Terri Schiavo - another lawyer weighs in

Steve H. at Hog On Ice is one of my favorite daily reads. Despite living in Florida and being a Lawyer, he has kept silent on the Terri Schiavo case until now. Today he weighs in with an excellent rant on the culture of death and he has a couple of questions:

The View From the Front of the Bus
Nice up Here, Isn't It?

Up until now, I have not weighed in on the Terri Schiavo story. I didn't know the facts, and with so many things to write about, I wasn't inclined to do research.

I assumed the big issue was whether she had expressed a sincere desire to be allowed to die, prior to sustaining brain damage. But as most of you probably know, that's not the case. There are other issues. One is whether she is brain-dead or not, and the other is whether her husband should have the only say in whether she lives or dies.

And some more:

There is considerable evidence that Mr. Schiavo has no interest in his wife's welfare. He refuses to permit the physical therapy patients in Terri's state generally receive. Although a CAT scan of Terri's brain has been done, he refuses to allow PET and MRI scans, which are the best diagnostic tools for determining whether enough of her brain exists to sustain consciousness. And witnesses claim Terri has lost teeth and developed bedsores as a result of neglect.

On top of all that, there is a very disturbing affidavit from a former caregiver. Here is a quote from the sworn statement of RN Carla Sauer Iyer:

"Throughout my time at Palm Gardens, Michael Schiavo was focused on Terri's death," the RN noted. "Michael would say 'When is she going to die?' 'Has she died yet?' and 'When is that bitch gonna die?'"

As a lawyer, I can tell you that a sworn statement is considered much more credible when the statement works against the person who made it. If I swear I owe you money, that statement is automatically more credible than my sworn statement that I don't owe you money. It appears to me that Ms. Iyer has made a statement that could damage her career very, very badly. Depending on the circumstances under which the statement was made and the purpose for which it was used, she may also have exposed herself to a libel suit or a perjury conviction.

Visiting the culture of death -- Steve H.'s Mom and Dad:

Today's hospitals are infected with the liberal culture of death. I've seen it at work over the past decade, as my relatives have died. The people at the hospital here in Miami where my mother died pestered us constantly to give our consent to let her die, and she was lucid and relatively comfortable until a few days before she passed. An annoying counselor buttonholed my father and me and talked to us as though we were children, reminding us that we had to think of what was best for my mother. Meanwhile, my mother was fifty feet away, alert and presumably capable of making her own decisions. It was very clear to me that what they really wanted was for us to say the code words that meant, "If things get worse, give her a big shot of morphine and get rid of her." I strongly suspect that's what they did, anyway.

When my grandfather had his heart attack, we had to repeatedly remind the hospital staff in Kentucky that we actually liked him and wanted him to live. Fortunately, his heart surgeon was a Christian, and she listened to us. She said there was a small chance that he would recover, and we let her know that he was a fighter, and that we believed he would want to give survival his best shot. She worked aggressively to save him, and although he didn't make it, at least we knew we had done what we believed he would have wanted.

And this:

Thanks to liberals, I live in a state where I can be prosecuted for cutting a mangrove tree that pops up and obstructs my boat dock, but Michael Schiavo can kill his wife, with what appears to be inadequate reason, and not even pay a fine. People call Terri Schiavo a vegetable. Would that it were so. In Florida, the law protects vegetation.

(Emphasis mine) Jen and I have talked about this -- she thinks that the pre-existing agreement with Michael is fine and that the CAT Scan shows clear loss of brain tissue. We do agree that her initial trauma was a real heart-attack caused by a Bulimic related chemical imbalance. I want to see a battery of tests done by a team of independent people. If she is vegged out -- fine, someone should have an 'accident' with a dose of pain killer and she should pass with grace. If she is not brain dead, she should receive the basic physical care and rehabilitation that she has not been getting and see where things go from there. It seems that the feeding tube is back in -- I would like to see something beyond that happening. Aggressive care perhaps -- see what transpires...