<?xml version="1.0" ?><html> <head> <title></title> </head> <body> <div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">On 28 Mar 2005 Disability Rights National Spokespersons statement wrote:</span></font></div> <div align="left"><br/> </div> <div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> > Can she think? Hear? Communicate? These questions apply to thousands </span></font></div> <div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> > of people with disabilities who, like Ms. Schindler-Schiavo, cannot </span></font></div> <div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> > currently articulate their views and so must rely on others as </span></font></div> <div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> > substitute decision-makers. The law requires that a guardian's </span></font></div> <div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> > decision be based on written documentation or other clear and </span></font></div> <div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> > convincing evidence of her wishes. Her husband and guardian, </span></font></div> <div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> > Michael Schiavo, says she would not have wanted to live in her current </span></font></div> <div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> > condition, but there is no written documentation or compelling </span></font></div> <div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> > evidence of this. There is just his word.</span></font></div> <div align="left"><br/> </div> <div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt"> Jim Farmelant wrote:</span></font></div> <div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt"> </span></font></div> <div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> Which under Florida law is good enough for the courts. Indeed,</span></font></div> <div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> as I understand it, the same is true in most states.</span></font></div> <div align="left"><br/></div> <div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">The idea that there is "just his word" is incorrect. Court documents show that her siblings and parents both admitted Terri Schiavo had made statements to this effect. They claim that with advances in medicine she would not feel that way today about her current state. If we could grow her a new brain their contention would have merit but we cannot. There is certainly no compelling evidence for the parents current claim but the courts have found the statements from Michael, Terri's parents, her siblings and two of her friends to be extremely compelling evidence for her wishes. Stating otherwise doesn't make it so. [JT]</span></font></div> <div align="left"><br/></div> <div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> >A prominent expert filed an affidavit that Terri Schindler-Schiavo </span></font></div> <div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> >can swallow her own saliva, and could potentially be weaned from </span></font></div> <div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">> >the </span></font><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">feeding tube and recover some speech, so that she could indicate </span></font></div> <div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> > her own wishes.</span></font></div> <div align="left"><br/> </div> <div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> And this prominent "expert" is . . ? [JF]</span></font></div> <div align="left"><br/> </div> <div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">The amazing Dr. Hammesfahr. Who tells people he was nominated for a Nobel Prize when he was not.</span></font></div> <div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">He is a quack but don't take my word for it check out QuackWatch for information on his incredible works.</span></font></div> <div align="left"><a href="http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/Tests/tcd.html"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt"><u>http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/Tests/tcd.html</u></span></font></a><font face="Arial" color="#0000ff">   </font><font face="Arial"> [JT]</font></div> <div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt"> </span></font></div> <div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> >She has a severe brain injury, yet has not undergone the </span></font></div> <div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> >rehabilitation that is typically given to people with this type of </span></font></div> <div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> >disability. People with severe cognitive disabilities are devalued </span></font></div> <div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> >as lives not worth living.   </span></font></div> <div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> </span></font></div> <div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> As I understand it she did undergo agressive therapy and aggressive</span></font></div> <div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> attempts at rehabilitation.  Those treatments just didn't take because</span></font></div> <div align="left"><font face="Arial" color="#7f0000"><span style="font-size:10pt">> of the extreme severity of her injury. [JF]</span></font></div> <div align="left"><br/></div> <div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">She underwent the best therapy money can buy for several years. They went so far as to have an experimental brain implant that also failed to produce the desired results. The Disability Rights Spokesperson is either ignorant of these facts (unlikely in my opinion) or deliberately misrepresenting the known facts to win support. </span></font></div> <div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">This is the really sad part of this case, far more so than the fate of Terri Schiavo. Disability activists have hitched their wagon to this thing, trying to make a case for Schiavo being disabled undermines the work of lots of good people in exchange for no gains. Labeling Schiavo disabled hurts everyone who is disabled.</span></font></div> <div align="left"><br/> </div> <div align="left"><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">John Thornton </span></font></div> <div align="left"></div> </body> </html>