EXTENSIVE EVIDENCE LISTED IN THIS POST! PLEASE READ!
I will be a guest on Butch Chancellor's Radio Program
"These Orwellian Times"
presenting a 3 Part Series
on Terri Schindler-Schiavo.
Part 1 - Monday, Oct. 4, 2004
Part 2 - Thursday, Oct. 7, 2004
Part 3 - Monday, Oct. 11, 2004


On Air

Melissa Roxanne Stanley
Monday October 4 - 04

Melissa Roxanne Stanley
Online Researcher
e-mail:
saveterrislife@...
Website http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/saveterrislife/messages

Topic:
Research Results - Part One
Stanley begins the first of a three part series in which she presents
the results of her research into the facts in the Terri Schindler case
on, "These Orwellian Times". Stanley's account begins by debunking
Terri's, "mysterious collapse" and proceeds, fact by fact through the
first State ordered to effort to kill Terri.


Note from Melissa (saveterrislife):
It is ILLEGAL to withhold ORAL (by mouth) food and water EVEN IF if a
Judge orders that a feeding tube can be removed from a person. Even
though it is illegal, Terri was not given food or water by mouth the
last TWO TIMES her feeding tube was removed.



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"We are living in a world in which nobody is free,
in which hardly anybody is secure,
in which it is almost impossible to be honest
and to remain alive -- George Orwell


posted by Vetzine Publishing





Be sure to check out
http://www.vetzine.blogspot.com
Vetzine's Blog - (Butch Chancellor's Blog)

Butch's blog has lots of info. re: Terri.
Plus, other guests, such as Diane Coleman,
of Not Dead yet, will be on his radio program
on Tuesday, Oct. 5, 2004 talking about Terri.




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Proof Jeb Bush Can And Should Free Terri Schindler-Schiavo
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/saveterrislife/message/30

PLEASE USE THE ABOVE INFORMATION TO SEND TO BUSH AND OTHERS!
PLEASE FORWARD TO EVERYONE & POST EVERYWHERE
IN ORDER TO SAVE TERRI'S LIFE!


Melissa Roxanne Stanley
FLORIDA CITIZEN
ONLINE RESEARCHER AND VOCAL TERRI SUPPORTER
e-mail: saveterrislife@...
Website http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/saveterrislife/messages


Make sure Jeb Bush knows WE KNOW
he can stop this attempted murder
of an innocent, disabled woman!


Florida Governor Jeb Bush
phone: 850-488-7146
email: jeb.bush@... or jeb@...
fax: 850-487-0801 or 850-922-4292
Press Secretary - phone: 850-488-5394
Assistant Donovan Brown - phone: 850-410-0501



PLEASE CALL, FAX, & E-MAIL FL GOVERNOR JEB BUSH
RE: SAVING TERRI SCHINDLER-SCHIAVO NOW!



STOP THE MURDER OF AN INNOCENT HUMAN BEING!




The Schiavo Case: Right to Die or Right to Kill?


By Mary Beth Bonacci
Herald Columnist
(From the issue of 12/18/03)

I'm getting tired of hearing how "right wing zealots" are denying
Terri Schiavo her constitutional "right to die."

For those of you unfamiliar with the Schiavo case, let me summarize.
In 1990, a 26-year-old woman named Terri Schiavo collapsed in her
home. No one knows why.

(Note from Melissa: There is much evidence to support that Terri was
severely beaten and strangled on February 25, 1990. No one was home
with her except her husband, who has been trying for years to put her
to death (as in murder), illegally, by every way he possibly can.
See evidence below this article. Melissa)

She lapsed into a coma, from which she emerged several weeks later.
Since that time, she has been in what doctors call a "locked in"
state. (Note from Melissa: This is not true. Terri is NOT in any
such state. she responds to commands, laughs, smiles, cries, and
tries her best to communicate, despite being denied any and all forms
of therapy for over 10 years! See evidence of this below. Melissa)

According to her family's Web site, "she is responsive to stimuli,
interacts with her environment and her loved ones and is capable of
communicating in limited ways … ."

After emerging from her coma, Terri's doctors noted her efforts to
speak and her responsiveness to external stimuli. She was able to eat
Jell-O and was speaking words.

But after a 1993 court settlement awarded Terri $1.2 million, her
husband and guardian Michael Schiavo — who had promised to use the
money to rehabilitate and care for Terri "for the rest of her life" —
ordered that her rehabilitative therapy be stopped. As a result,
Terri once again lost the ability to eat, and a feeding tube was
inserted to nourish and hydrate her.

In 1998 Schiavo petitioned the circuit courts of Pinellas County,
Fla. to end her life by removing her feeding tube. After a protracted
legal battle between Schiavo and Terri's parents, the court ordered
in the fall of 2003 that the tubes be removed. (Note from Melissa:
It is illegal to withhold ORAL - by mouth- food and water from a
person even AFTER a Judge orders their feeding tube removed! Terri's
feeding tube was also removed for 60 hours in April, 2001. It was
reinserted after new evidence came forth that her husband told his ex-
girfriend that Terri never told him she had any wishes to die if she
ever had any "tube" or was incapacitated or "a burden" etc. Despite
this new evidence, Judge Greer would not stop the illegal attempted
murder. The family's attorneys went to another Judge, Judge Quesada,
and he ordered the illegal murder stopped and the tube reinserted
after 60 hours. This was the first time the feeding tube was
removed. Melissa) They were indeed removed, which would have caused
Terri to die of starvation and dehydration within 10 to 14 days.
(Note from Melissa: Remember, withholding ORAL food and water is
illegal - This is MURDER! ) But Florida governor Jeb Bush and the
state legislature intervened, passing "Terri's Law" and requiring the
reinsertion of the tubes while the matter is examined more thoroughly.

