Nader on Terri Shiavo Case: Husband Should Give Guardianship to Parents

Nader asks " Does a week go by without government, university or corporate scientific researchers, spending tens of billions of taxpayer dollars, hold out such hopes for many dramatic medical cures?"

The cereberal cortex of Terri Schiavo's brain, according to bran scans, MRI, etc has deteriorated to the point of virtual absence. While scientific researchers and universities may seek cures for many severe and tragic medical conditions, I have yet to hear of any that are "spending tens of billions of taxpayer dollars" in efforts to regenerate an entire cereberal cortex. Modern science is still unable to regenerate even the injured portion of a spinal cord.

Let Schiavo die, or let her live. She won't know. It is quite likely true that she would not have wanted to continue this way; many who knew her testified that this is the case. Still, she is not going to get pissed off about her wishes being disregarded, as she is gone, null and void, tabula rasa. Rather, this is about those who are still conscious and sentient, and their wishes. Michael Schiavo is the legally responsible for her care, and he believes he is duty bound to follow her wishes in this matter. On the other side are family members in denial, and a christo-fascist movement seeking to use this tragedy for their own political purposes. Whose wishes should be given deference?

he appears down in FLA now to plead for Terri to live thru artificial means

what, until she's 100 years old, having lived 75 years without a conscious thought, against her wishes?

Jackson should be protesting why so many of the working poor have no health insurance

as he did when he appeared in front of an otherwise adoring crowd in Portland, Oregon during his 2004 presidential campaign

given the association of race, religion, eugenics and euthanasia in the last century, there is a principled case for it

as someone who has consistently opposed the "right to die" movement and the war in Iraq, Nader deserves credit for some consistency, unlike the vast majority of Republican apparatchiks and religious fundamentalists, who celebrate the war in Iraq, while insisting upon a "Culture of Life" for Americans like Schiavo

--Richard

I'm progressive. I actually oppose Netherland's style euthanasia laws, but I support the right of people to privately commit suicide at the end of life outside of the law.

In the Schiavo case, you see this devoted family who would love to take care of their daughter, or let insurance (or whatever) keep life support long term.

However, I have been exposed to enough to know that many families do not get along and do not love each other like this. I'd venture to say that 10% or more of families get irritated at their disabled senior members and are waiting for them to die, and would favor that instead of investing more time taking care of them, even just visiting them at the nursing home. Plus, look at the health insurance industry. If euthanasia were normalized, it would be a short time before there were little incentives put in to bump off people taking up funds. Just think about it. A doctor I talked to convinced me that irritated kids getting tired of their parents is a common scenario.

[However, I have been exposed to enough to know that many families do not get along and do not love each other like this. I'd venture to say that 10% or more of families get irritated at their disabled senior members and are waiting for them to die, and would favor that instead of investing more time taking care of them, even just visiting them at the nursing home. Plus, look at the health insurance industry. If euthanasia were normalized, it would be a short time before there were little incentives put in to bump off people taking up funds. Just think about it. A doctor I talked to convinced me that irritated kids getting tired of their parents is a common scenario.]

I have a friend who believes that his sister shoved their mother into a hospice so that she could die without spending all of her assets, like her home, to pay for continued care.

He told me that there are websites where numerous people share similar stories where family members got tired of taking care of their parents, or just wanted them to die so that they could get their money.

He also told, apropo of your comments about insurance companies, that Kaiser will agree to pay 100% of hospice care to avoid paying for medical procedures that will prolong a person's life.

Nader, I suspect, has some very legitimate fears about "right to die" becoming a routinized process for hospitals and insurance companies, in collusion with family members, to cut costs.



--Richard

Granted, if Nader's core concern is that those who are maginalized because of health will be nudged towards euthanasia by HMOs and by family members concerned about cost, then blocking assisted suicide and any other voluntary end to life would be one solution.

Would it not be a better solution, though, to implement a decent national healthcare system, removing the profiteering from the arena of health and medical care, so there would not be the same significant profit motive for euthanasia? Isn't a system of long term care that inevitably renders the patient indigent part of the problem?

for the death of Terri Shindler Shiavo. No matter what should have happened to her, it's all so sad.