Things You Won’t Hear in the Mainstream Media About the Autopsy Report

Michelle Malkin has shed more light on the autopsy report on Terri Schiavo. The mainstream media (MSM) has misled us once again. I’ll give you a synopsis of Michelle’s findings.

1. The autopsy report does not support Michael Schiavo’s claim that she had suffered an eating disorder which caused her collapsed in 1991 or that she had suffered a heart attack.

2. This this reflects directly on Michael “Schiavo’s credibility regarding his claim that Terri would have wanted to die.”

3. While the autopsy report does cast doubts on the Schindler family’s believe that Terri suffered a traumatic injury it also notes that without comparing the autopsy record with original bone scans of “no other conclusion can be reasonably made.”

4. The report cannot determine when she actually lost her sight.

5. The autopsy report does not prove she was in a persistent vegetative state (PVS) although that is what most news articles portray.
Not Dead Yet , the disability rights group, sheds more light on this. PVS is a clinical diagnosis not a pathological one which means that it is not determined through an autopsy but rather an opinion by a “medical expert.” Not Dead Yet points out that there is no way to really know if someone is conscious and just because there has been significant brain atrophy that is not the same as saying she has no cognitive ability. This is where I find it most interesting — Stephen Drake, a research analyst for Not Dead Yet, said, “When it comes to the hard science, no qualified pathologist went on the record saying she couldn’t think or couldn’t experience her own death through dehydration.”

“Diane Coleman, president and founder of Not Dead Yet, agreed. “The core issues remain the same. Protection of the life and dignity and people under guardianship, and a high standard of proof in removing food and water from a person who cannot express their own wishes. These are issues of great concern to the disability community — evidenced by the 26 national disability groups that spoke out in favor of saving Terri Schiavo’s light over the past few years.”

I don’t think I could’ve said it better myself!

1 Comments:
At June 17, 2005 8:26 AM, Pastor Jack, Sr. said…
This is in response to this post and the one previous one on Wed.Having worked in a hospital counseling critically ill and dying people and their families I can assure you that the inability to respond in no way means there is no awareness of what is happening around them nor that they are unable to hear what is being said around them. I have seen people considered, by today’s standard, to be in PVS who later are able to respond tell what went on and what was said. We never discussed a patient’s condition in any negative terms in their hearing. We would however provide encouraging conversation. We live in a world today where modern technology can keep a person “alive” by putting them on a machine that breathes for them and causes their heart to keep beating by electrical stimulus. Once it is determined that there is no hope of a person recovering from this I have no problems with pulling the plug in these situations and in fact have been involved in helping people make these decisions, both families and patients. In these cases I consider that we are simply putting a person into the hands of a loving God and letting Him determine what happens. But food and water is not something that God has provided to be generated automatically in our system. We have to ingest them and when we, or others for us, refuse them we die. One would be considered suicide the other murder. So much for my 2 cents