Blind Man's Love - The Lesson of Terri Schiavo's Autopsy

[Modem Butterfly]

According to Terri Schiavo's autopsy report, her "lateral geniculate nucleus (visual) demonstrated transneuronal degeneration with gliosis." Or, as the medical examiner put it in plainer English, "Her vision centers of her brain were dead. Therefore, Mrs. Schiavo had what's called cortical blindness. She was blind, could not see."

That isn't what Schiavo's parents, pro-lifers, and congressional Republicans told us all these years. They said videos showed her eyes following people and objects. "Based on the footage provided to me … she does respond," Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist declared three months ago as he spearheaded a congressional invasion of the case.

To pro-lifers, the meaning of the videos was as plain as the eyes on your face. "Streaming video of Terri Schiavo apparently glad to see her mom," one Web site advertised. "Terri looks over, sees her mom and gets a huge smile on her face," reported another. "As you can readily see, Terri is obeying commands," said a third. Several sites posted a common list of video links that began with Terri watching a balloon and Terri's alert eyes. "Seeing is believing," they concluded. "Now that you have seen, do you believe that this woman deserves to be starved and dehydrated to death?"

But now we know she was blind. She didn't see her mom. She didn't see the balloon. Her eyes weren't alert. We didn't see in her what we thought we saw.

How did we get it wrong? We know what blinded her. But what blinded us?

http://slate.com/id/2121020/

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. Prejudice

in this case, the parents and their supporters saw what they wanted to see. People who understood the phenomenae of brain death realized that that didn't mean people lying, motionless, eyes closed, which is how it is usually depicted on TV and movies.

[Sandpiper]

2. What blinded the parents? Denial and delusion

What blinded the rest? Religious fanaticism.

[Nobody]

3. Have you read Katherine Kersten's column?

This is yet another one of the Rabid Righties who keeps on beating a dead horse, expecting to ride off into the sunset on it.

The column read exactly the same as if she'd written it at the height of the media circus and missed deadline.

None are so blind as they who will not see.

[preciousdove]

4. Perhaps...

Discovery magazine had an article that says we have a second more primitive eyesight in a different area of the brain that detects movement and allows us to move out of danger quickly but it does not make pictures in our brain. I didn't look it up just now so I don't know if it applies here but thought it should be mentioned as a possibility for what we saw in the video.

We also become trained to look at places where sounds originate.