Euthanasia: Mercy or Murder?

[FORD]

Didn't Metallica make a song about that.... which was based on a movie.... which might have actually been a true story?

I think I'd rather be in the actual Hell than be stuck in that kind of state. Or maybe I'm just saying that because it's too goddamned cold here?

[jhale667]

"Hold my breath as I wish for death...."

Didn't Metallica make a song about that.... which was based on a movie.... which might have actually been a true story?

I think I'd rather be in the actual Hell than be stuck in that kind of state. Or maybe I'm just saying that because it's too goddamned cold here?

Kind of...based off a movie (which may have been based on a true story, can't remember the name of the flick, though) - dude gets his arms, legs and FACE blown off in an artillery explosion in the war, the docs think he's a vegetable 'til he starts spelling out "KILL ME" in Morse code by bobbing what's left of his head....


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[Seshmeister]

Did you hear about that guy that was diagnosed as in a "vegetative state" for 20+ years that recently came out of it (he's still a mess, but learning how to communicate again)? He says he was AWARE the entire time , but couldn't move or respond...what level of HELL is that?
:

It's an interesting story because it has been COMPLETELY FALSELY reported all over the media.

It's a fucking disgrace it really is.

This con woman bitch of fuck is pretending to be able to help him communicate when if you watch the video closely she is just completely making up the shit herself.

Fucking witch!

The terrible thing is the tiny possibility that he has got back a little bit of consciousness only for this cunt to take over.

As pointed out by by a neurologist -

NeuroLogica Blog Dr. Laureys Responds Regarding Man in Coma

The problem is that the communication shown on these videos is simply impossible. We see Linda Wouters, Houben’s “facilitator”, looking intently at the screen and typing away, while Houben looks away with his eyes closed. No one can one-finger type without looking at the screen. Wouters claims to read the subtle clues from Houben’s intent – this despite the fact that clinical exams revealed his hand was completely paralyzed. The video also does not show what Wouters claims – following subtle muscle clues is very difficult, and would require (if at all possible) a gentle touch and some time to zero in on the intent, most likely with some overshooting . Again, what we see in the video is a woman typing very fast and precisely using Houben’s paralyzed hand.

This case must also be viewed in the context of history of facilitated communication (FC) – a technique introduced about twenty years ago to allegedly allow the cognitively or motor impaired to communicate by typing. The theory was that some people are just too weak to move their hand around to type, so a facilitator will support their hand while the client directs the movement. However, testing showed that this technique was nothing more than self-deception – specifically the ideomotor effect. It is the facilitator who is doing all the communicating.

Despite utter scientific failure, FC lives on in the fringe of legitimate therapy. It is also often a cruel form a pseudoscience. Family members have been deceived into thinking their impaired children were writing poetry, only to have that delusion taken from them. There have also been numerous accusations of physical and sexual abuse made via FC. FC is a destructive pseudoscience that leaves victims in its wake.

People including me have read and heard about this case in the media and taken them at face value when it's bullshit.

In layman's terms they thought the guy was a vegetable but he's actually not but he's not fully conscious drifting in and out of deep sleep/coma.

[Seshmeister]

Watch this video being wrongly reported in the BBC and explain to me how in a million fucking years the cunt knows which key he is selecting.

BBC News - Paralysed Belgian misdiagnosed as in coma for 23 years

There is even a video where he isn't looking with his eyes closed.

It's incredible that so many reporters have been duped by this...

It's frightening.

You could be gone and this sick cunt comes in and grabs your hand and starts typing out your will with it...

[jhale667]

If that's the case, that bitch should forcibly Euthanized herself...

That lady does seem to be typing awfully fast, but there are points were he does appear to be at least trying to pay attention to what she's doing...

Fucking sick if that's indeed what she's doing to the poor guy...but one wonders...Stephen Hawking doesn't need a "Facilitator" to use the device he uses to type sentences that are then voiced for him...why haven't they tried letting him use something more like that?

Interestingly -though slightly off-topic, was reading a story about Hawking and Jason Becker (probably the two longest known survivors - I guess you can call it that - of ALS) meeting, and Hawking thinks the eye-movement/letter grid system Becker worked out with his father and caretakers is WAY more efficient...

Last I heard Hawking's health was in serious decline though, poor guy...whereas Becker has seemingly plateaued...not getting any better, but not getting any worse...

[Seshmeister]

Hawkings is awake and selects the letters himself.

This 'facillitating' cunt is supposedly receiving messages from his paralyzed hand and selecting letters at 10 times the speed anyone in perfect health could communicate to her.

The only thing worse than being locked in unable to move your body would be to sit there whilst this witch made up your thoughts.

I would euthanize her with my boot!

