Word: schiavos
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...most fascinating aspects of the case, however, is its very ordinariness in the realm of end-of-life decision-making law. Schiavo breaks no new ground. It does not go out on a limb in any sense of the word. It simply combines into one complex package three hot-button issues that encourage reliance on emotion and rhetoric rather than on medical facts. The combination has permitted pro-life and disability rights activists to capitalize on visual images and strong religious beliefs to promote a broad social cause, to the detriment of Schiavo and her family...
...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 the truth. She is not able to enjoy meals, contrary to some media reports. She is not able to eat the bread and water some demonstrators have attempted to deliver...
Finally, there is the human-interest hot-button issue: family disagreement. It has become fashionable to vilify Michael Schiavo as an uncaring husband who cohabits with and has children with another woman. Juxtapose that image against the photos of weeping parents and siblings, and it is easy to predict the winner of the sympathy vote...
...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...
...administration of artificial nutrition and hydration if he or she had not expressed, in writing, the desire to refuse such treatment. Advance directives are important. If you don’t have one, get one, even if you are so young that any possibility of death seems remote. Schiavo was only 26 years old when she suffered the cardiac arrest that left her in this condition; you’re never too young to think about these issues. You don’t need an attorney to execute an advance directive, and many reputable websites such as http://www.compassionindying.org...