You know, I was thinking yesterday that they should do this. Not only that, but hook her up to the machine Stephen Hawking used to communicate after his neurological disease deprived him of the ability to speak. He only needed slight pressure from his fingers to select words from a dictionary, and Terri's parents have said that she can signal them through muscle movements.

Wouldn't it be great to get Terri's live testimony? If they actually went through with the starvation, she could be a witness in her own murder trial.

if i were her parents, i would take my chances with a jury and put that bastard husband in the ground myself. this is the difference between jeb and gwb (and why jeb won't be president, ever) -- george would have stepped in early and made this horror stop, never mind the consequences. jeb will give you all kinds of fine answers about process.

It's a horror. Period. Not much comedy to leaven the tragedy.

What I don't understand is why a method which would never be used to execute a condemned criminal is perfectly acceptible for use in a hospital? Why is there this pretense that deliberate starvation is somehow the humane and natural thing? Using this method on a condemned criminal would be quickly overturned on 8th Amendment grounds.

And if they can't take out the husband, here's hoping the family manage to kill her quickly once the tube is removed. I'd love to see that trial-- someone being charged with the murder of someone in the process of being killed.

She's gonna die. She's almost ... almost ... certainly not going to regain enough function to survive w/o life support. She may very well be in her own private hell as we all bloviate. To help her die quickly and painlessly would clearly be murder, even here in Oregon.

Choices, choices.

We're all going to die. We don't all have to be killed by our spouses.

I heard Laurence "The Client is Obviously Guilty" Tribe opine on the radio news that the Congressional Subpoena should have no effect on the removal of Schiavo's feeding tube, since the State court is an independent entity.

The culture of Death sure has its proponents, doesn't it?

CJM: What you said. Actually, what I'd like to see someone do with the bastard (and his lawyer) is give him a major brain injury, leaving him helpless and unable to communicate . . . so we can pull his feeding tube and mete out a little poetic justice.

I agree with you, Raoul. It's a damn tragedy to kill this woman by removing her feeding tube; the Court should have the balls to do it quickly and mercifully. Of course, that just underscores the fact it is murder.

In the previous story about Schiavo, titled "Veggietales" below, I commented, "Can't the government overreact and stomp over our rights for a GOOD reason this time?" Looks like I was sorta right.

Terry's not on "life support," she's on a feeding tube. That's a significant difference.

Peggy Noonan weighs in on the topic with her usual eloquence.

She's being kept alive indefinitely by mechanical intervention, perhaps ... perhaps ... against her wishes. Still sounds like a tragedy to me. Certainly not good comedy.

ghost:

To a conservative all life is a comedy, not least the claim of those who wish to murder that it's for the victim's good.

I don't understand why we don't automatically err on the side of life when we have these "perhaps...perhaps" cases.

We hung people after WW2 for doing stuff like this. Remember, it is not a ventilator or other "life support". It is water and food.

I love Jeb but I am disappointed in him. He should take her out of the hospital, put her on a state plane and fly her to another state or country even. Dare the court to do anything to him.

ghostcat: Christopher Reeves was kept alive by far more intrusive methods besides food and water. Come to think of it, we are all kept alive by that same intrusive method, food and water.

You have to appreciate how the Culture of Death thinks: Christopher Reeve would've been a "useless eater" except that could talk, and he advocated fetal stem cell research. That made him useful to the Culture of Death. Terri Schiavo can't talk, so she can't advocate fetal stem cell research, and so she's of no use. Therefore, she can be disposed of.

The CoD (Cult of Death) likes to call things other than what they are. Michael Medved referred to this as "killing her" and the man he was talking to (a CoD advocate) got so upset I thought he was going to start cursing. "I don't call it killing! I don't call it killing! That's a horrible thing to say!" How is actively starving a person to death not killing them? It really is absurd. A very unfunny comedy.

So this state court judge says he is not subject to Congressional subpoenas.The proper thing to do is cite the judge for Contempt of Congress and send the US Marshals in so he can continue to make ruling in the case from a jail cell. I can't wait to see this precedent used in other cases.

This case is exposing a lot of hypocrisy and real contradictions in a number of areas. But most of all, it's showing that letting judges have the final say in social policies is a sure-fire guaranteed way of making things worse.

if jeb bush lets this woman die, he should be impeached.

hillary is missing a big chance to prove herself to the faithful of this country. assuming she is sincere, which she isn't.

cjm -

Good point, and an opportunity for Hil I hadn't considered.

I heard Tom Delay was going to ask Terri to accompany him on his next golf junket when she answered the subpoena.

The Culture of Death, eh?

