Tuesday, March 22, 2005
They Lie About Everything: Schiavo Tapes Edition
First the scans, now the tapes. The tapes untouched by the selective editing of those who want to pretend that Terri Schiavo still has a functioning cerebral cortex. By now, we've all seen the short little video snippets that the Schindlers and Randall Terry want us to see. Here's what they don't want us to see. Thanks to Bob Somerby for going back to November of 2003 and the St. Petersburg Times for this choice tidbit on what the unedited Terri Schiavo tapes really show:
The single most dramatic moment occurred when William Hammesfahr, a Clearwater neurologist picked by the Schindlers, asked Schiavo to open her eyes. At first, her eyelids barely flutter. She slowly turns her head toward Hammesfahr, gradually opening her eyes. Then her eyebrows lift into an exaggerated arch - the kind of face a cartoonist might draw to show astonishment. A lay person could easily conclude that she somehow tapped into a latent reservoir of cognition, even if just for a second. Hammesfahr and her parents bubble with excitement. "Good job!" the doctor exults. "Good job, young lady!" But she never pulls it off again, or anything remotely like it. For nearly an hour, her parents and the doctor tell her to open her eyes, close her eyes, look this way, look that way - with little apparent response. Judge Greer counted. "By the court's count, (Hammesfahr) gave 105 commands to Terri Schiavo and, at his direction, Mrs. Schindler gave an additional six commands," Greer wrote. "He asked her 61 questions and Mrs. Schindler ... asked her an additional 11 questions. The court saw few actions that could be considered responsive to either those commands or those questions."Oh, and did I mention that Hammesfahr is not exactly respected by his peers? (Unless he counts quacks and crooks among them, that is.)
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