Pink, Supple.....and dead.
Protesters campaigning to keep Terri Schiavo alive
Terri Schiavo died today. In fact she probably died 15 years ago when her cortex was destroyed.
In 1971, a 21-year-old Vietnam War veteran, Daniel Joseph Fiori was about to marry his childhood sweetheart.
The story is continued by Peter Singer in his thought provoking book “ Rethinking Life & Death”.
“Ten days before the wedding, a motorcycle accident left him severely brain damaged. He made slow progress in rehabilitation, but was still in a Philadelphia hospital for war veterans in 1976. Then, as a result of an apparent medical error, he suffered a seizure and went into a persistent vegetative state. Now (the book was published in 1994) forty-four years old, he lives in a nursing home, his condition unchanged. His care costs the federal government, which has acknowledged its responsibility for medical malpractice, $150,000 a year. His mother, Rosemarie Sherman, visits him every day, but prays at night “that God will take him”. Nor does she rely on prayer alone. She asked the nursing home to remove her son’s feeding tube. The nursing home said that it required a court order to do so. At the first trial, the court granted the order, but the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office appealed. A three-member panel of the State Superior Court upheld the appeal, saying that in the absence of any “ clear and convincing evidence” of Fiori’s preferences, he must be kept alive. Given the length of time Fiori has now been incapable of expressing any preference about such a matter, it seems improbable that such evidence would be forthcoming. As this book goes to press Joey Fiori is still alive, and the case is continuing its way through the courts.” The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania Eastern District decided the case on 2nd April 1996.
Joey died a year earlier. t
posted by Tony @ Thursday, March 31, 2005
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home