Schaivo Case
stcynic | March 28, 2005Over the last few months, the state of Florida and the Schindlers have grown increasingly desperate to find anyone - anyone - with a medical degree who would say that Terri Schiavo is not in a persistent vegitative state (PVS). So far they've found two, the hilariously self-aggrandizing and deceitful Dr. Hammesfahr (complete with his fake Nobel Prize nomination - claiming to be a Nobel Prize nominee because your congressman wrote a badly worded letter to the Nobel committee on your behalf is like claiming to have won an international parenting award if your child buys you a "World's Greatest…
stcynic | March 26, 2005Man, I've written all these posts about the Terri Schiavo situation and I don't get a single email telling me what a horrible person I am. Sandefur writes one freaking post on the subject and he gets a deliciously irrational message. See his response here.
stcynic | March 25, 2005Timothy Sandefur returns from his temporary exile to write a long and thoughtful post about the Schiavo situation. And congratulations to him for closing on a new home with his lovely Erin. Jason Kuznicki, meanwhile, has also written a good post on the subject. He concludes with this:
For the record, my wishes for the end of my own life are as follows: I trust my lifelong companion, my husband under the laws of Canada, Scott R. Starin, to make all medical decisions for me whatsoever. I do not trust anyone else with this capacity, no matter who they are.
I expect Scott's decisions to be…
stcynic | March 25, 2005Orin Kerr of the Volokh Conspiracy reports an interesting fact: every single judge appointed by either Reagan, Bush 41 or Bush 43 has voted against Terri's parents in this case. Judge Greer, the original trial judge who controls the case, is himself a fairly conservative Christian. Do you think the folks on the other side would give even a moment's thought to the possibility that all of these conservative judges who have actually seen the evidence might know something they don't? Of course not.
stcynic | March 24, 2005The good Dr. William Hammesfahr was on Hannity and Colmes the other day, and Sean Hannity made it a point to refer to him as a "Nobel Prize nominee" about, oh, 1400 times in a single hour (a world record, I believe). A few examples:
HANNITY: And we're going to talk to a doctor who spent 10 hours with her tonight, and he says that he believes, in his expert opinion -- this is a man that was nominated for a Nobel Prize, by the way -- that she could be rehabilitated.
HANNITY: And coming up later in the program tonight, we're going to meet a doctor who actually spent 10 hours examining Terri…
stcynic | March 24, 2005Another aspect of the Terri Schiavo situation that hasn't gotten enough attention is the physician they've been using to claim that Terri can get better. And they've got themselves a real doozy, William Hammesfahr. The man's webpage virtually drips with disingenuous self-promotion. I especially love the blaring headline:
Dr. Hammesfahr has been identified as "the first physician to treat patients successfully to restore deficits caused by stroke."
Uh, yeah. Sorry doc, but physicians have been rehabilitating stroke victims to improve their deficits in speech, muscle control, walking, etc, for…
stcynic | March 23, 2005This is worth reading, for those who aren't completely sick of this entire situation. It's a PDF file of the entire report of the Guardian Ad Litem that Jeb Bush appointed to investigate the entire situation and recommend what the state should do in 2003. Amid the flurry of vicious charges that have been leveled against Michael Schiavo, this report points out a great many things worth knowing. It notes, for example, that for the first several years that Terri was in a vegetative state, Michael held out hope that she would recover, despite all evidence to the contrary, and that he was so…
stcynic | March 22, 2005As cynical as I am about politics, and as convinced as I am that nearly all politicians think the world revolves around them, I'm still just astonished at the sheer chutzpah of what Rep. Tom Delay, the Republican leader, said to a prominent religious right group on Friday:
On Friday, as the leaders of both chambers scrambled to try to stop the removal of Ms. Schiavo's feeding tube, Mr. DeLay, a Texas Republican, turned his attention to social conservatives gathered at a Washington hotel and described what he viewed as the intertwined struggle to save Ms. Schiavo, expand the conservative…
stcynic | March 20, 2005I've not said a word about the Terry Schiavo situation. Frankly, I'm sick to death of hearing about it. And after reading Radley Balko's take on it, I don't really have much to say. Balko nailed the situation completely, as far as I'm concerned. He makes several points, all of which I agree with entirely.
1. Multiple courts have heard testimony from all sides and determined that Terry herself had clearly expressed her desire not to be kept alive if she was an invalid. In the absence of a living will, that is really the only determination that matters. I've been in this situation before with…