JUSTICE FOR TERRI SCHIAVO

This notable case that many Americans have yet to hear about was going on during the Terri Schiavo case. The Hanford Pinette case resulted in less than a years of legal battles between Alice Pinette, who was convinced that her husband would get better, citing periods of responsiveness when he talks to her and other relatives,and an Orlando hospital, who in petitioning the court to have Mr. Pinette's life support removed stated "The patient is terminally ill and has no medical probability of recovering from his current condition. He is being kept alive by artificial means, which is contrary to his stated intentions in his living will."

Dr. Sanjay Muttreja and Pinette's pulmonologist Juan Herran agreed that Hanford Pinette's "condition was not likely to improve. And they said he probably will not regain the ability to make his own decisions." David L. Evans, Orlando Regional Healthcare's lawyer, earlier told the judge that Hanford Pinette "has done the hard work for us" by signing the living will. Orange Circuit Judge Lawrence Kirkwood ruled that Pinette's "living will must be respected as his last wishes."

More simply put Mr. Pinette ,unknowingly, signed his own death certificate [a living will] thinking that  his wife of over 50 years would still be in control of his fate. Believing that his wife Alice should have charge over any end of life decisions that needed to be made Hanford Pinette "included his wife as the health care surrogate in the living will. Plus, she had power of attorney over medical decisions on her husband's behalf. His wife says he wants to stay alive. That's why she wouldn't consent to taking him off life support."

Alice Pinette came to the conclusion that her husband wanted to live based on 52 yrs of living with him and sharing each others' deepest feelings:  

"He is my lifelong partner. We've beenmarried for 52 years. If you take your time in asking the question, yes, he can tell you yes or no. To me that's killing the man, and I cannot do that and live with me. Thou shall not kill, and I cannot kill him I cannot do this and live with me myself]. When someone is talking to you, how can you do that?"   http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0411/23/acd.01.html

Those who sought to end Mr. Pinette's life were people [strangers] who had been around him for a few months, and had decided that his "condition was not likely to improve. And they said he probably will not regain the ability to make his own decisions." The hospital deliberately had the life of Mr. Hanford Pinette ended on "likely's" and "probably's"........

To me, the Pinette Case is proof that the 'old way' of handling sickness and death [handling things as we are faced with them] is far better than signing a piece of paper that has the potential to force one's death on them.

"I hope Mrs. Pinette will come to understand  why this was necessary . . . and will work with us to handle it in a private, dignified and graceful way," - David L. Evans, Orlando Regional Healthcare's lawyer  http://www.lawshaw.com/news_041124.php [Note: I find Evans statement "sick". There was nothing dignified about forcing Mr. Pinette to die.]

The Pinette Case was the first time a hospital had taken it upon itself to seek though the courts the right to  end a patient's life. Who's name will replace Alice Pinette's:

"I hope______________ will come to understand why this was necessary... and will work  with us to handle it in a private, dignified and graceful way,"

The issue of forcing wives, mothers and/or fathers to accept the forced death of a loved one is an issue that I take to heart. There is nothing in our American heritage that says "as medical advances are made- the life of the patient loses its value." Cases such as Terri Schiavo's [FL], Hanford Pinette's[FL], and baby Sun Hudson's[TX] have each helped strengthen the US pro-death movement. Unlike other right to die cases, not one of the three were in the process of actively dying -until they were removed from life-support.

Terri Schiavo's forced death took 13 days.

Hanford Pinette's forced death took less than an hour.

Terri Schiavo was starved to death without any attempt to feed her by mouth.

Hanford Pinette was "smothered" to death without any attempts being made to wean him from the ventilator before removing it.

It should be noted here that highly successful mouth-to-mouth resuscitation was reported by John Fothergill in 1744 but this technique fell into oblivion and was reintroduced with great success about 200 years later.

The history of mechanical ventilation extends over more than 450 yrs.  http://www.clinicalwindow.net/pdf/cw_issue_22_art2.pdf

My own son had a feeding tube [G-Tube] put in, in Nov. 1978.

The deliberate legal killing of Schiavo, Pinette, and baby Hudson had nothing to do with medical advances, and everything to do with killing those deemed unfit to live.

I have a suggestion: If medical advances are the reason for forcing death on those who's lives have been saved by ventilators, feeding tubes, and means of life support~ let us as American demand that all our tax-payer dollars being gobbled up by those in the medical field in the name of "research"  cease. The way it stands today we are being asked to foot the bills for a medical research system that has gone astray; that if not brought under control will succeed in researching humanity out of existence. 

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