From a communication point of view, the facts of this story were terribly distorted. The parents' point of view and their videos got very widespread airing on TV, but the dry boring medical assessments got much less airing. As a result, many viewers got the impression the girl was in better shape than she was. Further, the Internet was used to transmit all sorts of false malicious gossip about her husband; he was doing far more to take care of her than generally described.
For those who read all the way to the back of the newspaper or watched the late night cable news, the full facts were shown. But most people don't or can't do that.
I'm sensitive to this issue because I went through it with a family member. When someone is that sick -- as I've seen in nursing homes -- they don't look or act as nicely as the parents' videos showed.
This kind of thinking is really disturbing. The intimates are certainly entitled to their point of view. However, other familes simply do not share those religious attitudes about medical care. A feeding tube is not lifting a glass of water, it is surgical procedure. Like any medical procedure, there is a choice of proceeding or not, and that must be weighed upon the expected the results.
This situation has shown there are some people who believe that every medical procedure possible must be applied or it is a "killing" as the priest above says. But other people do not see it that way. I'm afraid their views will be imposed on the rest of us.
That illustrated the lack of understanding in this case. They could've brought her all the food and water they wanted and it would not have done a damn bit of good.
What is sad is that many people refused to accept this medical fact. It was reviewed again and again by many doctors. Yet some others -- based only on what they saw on TV -- claimed otherwise.
Sadly, there was absolutely no real evidence of that. If any of that actually occured, there would've been no case or issue because no doctor would pull the tube given that.
I don't like to criticize the parents in their time of grief, but they chose to involve the country's legislators and turn this into a national spectacle. The fact is they were in denial about their daughter's condition. It is terribly painful for parents to lose a child and many parents don't handle it well. But that doesn't justify dragging in the US Congress.
[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I do not like to criticize the family or Ms. Shiavo's husband either in this time of grieving for all of them. But I really suspect that this 'lose-lose' situation for all of them -- and all of us, really -- is going to continue to backfire on the various politicians who persisted in sticking their nose into the mess, for example, the brothers Bush and certain other elements of the far right, including Terry Randall, all of whom, I suspect are hoping/ wishing that the stench will go away soon. Far too many newspapers and radio/television outlets have 'changed formats' to one of "All Schiavo, all the time" recently. PAT]