide, she looked me square in the face, and with a look of great concentration, she said, “Ahhhhhhh.” Then, seeming to summon up all the strength she had, she virtually screamed, “Waaaaaaaa.” She yelled so loudly that Michael Vitadamo, Suzanne’s husband, and the female police officer who were then standing together outside Terri’s door, clearly heard her. At that point, Terri had a look of anguish on her face that I had never seen before and she seemed to be struggling hard, but was unable to complete the sentence. She became very frustrated and began to cry. I was horrified that I was obviously causing Terri so much anguish. Suzanne and I began to stroke Terri’s face and hair to comfort her. I told Terri I was very sorry. It had not been my intention to upset her so much. Suzanne and I assured Terri that her efforts were much appreciated and that she did not need to try to say anything more. I promised Terri I would tell the world that she had tried to say, ”I want to live.”

Terry's Tube Removed

The feeding tube that has kept Terri Schiavo alive for 15 years has been removed, said Suzanne Vitadamo, her sister. The move comes amid a flurry of legal activity focusing on the brain-damaged woman Friday, including two very different orders handed down by two judges. Seven years ago Schiavo's husband, Michael, and her parents began a legal tug-of-war over whether to have her feeding tube removed and allow her to die.

Ironically, Scott Peterson received the death sentence for killing his wife while Michael Schiavo will recieve a million dollar inheritance for his. Also ironic is that as a criminal, Scott Peterson's death will be relatively quick and painless, while it is estimated that Terry will slowly die over the course of one to two full weeks. What is wrong with this picture?