You forgot Jesse Jackson and Mel Gibson.
PVS is a garbage can phrase that is used when doctors do not know all of the details of a person's condition. Only 40% of PVS diagnosis are correct - that is, fits within their assessment of PVS which as I stated, I believe is risky. I don't trust the neurologists with someone's life. Science is not infallable. We do not know enough about the human brain. We do not know that people in Terri's position cannot feel or hear. The doctors that examined her spent just 45 minutes with her so I am told. They just don't know enough. I would certainly not want the death of such a person on my hands.
Her family and friends who have visited her are certain that they have gotten responses from her. Secondly we do not consider feeding tubes, high-tech or indicative of being "terminally ill." I agree with Harriet that it is ablist. They are used in people's homes. Talk to a quadriplegic. For instance my friend Nancy says "WE LOVE OUR TUBES".
>
>I asked earlier... Why SPECIFICALLY Terri Schiavo? You avoided the question.
>
>Perhaps it's because Terri Schiavo is the most advantageous
>political football to
>promote your interests at the moment, but it sounds too callous, so you evade
>the question?
I don't really know why Terri. Her case has gotten lots of media attention. It isn't as though we haven't been trying to raise concerns with other cases, we have had many many persons we have had similar concerns about, it is probably that this one got caught up in the "culture war" and thrust onto the mainstream's attention.
This is the first chance those working on the legal forefront here (and I am not one of them) have had to try to craft a law that will provide protection for all those who have gone before Terri under the radar screen.
Marta --