What Will Michael Schiavo Do?

realtraveller · #1 03-10-2005, 08:58 PM

A businessman has offered Michael Schiavo $1,000,000 if he transfers guardianship of Terry to her parents.

http://www.earnedmedia.org/ga0310.htm

**theworm**[$] · #2 03-10-2005, 09:01 PM

I heard this today.
He won't take it.
I think the offer is insulting.

*emeleel* · #3 03-10-2005, 09:04 PM

I think either way he goes he's screwed in the public opinion. (Not that he isn't already.) If he takes it, he looks like a greedy heel. If he doesn't take it, he looks like he's just itching to pull the plug.

**drmomentum**[$] · #4 03-10-2005, 09:43 PM

Indecent proposal.

-JP

**mjfrombuffalo**[$] · #5 03-10-2005, 10:01 PM

I would think that he doesn't much care about public opinion - he's taken an unpopular stand and stood by it because he says it's what his wife would have wanted.

**jgibson2**[$] · #6 03-10-2005, 11:07 PM

Now we get to find out if he can stick to that position in the face of this $$$ offer.

Indecent proposal? Depends on your POV. I bet her parents don't think so.

**theworm**[$] · #7 03-10-2005, 11:20 PM

I'll honestly be shocked if he takes the money. I truly believe that he's fighting for what his wife wanted. If I'm wrong, you can say I told you so - I'll be stunned.

I DO think it is an indecent proposal, and yes, I'm sure that her parents don't. What should have been a private family tragedy has become a public debate issue. I CAN understand that her parents would do anything to keep her alive, and while I don't agree with them, my heart breaks for them. I think that offering the husband money is insulting and adds to the magnitude of this tragedy.

frazzledspice · #8 03-10-2005, 11:59 PM

What is interesting about this businessman is that he isn't your traditional pro-life advocate. The article says that he supports stem-cell research AND keeping Terry Schiavo alive with a feeding tube.

Right-to-Life organizations would be praising him in one breath and sending him to hell in the next....

I can only assume that he believes that there is hope that stem cell research might someday restore Ms. Schiavo's brain and give her some quality of life, and that he wants her to have that opportunity.

I don't think that attempting to pay off Mr. Schiavo is the right approach, but I kind of like this businessman. Out of everyone in this debate, he is the only one who not only wants her to live, but wants her to live because he holds out the hope that she will someday have a good quality of life. No one else in this debate seems to feel that way.

**jgibson2**[$] · #9 03-11-2005, 02:13 AM

Quote:

frazzledspice said

What is interesting about this businessman is that he isn't your traditional pro-life advocate. The article says that he supports stem-cell research AND keeping Terry Schiavo alive with a feeding tube.

Right-to-Life organizations would be praising him in one breath and sending him to hell in the next....

[off topic]
Actually, that would depend on what sort of stem-cell research he supports. He says

Quote:

I have seen miraculous recoveries occur through the use of stem cells in patients suffering a variety of conditions

To date, the only successful treatments have come from the use of cord blood stem cells and adult stem cells. The article doesn't say he supports embryonic stem cell research. There's a great deal of confusion in the media -- much of it from ignorance, but some doubtless purposeful[/off topic]

Anyway, back to the issue at hand, he's not the only one who thinks she has a chance at some better quality of life. Her parents have insisted all along that if her husband had spent the money on therapy that he's poured into legal expenses, that she'd have made much more progress.

poseidon · #10 03-11-2005, 09:08 AM

Quote:

frazzledspice said

Out of everyone in this debate, he is the only one who not only wants her to live, but wants her to live because he holds out the hope that she will someday have a good quality of life. No one else in this debate seems to feel that way.

It was my understanding that the parents are fighting because they believe she may one day wake up, despite what most experts have told them.

**theworm**[$] · #11 03-11-2005, 10:29 AM

What makes this so tragic is that (right or wrong) I TRULY believe that both the husband AND the parents are acting out of love and respect. This issue is so driven by emotion and personal beliefs. I think that Michael really thinks that there is no hope and is trying to respect his wife's wishes by not sustaining her in this helpless state. The parents still have hope for her recovery and desperately want to give her every chance to recover. There is no compromise in this scenario, and its sad that it has become a public debate.

frazzledspice · #12 03-11-2005, 10:41 AM

Quote:

theworm said

What makes this so tragic is that (right or wrong) I TRULY believe that both the husband AND the parents are acting out of love and respect. I think that Michael really thinks that there is no hope and is trying to respect his wife's wishes by not sustaining her in this helpless state. The parents still have hope for her recovery and desperately want to give her every chance to recover. There is no compromise in this scenario, and its sad that it has become a public debate.

