Today's show touched on the Terri Schiavo case in two segments. The phones were lit up for the whole first hour with listeners wanting to put in their two cents and the email inbox filled up.

Why is the humanitarian concern for the suffering that MIGHT be experienced by Terry Schiavo's level of conciousness justified, yet the recent findings about the possible UN-humanitarian suffering of prisoners executed by lethal injection does not engender such? I would like to know how such seemingly contradictory positions might be justifed. -d.s.

I am concerned in light of the fact that we were, for example, told for many years that newborns felt no pain. Whoops--now we know they can. In medicine, in an area such as this, how do you assess what is dogma and what is really known about the persistent vegatative state? Research tends to start with assumptions based on existing dogma. -j.r.

Please see Media Matters Web site about dubious background of Dr.
Hammesfahr. Dr. William Hammesfahr, a Florida neurologist who claims that he can help Terri Schiavo, has promoted his treatment plan on Christian Broadcasting Network's The 700 Club and has been cited by anti-abortion activist Randall Terry, a spokesman for Schiavo's parents, in newspaper articles. But questions have been raised about Hammesfahr, who was disciplined by the Florida Department of Health in 2003, and news outlets that have repeated Hammesfahr's claims have ignored those questions.-m.p.

Why not let the Federal government decide all of these situations on a case by case basis? Surely there can't be so many of these rare decisions that the Government could not investigate them all? -g.b.

Thanks to this case, I have downloaded a living will to complete, so that my family never has to wonder if I really meant it when I said I don't want to be kept alive this way. We all, in my family, since as long as I can remember, have been saying to eachother, "if it happens to me, just pull the plug, have me cremated, throw my ashes down the toilet and throw a party." But it's true, when the moment comes, maybe one of us will hesitate or waver. Get a living will and tell everyone about it!!!-c.j.

A woman wrote the editor in the Times today, with a point that I appreciated. George Bush received a memo a month before September 11, warning him of a noted terrorist's determination to attack the US within it's borders. That did not pull him from his ranch in Texas. But to satisfy his extremist political base with the Schiavo issue, he got on a plane and flew to Washington immediately to sign a hastily drawn together piece of legislation. -s.b.

What's missing from this entire discussion of the Schiavo case is that we wouldn't even be at this point if our culture weren't so terrified of having a discussion about death and dying. We are all so unprepared on a practical, legal, and spiritual level. Having had to agree to "turn off the machinery" on a beloved family member, I realize that this is a serious issue. Fortunately, in our case, we had all discussed this possibility before we got to that juncture and everyone was in complete agreement on what to do. The person, my father, was not kept alive and did not suffer needlessly. -j.m.

Actually, most of the "money" the husband got has gone to her medical care. And isn't Medicaid what's paying for it now? Interesting, in light of the administration's desire to strangle the Medicaid beast.-j.m.s.

Initially, hearing the Federal Court judge's decision to not go against the Fla. court's decision, I was happy to hear that there was sanity somewhere in the Federal System. In discussing it with my husband, we started to think about exactly what the implication is to have this now appealed and put possibly to the Supreme Court. We have decided that there is a faction in play here that wants this to go to the Supreme Court as a way to have a ruling, not so much for the comfort of Ms. Shiavo's parents, but rather for "right to life." With this administration, this is not a far fetched notion.-j.t.
It always seems very odd to me that people who espouse the right to choose are considered to be anti-life. I’ve never thought that abortion is or should be considered an appropriate form of birth control, but that being said, it should not be a situation over which I or any government has the final say. The same is true about the right to die. Perhaps removing a breathing or feeding tube from a human being lying in a vegetative state is considered to be anti-life, but I would always believe that family members, close friends or enlightened and humane healthcare professionals would help me make a final passage from what was once my life to that state beyond the now. (I’d add the ridiculous contradictions that surround the death penalty as part of these discussions, but certainly not here.) The Republicans need to reconsider what they are doing. As turned off as many of us are to the indecision of the Democrats on what they believe, always seemingly based on the latest polls, the others strike terror into our hearts. Where and when will they stop in their arrogant self-righteous positions? They won’t. And where is the leadership among the Democrats to start that process of reversal? Will the Democrat Party ever emerge from its own vegetative state? Let us hope so.-b.m.

Posted by leboheme at 04:32 PM