Protect Yourself From the Schiavo Case Effect

[Sapphire Blue]

From The Yurica Report...

Because Congress has unconstitutionally usurped the courts in its attempt to bypass the wishes of Terri Schiavo and her husband, millions of Americans are asking how they can protect themselves from a similar fate. Here are a number of articles to help guide you on how to avoid Terri Schiavo's fate-- living as a vegetable for fifteen years.

Yurica Report's Editorial Note: A new survey by Findlaw.com finds that only 33% of Americans have a living will. Sixty-seven percent of Americans lack a living will, potentially leaving them with no say over whether they wish to receive life-sustaining medical treatment in the event they should become incapacitated or terminally ill. The national survey of 1,000 adults was conducted by telephone and results are accurate to within plus or minus three percent.

The Yurica Report brings you: Findlaw's Compilation of Information You Should Know To Protect You and Your Loved Ones
Many articles allow you to choose the laws which affect you from your own state. Just type in your zip code when asked and FindLaw will take you to your state's discussion.

http://www.yuricareport.com/Health_Issues/ProtectYourselfFromSchiavoEffect.html

[TaleWgnDg]

1. disclaimer . . .

.

Findlaw.com has a disclaimer for a reason -- with serious legal consequences:

"DISCLAIMER: The following form is provided for informational purposes only and is intended to be used as a guide prior to consultation with an attorney familiar with your specific legal situation. FindLaw is not engaged in rendering legal or other professional advice, and this form is not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. If you require legal advice, you should seek the services of an attorney." http://www.findlaw.com

Conclusion: Hire an attorney in your own state to draft any legal documentation.

[Sugarbleus]

2. Ka ching goes the register.... Lawyers are coming out of the

woodwork on this i$$ue. We have a legal Medical Power of Attorney with a directive on how we wish to be treated in the event of a medical catastrophy. We also have a do not resusitate order (DNR) giving specific details on if, when, or where this should happen.

It's FREE. But, we could've used an attorney, a notary public OR we have witnesses and doctors sign these documents.

Believe me, doctors/medical professionals in my area aren't in any hurry to keep disabled or poor disabled/sick people alive!!

That said: Yes, have documentation in place for every eventuality. You DON'T want doctors, politicians, or society making those decisions FOR you--EITHER WAY--when you're at a disadvantage.

[Sugarbleus]

3. PS: I am outrageously OFFENDED by the term "Vegetable".

When discribing disabled persons.

:grr: :grr: :grr:

[Banazir]

4. Describing ANYONE, really.

Vegetables are plants. Humans are humans. Calling any human (I don't care what state they're in) a vegetable is just... wrong.

[Sapphire Blue]

10. The opening paragraph, including the term ‘vegetable’

... came directly from the Yurica Report website (http://www.yuricareport.com/Law%20%26%20Legal/LawAndLegalDirectory.html)

Please accept my apology for including this insensitive & offensive terminology in my post.

[Sugarbleus]

13. Yikes, I just now read your apology.... I accept and understand

Thank you. My apologies for yelling at you. We've been a wee bit stressed out lately; I'm sure you understand.

It's behind us now... :hug:

[Sapphire Blue]

15. Wee bit?

Ms. Schiavo’s case has facilitated tremendous conflict across the country. My intent in my OP was to provide information & resources for those of us who would not want to be in Ms. Schiavo’s position of having her fate decided by others. Despite what the Court has decided, Ms. Schiavo’s wishes will never be truly known. We, the public, tend to offer our own opinions from our own perspectives & experiences… which hold true only for ourselves. It is crucial to have a health care directive, detailing treatment options either desired or opposed, and to discuss this directive with family members and health care providers.

You were offended by the terminology in my OP... no need to apologize for your feelings, though I do appreciate and thank you for the sentiment. :hug:

To add to your web surfing, if you haven’t visited these sites...

ADA Watch: http://www.adawatch.org/

DREDF: http://www.dredf.org/

[Sugarbleus]

16. Thank you again...I'm truly sorry

I've calmed down a good bit. It's the Easter holiday with company coming and food and eggs to prepare for the youngin's. I'm gonna take it easy.

I hope you have a wonderful day, no matter how you spend it.

Many many best wishes, SB :hug:

[Banazir]

5. Yeah, I have mine too.

On another part of the board, someone was asking if anyone had DPA and a living will in place. I was the only person who said that I had one in place of the "Spare no expense, keep me alive" variety. The response by the original poster was that I'd bankrupt my family. Lovely. The facts are that I know the risk of being a disabled person going to the hospital -- and the risk just plain statistically isn't that they'll save my life when I don't want it saved, it's the opposite -- and I don't want them to have any excuse to kill me before my time. It unnerves me that there are people calling themselves liberals who think only of the monetary expense of people like me and view the 'burden' mentality as a given rather than a product of a broken economic structure.

[Sugarbleus]

6. LOL... "Spare no expense, keep me alive" variety.

These are my sentiments too.

