Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I just want to express how sorry I am about Terri Schiavo and wish nothing but blessings to her REAL family. ((I don't want to curse or be negative or provoke unrest.)) After listening to all the facts and watching the conduct of all involved, I have come to the conclusion that the concience of this country may have passed along with Terri. I never thought in my lifetime I would see an event like this take place.

Best Wishes,

Steven Owens

I am right there with ya brother! The fact that this was even allowed to take place is beyond words. Thank you for this post my friend!

Billy
-----
Genesis 1:1

It was disgusting that her husband did not let her parents be there at the end. His lawyer also lied it was only AFTER he told the police to remove her brother was their an "altercation" not before as his lawyer lied about.
Luis

the women was a vegetable, short of water & fertilizer there was nothing for anyone to do. she was on the tax payers backs for her health care. she has been dead for years, her responses where the same as a snake that was just run over in the road, she could barely move with any more than involuntary movements. Don't get me wrong it is always hard to let someone go, I was very saddened when it was announced she past on, but her family was being selfish trying to keep here shriveled up raisin body on this earth, she had no life ahead of her.
She was given a choice, she didn't have to die she could have asked to be fed, asked be given a drink of water or even better yet she could have gotten up & got it her self right???
oh no thats right she was BRAIN DEAD for all intense purposes.
Would you like to live as a vegetable for 13 years as a burden to your family???????????????

Living Will

I, _________________________ (fill in the blank), being of sound mind
and body, do not wish to be kept alive indefinitely by artificial means.

Under no circumstances should my fate be put in the hands of peckerwood
politicians who couldn't pass ninth-grade biology if their lives depended
on it.

If a reasonable amount of time passes and I fail to sit up and ask for
a cold beer, it should be presumed that I won't ever get better. When such
a determination is reached, I hereby instruct my spouse, children and
attending physicians to pull the plug, reel in the tubes and call it a
day.

Under no circumstances shall the members of the Legislature enact a
special law to keep me on life-support machinery. It is my wish that these
boneheads mind their own damn business, and pay attention instead to the
health, education and future of the millions of Americans who
aren't in a permanent coma.

Under no circumstances shall any politicians butt into this case .

I don't care how many fundamentalist votes they're trying to scrounge
for their run for the presidency in 2008,it is my wish that they play
politics with someone else's life and leave me alone to die in peace.

I couldn't care less if a hundred religious zealots send e-mails to
legislators in which they pretend to care about me. I don't know these
people, and I certainly haven't authorized them to preach and crusade on my
behalf. They should mind their own business, too.

If any of my family goes against my wishes and turns my case into a
political cause, I hereby promise to come back from the grave and make his
or her existence a living hell.

_______________________________________Signature

_______________________________________Witness

__________________________________Date

Seriously, even if there was a flicker of consciousness in there - which is scientifically impossible, but even if there were - her life was hell. Anybody ever read Johnny Got His Gun? Life like that is he11, and no one should have to live like that. Back in reality, where we know that there was no such consciousness in her, there are seriously destitute people who need the health care resources they used on her. And, the other point you brought up - zealots trying to get publicity from this were the really sickening people.

i thank god i havent seen this in my family in many years, i have had family members that did not want to be on life support procedures & said they where ready to die, as a young boy it was hard to understand. it is hard to watch them go, i think the average person does not want to lie there & suffer. im sure terry has suffered long & hard.

Thanks, Tank. Finally, someone with a brain that is not dead. I will print a copy of that document, that I am sure is a legal and binding document, put my name in the blank and give it to anyone that might outlive me.
I am sorry that she died, but glad she is at peace.
Later
Rick

i think your right, for once she is at peace, now she can meet her god & not have to put up with everyone playing god.
i wonder if the pope wanted to be kept alive & if the cardinals argued whether or not to save him???????????
think maybe he new something terry's family didnt?

I am sorry to say that even HE on his death bed chimed in on how she should not be starved to death. Questions were raised about whether or not extreme measures should be used to keep him alive after he suggested that letting Terry die might not be right.
Only your closest and dearest should decide your fate, not even the pope knows your mind. Sometimes the people closest to you will have the hardest time making the right decision, decide what you want for yourself, put it on paper, and let paper decide your destiny. Then you take the pressure off of your family and those closest to you.
So I'm with you. If I don't ask for a beer, pull the plug.
Later, but not much later,
Rick

Hey Rick,

I'll pull the plug on ya ol' friend... I expect the same!!

After doing emergency medicine for twenty years and seeing so many deaths from so many angles, I can assure you Rick is right. Don't leave these incredibly difficult decisions to your loved ones. They may mean well, but when the time comes, particularly if it comes without warning, they will be very hard pressed to have to punt...

Make your wishes clearly and decisively known on paper, and make sure you use the legally correct format for your state. It makes a very tough situation even worse if the wishes are filled out on incorrect forms.

With all the opinions here everyone forgets the manner in which she died. It was not a natural death. All this showed is that florida law gives more rights to a cat or dog than a human. If the law found out that your dog was not being fed and was starving to death your a$$ would be in a whole lot of trouble. Plus, her "family" was surely not her so called husband who had moved on with a new family. It's all about the money. Otherwise he would have legally divorced her and let her real family make the decisions. We can only go by what the media tells us about the situation which may or may not be fact.

I concur but guys like Tank have no problem with starving her to death not to mention her parents not being allowed to be there on her final minutes.
In Tanks world anyone that doesnt need a machine to keep them alive but do need to be fed must go.
Starved to death if need be. But just dont do that to a dog.

damn right dont do it to a dog.

dogs have neurological activity.

"the women was a vegetable, short of water & fertilizer there was nothing for anyone to do. she was on the tax payers backs for her health care. "

Boy Tanks...she must have really been a burden to you, ya think, since you brought up the financial burden she MUST have placed on you. LOL!

If you knew, which you should, she died of STARVATION from the feeding tube being removed. This was not her life support system shut off.

"...very saddened when it was announced she past on, but her family was being selfish trying to keep here shriveled up raisin body on this earth, she had no life ahead of her. "

You think that you are being accurate in your description of her? She really looked like that, huh? Also...don't you know that some people HAVE come out of that condition and that the news made good on reporting that, interviewing people that had come out of similar situations. It is nice to know that you knew that she had no life left her in her. How broad of a spectrum that you speak of about someone's life you know nothing of.

It's not rocket science here.

Take care!
Billy
-----
Genesis 1:1

with all due respect, brain dead and comatose are completely different types of injuries. I am unaware of anyone waking up from brain dead?

This is tough subject for all, and as I said earlier, the decisions and clear declarations of our desires should be made BEFORE we end up in these awful situations.

Cheers.

I was amazed how anyone fell for it when her husband said she once told him she wouldnt want to live like that.
How many 23 year olds actually discuss that or even think about it esp back than.
The parents love her and yet treated like criminals.