Terri Schiavo Will Have Autopsy
Terri Schiavo will have an autopsy . (Via Michelle Malkin.)
I think this is a positive step. An autopsy would hopefully provide more definitive information regarding the state of Terri Schiavo’s brain. If it truly shows that her cerebral cortex had liquified, as many claim it has, that might prove reassuring to those in despair over her death.
Also, I hope that the autopsy is thorough enough to address any allegations that Michael Schiavo may have put Terri Schiavo in this condition to begin with. I have never advanced that argument, but if it’s not the case, it’s in Michael Schiavo’s best interest to have any such suggestion definitively ruled out.
It is quite possible that Michael Schiavo has been unfairly maligned because of this whole process.
Boman (6ec7ac) — 3/29/2005 @ 7:02 amBut when you set up an “adversary process”, which is what the court becomes, it’s what you get.
Instead of the court and the contestants believing they could correctly settle this matter, would that the court would have recognized it was unqualified to do so (which it hardly ever does), and instead have required expert medical diagnosis in an unbiased, totally professional process, with professional medical experts quiding the process,
rather than lawyers and the courts calling the shots.
If you say this is unfair criticism – well, look at the results. Could it have been much more screwed up?
“Her cerebral cortex had liquefied.”
“Her cerebral cortex had not liquefied.”
If the autopsy report doesn’t contain one of those sentences or one very much like them, we’ll still be arguing. Call it a hunch, but I’ll bet that any interested person will find something in that report to support what they’ve thought all along. Like you, Patterico, I hope this will clear things up. I doubt it, though.
Lance McCord (660d59) — 3/29/2005 @ 7:10 amFlorida law requires the approval of the Medical Examiner before a cremation can be done, so Michael can’t refuse an autopsy. The Autopsy.
kimsch (354c1a) — 3/29/2005 @ 8:51 amI hate to throw some reality at you guys….but, there’s ZERO possiblitity that M Schiavo will allow an autopsy. When the time comes for it, he’ll say, ‘on second thought…..’ and then there will be no media around to report it.
Also, there’s no way that her cortex is liquified…if it was, she would not be able to move her extremities at all!!!! and if you have watched any of the videos of her….terrisfight.org, see the clip, ‘SWAB’ where she moves her head and arm…you would see that. Also, what’s with all of M Schiavo’s DR’s saying that her EEG is flat?!….if that was the case she would be legally brain dead…and she would have ZERO movement…no blinking…no moving…nothing!
RHINO (aa1644) — 3/29/2005 @ 8:59 amI fear Lance M. has called it. The existing evidence is ignored by one and all, and this seems to be one of those battles that no one really wants to accept the court’s decision, and expert testimony, in settling. Look at the attention it’s getting!
Ruth (825b72) — 3/29/2005 @ 10:29 amThis tells us two things:
1) Conclusive diagnosis is not important to Felos and his client while Terri is still alive. The overarching goal has always been to kill her with all possible dispatch.
2) They want one examiner to rubberstamp Terri as a vegetable, not have performed a conclusive MRI on a still-living Terri that could be analyzed by competent physicians the world over.
When a reporter asked Felos about having Terri checked for evidence of abuse, he laughed it off. Surely Felos and his client will not allow any such examination.
clark smith (e68e8c) — 3/29/2005 @ 10:39 amIt answers the question Everyman posed last week. Whether the autopsy results will offer much in the way of clarification remains to be seen.
But we will be watching.
Everyman (a10622) — 3/29/2005 @ 11:48 amI don’t think “allow” is the right word. AFAIK, Florida requires autopsies before a body is cremated.
Xrlq (c51d0d) — 3/29/2005 @ 12:06 pmWe are all assuming that the autopsy will be performed by a county medical examiner. I don’t think that is a fair assumption, and I bet that the state requirement for an autopsy prior to cremation (if that requirement in fact exists) does NOT require an “official” autopsy by the medical examiner. (How could the county EVER autopsy ALL the bodies that are cremated? NOT possible!) I bet the body is autopsied by a hired gun of Felos… with results to match the Schiavo storyline. Betcha.
Susan (6c054a) — 3/29/2005 @ 12:20 pmI may be a simpelton of sorts but weather Michale caused it or Terry wanted it I think is besides the point. I wonder why everyone else wants to choose sides? Has no one wondered what the deeper issue (the national issue) is?
Steve M (41f27d) — 3/29/2005 @ 12:20 pmConcerned about Susan’s comment. Whatever Felos is, he is not stupid. What is to prevent him from bringing in someone from the pro-euthanasia camp to do the autopsy?
And another question which will confirm my ignorance on the subject: Are all autopsies performed to the same degree/extent? If the purpose is only to discover the proximate cause of death, does the procedure stop when (for example) a bullet is quickly discovered in a victims brain, or are all areas of the body carefully examined, dissected, etc. in every case?
Old Coot (72ce38) — 3/29/2005 @ 3:29 pmI really do hope this will shed some light on her condition, also. But one thing I fear is that each side is so firmly planted in their position that nothing the autopsy may produce will have much of an affect.
michael (f8b7d7) — 3/29/2005 @ 4:12 pmOld Coot (and those with similar curiosities): yes, there are different types of autopsies just as there are also different types of pathologists who perform those different procedures for to determine different issues.
What I’m intensely interested in here, as Old Coot also mentions, is who is the pathologist who will perform what type of autopsy on the body of Terri Schiavo?
And, to frame that question, it is also very difficult to have to discuss Terri Schiavo’s “(dead) body” since she is still alive and approaching death under such terrible circumstances.
Not like she’s having much of an opportunity in this end-of-life issue, either, which is only more grim news about an ever increasing grim situation.
-S- (fcdd92) — 3/29/2005 @ 4:53 pmI read the autopsy reports from the Marilyn Monroe and Bobby Kennedy and even they were highly contested and debated and still are for years afterward and soon after they were made available. It depends upon who conducts what type of autopsy and how credible they are as examiners, along with the methods used during their examinations (what’s preserved, what isn’t, what’s recorded [well] and what isn’t, etc.).
-S- (fcdd92) — 3/29/2005 @ 4:55 pmPlease see my comment above. Michael has NO SAY in the autopsy. He can not refuse it. He has no say in who performs it or what they look for.
The Pinellas County Medical Examiner is the one with the power here. He must approve any request for cremation.
Michael “approved” something he has no control over, just for P.R.
kimsch (354c1a) — 3/29/2005 @ 5:10 pmAccording to the NYT the autopsy will be performed by Pinellas County’s chief medical examiner, Jon R. Thogmartin. I would expect him to be pretty thorough considering the circumstances.
James B. Shearer (fc887e) — 3/29/2005 @ 5:15 pmAs far as I understand it, the nly really useful examination in this sort of xase is a ARI scan, and that is only pointed with live patients. Of course, htis is the particular test that the husband refuses to allow; Why?
BG
ben gun (42b8d8) — 3/30/2005 @ 3:13 pm