I know you're being serious but that statement reminds me of a sentiment I expressed once or twice (caused me to giggle): "Spare no expense, keep me alive, my kids deserve it"... My kids have caused me a boatload of trouble over the years. I was thinking, yeah, keep me alive and make them care for me... :evilgrin:

When I'm depressed I don't think much about living, but when I'm not depressed I WANT TO LIVE AS LONG AS I CAN. I do NOT trust the medical profession either. Certainly there are wonderful, caring physicians but that isn't the "norm". Healthcare, PT, mental health, and emergency room visits are especially dicy areas if you are a disabled person AND low income..using medicaid for example. (it's probably dicy with a typical private HMO too)

Yep, SOME liberals are starting to sound like repugs when it comes to: THE COST *echo echo echo* (reverb.) I'm sorry but with all that negative rhetoric I say: A POX on all their houses!

I cruised through the general forums today and found a couple posts by persons whom I KNOW are progressive liberals and who were on the side of NOT killing off brain damaged persons just out of hand like this.
It gave me some peace and a bit of hope.

*Progress report: "Hubby"/s.o. was kept in hospital for over a week this time. Woohoo In recent months, they've been turning him out after one day in emergency room. He got the WHOLE treatment this time, I'm happy to say. (Although he has been pumped full of prednisone and the poor guy looks like an inflatable doll, he's so bloated)

I'll tell ya of my encounter with the "Health Police"(:eyes:) while at hospital visiting..next time.

[pop goes the weasel]

7. yay for your hubby!

It is so hard to get proper treatment when you have a pre-existing disability. Did you read of the British study showing that developmentally disabled people die at an early age, not because of their conditions, but because routine illnesses are not treated?

[Banazir]

8. I never read it, but...

...as a developmentally disabled person, I'm not all that surprised. Given what I've seen. I'm glad someone's studying it, because there are other studies out there claiming that we don't have symptoms and just suddenly die. Which is people covering their ass about what they ignore about us until we die.

[Sugarbleus]

9. I did not but I will look into it.

I've been reading in disability websites all evening/morning now Yikes!

There is some very fine data out there regarding various disabilities, especially the pros and cons of health care.

While reading through so much of it, my local "liberal" radio talk show host came on so I sent him some info with my position on the Schiavo plight in terms of disability rights. WOW, did I get chewed out. Called a dumbass (in other words)ON AIR, called an otherwise intelligent person who lost their way etc...He did the same thing to a proclaimed feminist who called in with the same sentiments too :wow:

This is an AWEFUL situation. Fighting the Right AND the LEFT??? Holy Crap, I'm going to bed. My blood pressure is pegged.

Catch yall later. Be well :hug:

[Banazir]

11. Awful situation is right.

This is an AWEFUL situation. Fighting the Right AND the LEFT??? Holy Crap, I'm going to bed. My blood pressure is pegged.

My fears go something like this:

Terri will die.

Bush (and the right wing in general) will grandstand and blabber and so forth.

The left wing (if you can call the American left wing left wing, which I'm not so sure about) will latch onto the pro-euthanasia and pro-assisted-suicide stuff even more than before and decry disability rights activists even more than before as being dupes of the right wing. Anyone who is against this kind of thing on the principle that it devalues disabled lives will be labeled a fundie.

The right wing will use their current political clout to dismantle all the social programs disabled people need to survive, and tell disability rights activists that of course they care about us because they wanted to save Terri from those evil liberals, didn't they? Anyone against this kind of thing on the principle that it devalues disabled lives will be labeled a commie.

Neither the right nor the left will latch onto a real disability rights agenda, but both will pretend to do so with no particular understanding of disability rights. Fundamental assumptions about disability will go unquestioned. Disabled people will be tokenized whenever convenient to support someone's agenda.

The social conditions created by the right wing will drive more disabled people to despair and families towards pressuring disabled people into viewing themselves as awful burdens. Which everyone, right and left, will treat as a natural consequence of the way our bodies and minds work. Lots of us will commit suicide, and this will be considered natural rather than a result of oppression. Lots of us will attempt suicide and succeed because people thought our suicide was rational and didn't move to save us or talk us out of it. Lots of us will tell doctors we're suicidal and be offered a means to do it.

In other words, in one possible projection of the future through the polarized attitudes created by the way this case is being handled, we'll be screwed from both sides and our activists will be used by each side as fodder against the other as convenient to them. And as someone said somewhere, can't even remember where, we'll be the overlooked collateral damage in the war between the left and the right.

[Sugarbleus]

12. Ban, You've just laid this out so perfectly...

You are so much more articulate than I. Your fears are my fears as well. I can see the writing on the wall.

My hope lies with the disabled rights communities in using this tragedy to become STRONGER; to start to make themselves/us more visible. I guess I'm always looking for a silver lining in situations like these.

Right at this moment in time; I feel hopeless, I'm frigtened, I'm exhausted..emotionally, physically...and I'm raged out.

Days from now, with any luck, I'll feel refreshed, renewed and willing to continue the fight for the rights, the dignity of all disabled persons.

I started out working for the rights of the poor, the sick, healthcare for all, jobs, and affordable accessible housing...I hadn't thought DEEPLY enough about the rights that are being eroded for disabled persons..even though we are among the many who live with disabilities *wake up SB*<-----:spank:

I just want to thank you and the others who post in this forum for helping me to see what the bigger picture is; for sending me to sites with info I needed to read and LEARN anew and pass around.

I SO appreciate you. I would've been deeper in darkness without the information I received here in this forum.

Please be good to yourself.... you've made a huge difference (on so many levels) in my life.

:hug: SB

[LisaL]

14. I so agree. You have a right to want life support.

There is nothing wrong with wanting the medical professionals to do everything possible to save your life.