by
Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
September 25,
2006
St.
Petersburg, FL (LifeNews.com) -- Bobby Schindler, Terri Schiavo’s
brother, says a recent nationally syndicated editorial written by columnist
Ellen Goodman is misguided and inaccurate. The following is a copy of
his letter to the editor to the Boston Globe newspaper reaction to her
opinion piece, “Playing
vegetative mind games.”Ms. Goodman:
I read your recent
column, "Playing vegetative mind games".
The lengths that
you and many of your colleagues continue to go to in order to somehow
justify the barbaric killing of my sister, Terri, are truly sad and
in my opinion a tragic reflection of how you and those that think
like you have truly misplaced your humanity.
What is so profoundly
frightening about what you wrote is the effort to use this scientifically
inaccurate persistent vegetative state (PVS) label to indiscriminately
decide when it’s permissible to kill those that are disabled.
As you pointed out in your column, there are tens of thousands of
people that have experienced a brain injury. The idea that certain
lives have somehow lost their meaning because they exist in this so-called
PVS, which according to you, is some type of "horrifying"
state of consciousnesses or lack thereof (not quite sure how you or
anyone would have knowledge of this) is equally alarming. It is this
form of lethal bigotry that my family battled in our efforts to get
help for my sister.
Recently, a British
research study concluded that the PVS diagnosis is in fact misdiagnosed
more than 40% of the time. Recognizing this finding along with this
most recent discovery, and others similar to it, one with any common
sense would have to agree that using the completely subjective PVS
“diagnosis” as the basis to kill the disabled is clearly
outrageous.
Incidentally,
I find it remarkable how the voice of disabled community has been
all but ignored by most of the popular media. Why are the persons
that are truly in harm’s way, the disabled, rarely mentioned?
There were thirty (30) local and national disability organizations
that publicly spoke out on behalf of Terri, yet their voices have
been silenced.
It seems to me
that in spite of your opinion (and many in the mainstream media for
that matter) the general public is just not agreeing with what you
and so many morally misguided individuals are promoting. Fortunately,
good people know the fundamental difference between right and wrong,
and have compassion for those that are most vulnerable. Regardless
of these dehumanizing labels, they realize that preying on the brain
injured is not a way of showing kindness, nor is it some form of altruism,
but rather a selfish and cowardly act by those who justify in their
minds that the killing of the weak and voiceless is somehow "okay".
It comes down
to this Ms. Goodman, and it's really very simple - it's not up to
you or anyone to decide.
Perhaps if you
ever had the opportunity to care for someone like Terri you would
understand why your article is so offensive not only to her memory
and my family, but also to the tens of thousands of brain injured
persons that you claim to speak for.
Bobby Schindler
Terri Schindler
Schiavo Foundation
727-490-7603
P.S. I thought
it would be helpful to you to include the names of the medical professionals,
many being distinguished neurologists, who either believed that Terri
was not in a PVS or could have been helped if Michael Schiavo and/or
the courts would have permitted it (all of their affidavits submitted
to Judge George Greer can be accessed on terrisfight.org).
Perhaps your
next article might make mention of them.
1. Dr. Jay Carpenter
2. Dr. Fred Webber
3. Dr. Jacob
Green
4. Dr. Alexander
T. Gimon
5. Dr. William
Scott Russell
6. Dr. Joseph
L. Brunner
7. Dr. David
L. Coulter
8. Dr. David
Hopper
9. Dr. Beatrice
Engstrand
10. Dr. Alyse
Eytan
11. Dr.
Harry Sawyer Goldsmith
12. Dr. William
M. Hammesfahr
13. Dr. Paul
Harch
14. Dr. Carolyn
Heron
15. Dr. Lawrence
Huntoon
16. Pamela Hyink,
SLP
17. Dr. Jill
Joyce
18. Dr. James
P. Kelly
19. Dr.
Philip R. Kennedy
20. Dr. Kyle
Lakas
21. Dr. Peter
J. Luca
22. Dr. William
Maxfield
23. Dr. Peter
J. Morin
24.
25. Dr. James
Avery
26. Dr. Ricardo
Senno
27. Dr. Stanely
A. Terman
28. Dr. J. Michael
Uszler
29. Dr.
Richard Weidman
30. Dr. Jon David
Young
31. Dr. Thomas
Mark Zabiega
32. Dr. Ralph
Ankenman
33. Carla Sauer
Iyer, RN
34. C.
Johnson, CNA
35. Heidi Law,
CNA
36. Sara Green
37. Dr. Laurie
Barclay
38. Dr. Rodney
Dunaway
39. Dr.
George Isajiw
40. Dr. Leonard
P. Rybak
41. Dr. Richard Neubauer
