Terri Schaivo: The Bias of "Experts"

The neurologist chosen by Michael Schiavo to examine his estranged wife, Terri, is a right-to-die activist who has been a featured speaker for the pro-euthanasia Hemlock Society!

Dr. Ronald Cranford testified in the court cases before county court Judge George Greer that Terri Schiavo was in a persistent vegetative state with no hope of recovery. Cranford is a member of the board of directors of the Choice in Dying Society, which promotes doctor-assisted suicide and euthanasia. He was also a featured speaker at the 1992 national conference of the Hemlock Society. The group recently changed its name to End of Life Choices. In 1997, Cranford wrote an opinion piece in the Minneapolis Star Tribune titled: "When a feeding tube borders on barbaric." In that piece he blamed "right-to-lifers" and "disability groups" for discouraging families from making the choice for euthanasia. He applauded European values that embrace euthanasia.

Cranfor writes: "The United States has thousands or tens of thousands of patients in vegetative states; nobody knows for sure exactly how many," he wrote. "But before long, this country will have several million patients with Alzheimer's dementia. The challenges and costs of maintaining vegetative state patients will pale in comparison to the problems presented by Alzheimer's disease." The answer, he suggested, was physician-assisted suicide.

His diagnosis of Terri has been disputed by Dr. William Hammesfahr, who said, "I spent about 10 hours across about three months and the woman is very aware of her surroundings. She's very aware. She's alert. She's not in a coma. She's not in PVS." Hammesfahr added, "With proper therapy, she will have a tremendous improvement. I think, personally, that she'll be able to walk, eventually, and she will be able to use at least one of her arms."

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

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http://abstractappeal.com/schiavo/infopage.html

Anonymous said...

I feel that this is murder. For the fact is what happen to all the money that Terri's husband got for malpractice suits. To me its sounds like a way to get money from what ever insurance he has or something. Why would he want to prove what his wife died from if it wasnt needed for another purpose. I think Terri should live. Everyday when I see the news do a story on her she looks more lively but yet in pain from lack of water and food. Think if this was you would you want to go through what Terri is going through. And if Terri wanted to die wouldnt she just go into a coma or whatever and give up but this Woman isnt doing that which means even though she is in a veggie state she knows what it means to die or to live. I feel we need to find a loop hole in the legal system to allow us to put a feeding tube back in Terri.. What happens if she lives like this for a month or more are they going to finally put the tube in. I feel that if her husband doesnt want her. Then let the people who want her to live to help her.