[extropy-chat] Thoughts on Schiavo

[Mike Lorrey]

--- Samantha Atkins <sjatkins at mac.com> wrote:
> 
> On Mar 27, 2005, at 11:33 AM, Mike Lorrey wrote:
> > The sole legitimate purpose of government is to help individuals
> defend
> > themselves against force or fraud. If they are incapable of doing
> so,
> > they must be the ward of another individual, or the state, which
> must
> > be held responsible for any force or fraud that befalls them.
> 
> Her husband is such an individual.As others pointed out he spend
> years clinging to hope.

The only hope I have heard him express is that she was going to die
sooner on her own. Before he claimed she wante to die, he was witnessed
by multiple nurses asking "When is that bitch gonna die?"

>  as others pointed out there is no money that he is selfishly
> attempting to do her in for.  He finally came to the point of 
> letting go.  By rights it was his sad decision to make.  Why are his 
> rights being ignored?    Why are you here heaping aspersions and 
> contempt on this man you do not know?

The guy spent half the money on attorneys rather than her care. What
does that say to you? That spent half of her money on convincing the
state to kill her for him.

> 
> >
> > Contrary to claims by some here, Terri never was witnessed by
> anyone
> > but her husband to have expressed a desire to not be sustained in
> the sort of condition she is in, and even he never mentioned such a
> desire until she was a good ten years into her current condition.
> 
> None of that is at all uncommon.

Maybe not uncommon, but it still isn't of sufficient legal weight to
justify killing someone. You certainly can't send someone to death row
on such a flimsy case.

> 
> > As there
> > were no other witnesses, and no signed contract in the form of a
> living
> > will, the default choice should be to sustain her life and provide
> as
> > much therapy to improve her condition as possible, therapy that her
> > husband has steadfastly denied her, if only to determine what her
> true intent is. 
> 
> For what purpose?  She is not here.  She has been gone a long time
> now. 

How do you know this? Has any attempt ever been made to repair? No. Has
any attempt been made with monitors of brain wave activity? I have not
seen such online.

In fact, I have seen online some images on the imminst.org forum of a
person with similar brain damage whose tissue revived after treatment.

My mother was in a coma for a month and a half, and when she came out
of it she was in similar condition: she could not speak, could barely
move, she had almost entirely lost her memory of her life since
childhood and when she was able to speak after several months of
intensive speech therapy and round the clock attention, was convinced
she was married to a different man named "Frank" and that we were not
her 'real' children, and when she came home she was convinced it was
not her home. It took an immense amount of work to bring her back to
her normal self. I didn't work for 8 months solid outside of caring for
her.

She suffered a significant amount of brain damage from that drug
induced coma and the systemic infection due to her ruptured stomach.
Some might recall my asking for some feedback on this list back then on
different issues, one having to do with swelling of her brain due to
electrolyte imbalances which were really touch and go for a while. At
no time could you have told me that she was no longer herself.

Once again, I am brought to the conclusion that a number of list
members here are suffering from a severe lack of dynamic optimism.
Unfortunately, I don't know how to cure that either.

Mike Lorrey
Vice-Chair, 2nd District, Libertarian Party of NH
"Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom.
It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves."
                                      -William Pitt (1759-1806) 
Blog: http://intlib.blogspot.com


		
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