The case has been sent to 19 courts.  No foul play, new allegations are last
ditch efforts to thrwart the will of the husband and courts.  No doctor who
has seen Mrs. Shiavo in person has concluded anything but, persistant
vegetative state.  All other doctors conclusions are not only illegal and a
breach of privacy let alone unethical but, are not conculsive since they
have not examined her fully.  The case isn't that she is on a feeding tube
it's that she's in a persistant vegetative state with no hope for recovery
of cognitive functioning and has been so for several years.  She is living
on Medicaid to finance her care at the hospice, ironic isn't it at this time
when  the government is cutting Medicaid.
Trust me, I fight for the right of children to live and work with many
children who look very similar to Mrs. Shiavo, it's a different case than
that.

Beth t the OT

-----Original Message-----
From: St. John's University Cerebral Palsy List
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Kathy
Sent: Thursday, March 24, 2005 6:47 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Terri Schiavo redux from Inclusion Daily Express

As to regards a feed tube, that's a matter of individual opinion, and if a
person has expressed the wish not to be on one, that should be honored.

Foul play by whom?  I have heard that many investigations have been done and
no evidence has been found that the husband has meant harm.  In fact, he
strikes me as a person who is stubbornly stuck to the principle that he
wants to honor his wife's wish that she not be kept alive if she were in a
vegetative state.  If his motive were truely money, he could have accepted
one of several offers of huge sums of money and simply walked away.  True,
he and his wife got a million dollars in a malpractice suit settlement but
most of that has gone to take care of Terri and to lawyer fees.  Yes, he's
living with another woman, but I think it shows a certain level of
committment to his wife that he has not divorced her to let her parents take
over and keep her alive against her wishes.  If he'd thrown up his hands and
said, "Let them take over, I don't care any more," he could have divorced
her and no one would really have blamed him.  He's still a young man and has
his own life.
There is no real evidence that he abused her, so again, no real evidence of
foul play in that regard.  If anything, if there has been foul play, I'd say
it would be the doctors if they  misdiagnosed Terri's condition, and the
lawyers because sure as hell no one else is making any money out of this.

Therefore since there has been no evidence of foul play on the part of
Michael Shiavo, the government has no business stepping in and intervening
 in an end-of-life decision that properly belongs to the husband.   I
 sympathise with her parents - it's horrible losing your child - but he is
her husband, he is her legal guardian, and he has the sole right to make
decisions for her since she has no means of expressing her wishes.  Even the
State of Florida, when it tried to take guardianship away from the husband
couldn't succeed as the courts found no evidence that he is an unfit
guardian.

I'd bet if Terri were the child and Michael her parent, none of this would
have been in question.

Kat