Ron Demarest – 10/17/06

This page was last updated on October 22, 2006.

Refresher course needed; Ron Demarest; Beaver County Times; October 17, 2006.

I’ve critiqued previous letters on this subject and there’s nothing I can add regarding the circumstances. The purpose of this critique is to illustrate problems with the letter.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.

“Apparently, we can’t let Terri Schiavo rest in peace. The Beaver County chapter of Pennsylvanians for Human Life again demonstrated its vast knowledge of medicine and law with Yolan Shetty’s Oct. 5 letter (‘Schiavo was murdered).’ Debra Sturm, a nurse who is with the same organization, wrote earlier about Schiavo, stem cells and Plan B.”

[RWC] It’s funny whom Mr. Demarest accuses of not leaving Terri Schiavo to rest in peace. As a reminder, this thread was started when one of Mr. Demarest’s fellow travelers, Larry Gillespie, wrote a letter bashing Sen. Santorum for responding to the Schindler family (Terri’s natural family) requests for help to save Ms. Schiavo’s life.

Indeed, with this letter, it appears Mr. Demarest himself has no interest in letting “Terri Schiavo rest in peace.” Mr. Demarest also wasn’t interested in letting “Terri Schiavo rest in peace” in April 2005 when he wrote another letter entitled “She was a person, not a cause.”

“The level of disinformation in these letters is worthy of the KGB.”

[RWC] If you’ve read even one of Mr. Demarest’s letters, you have to get a chuckle out of him accusing someone else of “disinformation.” As the old saying goes, “it’s like the pot calling the kettle black.”

You also have to “admire” Mr. Demarest for comparing anyone who disagrees with him to internal security arm of an oppressive, murderous Communist dictatorship.

“In answer to Shetty’s question about where letter writer Brendan Jones could get information about Schiavo’s CT scans and EEG’s, they are a matter of public court records and available online, as is her autopsy report. The federal HIPAA doesn’t apply. At autopsy, Schiavo’s brain weighed 61.5 grams (1.35 pounds), about 40 percent normal, and 678 grams of cerebrospinal fluid was removed from her skull.”

[RWC] The Times issued a typo correction to the previous sentence on October 20^th. The correction said, “The sentence should have started: ‘At autopsy, Schiavo’s brain weighed 615 grams (1.35 pounds) about 40 percent of normal …’”

“The neuropathologist reported that fluid had replaced much of her brain tissue. He stated ‘the worst affected areas were the bilateral occipital lobes.’ The occipital region is the vision center. Schiavo was blind. Her eyes moved but there was no film in the camera to receive the image. She could not swallow. For 15 years, her ‘meals,’ were served through a surgically implanted gastrostomy tube. This is what they call food and water.

“Sturm and Shetty would have sentenced her to years more in this condition. Yes, when a brain has died, it can sustain the body so long as the brain stem functions, e.g., the 10-year survival of Karen Ann Quinlan after being removed from a respirator.”

[RWC] “Sturm and Shetty would have sentenced her to years more in this condition?” If Ms. Schiavo was really dead and didn’t know what was going on, then you can’t refer to her situation as a sentence. You can’t have it both ways, Mr. Demarest.

What did Mr. Demarest fail to note about the Karen Ann Quinlan case? While her parents didn’t want Ms. Quinlan keep alive by artificial means, they didn’t starve her to death when they found she could breathe on her own without the respirator. In an odd coincidence, both Ms. Quinlan and Ms. Schiavo were native Pennsylvanians.

“Jones had his facts right. Shetty and Sturm need a refresher in neurology.”

[RWC] I didn’t see where Mr. Demarest told us his qualifications.