(Note from Melissa: Governor Bush had the power as Governor to make
sure Terri was not illegally dehydrated and starved and the power to
order a full scale investigation into the entire matter, but he
refused to do so. At least 6 attorneys / law firms came forward,
researched the case, and informed Governor Bush he had the power as
Governor to stop the attempted murder of Terri Schiavo. They wrote
and delivered letters and memos to Governor Bush on the first day
Terri's feeding tube was removed and on the second day after Terri's
feeding tube was removed. Terri was also being denied (illegally)
ORAL, meaning by MOUTH, food and water during the entire time her
tube was removed. The Governor chose to ignore the attorneys' expert
advice imploring him he could stop the tortuous death by dehydration
of a vulnerable, innocent, disabled adult which evidence showed (and
still shows) had been strangled and beaten severely on February 25,
1990. Instead, Governor Bush allowed Terri to dehydrate and starve,
illegally, for almost 7 days, until Terri's Law was passed, which he,
the Legislature, and the media all claimed, "empowered" Governor Bush
to step in and stop the attempted murder. This is a LIE! Governor
Bush had the power all along to stop this illegal attempted murder by
torture, and he still does! Now, Terri's Law has been ruled
unconstitutional by the Florida Supreme Court (as of September 23,
2004). Terri is right now very much in danger of being illegally
dehydrated to death once again (for the THIRD TIME! Please make sure
this DOES NOT HAPPEN to Terri once again! Melissa)

And so Terri Schiavo's life hangs in the balance.

Many in the media are hailing this as a "right to die" case. They say
that Terri is in persistent vegetative state, that she has no hope of
meaningful life, and that she should be allowed to die.

But make no mistake — this is most definitely not a right-to-die
case. It's a right-to-kill case. And the stakes are high, not just
for Terri, but for all of the vulnerable, disabled people of the
world.

First of all, numerous doctors have observed that Terri is not in a
persistent vegetative state. The state of Florida defines persistent
vegetative state as "a permanent and irreversible state of
unconsciousness in which there is an absence of voluntary or
cognitive behavior and an inability to interact purposefully with
one's environment." Terri is in no such condition. Videotapes show
Terri closely watching her family's movement, verbalizing in response
to questions, responding to simple commands and laughing when
listening to her favorite music. No fewer than 10 physicians are on
record with the court saying that Terri was aware and her condition
could improve with therapy. In fact, a Nobel nominee in medicine, Dr.
William Hammesfahr, has offered to treat her and provide her
rehabilitation without charge. (Note: See evidence of this below,
Melissa)

And then there are the issues surrounding her guardian and husband,
Michael Schiavo. He has repeatedly denied Terri the rehabilitative
therapy recommended by medical professionals treating her. He has
also repeatedly ordered that Terri not be treated for life-
threatening infections and blocked "swallowing tests" that would
determine whether Terri could be taught to eat without her feeding
tubes. Schiavo has also blocked tests that would determine if Terri
sustained bone damage around the time of her collapse, clarifying
lingering suspicions that her collapse may have been the result of
abuse at Schiavo's hand.

(See the Bone Scan which was done on Terri
http://www.terrisfight.org/images/bonescan.jpg
53 weeks after her so called "mysterious collapse" when she was home
alone with Michael. The bone scan states "CLOSED HEAD INJURY" at the
top portion of the fill-in-form and shows that Terri had numerous
broken bones and was a victim of TRAUMA. It states "this patient has
a history of trauma." It also states that "the presumption is that
the other multiple areas of abnormal activity also relate to previous
trauma."

Also see:
http://www.libertytothecaptives.net/terri_schiavo_bone_scan.html
with medical definitions from the Bone Scan

Also see the text of the Bone Scan (except the part which
states "CLOSED HEAD INJURY", which they mistakenly forgot to
transcribe / point out) here:

http://www.sweetliberty.org/bulletins/terri/bonescan.htm


See more evidence that Terri was beaten and strangled below.
Melissa)

In 1995 Schiavo moved in with girlfriend Jodi Centonze, and in 1997
the two announced their engagement. The couple, still cohabitating,
now have two children together. And yet Schiavo refuses to divorce
Terri.

And what of Terri's wishes? Schiavo and his brother claim that, in
casual conversation, they heard Terri say that she wouldn't want to
be "kept alive by machines." Her parents vigorously deny that she
ever made any such comments.

