Just when you thought life couldn’t get any better, rich white people are here again to save the day! First they put Bill ‘Persistent Vegetation‘ Frist in charge of the One Vote ‘08 campaign, and now this! A wonderful video w…

Senate Majority Leader, Dr. Frist believed that Terri Schiavo, a brain-damaged woman whose husband wanted to remove her gastric feeding tube, should not have been diagnosed as persistent vegetative state (PVS). In a lengthy speech delivered on the Senate Floor, Frist challenged the diagnosis of Schiavo’s physicians: “I question it based on a review of the video footage which I spent an hour or so looking at last night in my office.” The Washington Post reported that Frist was criticized by a medical ethicist at Northwestern University for making a diagnosis without personally examining the patient and for questioning the diagnosis when he was not a neurologist.[22] After her death, the autopsy showed signs of long-term and irreversible damage to a brain consistent with PVS. Frist defended his actions after the autopsy. Because of his speech and his status as a licensed physician, various complaints against Frist were filed with medical oversight organizations, but those organizations lacked jurisdiction to take any action. However, Senator Frist did not make a diagnosis of Terri Schiavo’s condition, but rather commented in his speech that he had viewed a video provided by her parents and based on his review of that video, he thought further consultation was required.