{"id":566,"date":"2005-03-26T20:40:00","date_gmt":"2005-03-26T20:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/2005\/03\/26\/566\/"},"modified":"2015-04-21T19:30:24","modified_gmt":"2015-04-22T00:30:24","slug":"566","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/?p=566","title":{"rendered":"Terri Schiavo . . ."},"content":{"rendered":"

I want to say something here about the Terri Schiavo drama, but with all that\u2019s been said over the past ten days, it\u2019s hard to say anything new. It\u2019s harder still to arrange all of the pieces and angles into a coherent, understandable picture. Nevertheless, for what little it\u2019s worth, I\u2019ve got some random thoughts that I want to share. (Hey, a million other bloggers are having their say, so why not me?)
<\/span>
***<\/span> Ms. Schiavo will soon be dead. Or is she already dead? Her parents certainly see her as being alive, but the doctors and judges seem to say that she\u2019s pretty much dead, given that she\u2019s missing the part of the body \/ brain where consciousness, thinking and feeling are mediated. <\/p>\n

***<\/span> So, it boils down to the question of what human life is, and how do we know when it is present.<\/p>\n

***<\/span> The doctors and judges seem to have settled on a definition of human life that is tied to upper brain function. If you have a working upper brain, or a resting upper brain, or even a misfiring upper brain, then you are human and are entitled to basic social protections (like food and water). If your upper brain is gone for good, though, then you\u2019re not legally human. As the headline of an article in the NY Times asks, “Did Descartes Doom Terri Schiavo?<\/a>“.<\/p>\n

***<\/span> That explains why Ms. Schiavo was adopted by the religious conservatives as their poster child. The real issue here is ABORTION<\/span>. If upper brain function defines human life, then most abortions do not involve human life. Around two-thirds or more of abortions take place during the fetus\u2019 first three months, when the developing brain structure doesn\u2019t show any signs of having been \u201cswitched on\u201d (no brain wave, as with Ms. Schiavo). However fourth and fifth month abortions are fairly common, and by that time the fetus does exhibit signs of upper brain functioning. <\/p>\n

***<\/span> So, if the Terri Schiavo case holds, it will have logical consequences for both sides of the abortion dispute. It will put to rest the idea that a human life is at stake during the first trimester. But, it will support the notion that abortion becomes murder immediately thereafter (unless the life of the mother is at stake). <\/p>\n

***<\/span> As to the medical malpractice<\/span> settlement . . . yes, I voted for John Edwards, but now I wonder if malpractice lawsuits sometimes go too far. Was an OB\/GYN specialist responsible to ferret out Ms. Schiavo\u2019s bad eating (and barfing) habits? And then pay out $1 million for not preventing their consequences? This doesn\u2019t appear to be a case where a patient is harmed solely because they depended upon a medical specialist to interpret complex medical evidence and the doctor messed up. Bulimia may be a lapse of common sense or may be a psychological issue, or may even be a sociological question (see below). But is it primarily an OB\/GYN issue? (I don\u2019t have all the facts here; perhaps the doctor in question could and should have done more. But 100% liability doesn\u2019t sound right either). If there is a problem today with judges and the courts, I\u2019d say that it is exhibited here and not with what happened after Ms. Schiavo lost consciousness. (Not that I support Bush\u2019s proposals to limit liability law suits, which are tailored to protect big business).<\/p>\n

***<\/span> Getting back to Ms. Schiavo, it\u2019s tough to watch someone die, even if they are brain dead. It\u2019s got to be tougher still if you are the parent. I do feel sorry for Mr. & Mrs. Schindler. Even if it is just their imagination, Terri Schiavo is still alive to them, but soon won\u2019t be. Mr. Schindler\u2019s dramatic, rabble-rousing exhortations can thus be forgiven, given that a parent\u2019s love for an injured child is just as automatic as Ms. Schiavo\u2019s continuing eye and facial movements.<\/p>\n

***<\/span> And the bulimia thing leads us to the late, great Karen Carpenter<\/span>, who also died of a heart attack brought on by bad eating habits<\/a>. Yea, it is regrettable that American society places so much pressure on women to be thin while at the same time offers so much incentive to be overweight. We just can\u2019t seem to find the sensible middle. Getting back to Karen, wouldn\u2019t it be ironic if Ms. Schiavo listened to the Carpenters when she was growing up back in the 70s?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I want to say something here about the Terri Schiavo drama, but with all that\u2019s been said over the past ten days, it\u2019s hard to say anything new. It\u2019s harder still to arrange all of the pieces and angles into a coherent, understandable picture. Nevertheless, for what little it\u2019s worth, I\u2019ve got some random thoughts […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,11,23],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=566"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5350,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566\/revisions\/5350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}