[lbo-talk] Re: terri schiavo

jthorn65 at sbcglobal.net jthorn65 at sbcglobal.net
Tue Mar 22 15:15:07 PST 2005


>I know it's usually dumb to start asking the lawyers here to articulate

>the legal angle to these kinds of stories, but I can't stand it anymore.

>Is this case just full of shit or what?

>

>/jordan

I cannot resist this one but it will be the last. Marta

This is from a lawyer cousin of a friend of mine:

I don't understand this one bit. If the judge said, it was okay to

kill this poor angel (which it is not)...................

.......................................Ask the

Judge if its a liberating or humbling experience for an authority

figure like His Honor to scream until his gums bleed for just a drop

of water have people smile politely and walk by.

Screw the legal process. President Bush should send a phalanx of US

Marshals to the hospital with and a couple of army nurses to take

care of this gal.

Talk about a rotten son-in-law.

<...>

I am mildly interested in the legal aspect of this case but this lawyer doesn't really comment on it. Since the couple are married I don't understand what "right" the parents have to interfere. If her spouse says she would want it that way and he agrees that seems like it should be the end if it. Why isn't it?

This lawyer also knows nothing about starvation death. It is painless for the most part. In addition to the ER I worked in a VA hospital. People died of starvation there with a greater frequency than is probably known. They weren't racked with pain from it. I can't explain the physiology behind it but I do know from firsthand experience it is a rather peaceful way to go for most people.

My SO's family is on death watch for her mother. She decided a few days ago she was finished and is starving to death. No pain involved from the starvation but plenty from the RA. It's kind of a weird experience to have someone you know well consciously decide to die and then having people wait around for it. She wants to have someone in her room at all times because she fears dying alone but doesn't know why being alone when she dies should frighten her as much as it does. Maybe this lawyer can come visit her and see what it's really like. It is depressing and sad but the alternative is worse. It is a shitty answer to a problem that only has shitty answers. She has given instruction not to call an ambulance for any reason but I know how hard that could be when the time comes. It just goes against what we are taught to stand there and do nothing while someone dies. If she goes into cardiac arrest it is going to be hard to stand there and do nothing.

I have spoken to a couple of people at Hospice and they expect she will fall asleep and not wake up as opposed to going into cardiac arrest but the latter is possible. She has worked with a lawyer and has a living will so we are supposed to be covered from the risk of being charged with a crime for not calling an ambulance. In her family there is a fundy brother who would be opposed to this but he hasn't been made aware and only comes around every few months. Hospice said it is unlikely but possible that he could get a PA to file some sort of negligent manslaughter charges against whoever was in the house when she dies.

John Thornton -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <../attachments/20050322/c780192d/attachment.htm>



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