Word: schiavoã
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Theresa Marie Schiavo??s tragedy has become a cause celebre for the pro-life and disability rights movements. No one is helping her parents cope with the sad facts that their daughter has lost all cognition and exists in a state in which she did not wish to exist. Rather, activists have used Schiavo??s story to prompt unprecedented actions from state and federal legislators, trampling on the judiciary and the Constitution in the process...
...first hot-button issue this case raises is that of artificial nutrition and hydration. Lest you believe the rhetoric about food and water being at issue, let’s be clear: the procedure at issue involves the infusion of a liquefied mixture of nutrients into Schiavo??s stomach through a tube inserted in her stomach wall. Even calling that tube a “feeding tube” gives the incorrect impression that somehow Schiavo, who has no awareness, has the capacity to enjoy food just as you and I do. Nothing could be further from...
Some people, especially of strong religious faiths, believe that the administration of artificial nutrition and hydration is somehow different from the administration of other medical treatments. But look at it this way. Schiavo??s body can no longer function, and the tube inserted into her stomach is one high-tech method of picking up where her body has failed. This administration of artificial nutrition and hydration is just like using a ventilator to take over when a person cannot breathe on his or her own. It’s a medical means of substituting for a bodily function?...
...second hot-button issue this case presents is the issue of patients in a persistent vegetative state (PVS). Patients in PVSs, sadly, do not appear to be unaware, even though they are. A CT scan of Schiavo??s brain (available at http://www.miami.edu/ethics/schiavo/CT%20scan.png) reveals that the majority of her brain is liquefied. But, sadly, to a hopeful parent, movements and sounds can indicate some sort of response rather than reflex. Cases involving PVSs—and there are many—often are difficult for precisely that reason...
...case into litigation when not dealt with early on. If skilled professionals can mediate the issues early on, however, family members can come to accept medical facts and agree on what they believe the patient would have wanted. And that, after all, is the issue: not what Terri Schiavo??s parents want; not what Michael Schiavo wants; but what Terri Schiavo told her husband long ago what she wanted. Families must learn, and hundreds do each day, to put aside their disagreements about end-of-life care and focus on that central inquiry...