If Schiavo didn't have that child-like smile would the interest be there?

[LostInAnomie]

I think one of the cruelest ironies of the Terry Schiavo case is that despite the hell she has been in for the past 14 years she has that child like smile on her face. Not because she is doing it herself or even has the mental faculties to feel happiness, but because her lifeless brain placed it there. That image has been used by those religious right bastards to play on our sympathies and take the countries focus away from the fact that Terry for all intensive purposes is dead. She is nothing more than an animated corpse waiting to be relieved of her misery. If only her family would realize that the person they loved is no longer there.

Would she receive as much sympathy, and attention from the media if instead of a pleasant expression she had a twisted grimace that expressed the hell she is in?

[Warpy]

1. They had to wait HOURS for that footage.

Trust me, it's not a smile of recognition, or love, or enjoyment, or anything else. It's RANDOM.

[OldLeftieLawyer]

2. It's also very old footage now, I believe

I don't think she looks nearly that robust now. Feeding tubes are not something on which a body thrives and flourishes.

[LostInAnomie]

5. I know but that is the ONLY image the media lets us see.

That is how we know her "The Smiling Vegetable". The sad thing is that so many people see that "smile" and think "Well if she is smiling she must be ok. Why not just let her live?".

[ScreamingMeemie]

7. There was a baby who recently had an extra head (from an unformed

twin) removed from the top of his head. The head could smile and blink its eyes. Should the baby have had to go through life with the extra head? I mean it could smile! :hi:

[LostInAnomie]

8. Exactly

People are easily confused by what is nothing more than the random firing of a synapse.

[Worst Username Ever]

3. Better question: What if she were black?

I would like to say there would be the same level of RW obsession, but I doubt it....

[Quixote1818]

4. Poor and Black and this wouldent have even made the back page

of the Newspaper.

[MissWaverly]

6. also notice her face is excellently made up

people are just seeing that picture, they don't realize that this woman is in a passive state, they don't realize how limited her functions are. The court doctors who examined her, said that her brain has been severely damaged and that she will be always as she is now.

[kevsand]

9. Has anyone seen a recent image of her?

I know I haven't. The clip they keep repeating on the newz is over three years old. Why isn't there anything more recent?

I know the parents probably don't want anything recent, but who actually has the say so on this? Who is keeping us from seeing what she looks like today?

[serryjw]

10. ...or a black Gay man?

good point!