[lbo-talk] Schiavo: case closed, sez WashPost

Marta Russell ap888 at lafn.org
Tue Mar 22 18:15:33 PST 2005



>Washington Post - March 22, 2005
>
>Medical, Ethical Questions Largely Decided, Experts Say
>By Shankar Vedantam and Rick Weiss
>
><..>
>
>Ronald Cranford, like other doctors who have examined Schiavo, found
>that she cannot respond to commands and lacks visual tracking,
>essential signs of consciousness. Cranford, a neurologist and
>medical ethicist at Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis,
>has testified on behalf of Schiavo's husband.
>
>"Tomorrow I will do a transplant surgery if [Frist] starts doing
>neurology," he said. "I have as much competence in transplant
>surgery as he is competent to do a neurological diagnosis on a
>videotape. He has no clue."
>
>
<..>

Well some of these guys are out to save the insurance system profits by cutting costs. The 9th circuit court for instance (Washington v Glucksberg) ruled that cost could be a consideration in making a decision about life and death of a disabled individual. marta

Meet Ronald Cranford, Doctor of Death

Ronald Cranford, the medical expert in the Terri Schiavo case who delivered the diagnosis of PVS, is certainly not a neutral expert. He apparently has been stumping the country arguing for withdrawal of feeding tubes left and right.

Here is an article in which he argues that feeding tubes should be removed - not only from PVS patients, but from Alzheimers patients as well.

It's astonishing that someone sworn to heal takes such an aggressive stance towards assisting death - most of it is his personal opinion that the lives of the disabled are not worth living. The article makes clear that Cranford is truly a doctor of death - a strong advocate of physician assisted suicide.

He rails against the "right to lifers" interfering with his desire to hasten the deaths of patients. But those troublesome "Right to Lifers" now includes the Pope - who has issued a directive that supplying food and water are not "artificial means".

Cranford may have a point - when older people are truly at the end of life and are only being kept alive by artificial means. But he strongly considers a feeding tube to be "artificial means". And it seems he wants to spread his doctrine to all persons suffering disability - not just those near the end of life. If you are impaired, he would rather be rid of you.

People at the end of life are one thing. But Schiavo is perfectly healthy, and just requires food and water. And how about the Wendland case? There, a wife wanted to pull the feeding tubes on her husband. He was not in PVS; he was able to interact with his environment. He could play with a ball, watched sports on TV, he painted, he responded to commands, he had various moods - but Cranford thought he should be killed.

There appears to be an entire underground industry devoted to killing the crippled on the theory that they are being kind to them by killing them.

This is deep, deep sickness. Posted by penraker at March 18, 2005 07:30 AM http://www.penraker.com/archives/001345.html

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