Schiavo Pt. Four

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by Ned
Che, there are 30,000 people in a PVS state today. Should we pull the plug on all of them?

Yes, there is no logical reason such former people should be kept alive. It's a waste of resouces for what is in effect, a living memorial to what used to be a human being. We, however, are not solely motivated by logical, so emotions enter into the equation, which is why there shold be guidelines.

One a person enters a PVS, there is no hope of recovery. They cease to be a person. What was once there is gone forever. Even if the brain could be rebuilt, the person could never be recovered. A new person could inhabit that body, and that would open up a new can of legal and ethical worms.

The only reason to keep a person in PVS is because the family isn't ready to let go. That's not a good enough reason for the enormous wastes of resources that could be used to help others.

[Ned]

xp

[pchang]

I believe the first word in his post was

Yes

[Ned]

Cross post.

Then, would you place the decision in the hands of medical boards, or the like, regardless of the families. Something similar was enacted in Texas after Bush left office.

[Imran Siddiqui]

You expect Ned to read?!

[Ned]

Originally posted by pchang
I believe the first word in his post was

Yes

I was posting the same time as he was.

[Ned]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui
You expect Ned to read?!

I think he does.

But does anyone expect Imran to be civil?

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by Shi Huangdi
R.I.P

May God have mercy on her soul, and mercy on the soul of all those responsible for this.

No quarter to annoying *******s like her parents.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Ned: Of course not. I don't feel the need to be polite to idiots like you .

I was posting the same time as he was.

Yes, because most people repeat a question, calling someone out, TWENTY MINUTES after they posted the original! Unless you are claiming you are a massive jerk?

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by Ned
Then, would you place the decision in the hands of medical boards, or the like, regardless of the families. Something similar was enacted in Texas after Bush left office.

That would probably be best.

[Ned]

One thing we ought to do is outlaw starving people to death and substitute the so-called hot shots we saw in Million Dollar Baby.

[Q Classic]

You are assuming that PVS means no consciousness. The problem with this analysis is that PVS is broader than that, at least in this case.

...
the very definition of PVS means that they have no consciousness. if Schiavo's condition allowed her to have consciousness, then she wouldn't have PVS.

It is also interesting to note that the issue of PVS itself was hotly contested. The Judge relied on three physcians, two appointed by Schiavo and one by the court, to ultimately rule that Terri was in a PVS because she had no hope of recovery.

and the people contesting the diagnosis of PVS are those with little or no medical training in the field, or those who are doing it for political reasons. those who did the counter diagnosis likewise spent little time doing so.

sorry, i can't buy the allegation that she was conscious when the evidence points against it: liquified cortex, and the fact that PVS patients can exhibit things that look like consciousness, but aren't.

occam's razor.

it's a far simpler explanation than: schiavo was alive, but was somehow paralyzed by some vast left-wing conspiracy that did everything in its power to classify her as all-but-dead through shoddy diagnoses, even though she really was truly conscious-just not conscious enough to make her wishes truly known.

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by Ned
One thing we ought to do is outlaw starving people to death and substitute the so-called hot shots we saw in Million Dollar Baby.

I agree with you, Ned, but I don't think it's gonna happen in states controled by conservatives.

Oh, and by the way, yer a dick. I told you I hand't seen the movie.

[Q Classic]

One thing we ought to do is outlaw starving people to death and substitute the so-called hot shots we saw in Million Dollar Baby.

no, the one thing we should do is bring consistency to government actions. if the government is to prevent someone who cannot contribute to society in any meaningful way from dying, then it must do so for all citizens: those in PVS, and those on Texas Death Row.

[chequita guevara]

You know what's ironic. Under the law the conservatives passed a few years ago limiting malpractice payouts, there would be no money for the family to be fighting over.