Not Dead Yet, Press Release

Not Dead Yet the resistance in Black Gothic Lettering

7521 Madison St * Forest Park, IL 60130 * Voice/TTY: 708-209-1500 * Fax: 708-209-1735 * TTY: 708-209-1826

For Immediate Release:
Contacts:
Rus Cooper-Dowda
727-527-9764

Diane Coleman & Steve Drake
708-209-1500

Disability Advocates Watch Court with Wary Eyes

Disability advocates from around the country are watching and waiting To see a severely disabled woman's life and death drama play out in Judge Greer's courtroom. One Not Dead Yet advocate will be present in court who has been in a coma twice, and heard people talk about "pulling the plug."

The courts, the medical profession, and her husband seem to be in a rush to kill Terri Schiavo, while significant questions remain regarding her own wishes in the matter, her own level of awareness, and her prognosis for further recovery. Fortunately, her execution was put off the "fast track" by the Court of Appeals, which granted her a reprieve.

Disability advocates have sided with Terri's parents, who have fought long and hard for Terri to be examined by qualified medical professionals of their choosing. The physicians who were finally allowed access to Terri have found that she recognizes and responds to her parents and would benefit greatly from rehabilitation.

Her husband and lawyer, supported by professionals entrusted with her care, describe her as being in a "persistent vegetative state," i.e. unconscious. She is not. To support their crusade to end her life, they've enlisted Ronald Cranford and other medical "hit men" who believe people like Terri are a waste of medical attention and resources.

Terri Schiavo's case is just the tip of a very ugly iceberg. In 1996, the British Medical Journal published a study authored by professionals from a leading neurological medical facility in Great Britain. The authors of the study found that fully 43% of the individuals referred to their facility diagnosed as being in PVS had actually recovered.

The trouble, the authors said, was that it took time and effort to really assess a patient's ability to react, communicate, and interact with others. Some came out of PVS after entering the unit. Others had already come out of it, albeit unnoticed by the referring physicians.

We call upon the courts and medical profession to give Terri Schiavo The full protection of due process of the law before starving her to death, and pretending it to be an act of "dignity" and "respect for autonomy."