[extropy-chat] Thoughts on Schiavo

[BillK]

On Sun, 27 Mar 2005 11:37:44 +0200, Giu1i0 Pri5c0 wrote:
> I did not know that the parents had volunteered to front all financial
> expenses to keep Terri on life support.
> This being the case, I now believe removing Terri from life support
> constitutes an extremely bad precedent for life extension, cryonics
> and experimental therapies, not to mention civil rights in your
> country.
> If one is not allowed to spend her or his own money on medical
> procedures that the majority of the medical establishment condemns, I
> can easily imagine a judge ordering to bury all Alcor and CI patients,
> and I can easily imagine a judge preventing people to pay their own
> money for experimental rejuvenation therapies.
> I also did not know that until now life support costs were paid with
> the compensation awarded to Terri by the court, and that the money
> remaining is enough to provide a significant financial benefit to
> someone if Terri dies.
> G.


Search Google News for 'Schiavo money'

<http://wireservice.wired.com/wired/story.asp?section=Breaking&storyId=1010049&tw=wn_wire_story>
Attorneys: Schiavo Settlement Money Spent  Saturday, March 26, 2005 

More than half of the $700,000 earmarked from the malpractice award
for Terri Schiavo's care has been spent for that purpose, with the
rest going toward litigation, said Deborah Bushnell, one of Michael
Schiavo's attorneys.
As of mid-March, just $40,000 to $50,000 remained of that money,
Bushnell said, and was held in a trust fund. A judge approves all
expenditures, from attorneys' fees to the woman's haircuts.
Bushnell said she has been paid $80,309 since getting involved in the
case in 1993. George Felos, who was hired by Michael Schiavo around
the time he began the effort to remove his wife's feeding tube in
1998, has been paid $358,434, she said. Neither attorney has
petitioned the court for payment since 2002.
Terri Schiavo has stayed for free at the Woodside Hospice, part of a
not-for-profit hospice network, because she was considered indigent,
Bushnell said.
Terri Schiavo's medical costs, which Bushnell says are relatively
small, have been paid for the past couple of years by the state's
Medicaid program for needy people.

<http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-03-24-schiavo-money-cover_x.htm>
3/24/2005   Feud may be as much over money as principle

Today, the money from the lawsuit settlement is almost gone, Grieco,
the attorney, says. Just $40,000 to $50,000 remained as of mid-March.
The $700,000 in Terri's trust has paid for her care, lawyers, expert
medical witnesses. Michael Schiavo's $300,000 share evaporated years
ago, he says.

-------------------

Looks like the fight was over the parents wanting a share of the
husbands settlement of $300,000 (which they were not entitled to under
Florida law). Now all the money has gone. Even the lawyers are not
getting paid. The care home is not getting paid. Medicaid pays the
(small) medical bills.

Sad case.

BillK