Guardians laud Michael Schiavo for fulfilling wife's wishes

[sabra]

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http://www.sanluisobispo.com/mld/sanluisobispo/news/nation/12316077.htm

Guardians laud Michael Schiavo for fulfilling wife's wishes

DORAL, Fla. - (KRT) - He has been rebuked by the Vatican, castigated by Congress and slandered on the Internet, but Michael Schiavo was welcomed as a hero Friday by a state organization whose members make end-of-life decisions for people unable to make them for themselves.

The Florida State Guardianship Association bestowed its Guardian of the Year Award on Schiavo for carrying out his wife's wishes not to be kept alive artificially despite a drumbeat of withering criticism.

In a rare public appearance, Schiavo, 42, modestly accepted the award at the association's 18th annual conference at the Doral Golf Resort & Spa west of Miami.

"As you know," he said, "I'm not much of a speechmaker. I don't talk much. But on behalf of my wife Theresa, I thank you."

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[AuntiBush]

1. Finally, A Group Stood-Up for Mr. Schiavo

Jeb and all the rest should be ashamed. "Should be," but they won't. Mr. Schiavo has more integrity than all of his foes! Imagine, he'll carry this with him for the rest of his life and in the public's eyes - forever!

Frist, Bush and the rest are a disgrace!

[Cha]

3. They're Disgraceful

Ghouls.

[AuntiBush]

5. You Can Say that Again!

They (and we all know the laundry list of who they are) make me utterly sickened. Think of all he's had to rise above.

Hopefully, "they're" day will come. Karma, the bad kind.

[nosmokes]

8. talk about being raked over the coals

this poor guy was called everything but a human being by people that had no business whatsoever sticking their nose into what should have been a personal decision. and it is such a shame that the comfort that he could have given terri's parents they deprived themselves of by holding onto threads of false hope and resorting to the courts on the advice of supposed people of god who only had a political ideology to advance. that whole situation was cluster fucked the second someone twisted and manipulated religous doctrine for their own gain...

sound familiar?

real christ like actions seem to be the ones taken by mr schiavo himself - not holding a grudge against his in-laws, not filing lawsuits left and right, just going on about his way with quiet dignity.

[Rainscents]

2. He really was harassed badly by so many people.

I felt real bad for him what he had to endure. Good for him, he deserve to be recognized!

[NNN0LHI]

4. He is a better man than me I am afraid

I don't think I could have put up with the pressure from all the whack jobs like he did. Maybe I could have? I would like to think that I would have. But I suspect that I am only kidding myself.

Don

[SW FL Dem]

6. Good for them

These are people who actually have an idea of what he went through.

[Erika]

7. He ended Terri's hell on earth

No one would have chosen to live like that. He could have walked away rich and chose to instead do the right thing by her.

[Karmakaze]

9. The only thing I dont understand...

If she was essentially braindead, and had no concious awareness of what was happening to her, why did it matter so much that she die? I mean people keep calling her "life" a "nightmare" and "hell on earth" then saying she had abosultely no awareness of it.

So why make her parents suffer by having her feeding tube removed, if Terri herself had no idea of what was happening?

[Erika]

10. Because only a shell was there. Terri was not.

She had no privacy and was used as a poster child for the right to life fanatics. They said she could see, mutter, and recognize. No she could not. Her shell was being politically exploited.

Her husband had true guts.

[I Have A Dream]

11. To me, it has to do with the soul.

By her still being here physically, I feel as though her soul was stuck here still. To me, it would have been like a purgatory. (I'm using that word very loosely, but it describes the limbo that I'm trying to describe.)

[Erika]

12. I agree, the body and mind were meant to leave at the same

time. Her body was forced to be kept here.

[FormerOstrich]

13. I don't care is I have any awareness or not

I shudder at the thought of someone keeping me alive in that state. You rob what I was in life by not allowing me to completly die. I want to be remembered from good times, not a burden on others.

Personally, I don't believe it was healthy for her parents. They may have had a tough time with the feeding tube being removed but they needed to put closure to her death. In a lot of ways, I think it was the kindest thing that could have been done for them.

[Tigress DEM]

15. From what I understand, Terri didn't want to be in that situation.

And the choice (if one must be made) should be the individual's if they have made that clear to a loved one prior to ever having to face it. People should honor how someone wants their life to end in that situation. And it was something like 13 years...

I think her parents could have loved her enough to go to counseling and deal with their own grief in order to let her go, given the extreme amount of time involved. Knowing she wanted it that way would have made me face my own issues if I had been in that family. I would have felt it a way to honor the living spirit of the person I knew.

[leesa]

17. Did it occur to you that her husband was suffering watching her body

keep on living when she would NEVER be really alive again? She had been dead for years, why shouldn't her parents deal with it?

[dansolo]

19. Do you believe in a soul?

By not allowing her to die, you are trapping her soul in an essentially lifeless body. If you believe in heaven, then wouldn't you want for her to go there?

[Zhade]

14. Yay! A real hero gets the nod.

Nice to see that happen now and again!

[sabra]

16. no doubt!

When I first saw his name, I wondered, what are they going to say this time....

[Zhade]

18. "They" who? Freepers, or the idiots here who condemned Michael...

...for doing the right thing, based on their own ignorance?

They're welcome to each other, as far as I'm concerned!