Even if Terri expressed such a wish, was it an offhand comment or
something she had reflected deeply upon? And was she really saying
that she'd want to starve to death? Those close to her believe that
she is now making every effort to communicate that she does not want
to die. (Note: Terri never made any such statement(s) that she
wished to die. Michael never made any of these claims until very
recently, years and years after he testified in court that he would
take care of Terri the rest of her life and promised to get Terri all
of the therapy she needed (which the jury awarded Terri a substantial
amount of money specifically for Terri's therapy and medical care
only. He denied Terri any therapy whatsoever thereafter. After the
money was in the bank, Michael became hostile towards Terri's family
and gave orders to put "DO NOT RESUSCITATE" on Terri's medical
chart. He soon after tried to withhold lifesaving antibiotics for a
urinary tract infection which, untreated, could have lead to sepsis
and would have likely killed Terri, only from lack of antibiotics to
treat the infection! The nursing home intervened and gave Terri the
antibiotics, saving her life. Terri's former nurse, Carla Iyer came
forward and swore on an affidavit that she believes Michael Schiavo
injected Terri with insulin on several occasions, and Terri would
have died had she not given her appropriate medical treatment. On
the last occasion, Carla Iyer found a vial of insulin in Terri's room
after Michael had been alone with Terri, with the door to her room
closed and locked, as always. Terri is not a diabetic. Carla
reported this to the nursing home and turned in the vial of insulin
as evidence and was terminated from her job right away. She has
since gotten death threats and her tires were slashed. See affidavit
below. Melissa)

Terri Schiavo is aware of her surroundings. She feels pain. And
starvation is not a painless way to die. It is, in fact, a
particularly torturous and cruel death.

This case is not about the right of a terminally ill person to refuse
useless life-prolonging treatment. It is about the right of an
adulterous, neglectful and possibly abusive husband to sentence his
wife to a slow, excruciating death.

If Michael Schiavo prevails, Terri will not be the only victim. The
world will become a far more dangerous place for all of those who are
disabled and unable to speak for themselves. Someday, that could be
you or me.

For more information, go to www.terrisfight.org

Bonacci is a frequent lecturer on chastity.

http://www.catholicherald.com/bonacci/03mb/mb031218.htm



Note from Melissa (saveterrislife):

It is ILLEGAL to withhold ORAL (by mouth) food and water EVEN IF if a
Judge orders that a feeding tube can be removed from a person. Even
though it is illegal, Terri was not given food or water by mouth the
last TWO TIMES her feeding tube was removed.

Terri is not in a Persistent Vegetative State (PVS), though she and
others should never be killed no matter what their disability. PVS
is misdiagnosed 43% of the time, according to a recent study!

Diagnosis of Persistent Vegetative State Questioned
as Former Patient Speaks Out


TAMPA BAY, November 12, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The case of
disabled Florida woman Terri Schiavo, who has been falsely labelled
as being in a "persistent vegetative state" (PVS) by most major media
outlets, has drawn attention to the controversial diagnosis which
suggests the medical state is permanent. Even those who contend that
PVS is a viable diagnosis suggest that patients are frequently
misdiagnosed as being in PVS.

According to a study published in the July 6, 1996 British Medical
Journal, 43% of patients diagnosed with PVS do not qualify for the
diagnosis.

Last week Kate Adamson appeared on the programme O'Reilly Factor to
relate she was diagnosed as being in a vegetative state and, like
Terri Schiavo, her feeding tube was removed, only to be reinserted
after eight days after her lawyer-husband threatened to sue the
hospital if they did not reinsert it. Adamson also refuted the
testimony of Terri's husband Michael Schiavo who suggested that PVS
patients do not feel the pain of starvation.

O'Reilly asked Adamson, "So you were feeling pain when they removed
your tube?" She responded, "Yes. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. To say
that -- especially when Michael [Schiavo] on national TV had
mentioned last week that it's a pretty painless thing to have the
feeding tube removed. It is the exact opposite. It was sheer torture,
Bill."

See the O'Reilly factor exchange in this article by Wesley J. Smith:

http://weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/003/370oqiwy
.asp


A "Painless" Death?
Michael Schiavo insists that dehydration is "the most natural way to
die." It's more like torture.
by Wesley J. Smith
11/12/2003 12:00:00 AM



MANY WHO SUPPORT Terri Schiavo's threatened dehydration assert that
removing a feeding tube from a profoundly cognitively disabled person
results in a painless and gentle ending. But is this really true?
After all, it would be agonizing if you or I were locked in a room
for two weeks and deprived of all food and water. So, why should we
believe that cognitively disabled patients experience the deprivation
differently simply because they receive nourishment through a feeding
tube instead of by mouth?

An accurate discussion of this sensitive issue requires the making of
proper and nuanced distinctions about the consequences of removing
nourishment from incapacitated patients. This generally becomes an
issue in one of the following two diametrically differing
circumstances:

(1) Depriving food and water from profoundly cognitively disabled
persons like Terri who are not otherwise dying, a process that causes
death by dehydration over a period of 10-14 days. As I will
illustrate below, this may cause great suffering.

(2) Not forcing food and water upon patients who have stopped eating
and drinking as part of the natural dying process. This typically
occurs, for example, at the end stages of cancer when patients often
refuse nourishment because the disease has distorted their senses of
hunger and thirst. In these situations, being deprived of unwanted
food and water when the body is already shutting down does not cause
a painful death.

