Ace, How long do give before his book makes the shelves, knowing the NY Times it wil hit top 10 within the first week

Ace, Jen over at Demure Thoughts had a particularly evil thought about all of this, that hadn't come to me before.

Might the sudden interest on the part of Michael Schiavo in an autopsy have something to do with a glint in his eye of perhaps suing the doctors who told him Terri was PVS?

Meaning, if the autopsy results come back and say, "Gee, we're sorry, her cerebral cortex isn't liquified after all, oops, guess was a bad call Ripley?," could Schiavo have the cojones to sue the doctors who justified his actions?

I'm not kidding when I say that would take the biggest pair of brass ones the world has ever seen.

Cheers,
Dave at Garfield Ridge

Right, she sent me that; I meant to link it. Will do so ASAP.

Here's an interesting question:

According to the "kill Terri" crowd, this is a very common situation. Cedarford claims it happens hundreds of times a day. Let's assume he's right, and for the past five plus years, there's been a daily average of 500 people who got their feeding tubes pulled and were dehydrated to death.

That's 1,000,000 deaths. So, how come, even with all the publicity over Terri in the past several years, have Fox television, the bloggers and talk radio been unable to find ONE other situation where the surviving family disagreed about the wishes of the patient, and a public spat resulted?

In other words, is Terri a 1 out of 1,000,000 situation? Is she the "perfect storm"?

And if that's the case, what's wrong with treating her as such?

Personally, I think the 1,000,000:1 odds of her being an incredibly unique situation are much higher than the odds of her "randomly and reflexively" hearing a request to open her eyes, understanding it and then obeying it.

Which means, of course, what all of us Terri supporters have been saying all along is correct.

Yes, the left is big on projection, ain't they?

Actually Ace, Dan is specifically pissed off at me. And I'm not a lefty. I'm just a jerk, and he does well to point that out with more colorful phrases than I can come up with on short notice. Frankly, I'm tickled pink about all the attention. I didn't think anyone actually paid THAT much attention to what I write.

Dogstar - Think.

Ever hear of the US statistical abstract? You can go there and get US vital stats, inc. cause of death. Do you think 2.5 million deaths in a nation of 290 million are unlikely, the million that die "incompetent" in the eyes of doctors and the law? That hundreds of times a day feeding machines are shut off???

At any given time, we have 25,000 adult and 10,000 child vegetatives. Most will die when argreement is reached to end their care. And that is the non-Alzheimers numbers. Alzheimers patients will soon number several million.

Now, in a culture that "errs on the side of life", you would think that Right to Lifers would be rushing to get their politicians to pass laws mandating all medical care be given at all costs and laws calling for total family unanimity on end of life decisions - with other relatives havin a veto over the spouses decision.

But they won't be rushing those "life at all costs" laws out.

Why? This is really about abortion politics and those RTL groups getting PR and contributions off the T Schiavo Affair.

Why if there are hundreds of vegetatives near as bad as T Schiavo, as bad, or worse dying everyday does not Fox and the other media focus on them?

The rules say the victim has to be a pretty young white woman or girl - or at least carefully edited to make them appear so. There must be a mystery. Hopefully a bad guy. The victim's "cause" is greatly assisted if there are pictures of them sporting a great smile with nice teeth - that makes for the obligatory icon photo behind a hundred sound bits and the "special music" each victim gets...

The little girl in the well, Drue, Chandra, Laci, Jon Bonet, Terri......can you imagine Fox News or CNN or any tabloid giving 2 shits if the feeding tube is pulled from a vegetative black crack baby or a 81 year old Alzheimers patient??? Can you imagine politicians demanding an increase in payroll taxes to pay for "a culture of life" or whatever brainless buzzphrase is fed to Bush by his handlers??? Back when Dubya was forced to balance a budget, he means-tested heroic medical care - if a family still wanted care the doctors deemed futile and they could pay for it...no problem. Indigent, and even with both parents or the spouse begging to let a vegeative hold on - the tubes still get pulled in 10 days.

As for Right to Lifers being willing to mortgage their homes and their church property to pay for charity case vegetatives life extension if government won't - I'm not holding my breath...

Sol Rosenberg on Michael Schiavo:

"That guy is tearing the ass out of me!!!"

You never addressed my point. Assuming your numbers are correct, in the last few years there have been roughly a million deaths caused by removal of feeding tubes.

Out of those million deaths, are you trying to tell me not a single one of those was a white woman, less than 50, whose family disagreed on either the diagnosis or her wishes?

Bullshit.

This case was the weakest possible case imaginable.

(1) There was a massive amount of evidence for any open-minded judge who thought Michael Schiavo should have been removed as guardian.

(2) There was a massive amount of of evidence for any open-minded judge who thought Terri's wishes were not sufficiently documented.

(3) There was a massive amount of evidence for any open-minded judge who thought Terri's PVS diagnosis was suspect.