Rest in peace, indeed. She's earned her rest, her freedom.
I just read the article that CNN posted about 20 minutes ago, and it's just... bizarre. Pieces of the whole sorry history that I've been reading about for weeks are glossed over, treated as hearsay, or just obfuscated something awful.
Her husband "claimed" she had bulimia. Never mind that it was determined by the court after an extensive malpractice suit that she
definitely
had it, that her doctors
definitely
failed to diagnose it, and that their failure was what ultimately led to her catastrophic electrolyte imbalance and brain-starving arrhythmia -- nope, per CNN, this was just his claim.
She'd been examined by five doctors, two hired by her parents, two by her husband and one by the court, who were divided on whether she was aware and could recover. Nothing about the devastation shown on her CAT scan, the many neurologists and occupational therapists who worked with her over the years, the guardian ad litem hired by the court to be on neither her husband's nor her parents' side but just her own, all of whom came to the same heartbreaking conclusion.
Nothing about his years tending to her, flying her around the country to try alternative therapies, going to nursing school himself; nothing about her parents' very, very late accusations that he abused her; nothing about the two friends of the couple who've also testified in court that she had expressed her wishes to them. Just "he said/they said," as if there were no history at all to the case except mutual finger-pointing and a series of curiously abstract and factless court cases.
I hate to seem all naively astonished about the shittiness of the mainstream media, but I guess I am all naively astonished about the shittiness of the mainstream media. What the fuck?
I expect better of CNN. Or maybe the days of Bernie Shaw peering out his Baghdad hotel window and reporting on the missiles as they fall are over.
The disability rights movement people have acted as if nobody tried anything, JZ.
My friend at Mouth says she's heard TS speak.
I'm a bit puzzled by the alternative media too. It's like "Terri's Rashamon"
I stopped expecting better of CNN when they started doing shout-news debate shows. If you'll recall, Jon Stewart tore that bowtied twit Tucker Carlson a new one on CNN.
I hate to seem all naively astonished about the shittiness of the mainstream media, but I guess I am all naively astonished about the shittiness of the mainstream media.
It seemed to me that her parents got more media coverage than the husband - that the parents made all sorts of claims (many which had been shown to be untrue) without even telling the husband/doctors' side, much less doing any sort of analysis on the claims of the parents and others who wanted to keep her alive. I mean, they were saying things about how she was "communicating" and what-not. And on TV they kept on showing clips from the highly-edited footage that her parents had shot....
Yes, the mainstream media is shitty....
I guess I am all naively astonished about the shittiness of the mainstream media. What the fuck?
That's just it. No matter how much (or how little) is published, there are complex human interactions and emotions involved here, and years of history and day-to-day decisions that can't be summed up in one article. And it would seem like now that she's dead, it's not worth the trouble for them to go into detail.
I just kept feeling, over the last thirteen days, that no matter how much I thought I knew about this case, I would never know everythign I needed (or wanted) to know. I can't know exactly what Michael Schiavo is thinking or feeling, or Terri's parents. I can't see her in person, or the results of her medical testing. The media can be a dangerous thing, because they can only offer so much information.
It's maybe positive that this case raised consciousness of the need for living wills and directives, but I just keep thinking Terri was one woman, a real live human being, not a test case or a hypothetical, and the furor raised over this seemed to give everyone all over the country just enough grist for their personal mill, without any of us really being able to help her personally, or know for sure what this woman would have wanted.
That was probably an incoherent ramble, but I've been so back and forth about all of this -- no matter what side I come at it from, there's no good or easy answer. And now Terri's dead. I hope she is resting in peace, and her family, Michael included, can find some, too.
I think MSNBC is a little better than CNN...
If Congress and the legislators in Florida made anything very clear over the past few years of fighting about Schiavo’s fate it is that they have no idea what they are talking about.
After the spectacle of senators second-guessing diagnoses without benefit of any solid information, a governor introducing people as experts who lacked real credentials or hands-on experience, state legislators giving the spotlight to anyone who had any claim — no matter how blatantly screwy — about how to cure those who are severely brain injured, there is not a legislature in America that is ready to say or do anything useful about the right to stop treatment.
If legislators cannot stand inaction in the wake of what has just taken place then let them hold hearings in which those with claims to make are carefully cross-examined and the public given a chance to learn how conditions like permanent vegetative state and coma are diagnosed and why nearly every doctor, nurse and dietician in America knows that a feeding tube is a form of medical treatment.
[link]
Jon Stewart tore that bowtied twit Tucker Carlson a new one on CNN.
One of the shining moments of broadcast information dissemination.
"Be funny."
"I'm not your monkey."
"The show that comes on before me is puppets making crank calls! You're CNN!"
That ep should be required viewing in journalism schools.
It's maybe positive that this case raised consciousness of the need for living wills and directives, but I just keep thinking Terri was one woman, a real live human being, not a test case or a hypothetical, and the furor raised over this seemed to give everyone all over the country just enough grist for their personal mill, without any of us really being able to help her personally, or know for sure what this woman would have wanted.
One part I can know for sure is that she wouldn't have wanted the media circus that surrounded her fate.
It is good that many people made sure their wishes are now documented.
This also served to scare a few people and open their eyes about the new role that our elected officials wish to take in running our lives, and deaths.
More urgently of note, Jessica needs to post right after me to coordinate our tags properly.