Advocates who argue that it is appropriate to dehydrate cognitively
disabled people often sow confusion about the suffering such patients
may experience by inadvertently, or perhaps intentionally, blurring
the difference between these two distinct situations. For example,
when Michael Schiavo, Terri's husband, and his attorney, George
Felos, appeared on the October 27, 2003 edition of "Larry King Live"
the following exchange occurred:


KING: When a feeding tube is removed, as it was planned [for Terri],
is that a terrible death?
SCHIAVO: No. It's painless and probably the most natural way to die.

FELOS: When someone's terminally ill, let's say a cancer patient,
they lose interest in eating. And literally, they--by choice--they
stop eating.

SCHIAVO: Cancer patients, they stop eating for two to three weeks. Do
we force them to eat? No, we don't. That's their choice.

Later in the interview, Schiavo reiterated the assertion in a
response to a telephoned question:


CALLER: Does it bother you that the death is so slow?
SCHIAVO: Removing somebody's feeding tube is very painless. It is a
very easy way to die. Probably the second best way to die, the first
being an aneurysm.

Yes, it is true that when people are actively dying from terminal
disease, they often refuse food and water. The disease makes the food
and water repulsive to them. In such circumstances, it is medically
inappropriate to force food and water into a person who is actively
rejecting it. Indeed, doing so could cause suffering.

But this isn't what is happening to Terri. She isn't dying of cancer.
Her body isn't shutting down as part of the natural dying process.
Indeed, she is not dying at all--unless her food and water is taken
away.


WHAT HAPPENS to non-terminally ill people with cognitive disabilities
whose feeding tubes are removed? Do they suffer from the process?

When I conducted research on this question in preparation for writing
my book "Forced Exit," I asked St. Louis neurologist William Burke
these very questions. Here is what he told me:


A conscious [cognitively disabled] person would feel it just as you
or I would. They will go into seizures. Their skin cracks, their
tongue cracks, their lips crack. They may have nosebleeds because of
the drying of the mucus membranes, and heaving and vomiting might
ensue because of the drying out of the stomach lining. They feel the
pangs of hunger and thirst. Imagine going one day without a glass of
water! Death by dehydration takes ten to fourteen days. It is an
extremely agonizing death.
Dr. Burke opposes removing feeding tubes from cognitively disabled
people and so some might dismiss his opinion as biased. But Minnesota
neurologist Ronald Cranford's pro-dehydration testimony in the Robert
Wendland case--Cranford also testified that Terri's feeding tube
should be removed--supports much of what Dr. Burke asserted. While
Cranford called seizures "rare," his detailed description of the
dehydration process reveals its gruesome reality:


After seven to nine days [from commencing dehydration] they begin to
lose all fluids in the body, a lot of fluids in the body. And their
blood pressure starts to go down. When their blood pressure goes
down, their heart rate goes up. . . . Their respiration may increase
and then . . . the blood is shunted to the central part of the body
from the periphery of the body. So, that usually two to three days
prior to death, sometimes four days, the hands and the feet become
extremely cold. They become mottled. That is you look at the hands
and they have a bluish appearance. And the mouth dries a great deal,
and the eyes dry a great deal and other parts of the body become
mottled. And that is because the blood is now so low in the system
it's shunted to the heart and other visceral organs and away from the
periphery of the body . . .

MOST OF THE TIME, we never know for sure what a starved or dehydrated
person experiences. But in at least one case--that of a young woman
who had her tube feeding stopped for eight days and lived to tell the
tale--we have direct evidence of the agony that forced dehydration
may cause.

At age 33, Kate Adamson collapsed from a devastating and
incapacitating stroke. She was utterly unresponsive and was diagnosed
as being in a persistent vegetative state (PVS). Because of a bowel
obstruction she developed, her nourishment was stopped so that
doctors could perform surgery.

Adamson eventually recovered sufficiently to author "Kate's Journey:
Triumph Over Adversity," in which she tells the terrifying tale.
Rather than being unconscious with no chance of recovery as her
doctors believed, she was actually awake and aware but unable to move
any part of her body voluntarily. (This is known as a "locked-in
state.") When she appeared recently on "The O'Reilly Factor," host
Bill O'Reilly asked Adamson about the dehydration experience:


O'REILLY: When they took the feeding tube out, what went through your
mind?
ADAMSON: When the feeding tube was turned off for eight days, I
thought I was going insane. I was screaming out in my mind, "Don't
you know I need to eat?" And even up until that point, I had been
having a bagful of Ensure as my nourishment that was going through
the feeding tube. At that point, it sounded pretty good. I just
wanted something. The fact that I had nothing, the hunger pains
overrode every thought I had.

O'REILLY: So you were feeling pain when they removed your tube?

ADAMSON: Yes. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. To say that--especially
when Michael [Schiavo] on national TV mentioned last week that it's a
pretty painless thing to have the feeding tube removed--it is the
exact opposite. It was sheer torture, Bill.

O'REILLY: It's just amazing.

ADAMSON: Sheer torture . . .

