And the removal of Ms. Schiavo's feeding tube has been pushed to the 18th.

[conuly]

Here.

Before people start debating this, let's get the following out of the way:
She doesn't use a ventilator.
She's not "hooked up to a machine" to live.
She isn't on life support, at least not as it's been defined to me.
She uses a feeding tube to eat. Removing this would cause her to starve to death/dehydrate.
Her parents say that she's minimally aware.
Her husband disagrees, and says that she didn't want to live like this.
He is living with another woman.
AFAIK, nothing from the insurance went to cover therapy for her.
It is argued that this therapy could've improved her condition.


Now you can go duke it out in my journal.

Comments

[wakasplat.livejournal.com]

I wish we could get a "jury of peers" for disabled people, so WE could be the ones making policy on whether or how we get to live or die... Ths kind of case (Schiavo, medical marijuana, accommodation rights, etc.) always feels to me like a jury of rich white sorority girls in 1940 deciding what punishment to assign to a poor black guy for looking at them wrong.

Only knowing how such things work, it'd be something like a jury of Christopher Reeve, Elizabeth Bouvia, etc. :-/ (That's what happens when disabled people get appointed to a lot of state agency positions, they find tokens who are either acquiescent or have a lot of internalized ableism.)

And yeah, part of my fear is fear that it could happen to me or others I know in the wrong situation. I know people who right now could no more prove they were aware than she can.

[kibbles.livejournal.com]

My (step) mother in law is actually a professional witness/consultant for court cases, insurance companies, individuals and their families. She actually has mentioned something about family members who see the disabled person or the injured person as some sort of ATM machine. There are times where she has to set up things to make sure the money goes to schools, therapists, any home construction for accessability, and so on. I'd imagine it's not an easy job, between the side that wants you to cut corners, and the side that wants everything and then some. (Like someone who wanted to relocate to some tropical island -- great for mom, but for her child, in need of a life of therapy and special schooling, not so hot. But hey, who cares when you live in such a paradise, right? Yeesh.)

[ex-chaos-by-699.livejournal.com]

What's wrong with Christopher Reeve?

I'm just curious. I know very little about disability activism.

[conuly]

He made a big deal about curing his paralysis - stem cell research and all that. This is a good thing, to be sure, but he also made specific comments about how he "wasn't really interested in lower curb cuts" and so on.

[kibbles.livejournal.com]

There is going to be a lot of push for accessability in the coming years as the baby boomers have harder times getting around. They're gonna be sorry they didn't speak out when they were out jogging and taking step classes and all that.

(I, for one, appreciate ramps, curb cuts, and the like. Not for the time I spent in a wheelchair, but for my day to day life as a mother who has to use a stroller. Access is a good thing, and benefits more than people realize.)

[leora.livejournal.com]

I appreciate curb cuts, and I bet nobody realizes that. It's the lack od depth perception - steps are hard on the ankle when you can't quite naturally judge them the way you're used to. So, steps always require just a little extra impact on my feet and it adds up. You know the feeling you get when you think there's a step and there isn't or there was a step and you didn't notice, a bit like a small version of that all the time, quite annoying and thus best avoided.

So, I support curb cuts for the blind.

[kibbles.livejournal.com]

I have a hard time judging steps, never noticed with curbs. I had an accident, one leg is longer than the other now, and I don't know what it is, all I know is that it's hard for me to do steps, stairs.

It's funny, I can go up with no problems with perception, but it's painful.

Going down doesn't hurt as much, but I can't 'find' the next step.

I'm going to take more notice of curbs. I wonder too if because I have the stroller so often I use it as a walker. When I first started walking again, I did use it for just that. For support, balance, and the like. Hrm.

[moggymania.livejournal.com]

Only knowing how such things work, it'd be something like a jury of Christopher Reeve, Elizabeth Bouvia, etc. :-/ (That's what happens when disabled people get appointed to a lot of state agency positions, they find tokens who are either acquiescent or have a lot of internalized ableism.)

That crossed my mind after I posted my comment. My idealistic thought is that it'd be nice if we could somehow guarantee that the jury would be made up of more progressive people, but I have no idea how we could guarantee that, not to mention (of course) that it's precisely what the typical-bodied *wouldn't* want. If it were a realistic goal, chances are we wouldn't need to have such a committee in the first place!

"And yeah, part of my fear is fear that it could happen to me or others I know in the wrong situation. I know people who right now could no more prove they were aware than she can."

Even beyond that, too, some people refuse to accept evidence even when the individual can blatantly demonstrate awareness; they'll just come up with reasons to disregard it. Or they'll say that merely being aware isn't enough, that somebody needs to have a "quality of life" and then refuse to recognize anything outside their own preferences/experience as being worth living for. (It's hard to go beyond that in sheer arrogance, in a way...)

[wakasplat.livejournal.com]

Even beyond that, too, some people refuse to accept evidence even when the individual can blatantly demonstrate awareness; they'll just come up with reasons to disregard it.

True. There's always Wendland. :-/

Or they'll say that merely being aware isn't enough, that somebody needs to have a "quality of life" and then refuse to recognize anything outside their own preferences/experience as being worth living for. (It's hard to go beyond that in sheer arrogance, in a way...)

Yeah. I don't even know how to react to that one anymore. It seems impossible to shake people's imaginary horror scenarios of <gasp> not being able to do certain things. (Now that Clint Eastwood's snuff film won a couple Oscars, I imagine it'll be even more difficult.)