Archive » End of life issues

Miracle child.

A baby born. A mother stricken. A family made whole again.

Plus: Thompson regains his memory, but not his footing.

An amazing professor’s last lecture.

No opinion on Terri Schiavo?

Terri Schiavo’s husband and parents marked the anniversary of her death fittingly this week, appearing nightly on cable news shows to (a) claim the moral high ground while (b) accusing each other of having helped cause her death. A video montage is below; it might take a minute to load, but it’s worth your […]

Haleigh Poutre, 11
The latest on Haleigh Poutre: Gov. Mitt Romney has announced an independent investigation into the state’s abominable handling of the case.
Here’s Romney’s full statement (via the Boston Globe):
“One cannot look at the life of Haleigh Poutre without being overwhelmed with sadness. My heart goes out to her.
“Now I ask the question, what could […]

Encouraging news: Baby Torres, whose mom, Susan, suffered a stroke at 17 weeks pregnant and remains in a coma, has reached a milestone. AP reports:
A brain-dead pregnant woman on life support has reached the milestone in her pregnancy where doctors believe the baby could realistically survive outside the womb, giving her family renewed hope about […]

Late last night, I took the time to read the 39-page autopsy report of Terri Schiavo–something which, it is clear to me, most of the callous gloaters on the other side of this debate have not bothered to do. And will never do. These are people who can only talk about the sanctity of life […]

After a long and unexplained delay, the Terri Schiavo autopsy results will be released tomorrow.
Meanwhile, Mark Fuhrman’s investigative book on the case, Silent Witness : The Untold Story of Terri Schiavo’s Death, is due out on June 28.
Terri’s brother and sister will attend a memorial in her name at the National Right to Life Convention […]

And why is it taking so long? Just wondering.

They are not just empty phrases.
- Baby Alexander Locke Johnson, in memoriam. Deepest condolences to the family– via Little Green Footballs.
- Baby Kalea Lynn Allen: She’s 11 ounces, and a fighter
- A baby named Hope
Meanwhile, in the death cult capital of the world, the Netherlands, a new bone-chilling survey has been released. See Many Dutch […]

Solved.

Ginger Craig, mother and caretaker of Michael Mullins, who died this week after 19 years in a persistent vegetative state:
“Someone once said to me, ‘Why don’t you pull the plug?’ But it wasn’t like he was ever on a respirator, and it never would have occurred to me to remove his feeding tube. I couldn’t […]

There’s a chilling new study in the medical journal Lancet on euthanasia’s impact on babies in Belgium:
Nearly half the newborn babies who died in Flanders over a recent year-long period were helped to die by their doctors, a new study reported yesterday. Paediatricians in the Dutch-speaking region of Belgium either discreetly stopped treating the babies […]

You may never agree with Eleanor Clift on politics, but she wrote a very moving tribute to her husband, journalist Tom Brazaitis, who died on Wednesday of kidney cancer. The last paragraph of her Newsweek column shows the depth of love they shared, and also Clift’s emotional strength and devotion:
On a Sunday morning in March […]

A high school basketball coach has come out of a persistent vegetative state, WFTV reports:
He’s been in a persistent vegetative state for more than a month, but a popular high school basketball coach has awakened.
Bishop Moore coach Rob Graham, 33, collapsed of a heart attack in February during a championship game. When a police officer […]

Okay, did you watch George “Dehydration is Beautiful” Felos’ press conference? Did you get TOTALLY CREEPED OUT, too? How many more times could he drone blandly on about Terri’s “death process?” I stopped counting after the 15th time. Why isn’t anyone in the MSM probing this man’s background, his writings, and his deadly agenda?
Here are […]

May Terri Schindler-Schiavo rest in peace and God have mercy on us all.
And Death Shall Have No Dominion
And death shall have no dominion.
Dead men naked they shall be one
With the man in the wind and the west moon;
When their bones are picked clean and the clean bones gone,
They shall have stars at elbow and foot;
Though […]

Code Blue Blog, run by an inpatient radiologist in South Florida, has a $100,000 challenge for the loudmouth neurologists employed by Michael Schiavo:
I’ve watched a steady stream of neurologists, bioethicists, and neurologist/bioethicists from Columbia, Cornell, and NYU interviewed all week on Fox and CNN and MSNBC. They all said about the same thing, that Terri’s […]

On Sunday, I commented on AP’s tasteless comparison between Terri Schiavo and Kismet the robot. Today economist Steven Landsburg gives us this passage in a Slate column titled “Imagine Terri Were a Toaster…”:
Now, Michael Schiavo, it seems to me, is in something very like the bluenose position here. If he had a use for his […]

Via AP:
George Felos, the attorney for husband Michael Schiavo, told reporters later that he had visited Schiavo for more than an hour Tuesday and described her as “very peaceful. She looked calm.”
“I saw no evidence of any bodily discomfort whatsoever,” Felos said.
Felos also said that the chief medical examiner for Pinellas County, Dr. [Jon] Thogmartin, […]

Over the weekend, I wondered why the mainstream media was ignoring some amazing stories of pro-life activists and evangelical disabled advocates who have been peacefully keeping vigil outside Terri Schiavo’s hospice.
Michelle Cottle of The New Republic, who appeared on CNN’s “Reliable Sources” on Sunday, provides some candid insight into the bigoted mindset of the MSM […]

If you read nothing else today on Terri Schiavo, read the incomparable Mark Steyn. An excerpt:
This is not a criminal, not a murderer, not a person whose life should be in the gift of the state. So I find it repulsive, and indeed decadent, to have her continued existence framed in terms of ”plaintiffs” and […]

The Los Angeles Times tries desperately today to paint GOP Rep. Tom DeLay as a hypocrite over the Schiavo case by exposing a family tragedy involving his deceased father. DeLay’s dad suffered massive injuries in a freak accident in 1988 while testing a trolley he had built on a slope near his home. The story […]

With time running out for Terri Schiavo, I hope I am not the only one offended by AP’s breezy comparison between Schiavo (a human being) and Kismet (a robot):
To understand the emotional reaction to the tapes of Terri Schiavo, one need only spend a few minutes with Kismet.
People who spend time with the robot at […]

Time and options are running out for Terri.
Trey Jackson has video of Terri’s brother Bobby at a press conference stating that he is going to recommend his parents not visit anymore because of Terri’s condition.
Many readers have noted Michael Schiavo’s refusal to allow an autopsy for Terri and his insistence on immediate cremation. Yes, that […]

One of the big memes from the media about the Schiavo case is that the ultimate solution lies with living wills:
Schiavo case sparks push for living wills
Living Wills: Everyone Ought to Have One
Schiavo debacle shows why living wills a must
Living wills bring peace of mind
It’s good that the Schiavo case is raising awareness about end-of-life […]

From AP:
“It’s very frustrating. Every minute that goes by is a minute that Terri is being starved and dehydrated to death,” said her brother, Bobby Schindler, who said seeing her was like looking at “pictures of prisoners in concentration camps.”Michael Schiavo’s brother, Brian Schiavo, strongly disagreed with that assessment, telling CNN that Terri Schiavo “does […]

Reader Greg Terry writes: “If left to fend for themselves, advanced stage Alzheimers patients will starve just like Terri S. Is that an acceptable course, if the husband says so now?”