In preparation for this article, I contacted Adamson for more details
about the torture she experienced while being dehydrated. She told me
about having been operated upon (to remove the bowel obstruction)
with inadequate anesthesia when doctors believed she was unconscious:


The agony of going without food was a constant pain that lasted not
several hours like my operation did, but several days. You have to
endure the physical pain and on top of that you have to endure the
emotional pain. Your whole body cries out, "Feed me. I am alive and a
person, don't let me die, for God's Sake! Somebody feed me."
Unbelievably, she described being deprived of food and water as "far
worse" than experiencing the pain of abdominal surgery. Despite
having been on an on an IV saline solution, Adamson still had
horrible thirst:


I craved anything to drink. Anything. I obsessively visualized
drinking from a huge bottle of orange Gatorade. And I hate orange
Gatorade. I did receive lemon flavored mouth swabs to alleviate
dryness but they did nothing to slack my desperate thirst.
Apologists for dehydrating patients like Terri might respond that
Terri is not conscious and locked-in as Adamson was but in a
persistent vegetative state and thus would feel nothing. Yet, the PVS
diagnosis is often mistaken--as indeed it was in Adamson's case. And
while the courts have all ruled that Terri is unconscious based on
medical testimony, this is strongly disputed by other medical experts
and Terri's family who insist that she is interactive with them.
Moreover, it is undisputed that whatever her actual level of
awareness, Terri does react to painful stimuli. Intriguingly, her
doctor testified he prescribes pain medication for her every month
during the course of her menstrual period.


BEYOND THE TERRI SCHIAVO CASE, it is undisputed that conscious
cognitively disabled patients are dehydrated in nursing homes and
hospitals throughout the country almost as a matter of routine. Dr.
Cranford, for example, openly admitted in his Wendland testimony that
he removes feeding tubes from conscious patients. Thus, many other
people may also have experienced the agony described by Adamson and
worse, given that dehydrating to death goes on for about a week
longer than she experienced.


AT THIS POINT, defenders of removing feeding tubes from people with
profound cognitive disabilities might claim that whatever painful
sensations dehydration may cause, these patients receive palliating
drugs to ensure that their deaths are peaceful. But note: Adamson
either did not receive such medications, or if she did, they didn't
work. Moreover, because these disabled people usually can't
communicate, it is impossible to know precisely what they experience.
Thus, when asked in a deposition what he would do to prevent Robert
Wendland from suffering during his dehydration, Dr. Cranford
responded that he would give morphine but that the dose would
be "arbitrary" because "you don't know how much he's suffering, you
don't know how much aware he is . . . You're guessing at the dose."
At trial, Cranford suggested he might have to put Wendland into a
coma, a bitter irony considering that he had struggled over many
months to regain consciousness.

The time has come to face the gut wrenching possibility that
conscious cognitively disabled people whose feeding tubes are removed-
-as opposed to patients who are actively dying and choose to stop
eating--may die agonizing deaths. This, of course, has tremendous
relevance in the Terri Schiavo case and many others like it. Indeed,
the last thing anyone wants is for people to die slowly and
agonizingly of thirst, desperately craving a refreshing drink of
orange Gatorade they know will never come.


Wesley J. Smith is a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute and an
attorney and consultant for the International Task Force on
Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide. His current book is the revised and
updated "Forced Exit: The Slippery Slope From Assisted Suicide to
Legalized Murder."


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

Correction appended 11/13/03: The article originally stated that Kate
Adamson had been deprived of nourishment in an attempt to end her
life. In fact, the dehydration was being done in attempt to alleviate
a bowel obstruction. The painful surgery Adamson refers to was
originally referred to as surgery to insert a feeding tube. It was
actually surgery to remove the bowel obstruction, which is a more
involved procedure.


PVS: WITHDRAWING FOODS AND FLUIDS
http://www.donoharm.org.uk/leaflets/pvs.htm

(The text of the website linked above appears directly below -
Melissa)


What You Need to Know
THE MEDICAL EDUCATION TRUST

What is P.V.S.?
This name, Persistent Vegetative State, is given to a syndrome (a
variety of signs) which affects some people who have survived very
severe brain damage. After a few weeks the eyes will open and close,
but adequate feeding can take 3 - 3 1/2 hours. Feeding by gastrostomy
tube inserted through the abdominal wall into the stomach is now used
to ensure adequate nutrition and facilitate nursing.

Many people will be surprised to learn that this method was first
described almost a hundred years ago in Transactions of the Kentucky
Medical Society (1896) pp.123-143, in which Dr. M. F Coomes reported
one case; also Dr. Lewis McMurtry reported a case of a blockage in
the oesophagus and noted "the ease of G-tube feeding." The food comes
pre-packed and is not expensive. One young man who is nursed at home
has his tube changed once a year without any difficulty at his local
hospital? The gastrostomy tube has replaced the naso-gastric tube
which causes difficulty in swallowing one's saliva.

These people are not on a life support machine, but they are totally
dependent on others for nursing care, as are people with severe
degrees of such conditions as multiple sclerosis and motor neurone
disease.

Diagnosis Keith Andrews, Director of Medical and Research Services at
the Royal Hospital for Neuro-Disability has shown that accurate
diagnosis requires the skills of a multidisciplinary team.

Out of a group of forty patients referred to the hospital as "PVS',
17 (43%) were found to have been misdiagnosed: they were aware,
though they had not been enabled to communicate. `Seven of these had
been presumed to be vegetative for longer than one year, including
three for over four years.' Eyetracking may be a sign of awareness;
but some patients may be blind. Advances have been made by Professor
Schonle in Germany in tracing electrical impulses in the brain, which
may indicate whether or not speech is properly understood by the
patient.

