Nobody knows the pain of the culture of death more profoundly that the Schindler family. First, Terri Schiavo–Bobby’s sister–was dehydrated to death because of her profound cognitive incapacity. Her cruel death, the family believes, badly undermined dad Robert Schindler’s health. He died earlier this year.
The family, through the Terri Schindler Schiavo Foundation, has used their horror and pain productively as “celebrity victims” (Ralph Nader’s evocative term for people who become famous after suffering an egregious wrong), to advocate on behalf of human exceptionalism by standing firm against the quality of life ethic and on behalf of the equal moral worth of people like Terri.
Toward that end, Bobby has a column out today that gives examples of the unreliability of the persistent vegetative state diagnosis. He also vividly reminds us of the consequences to the most vulnerable of writing them out of the human condition. From his commentary:
To be clear: there is no indignity more final and brutal than forcing a living person to die the death of dehydration and starvation. Try to imagine the torture my sister endured in the last two weeks of her life. Being unable to defend herself, very likely aware of precisely what was happening and having absolutely no ability to escape it. For nearly two weeks, Terri was denied food and fluids. Not so much as an ice chip was given to her. It was pitiful, it was barbaric and it was clear that she was made to suffer. When my sister expired, she was a shell of her former self.
It is because of the suffering my sister and others endured that I believe the PVS diagnosis must be either reevaluated or completely abolished. With so many medical and neurological professionals admitting that there are inaccuracies and with the diagnosis being a death sentence, it is time to rethink disability and the way we regard it and our fellow human beings.
Bobby concludes:
In the United States alone, more than 50,000 people live with profound neurological or cognitive disabilities. They live, quite literally, at the pleasure and by the mercy of others. There is the very real possibility that a large number of those individuals have been misdiagnosed yet, they are living in the crosshairs. Wouldn’t reasonableness and a simple sense of humanity dictate that we stop forcing people to die miserable deaths, based on a diagnosis with such a tremendous margin of error?
If some people had their way, most or all of those 50,000 people would be dehydrated to death after (or perhaps, one day, lethally injected, which Jack Kevorkian advocates) a brief waiting period from injury. That would be a profound moral wrong. Bobby’s continuing call to conscience is a great service to his sister’s memory.
October 26th, 2009 | 4:40 pm
If PVS is removed from the vocabulary, the drooling sycophants propping up the current federal administration will consequently be declared culpable.
They will never allow it.
October 26th, 2009 | 4:40 pm
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by J. Robert Howell, Timi Gleason. Timi Gleason said: Bobby Schindler Wants to “Kill” the PVS Diagnosis: From his commentary: To be clear: there is no indignity more.. http://bit.ly/fCAqi [...]
October 26th, 2009 | 7:34 pm
The Schindlers did not dispute the PVS diagnosis until litigation between them and her husband began.
That was several years after her collapse when the husband petitioned the court to hold trial on the issue of removing the feeding tube.
The reason the parents challenged the PVS diagnosis was purely a legal maneuver.
Under Florida law at the time PVS or another terminal condition was a requirement before the feeding tube could be removed.
October 26th, 2009 | 7:52 pm
“Try to imagine the torture my sister endured in the last two weeks of her life. Being unable to defend herself, very likely aware of precisely what was happening and having absolutely no ability to escape it.”
What drivel. You could have dropped an anvil on Terri Schiavo’s head and she wouldn’t have felt it. Her cerebral cortex had turned to mush. Schindler’s comments would be laughable if they weren’t so pathetically out of touch with reality.
October 26th, 2009 | 7:55 pm
History Writer: Perhaps like your heart.
You have no idea what this family went through and what it was like in that death room, blood pooling in Terri’s eyes, here tissues drying out, etc. You have no idea.
October 26th, 2009 | 8:47 pm
History Writer: How can you be so callous as to call that drivel? I still agonize over what happened to her and her family and how powerless they were to prevent her death by dehydration.
I’ll never forget her husband’s lawyer stepping out to inform the waiting crowd that Terri, who was being deydrated to death, looked so peaceful. Now THAT
October 26th, 2009 | 8:50 pm
The whole thing makes me sick. The thing that makes me even sicker is how the media handled it. For the first few days after hearing about her situation, I believed that Terri was on a respirator at death’s door. It wasn’t until a friend of mine who is also involved in disability rights pointed me to other sources that I realized what was really going on. I firmly believe that if more people knew what really happened, they would condemn what happened to Terri and other people like her.
October 26th, 2009 | 8:54 pm
History Writer: How can you be so callous as to call that drivel? I still agonize over what happened to her and her family and how powerless they were to prevent her death by dehydration.
I’ll never forget her husband’s lawyer stepping out to inform the waiting crowd that Terri, who was being deydrated to death, looked so peaceful. Now THAT surely was drivel since it was such a stupid thing to say under the circumstances.
The irony is that those who found nothing wrong with killing Terri Schiavo in that peaceful way would be appalled if anyone were to suggest that we use such a peaceful method when executing criminals.
October 27th, 2009 | 12:17 pm
Bill Saunders,
I have read the Schindlers’ book “A Life That Matters,” and you are right–they did not initially dispute the PVS diagnosis. However, that was because there was no reason to worry about her specific diagnosis–she was being rehabilitated at the time. It is when her life was in danger that it was important to dispute the diagnosis. It was a legal maneuver, but that does not mean that they were not right to do so. They were absolutely correct.