Would that be the Governor of Texas who mocks a woman death-row inmate's voice after denying her request for clemency?

Would that be the Governor-cum-President who launched an unnecessary war on known-to-be-false pretenses, with more than 1,500 dead American soldiers and 10,000 dead Iraqi civilians to date?

Of course, now that the feeding tube has been disconnected, I wouldn't be surprised if Delay had Texans for a Republican Majority try to film her for a campaign commercial.

Finally, a few of you folks:

What do you not understand about persistent vegetative state?

She couldn't use a Hawking-like machine, she couldn't operate it.

Others at least recognize that allegedly conservative principles of federalism still apply, and have a modicum of sense.

steve: what a charming fellow, trying to score cheap points off a tragedy. but of course being a leftist, you are the one who "cares". i am going to defer to your greater experience with persistent vegetative state.

Steve:

Enjoy!

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.

Terri's behavior does not meet the medical or statutory definition of persistent vegetative state. Terri responds to stimuli, tries to communicate verbally, follows limited commands, laughs or cries in interaction with loved ones, physically distances herself from irritating or painful stimulation and watches loved ones as they move around her. None of these behaviors are simple reflexes and are, instead, voluntary and cognitive. Though Terri has limitations, she does interact purposefully with her environment.

Mr. Snyder:

No principle of federalism is prior to the right to life.

Mr. Snyder:

The tube will be put back nexdt week. Takes quite a while to starve even the helpless.

No cheap points here. I've killed a bunch of critters in my day and would never allow a deer, trout, or insect ... much less dog or cat ... to die the way Terry is going to.

That said: technology is rapidly approaching the day when any "person" can be kept "alive" indefinitely, if somebody is willing to pay for the "care". That very real prospect does not strike me as ethically uncomplicated.

ghostcat: i am kind of new here, so i am not that familiar with your views on things. you say no cheap points, and then go on to compare a human being to an insect. doesn't anything about terri's situation strike you as tragic ? doesn't anything rise up in you and say "no!" ?

cjm -

I'm just a poor country boy who concluded a long time ago (before you were born, I'll wager) that all of god's creatures have a soul. The more advanced the life-form the higher the degree of self-awareness, but the soul is there in all cases. (Yeah, even trees.) Kinda Indian, irrespective of continent.

Terry's case is a tragedy, no matter how I look at it. OJ sez only liberals think life is tragic. In this instance, OJ is wrong. Unless he insists on playing a silly "by definition" game.

ghost:

It's tragic if you murder her instead of honor her fight to survive.

She will fight to survive as best she can, OJ. Not comic in the slightest.

The nobility with which y'all claim to be vindicating her rights is.

I am duly insulted. You know damn well I (for one) don't claim to be vindicating her rights. I wish we all knew what her wishes were before she had the damn stroke. We don't. And I (for one) won't pretend to know what they "really" were.

I am appalled that this poor woman has been reduced to a damn SYMBOL in the damn culture wars. I fear that precious few on either side give a rat's ass about her and her wishes.

I heard a woman on NPR tonight attack those trying to keep Terri alive as believing that "merely being biologically alive makes one morally sacred." She said this with disdain and disbelief.

How do you even respond to something like that?

Speaking of responding, I'm waiting for someone to respond to a question I've raised several times in several forms. Given that a person is deemed "alive" if his brain is functioning ... theoretically even a disembodied brain ... should we do whatever it takes to keep that brain functioning indefinitely? It's not a trick or otherwise difficult question.

A brain isn't a person.

ghost:

That's precisely right--it has nothing to do with individual's wishes. It's about what kind of society we're going to be.

Not legally a person yet, OJ, because most can't even imagine it. (I can, having been at its doorstep during sleep paralysis.) The mind is simply the brain, seen from the brain's own perspective, no? The quality, state, condition of being a functioning brain is called the mind. And a highly functioning mind would most likely qualify as a person, don't you think? Especially if it can control electronic peripherals.

The technology will become available this century, probably within 50 years. Then we'll see (or rather, you'll see ... I'll probably be otherwise engaged) how the law copes.

I'm glad you admit that Terry's effectively been reduced from one of god's creatures to a mere symbol. It's always amusing to watch what people will do for symbols. Therein lies some degree of comedy, after all.

I apologize for my snit. I love your blog, your wit, your puns, your whimsy, your quirky musical tastes. Your clinical distance is another matter.

A mind isn't a person either.

Interesting. Where would one draw the line, then? I do agree that the mind is less than the soul. But then I ... like Peter Singer ... think all living creatures have a soul. Another thread, perhaps. David Cohen has aleady made my day, above. My last comment here.