Can anything be done to improve these patients?
YES. For example, on admission to the Neuro-Disability Unit, PVS
patients are seated during the day, ensuring better muscle tone and
head control. Improving nutritional state by means of a gastrotomy
tube and ensuring the patient's comfort often leads to evidence of
awareness. A stimulation programme designed to facilitate the
patient's ability to respond has led to cognition of letters of the
alphabet and responses to questions using electronic equipment.

"Vegetative" a poor description
The word `vegetative' is unfortunate. It implies a lack of humanity.
The patients have been referred to as `cases where scarce medical
resources are wasted on human vegetables', `a living corpse'. But
someone with PVS is still a person - `the living body of a human
being', according to the Oxford Dictionary. He or she does not have
roots, like a vegetable, or need the sun in order to grow. The person
is alive, with heart and lungs functioning without artificial
mechanical support. He or she needs food just like everybody else.

There is continued pressure to end the lives of people, if correctly
diagnosed as PVS, by withdrawing food and fluids. The person seems to
have `gone'; yet he or she is alive, like the Sleeping Beauty in the
legend, who slept for 100 years. She, like these patients, retained
her dignity, and did not feel the burden of passing time.

What is the ethical position regarding withdrawing the feeding tube
with the intention of causing death?
A doctor should never deliberately kill a patient by any action or
omission, either with or without the patient's or relatives' consent.
This ethic has been accepted for 2,400 years and has proved to be the
foundation for western medicine.

At present such action must be sanctioned in each case by a court. It
remains unethical. Medicine serves life; to do otherwise destroys the
very nature of the profession.

What about the ten `PVS' patients who were caused to die from lack of
fluids, by order of the Court?
Some PVS patients may experience the agony of thirst if deprived of
fluid. Post-mortem evidence in one case in the U.S. showed that the
thirst centre in the brain - the hypothalamus - had not been
damaged. In the Bland judgement in 1993, the Law Lords gave
permission for it, stating that tube feeding was `medical treatment';
it was futile, therefore the doctor could withdraw it without
committing a crime. The medical ethic has always deplored futile
treatment; but food and fluids were not treating any disease. The
Royal College of Nursing also in their evidence to the House of Lords
Select Committee on Euthanasia stated that providing nourishment was
part of nursing care.

Medical statements on causing death
In 1988 the BMA Council stated:

`. . . the deliberate taking of a human life should remain a
crime . . . this rejection of a change in the law is not just a
subordination of individual well-being to social policy. It is,
instead, an affirmation of the supreme value of the individual, no
matter how worthless and hopeless that individual may feel.'

The World Medical Association has stated that:

`The Hippocratic tradition was reformulated in the Declaration of
Geneva 1948'. This declaration states: `I will have the utmost
respect for human life . . . The health of my patient will be my
first consideration.'

Other notable statements which support the traditional ethic are:

Dr Fred Rosner

`Every human being is morally expected to help another human in
distress . . . Fluids and nutrition are part and parcel of supportive
care. Food and fluids given to a handicapped person or dying patient
does not become medical therapy because another person is needed to
provide it. There is no time when general supportive measures can be
abandoned, thereby hastening the patient's demise.'

Dr M. Siegler and Dr A. J. Weisbard

'Compassionate calls to withdraw fluids in a few selected cases bear
the seeds of great potential abuse.'

Siegler and Weisbard further argue that continuing care ensures:

that patients will be protected against diagnostic error, inadequate
treatment and unscrupulous care for financial and other reasons.
physicians will not be forced to make ad hoc value-laden quality of
life decisions.
`The professions will benefit by avoiding any appearance that they
are balancing quality of life or cost consciousness against
compassionate standards of medical care.'

What is the difference between denial of food and fluids and the
denial of medical and surgical therapy?
Derr points out:

Fluid and nutrition are universal human needs whereas medical and
surgical therapy are not.

He also states:

The physician-patient relationship may be severely harmed
To permit physicians to deny food and fluid to patients who are
capable of receiving and utilising them directly attacks the very
foundation of medicine as a profession
The denial of food and fluid administered by `artificial' means is
no different from such denial when food can be administered in a
`normal' manner.

A Medical Procedure?
In Britain, each Health Authority is only likely to have one or two
people at any one time in PVS. Their care does not impose a
significant burden on the NHS. It would not seem worth while to
change the law against homicide and depart from medical ethics
observed for more than two thousand years just in order to eliminate
these patients. But once denial of food and fluids has become an
accepted medical procedure, it can be applied to others. It has
already been proposed for people with disease such as Alzheimer's, if
they have signed an `Advance Directive' to allow it.

Commenting on this, a consultant at Worcester Royal Infirmary has
said:

`Those of us who have seen death by starvation and dehydration think
people should be warned that it is a particularly harrowing process
that cannot be adequately relieved by drugs.'

In 1984, a supporter of euthanasia said at a convention:

`If we can get people to accept the removal of all treatment and
care - especially the removal of food and fluids - they will see
what a painful way this is to die and then, in the patient's best
interest, they will accept the lethal injection.'

