First and foremost, why is pro-life still using Terri Schiavo as a tool to further their agenda? And second, in using Terri Schiavo to further their “pro-life” agenda, do they even know the entire story?
Everyone (unless they have lived under a rock for the past ten years) involved in the pro-choice/pro-life debate (if you can even call it that most times) should know who Terri Schiavo is. If for nothing else than the fact that pro-life agitators used her to further their agenda, and apparently still do to this day. However, most people do not know the whole story. They only really get the “pro-life” side of the story instead. The fact that most of the nation gobbled up this “pro-life” spin on the story does not say a whole lot for the masses. That is beside the point, however.
February 25, 1990- Terri Schiavo collapsed in her home early that morning. She was in full cardiac arrest. She was taken to an area hospital where she was initially diagnosed with severe brain damage and about a year after her initial cardiac arrest was diagnosed with PVS, or Persistent Vegetative State. Look at that date, and keep that date in your mind.
That November, her husband Michael Schiavo took her to San Fransisco, California, (a long way from their home in Florida) to the University of California for experimental nerve stimulation. This treatment took several months and was ultimately unsuccessful. In January of 1991 he took her back home to Florida and admitted her to Mediplex Rehabilitation Center in Bradenton, Florida. Now don’t think he just dropped her there and forgot about her. He claimed that he often took “her to parks and public places in hopes of sparking some recovery” during her time at the center. In July of 1991 she was moved to Sabal Palms Skilled Care Facility where she received neurological testing, and regular speech and occupational therapy until 1994. Let’s look at this. Feb. of 1990 Schiavo goes into cardiac arrest resulting in PVS. Her husband takes her across the country to try a treatment that he believes will help her, but it is ultimately unsuccessful, he then brings her home and tries himself to spark some recovery in her, then he moves her to a care facility where she receives neurological testing and therapy for 3 more years. Count them, 3 years!! She had lived in the same vegetative state for 4 years already and received therapy for 3 years all the while showing NO signs of recovery. Forgive me if I am wrong, but that sounds like he tried to get her the help she needed.
It was not until May of 1998 that Michael Schiavo petitioned the court to remove Terri’s feeding tube. That is 8 years after the cardiac arrest that caused her PVS. Count them again. 8. YEARS. IN. A. PERSISTENT. VEGETATIVE. STATE. No changes in her condition. Nothing. You would think that the right thing to do would be to let the poor woman die and meet her maker. I mean after all she could not do anything for herself, she showed no cognition and she was living with a feeding tube down her throat.
After an extensive court battle, her husband was finally able to remove the feeding tube and allow his wife to die in March of 2005. Granted she died a horrible death via starvation and dehydration, but it was really no better than the non-life she was living. 15 years of a life confined to a bed. 15 years of a life unable to do anything for herself. 15 years of a life with no cognition. 15 years of a life as a burden to all of those around her. 15 years of a life she had no recollection of. 15 years of a life that she did not know was going on.
When her autopsy was performed in April of 2005, it was determined that she would never have been able to swallow on her own. Her brain weighed a mere 615g. That is half the size of a normal brain for a woman her age and size.
Microscopic examination revealed extensive damage to nearly all brain regions, including the cerebral cortex, the thalami, the basal ganglia, the hippocampus, the cerebellum, and the midbrain. The neuropathologic changes in her brain were precisely of the type seen in patients who enter a PVS following cardiac arrest. Throughout the cerebral cortex, the large pyramidal neurons that comprise some 70% of cortical cells – critical to the functioning of the cortex – were completely lost. The pattern of damage to the cortex, with injury tending to worsen from the front of the cortex to the back, is also typical. There was marked damage to important relay circuits deep in the brain (the thalami) – another common pathologic finding in cases of PVS. The damage was, in the words of Thogmartin, “irreversible, and no amount of therapy or treatment would have regenerated the massive loss of neurons.”
With all that said, why do pro-lifers use Schiavo as a tool to further their argument? Are these people honestly going to tell me that they would want their families to keep them alive in a situation like this? And they have the nerve to call me selfish for being pro-choice? I would rather die, even if it means starvation and dehydration, than live a life the way that Schiavo was “living”. To all pro-lifers out there who continue to use Schiavo as a tool to further your argument, do not, and I repeat, DO NOT exploit her anymore to me. You are not going to like the answer I give you! My family is fully aware of my feelings on the matter. And remember in this case it is about QUALITY of life not QUANTITY!
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