[Seshmeister]

Watch the shitty CBS report at 1:17.

It's so bad it's almost funny, the guy is lying there with his eyes closed whilst she types away furiously...

<embed src='http://cnettv.cnet.com/av/video/cbsnews/atlantis2/player-dest.swf' FlashVars='linkUrl=http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=5759694n&releaseURL=http://cnettv.cnet.com/av/video/cbsnews/atlantis2/player-dest.swf&videoId=50079979,50079989,50079988,500799 87,50079985,50079984,50079983&partner=news&vert=Ne ws&si=254&autoPlayVid=false&name=cbsPlayer&allowSc riptAccess=always&wmode=transparent&embedded=y&sca le=noscale&rv=n&salign=tl' allowFullScreen='true' width='425' height='324' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' pluginspage='http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer'></embed><br/><a href='http://www.cbsnews.com'>Watch CBS News Videos Online</a>

[Seshmeister]

The more I look at this the more annoyed I'm getting although I'm 2 weeks late on this.

This Cruel Farce Has To Stop!


This Cruel Farce Has To Stop! PDF Print E-mail
Swift
Written by James Randi
Wednesday, 25 November 2009 00:00

Update!

For those who may need further evidence for my contention, the proof can be found at Belgian coma man was awake for 23 years -- where it is clearly seen that the “facilitator” is looking directly at the keyboard, while the subject is asleep! There can be no further doubt. This FC claim is simply untrue, a farce, a lie – and the “facilitator” knows it! And no, this man is not going to write a book, but the "facilitator" is, and if this humbug is not stopped, she'll make a fortune doing so. Put a stop to this, someone!"

But who will see that the caretakers for this unfortunate man are corrected and made to answer for this situation?

Original article:

I'm enraged. Several perceptive persons have sent me to msnbc.com - where we can see Dr. Nancy Snyderman relating a story. It's a heartrender, described thus by Dr. Snyderman:

A mother [in Belgium] says her son has emerged from what doctors thought was a vegetative state to say he was fully conscious for 23 years but could not respond because he was paralyzed.

No, that is not what the man said, Dr. Snyderman. That's what an incompetent layperson typed for him! I ask you to first go to Dr. Nancy, and note the section of the video from 12 to 35 seconds, then come back here.

This is yet another obvious example of abysmal, practiced, purposeful ignorance by medical personnel - including Dr. Snyderman and her staff who prepared this piece. I cannot understand how anyone, professional medical person or layman, can continue to believe that the farce known as "Facilitated Communication" [FC] represents anything other than a fantasy that was begun back in 1977, when an Australian woman named Rosemary Crossley came up with the idea that autistic persons could express their thoughts via a keyboard when their hand was "supported" by what she called a "facilitator." In 1989, Douglas Biklen, a sociologist and professor of special education at Syracuse University, eagerly took up her cause, and as a result vast sums were donated to SU by friends and family members of autism victims - money that was simply wasted in futile "research."

I personally investigated this matter. In March of 1992 I was contacted by Dr. Anne M. Donnellan, of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who asked if I would be willing to participate in an investigation of FC as used with autistic children. I was already familiar with FC, and suggested to her that I felt the researchers were perhaps under the influence of the Clever Hans Effect [CHE], also known as the "ideomotor effect," in which the trainer - the facilitator in this case - was unconsciously transmitting the information to the autistic child. This possibility was emphatically denied by Dr. Donnellan, and I was assured that every care had been taken to ensure that the CHE was not in operation. The Clever Hans Effect is notorious in psychology. Early in the last century, a horse named Clever Hans - in German, der Kluge Hans - was claimed to have been able to perform arithmetic and other simple intellectual tasks. In 1907, psychologist Oskar Pfungst showed conclusively that the horse was not actually performing these mental tasks, but was reacting to cues provided by his trainer.

My tests of autistic children at the University of Wisconsin-Madison clearly showed that FC was simply a tragic farce. My findings were totally ignored. The full account of this matter will be discussed in detail in my next book, A Magician in the Laboratory.

The "facilitated communication" process consists of the "facilitator" actually holding the hand of the subject over the keyboard, moving the hand to the key, then drawing the hand back from the keyboard! This very intimate participatory action lends itself very easily to transferring the intended information to the computer screen. In the video you have just viewed, it is very evident that (a) the "facilitator" is looking directly at the keyboard and the screen, and (b) is moving the subject's hand. The video editing is also biased, giving angles that line up the head of the subject with the screen, as if the subject were watching the screen.