We are involved
PVS patients represent a challenge. Campaigners for euthanasia are
asking us to disown some of our fellow human beings, call them
`vegetables' and condemn them to death. The alternative is to
recognise, like John Donne, that:

`No man is an island, entire of itself . . . Any Man's death
diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankind.'

REFERENCES
1 Jennet B., Plum F., Persistent Vegetative state after brain damage:
A syndrome in search of a name. Lancet 1972: 734-737
2 Andrews, Keith, The Guardian. Letters 7th April 1990
3 Tudor, M., Persistent Vegetative State: Journal of the Catholic
Medical Quarterly, September 1991
4 With acknowledgements to Mrs. Rita Marker, Director, IAETF
5 Private communication with the parents - Dr. Peggy Norris
6 British Medical Journal, 6 July 1996
7 Sunday Telegraph, 17 November 1966
8 L. Murphy, Chartered Psychologist: Bulletin of Psychological
Society 1995: Vol. 8, p.445-447
9 Smoker, Barbara, `Remember the Non-Terminally Ill and the
Disabled', Voluntary Euthanasia Society Newsletter, September 1991
10 P. McCullagh, MD, DPhil, MRCP, Senior Fellow, the John Curtin
School of Medical Research, The Australian National University.
C.M.Q., Feb. 1996.
11 M. Jarmulowicz, BSc, MB, MRCPath: Neuropathological findings in
cases of Persistent Vegetative State, C.M.Q., Feb. 1995.
12 H.L. Paper 21-II, 1993-4
13 Council of the BMA, British Medical Journal, Vol. 296 p.1408 14
May 1988
14 World Medical Association
15 Rosner, Fred, MD `Withdrawing Fluids and Nutrition: An Alternative
Way'. The Bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine Vol. 654 No.
5, June 1988
16 Siegler, M., Weisbard, AJ., `Against the Emerging Stream: Should
Fluids and Nutritional Support be Discontinued?' Arch. Intern. Med.
145; 129-31
17 Derr, P.G., Why Food and Fluids can never be denied. Hastings
Center Report , 16: 28-30, February 1986
18 Cole, Anthony, Sunday Mercury, 1st December 1991
19 Kuhse, Helga, at the Fifth Biennial Congress of Societies for the
Right to Die, held in Nice in September 1984. (Reported in The
Linacre Quarterly, August 1989).

http://www.donoharm.org.uk/leaflets/pvs.htm



EVIDENCE PROVING TERRI SCHIAVO
IS *NOT* IN A PERSISTENT VEGETATIVE STATE (PVS):

http://www.terrisfight.org/documents/Hammesfahrexam.htm

http://www.terrisfight.org/documents/Affidavit%20Jacob%20Green.htm

http://www.terrisfight.org/documents/alexGimonAffidavit082503.htm

http://www.terrisfight.org/documents/DrNeubauerAffidavit.htm

http://www.terrisfight.org/documents/DrRussellaffidavit.htm

http://www.terrisfight.org/documents/Affidavit%20Fred%20Webber.htm


AFFIDAVITS FROM TERRI'S FORMER NURSES AND CAREGIVERS
RE: EVIDENCE ABOUT TERRI
AND
EVIDENCE ABOUT MICHAEL SCHIAVO, HER "HUSBAND" WHO WANTS HER DEAD
AND HAS PERMISSION FROM THE COURT TO CREMATE HER BODY IMMEDIATELY
UPON DEATH (HE ALSO HAS PERMISSION TO USE FUNDS A JURY DESIGNATED BE
USED TO PAY FOR TERRI'S REHABILITATIVE THERAPY - WHICH HE TOTALLY
DENIED TERRI - AND MEDICAL EXPENSES TO ILLEGALLY PAY FOR THE
CREMATION!):


CARLA IYER AFFIDAVIT, INCLUDES STATEMENTS RE: INSULIN VIAL FOUND BY
IYER IN TERRI'S ROOM AND THAT SHE BELIEVES INJECTIONS OF INSULIN
GIVEN TO TERRI BY MICHAEL IN ORDER TO KILL HER ON NUMEROUS OCCASIONS

http://www.terrisfight.org/documents/CIyerAffidavit090203.htm

MORE OF TERRI'S CAREGIVERS AFFIDAVIT'S:

http://www.terrisfight.org/documents/hlawaffidavit.htm

(PDF DOCUMENT)
htto://zimp.org/documents/AffidavitTCapone050901.pdf

(PDF DOCUMENT)
http://zimp.org/documents/cjohnsonaff.pdf

see
http://terrisfight.org/documents.html
See "IMPORTANT ITEMS" ON LEFT SIDE OF PAGE IN BROWN COLUMN

(See the Bone Scan which was done on Terri
http://www.terrisfight.org/images/bonescan.jpg
53 weeks after her so called "mysterious collapse" when she was home
alone with Michael. The bone scan states "CLOSED HEAD INJURY" at the
top portion of the fill-in-form and shows that Terri had numerous
broken bones and was a victim of TRAUMA. It states "this patient has
a history of trauma." It also states that "the presumption is that
the other multiple areas of abnormal activity also relate to previous
trauma."