I agree, Delia. I keep coming back to the fact that Terry Schiavo fell ill due to anorexia, and was voluntarily starving herself. It is ironic that she has now been forcibly fed for fifteen years. I do wonder what she would have wanted. For that reason, I do feel that Michael may be acting out of love.

Where there is profound brain damage, a patient will not recover on her own. When several EEGs have shown only brain stem activity, it will take a miracle, or, perhaps, some type of stem cell transplant, to one day allow her to regain some function. Her swallowing reflex will be gone. Her muscles will have atrophied. Her bones will have calcified. This is the sad prognosis of the best case scenario, one my friends in a similar situation live with each day.

I didn't know what type of stem cell research the businessman was referring to, Judy. Most stem cell research going on (especially abroad) appears to be with fetal cells.

I think it's a great idea for new parents to have their child's cord cells saved, but it doesn't do much for those of us who are over the age of 3 or 4. If we want cures for the rest of us, they'll have to come from adult stem cell research or fetal stem cell research.

**MrsNormanMaine**[$] · #13 03-11-2005, 02:13 PM

Michael Schiavo has won in every court of law. Terri's parents know they cannot win legally and decided to use the court of public opinion instead, demonizing him in any way he can. I have admired Michael for sticking to the moral high ground throughout the media circus. (To date, he has only ever done one interview and he had to be prodded into that). I do believe he's acting out of love and respect for Terri and trying to carry through her wishes despite all the forces arrayed against him and he's stayed a steady course. I assume he'll find the offer completely insulting, even if it was ten million or a hundred million; I hope I'm not wrong.

How many of us have discussed personal issues with a spouse that we have not or would not discuss with our parents. If the parents end up winning, it will do far more damage to the concept of marriage legally than gay marriage ever could.

Dr. MNM

**theworm**[$] · #14 03-11-2005, 02:15 PM

Amen.
I have my living will and power of attorney all set up. Do the rest of you?

erik_kosberg · #15 03-11-2005, 02:22 PM

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercu...a/11111431.htm

Quote:

The husband of brain-damaged Terri Schiavo on Friday rejected a San Diego businessman's offer to pay him $1 million to drop efforts to remove her feeding tube, a proposition that Michael Schiavo's attorney labeled "offensive."

Other such offers - one for $10 million - already have been made and rejected during Michael Schiavo's legal battle for permission to stop his wife's artificial feedings so she can die, his attorney, George Felos, said.

**theworm**[$] · #16 03-11-2005, 02:38 PM

Hadn't heard about the other offers.
If that doesn't convince people that he's holding his grounds for the right reasons, I don't know what will. I know this is a hot issue, and I know that a lot of people disagree with me, but I really hope they let that poor woman die in peace already.

**mjfrombuffalo**[$] · #17 03-11-2005, 03:27 PM

Quote:

theworm said

Amen.
I have my living will and power of attorney all set up. Do the rest of you?

You also need a health care proxy. Living Will only covers near-death, power of attorney only covers business transactions; health care proxy covers all decisions made for your physical care if you are incapacitated, not just life-or-death ones.

**theworm**[$] · #18 03-11-2005, 03:30 PM

Quote:

mjfrombuffalo said

You also need a health care proxy. Living Will only covers near-death, power of attorney only covers business transactions; health care proxy covers all decisions made for your physical care if you are incapacitated, not just life-or-death ones.

I thought that the Power of attny did that. I'll read all the papers. I think I'm covered, but I'll check - Thanks!

**mjfrombuffalo**[$] · #19 03-11-2005, 03:33 PM

Quote:

theworm said

I thought that the Power of attny did that. I'll read all the papers. I think I'm covered, but I'll check - Thanks!

At least in NYS, P of A doesn't cover health care decisions. I had to get HCP for my grandmother in order to put her in a nursing home; otherwise the hospital would have simply discharged her, which was not a safe scenario, or made their own decisions for her care.

**theworm**[$] · #20 03-11-2005, 03:35 PM

I'll check - thanks for the heads-up!

**drmomentum**[$] · #21 03-11-2005, 05:39 PM

I regret using only the word "indecent" before.

Let me try again.

Crass, sordid, offensive, insulting.

I'm attempting to put myself in his place, of course. If my wife were in the position and I knew her wishes, the offer of any sum of money to stop me from carrying out what I bleieve would be what she wanted when she could not defend herself from the prospect of living in a vegetative state would be an insult to my loyalty to her.

Even if you agree with the parents, I find it hard to believe the offer itself could be seen any other way. Such an offer is far outside the realm of respectfully disagreeing -- it shows disrespect to the intentions of the recipient. Once rejected it can only be interpreted as insulting.

Money for your deeply held beliefs?

I suppose it wouldn't be insulting to offer money to a Jew to break kosher, or to a Catholic to desecrate a church if I really, really wanted them to do it and I had the money.

Well, maybe it is just my point of view.

-JP