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Politics : Dutch Central Bank Sale Announcement Imminent? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: sea_urchin who wrote (22874)	4/11/2005 3:18:53 AM
From: GUSTAVE JAEGER	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 81105

Re: Gus > the decision to terminate her vegetative agony Agony for whom? Oh, sorry! I forgot that you can probe into the minds of vegetative cripples... I meant, "...terminate her vegetative BLISS".

To: sea_urchin who wrote (22874)	4/11/2005 5:10:44 AM
From: GUSTAVE JAEGER	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 81105

As I said, Terri Schiavo died FIFTEEN years ago... What was left of her was but a soulless, flabby carcass: Schiavo to Die Painlessly, Neurologists Say John Roach for National Geographic News March 28, 2005 The legal wrangling is effectively over: Doctors will not reinsert the feeding tube that kept Terri Schiavo alive for 15 years. Within days the brain-damaged 41-year-old Florida woman will die. What will she go through in her last days? To find out, National Geographic News asked several neurologists for a medical explanation of Schiavo's condition. They all agreed that, assuming that Schiavo is in fact in a persistent vegetative state, she will not experience physical pain. Persistent Vegetative State On February 25, 1990, Schiavo suffered severe brain damage when her heart stopped because of a potassium imbalance. Oxygen was cut off from her brain for about five minutes. Courted-appointed doctors have consistently said that the brain damage from the cardiac arrest left Schiavo in a persistent vegetative state (PVS). She is unable to eat or drink on her own and, without assistance, will die. James Bernat is a professor of neurology at the Dartmouth Medical School in Hanover, New Hampshire. He said PVS patients suffer damage to the parts of the brain involved in awareness --the cerebral cortex, the thalamus, and the connections between them. The brain stem, which is responsible for basic functions like breathing and wakefulness, continues to operate relatively normally. "This neuronal damage creates a state in which the patient is awake but unaware. The patient's eyes are open while awake and closed while asleep," Bernat said. PVS patients lack anything resembling a normal, conscious experience, according to Roger Albin, a professor of neurology at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. "A person in that state is completely unaware of anything, including themselves," he said. Bruce Sigsbee, a neurologist in Rockport, Maine, added that a PVS diagnosis "requires that there is no demonstrated response to any environmental stimulus beyond simple reflexes" --involuntary movements, such as when a doctor bangs on a patient's knee. Environmental stimuli used to gauge awareness can range from simple to complex. Examples include touching a patient, giving a simple command, applying what should be moderately painful pressure, and waving an object in hopes of stimulating eye movement. [...] news.nationalgeographic.com