Also see:
http://www.libertytothecaptives.net/terri_schiavo_bone_scan.html
with medical definitions from the Bone Scan

Also see the text of the Bone Scan (except the part which
states "CLOSED HEAD INJURY", which they mistakenly forgot to
transcribe / point out) here:

http://www.sweetliberty.org/bulletins/terri/bonescan.htm

The four paragraphs directly below this is taken from the Media Kit
posted at Terri's website. Below that is a true transcript (also
posted on www.terrisfight.org, in the download section titled "Bone
Scan"). We've transcribed it here for easier reading, since the
original was very faint with broken and blurred letters.

You will read a transcript of the doctor describing what he found on
Terri's bone scan. We had help with definitions and will bracket
those terms for further understanding of what you're reading.

Allegedly -- according to Michael Schiavo -- Terri's brain damage was
due to a heart attack. Read this and then decide which you believe. --
Jackie -- October 16th, 2003

P.S. If you haven't made your calls for Terri, PLEASE DO.

__________________________________________________

Terri was NEVER diagnosed as a heart attack victim when she was
admitted to the Northside Humana emergency room in February 1990. To
this day, her family does not know the true cause of her collapse.
Doctors immediately excluded heart attack as her blood enzymes were
not elevated -- typical in all heart attack victims. Terri's
toxicology screen also eliminated any suspicion of drugs.
At the time of Terri's admittance, blood tests revealed a depletion
of electrolytes and her attending physician HYPOTHESIZED that low
blood potassium MAY have caused her collapse. It was with this
information that Michael Schiavo entered into a lawsuit against
Terri's General Practitioner and Gynecologist, claiming negligence on
their part.
In preparation for Terri's October 2002 trial, her ER records were
reviewed and it was plainly noted in the "Admitting Summary" that
Terri had a "rigid neck" when she was admitted to the hospital. These
injuries were never disclosed to Terri's family, nor -- to their
knowledge -- were they ever investigated. The doctor reviewing these
records testified that the only other patient he treated with similar
injuries was the victim of an attempted strangulation.
The prospect that foul play may have led to Terri's collapse and
ensuing heart stoppage was enhanced when a bone scan was recently
found. This scan, taken 53 weeks after Terri's collapse revealed that
Terri had fractured ribs, damage to her pelvic area, LI vertebrae,
spine, both knees and both ankles. It also revealed that Terri had
suffered a broken femur and a broken back. Three doctors concluded
that Terri had endured trauma of some sort. The radiologist
responsible for the scan plainly stated: "This patient has a history
of trauma".
[excerpt from the media kit]


___________________________________________________________________

831223741016
03-05-91

Theresa Schiavo

Nuclear Imaging

BONE SCAN

3-5-91

Indication: Evaluate for trauma

Procedure and findings. Multiple gama camera images of the axial
[trunk] and proximal appendicular [limbs] skeleton in the anterior
[front] and posterior [back] projections were obtained following 2.1
millicuries of technetium 99m HDP.

There are an extensive number of focal abnormal areas of nuclide
accumulation of intense type. These include multiple bilateral ribs,
the costovertebral [where ribs and vertebra come together] aspects of
several of the thoracic [upper] vertebral bodies, the L1 [lower]
vertebral body, both sacroliac joints, the distal right femoral
diaphysis, both knees and both ankles, the right greater than the
left.

Correlative radiographs are obtained of the lumbar spine and of the
right femur [leg bone] which reveal compression fracture; minor,
superior and plate of L1, and shaggy, irregular periosteal
ossification along the distal femoral diaphysis, and metaphysis
primarily ventrally. [calcification showing where bones were broken
and have healed].

The patient has a history of trauma. Most likely the femoral
periosteal reaction reflects a response to a subperiosteal hemorrhage
and the activity in L1 correlates perfectly with the compression
fracture which is presumably traumatic.

The presumptions is that the other multiple areas of abnormal
activity also relate to previous trauma. Additional possibilities
would be neoplastic bone disease, widespread disseminated infectious
bone disease or multiple bone infarcts from abnormal hemoglobin.

CONCLUSION: Multiple areas of abnormal scintigraphic [actinographic?]
accumulation, some of which are radiograph for differential as
discussed above.

W. Campbell Walker M.D./mjt

Dictated 3-5-91

Transcribed ?-5-91

Lee Memorial Hospital

____________________________________________________

NOTE: The person who helped with the spelling and definitions said
simply, what the doctor described would most likely be the results of
someone who had been kicked, and kicked and kicked.

The ER report said her "neck was rigid". From the videos we've seen
on Terri's website, it appears that the 'rigid neck' continues. As
she was following the movement of a balloon, she tracked it to the
right by turning her head; as it was moved to her left side you'll
notice she tracks it only with her eyes. When the Priest would come
in to pray with her -- even though she tried -- she wasn't able to
bow her head "because of her stiff neck". Remember "the doctor
reviewing these records testified that the only other patient he
treated with similar injuries was the victim of an attempted
strangulation."

If a person is strangulated it follows there would be a loss of
oxygen to the brain -- causing brain damage -- as the blood supply
was blocked. - Jackie


http://www.sweetliberty.org/bulletins/terri/bonescan.htm


EVIDENCE OF STRANGULATION AND TRAUMA DONE TO TERRI:

see next post!