Reactions to Terri Schiavo Autopsy Report
Crooks & Liars has links to various blogs reacting to the report. The Republic of T says:
From WMD’s to persistent vegetative state, it’s the wingnut modus operandi: when reality doesn’t fit your beliefs, reject reality. The Schindlers clearly intend on taking it to new heights (or depths, depending on your view). And Michael Schiavo will not have them off his back until he’s in his grave, and probably not even then.
Majikthise notes how Nat Hentoff, usually a level-headed commentator on civil liberties, was a complete crackpot when it came to this issue.
Chris at the Unequivocal Notion says "Let me guess what the reaction from the right will be, if they even have one; it was probably an "Activist Doctor" who preformed the autopsy." Wouldn't surprise me!
A comment at TalkLeft says:
As everyone with untainted eyes was able to see, this was nothing more than a power grab on the part of the conservative Republicans, and a smokescreen to distract the American people from the real issues which cause the deaths of healthy people around the globe every day, such as the war in Iraq and the genocide in the Sudan.
Without such distractions as Terri Schiavo provided, the Republicans are forced to confront real issues. But they rely upon the gullibility and ignorance of their constituents, needing only two repeat falsehoods continually with the help of their media machine to subvert the will of the people and help them build the new American Empire from the ashes of our republic. All hail the new American Empire.
Terri Schiavo was, it seems, another "Damsel in Distress."
A practicing pathologist writes in the comments at Washington Monthly:
"No evidence of bulemia/don't know what caused the initial event"
I don't know what they _could_ have seen after 15 years. Bulemics who die right away sometimes have characteristic changes in their stomachs and elsewhere, but after 15 years, those changes would almost certainly be long gone.
Regarding her heart, myocardial infarcts leave scars, but arrhythmias show nothing at autopsy. When a young patient with an eating disorder goes down like that, and you don't find anything else, it probably was an arrhythmia. But that's based solely on the premortem events, because an autopsy 15 years later will provide "no evidence" of it.
As CBC News explains, the Schindlers (Terri's parents) reject the autopsy report:
The Schindlers said through a spokesperson they don't believe the results of the autopsy. They maintain their daughter wanted to live and that she could recover.
Bob and Mary Schindler say they plan to discuss the results with medical experts and may take further legal action, but they didn't specify what type.
I'm sorry that the Schindlers lost their daughter, but let's be honest here: these people are painfully and pitifully deluded. Reality and science are making absolutely no impact on the Schindlers' lives. Their faith in what they want to be true is so overwhelming and has consumed so many years of their lives that they may now be completely unable to face the truth, even when it's staring them in the face in the form of hard numbers.
The Schindlers, along with all the conservatives who join them in their deluded denials, are the ultimate example of what it means to not live in the "reality based community." Digby quotes people on Free Republic reacting to the autopsy report:
"Just because the vision center of her brain was blind doesn't mean her brain couldn't have compensated somewhere else."
"Considering that she died of intentionally inflicted starvation and DEHYDRATION, is it any wonder that her brain was half the size of a normal brain?"
"We have to remember that this is from the WaPo, not a credible news organization, so they might find it convenient to omit certain, necessary facts."
Well we do know that Michael owns the County Sherriff so how hard would it be for him to buy the Medical Examiner. The only way I would have trusted the autopsy is if it was done by the FBI...."
PZ Myers describes this as a "fascinating instance of the extreme right going insane" and he has a good point. The people who write things like the above are denial of reality in a manner similar to those who are mentally ill. They are living on faith rather than reality, ideology rather then science.
Publius reminds us of some of the things claimed by conservatives before the autopsy:
Tom DeLay, 3/20/2005:
Mrs. Schiavo’s condition, I believe, has been at times misrepresented by the media, but far more often has simply gone unreported all together. Terri Schiavo is not on a respirator; she can breathe on her own. Terri Schiavo is not brain-dead; she talks and she laughs, and she expresses happiness and discomfort.
Jerry Falwell:
[T]erri, who is not on life support, has never been on life support, she had a feeding tube in. A month ago, I had a feeding tube and I was on a ventilator, but I was not in a persistent vegetative state -- many people go through that. And Terri, Terri was not -- is not unconscious. She is aware, she's limited, she's unable to say and do as once she did, but she has a mother and father who love her.
Hannity & Colmes, 3/28:
BARBARA WELLER, ATTORNEY: . . . I took her arms and both my hands and I said Terri, if you could just say I want to live this whole thing could be over this afternoon. I said, just please try, you know, really hard and I just really begged her to try and say it. And I was most shocked person in the room when all of a sudden she just fixed her eyes on my face and opened the really wide and she just kind of got this look of determination on her face, and she said, "I" and then she kind of coughed and kind of got her strength again and really loud, she almost screamed "want."
John Hinderaker, "Who You Gonna Believe, Me or Your Lying Eyes":
I think that the biggest reason why so many people have been passionately engaged in the Terri Schiavo case is the video footage that millions have seen. I think pretty much anyone who sees it thinks--she's not dead. Severely disabled, yes. Dead, no. . . . Have you ever noticed how much faith liberals have in "studies"? And I believe it is undisputed that Terri Schiavo has never been given the tests normally used to diagnose a persistent vegetative state, apparently because her husband refuses to allow them. There may have been a time in my life when I had more faith in experts and studies than in my own eyes. But that was a long time ago.
Bill Frist (via Kevin Drum):
I question [the PVS diagnosis] based on a review of the video footage which I spent an hour or so looking at last night in my office . . . She certainly seems to respond to visual stimuli."
It's been proven, now, that none of these people had the slightest idea of what they were talking about. They are examples of what happens to a person when they allow themselves to be led too much by faith and wishful thinking rather than by reality, science, reason, and logic.
The next time someone tells you that faith can make a person's life fuller and happier, point them to the Schindlers and the many years they wasted — and continue to waste — in their faith that their daughter was still conscious and could still recover. Ask them whose lives were made fuller and happier when their faith caused them to turn their backs on reality or when their faith caused them to be used by right-wing ideologues for a political circus.
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