It has been shown that the PVS diagnosis is by no means an objective diagnosis. Neurologists disagree, people come out of PVS. Bobby points out in his article that 40% of PVS diagnoses are misdiagnosed. I once read a book about a firefighter in Boston who was diagnosed with PVS and three or four years later, came out of it completely for about a 24 hour period. He went back, but his family was given a great gift.
It’s like saying that we can put someone on death row on the basis of one eyewitness and no other evidence. It wouldn’t be allowed.
Bobby is right–we cannot use the PVS diagnosis to justify dehydrating someone to death. Having a brain injury is not a terminal diagnosis. We need to care for the disabled, not kill them.
October 27th, 2009 | 12:21 pm
History Writer is on here to cause an uproar among us. He/she never tries to justify his/her positions on Terri Schiavo with rational facts, only inflammatory comments that make no sense. It would be better if we all just ignored him/her.
October 27th, 2009 | 4:17 pm
Heather:
To paraphrase Thomas Jefferson, I have declared upon the altar of almighty God eternal enmity to all forms of BS, including Bobby Schindler’s making a living off his sister’s memory and Wesley Smith’s condoning it. I would suggest you wipe your eyes, blow your nose, pop a Paxil and read Terri’s autopsy protocol before making any more wild statements about why I comment on things here. If my comments “don’t make sense” you might also want to have your eyes examined.
October 27th, 2009 | 10:07 pm
HW: [Comment not permitted, safepres is very unamused. Time for everyone to cool down.]
October 28th, 2009 | 2:40 pm
Did her autopsy reveal she wasn’t a living human being (before they killed her, I mean)? That’s kinda sorta the central point, not whether she’d ever twirl a baton or play the tuba.
October 28th, 2009 | 4:59 pm
bmmg39:
No, her autopsy didn’t reveal that she wasn’t a living human being. But it DID reveal that she was about as sentient as a turnip. Admittedly that sounds callous, but it’s the truth. Terri Schiavo was incapable of feeling pain, anticipating death, or doing anything else of that kind, regardless of the nonsense her brother employs to tug at the hearstrings of the gullible. Read the autopsy protocol. Her cerebral cortex had deteriorated to the extent that her powers of cognition were zero. She might as well have been dead (by which, I hasten to add, I don’t mean that the plug should have been pulled without her consent having been obtained or otherwise determined beyond reasonable doubt). That WAS determined beyond reasonable doubt in court hearings in which the preponderance of evidence favored her husband’s position.
The matter of Terri Schiavo’s wishes concerning the degree of care she wanted in those circumstances seems to have been lost in the clamor of the debate over assisted suicide and “heroic care” directives. In any event, Mr. Schindler’s standing in the matter is inferior to Mr. Schiavo’s. Regardless of what people may conjecture about the state of the Schiavos’ marriage, the fact remains that they were lawfully wed, and a husband’s interests trump those of parents and siblings.
Please forgive me if I sound heartless, but as I’ve said I have little tolerance for BS, and that seems to be exactly what Mr. Schindler is dishing out in enormous quantities — even to the extent of trying to blame his opponents for his father’s death.
October 28th, 2009 | 5:03 pm
bmmg39:
No, her autopsy didn’t reveal that she wasn’t a living human being. But it DID reveal that she was about as sentient as a turnip. Admittedly that sounds callous, but it’s the truth. Terri Schiavo was incapable of feeling pain, anticipating death, or doing anything else of that kind, regardless of the nonsense her brother employs to tug at the heartstrings of the gullible. Read the autopsy protocol. Her cerebral cortex had deteriorated to the extent that her powers of cognition were zero. She might as well have been dead (by which, I hasten to add, I don’t mean that the plug should have been pulled without her consent having been obtained or otherwise determined beyond reasonable doubt). That WAS determined beyond reasonable doubt in court hearings in which the preponderance of evidence favored her husband’s position.
The matter of Terri Schiavo’s wishes concerning the degree of care she wanted in those circumstances seems to have been lost in the clamor of the debate over assisted suicide and “heroic care” directives. In any event, Mr. Schindler’s standing in the matter is inferior to Mr. Schiavo’s. Regardless of what people may conjecture about the state of the Schiavos’ marriage, the fact remains that they were lawfully wed, and a husband’s interests trump those of parents and siblings.
Please forgive me if I sound heartless, but as I’ve said I have little tolerance for BS, and that seems to be exactly what Mr. Schindler is dishing out in enormous quantities — even to the extent of trying to blame his opponents for his father’s death.
October 28th, 2009 | 8:00 pm
HW, You’re comments illustrate perfectly why PVS is a dehumanizing label that should be discontinued.
October 28th, 2009 | 9:37 pm
“She might as well have been dead (by which, I hasten to add, I don’t mean that the plug should have been pulled without her consent having been obtained or otherwise determined beyond reasonable doubt).”
Right, and, in spite of your following comment, the only “evidence” offered on that point was hearsay.
October 29th, 2009 | 9:15 am
bmmg39.
Perhaps it was hearsay, but one side’s hearsay was obviously more compelling than the other because the judge’s ruling was sustained.
October 29th, 2009 | 9:23 am
Lauren: What would you suggest as an alternative? I understand that the terms “vegetable” and “vegetative” can be offensive, yet we’re talking about a case in which the essential qualities — “essential” at least in my opinion — that make the difference between life and simply “being alive” are missing. Advanced medical technology can prolong “being alive” almost indefinitely; but to what end? I believe you will understand how this ties into my position on assisted suicide — which is to say, there’s more to life than simply being alive. In any case, we’re getting away from Mr. Schindler, who apparently has found a way to make a better living.
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