This man in the msnbc.com piece is not seeing the screen. He is not aware of what is going on. He is an unknowing victim of these charlatans. A simple test - such as that done on October 19th, 1993, in a Frontline (PBS) documentary highlighting these concerns, "Prisoners of Silence," would prove that FC is a total fraud. This powerful and comprehensive program proved that FC was a delusion.

Dr. Snyderman, how did this get by you? The evidence is right there on the screen! Others have solved this fraud. The Association for Behavior Analysis International (ABAI), the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and the American Association on Mental Retardation, have no doubts about this. ABAI calls FC a "discredited technique" and warns that "its use is unwarranted and unethical." The Association for Science in Autism Treatment reviewed the research and position statements and concluded that the messages typed were controlled by the facilitator, not by the individual with autism, and that FC did not improve language skills.

We critics of FC question why people can apparently give speeches in public - via a keyboard and a "facilitator" - and go to college - similarly "assisted" - yet they cannot answer a series of simple questions under controlled conditions! Psychologist Daniel Wegner, professor of psychology at Harvard University and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science has stated that facilitated communication is a striking example of the ideomotor effect, and tests of FC show that it is a complete fraud, farce, and delusion!

Please, Dr. Snyderman, may we hear from you, in light of what appears here?

[Seshmeister]

I completely 100% guarantee this case will be falsely cited in ten thousand blogs and everywhere all over the internet the next time a Terri Shiavo case comes up...

[GAR]

Falling thousands of feet wouldn't be so bad, good fun really. Lots of people pay to do that.

What a way to go though!

[sadaist]

Kind of...based off a movie (which may have been based on a true story, can't remember the name of the flick, though) - dude gets his arms, legs and FACE blown off in an artillery explosion in the war, the docs think he's a vegetable 'til he starts spelling out "KILL ME" in Morse code by bobbing what's left of his head....


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Johnny Got His Gun. Originally a book, then made into old movie. Funny thing, the book in my high school inside the front panel you write your name when you check it out. All the heads names were in there.

Johnny Got His Gun (1971)

[FORD]

I'm surprised Lar$ hasn't sued the book's publisher for royalties.

"Hey nobody read your fuckin book until they saw our video. So we want our cut"

[sadaist]

I'm surprised Lar$ hasn't sued the book's publisher for royalties.

"Hey nobody read your fuckin book until they saw our video. So we want our cut"

LMFAO!

Now that's some serious channeling there. Did you hold a fucking seance? I could 100% see him doing that.

[standin]

When God (all that there is) sees fit for us to understand and accept "psychic" he will provide the devices and technology to read it scientifically.
The "channeling" of this lady, is not record-able by human means. Therefore does not exist by God's decree.

[Seshmeister]

It took a few months but they got there in the end I suppose.

Problem is it will no doubt still be cited falsely although there are similar stories about how it was a fake at the BBC, Washington Post etc.

I wish we still had a ducking chair or stocks to stick that deceitful witch in...

http://www.metro.co.uk/news/814078-23-year-coma-man-rom-houbens-communication-proved-to-be-fake

23-year coma man Rom Houben's 'communication' proved to be fake

Apparent attempts at communication from a man who had been in 'a persistent vegetative state' for over two decades have been proved to be faked.



Last November, Belgian Rom Houben, who had been in a vegetative state for more than 20 years following a car accident, reportedly began to communicate by typing with the assistance of a speech therapist.

It was a hailed as breakthrough and a miracle.

Footage of Houben apparently typing out his thoughts on a keyboard while the therapist 'guided his hand' attracted worldwide media attention and gave hope to families with loved ones in a simlar state.

"Powerlessness. Utter powerlessness. At first I was angry, then I learned to live with it," was one of Houben's 'statements'.

At the time there was considerable scepticism, with commentators questioning about the speed of the typing, noting that Houben wasn't even looking at the screen and suggesting that it was the therapist behind the messages.

Now Dr Steven Laureys, Houben's neurologist, has thoroughly dismissed the possibility that his patient was genuinely communicating.

Laureys carried out a 15-stage test in which Houben saw or heard reference to 15 items.

He was then asked to use his single, incompletely paralysed finger to press the corresponding word on the touch screen - without the help of the speech therapist.

But he failed on every item. To make sure the test was fair, Laureys gave the same test to another, impaired patient, who successfully completed the test.

Meaning that Houben's therapist must have been doingmore than just guiding his finger.

It would appear that Houben is conscious, and images of his brain activity are only slightly differently from that of a healthy brain, and Dr Laureys and his team at University of Cambridge University have developed a brain imaging technique that allowed them to converse with a paralysed man previously thought to be in a vegetative state.

Regrettably, the procedure is 'entirely unsuitable' for Houben as 'one attempt ended without usable results because spasms make it nearly impossible for Houben to hold his head still'.