Product Description
This digital document is an article from National Right to Life News, published by Thomson Gale on October 1, 2006. The length of the article is 867 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Breakthrough Research Shows Consciousness in PVS Patient.
Author: Gale Reference Team
Publication: National Right to Life News (Magazine/Journal)
Date: October 1, 2006
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 33Issue: 10Page: 20

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This digital document is an article from Family Practice News, published by International Medical News Group on November 15, 2003. The length of the article is 599 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Ripple effect seen from Fla. tube feeding decision: Pandora's box. (Florida, Terry Schiavo case).(News)
Author: Betsy Bates
Publication: Family Practice News (Magazine/Journal)
Date: November 15, 2003
Publisher: International Medical News Group
Volume: 33Issue: 22Page: 10(1)

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Product Description
This digital document is an article from National Right to Life News, published by Thomson Gale on September 1, 2006. The length of the article is 1122 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: More Encouraging Signs that Severely Brain-Injured Patients Can Improve.
Author: Gale Reference Team
Publication: National Right to Life News (Magazine/Journal)
Date: September 1, 2006
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 33Issue: 9Page: 17

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Product Description
This digital document is an article from Issues in Law & Medicine, published by National Legal Center for the Medically Dependent & Disabled, Inc. on September 22, 2003. The length of the article is 2906 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: In re Guardianship of Theresa Marie Schiavo: opinion of the Court of Appeal of Florida.
Publication: Issues in Law & Medicine (Refereed)
Date: September 22, 2003
Publisher: National Legal Center for the Medically Dependent & Disabled, Inc.
Volume: 19Issue: 2Page: 157(6)

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Product Description
This digital document is an article from National Right to Life News, published by National Right to Life Committee, Inc. on June 1, 2001. The length of the article is 1120 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Another Dimension of Death.(Brief Article)
Publication: National Right to Life News (Magazine/Journal)
Date: June 1, 2001
Publisher: National Right to Life Committee, Inc.
Volume: 28Issue: 6Page: NA

Article Type: Brief Article

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This digital document is an article from Health Law Journal, published by Health Law Institute on January 1, 2009. The length of the article is 8641 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: The Manitoba college of physicians and surgeons position statement on withholding and withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment (2008): three problems and a solution.
Author: Jocelyn Downie
Publication: Health Law Journal (Magazine/Journal)
Date: January 1, 2009
Publisher: Health Law Institute
Volume: 17Page: 115(23)

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Product Description
After the Nancy Cruzan case was decided by the Supreme Court in 1990, and ultimately resolved by the Courts of the State of Missouri, the decision to withhold or withdraw life-prolonging nutrition and hydration appeared to many to be as noncontroversial as decisions to refuse respirators or dialysis. Even the Catholic Church held that, although there should be a presumption in favor of providing nutrition and hydration, the patient or the patient’s surrogate could overrule this presumption, if either believed the treatment was disproportionate or burdensome.

The Schiavo case changed all that. Although the decision to remove Terri Schiavo’s nutrition and hydration was made by her husband—her legal surrogate—based on his wife’s belief that such treatment was disproportionate, Schiavo’s immediate family protested so much that the case took years to resolve. It eventually involved all branches of government at both the state and federal levels.

The ethical dilemmas that such cases pose continue to stir great controversy. This in-depth examination of these dilemmas provides information and documentation from many perspectives. The editors have included a foreword by Dr. Jay Wolfson, Terri Schiavo’s court-appointed guardian ad litem, as well as Dr. Wolfson’s report to Gov. Jeb Bush on the case and Gov. Bush’s reply; public statements by President George Bush and Senators David Weldon, Rick Santorum, Tom DeLay, Bill Frist, and Barney Frank; statements by the pope and other representatives of the Catholic Church on this issue; plus much medical and legal background material on both precedents to the Schiavo case and its aftermath, including the results of the autopsy report.

For anyone wishing an in-depth understanding of these complex ethical issues, issues many of us will have to confront in our own families, this volume is indispensable. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

TERRI SCHIAVO: THE DOCUMENTS OF HER CASE
Arthur L. Caplan, James J. McCartney, & Dominic A. Sisti, editors
The Case of Terri Schiavo:
Ethics at the End of Life

(Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books: [...], 2006) 352 pages
(ISBN-10: 1-59102-398-X; paperback)
(ISBN-13: 978-1-59102-398-2; paperback)
(Library of Congress call number: R726.C357 2006)
(Medical call number: WB60C377 2006)

This is a collection of writings previously published
having some bearing on the case of Terri Schiavo.
Some are provided as background medical ethics.
Others specifically discuss the case of Terri Schiavo.

Main sections: Facts and other cases of patients in PVS;
Florida legal decisions; Federal actions: courts, Congress, President;
Roman Catholic positions on patients in PVS; aftermath.

This reviewer found the Roman Catholic section the most useful.
It shows that many different Catholic moral thinkers
have faced the issue of what to do with patients in PVS.
Most of these thinkers find some situations
in which it would be permissible to disconnect life-support systems.

This volume can be used mainly as a source book:
It presents the basic facts and general opinions for further study.
The introduction to each section is rather brief.
And some of the more technical documents, such as the autopsy report,
could have been explained in terms more readily intelligible to laypersons.
Other books about Terri Schiavo
provide deeper analysis of the implications of her case.

If you would like to read other reviews of similar books,
Search the Internet for: "Books on the Right-to-Die".

James Leonard Park, advocate of the right-to-die with careful safeguards.

Primer on End of Life
There have been several books on Terri Schiavo. Jon Eisenberg wrote "Using Terri". He was the lead counsel for Michael Schiavo, Terri's husband in his litigation with the Schindlers (Teri's parents). The Schindlers had also written their own book, "A Life that Matters". Their lawyer himself wrote "Fighting for Dear Life". Michael Schiavo wrote "Terri: the Truth". These books are clearly partisan and some, especially that of the Schindlers were highly emotive. "The Case of Terri Schiavo", edited by Caplan, McCartney, and Sisti is a compilation of various materials written contemporaneously or shortly after the case(s) - the Terri litigation involved many rounds in various courts. Some of the materials in Caplan's book were clearly non-partisan. They might be described as "objective" in the sense that they were documents prepared impartially even though the conclusion favoured one side instead of the other. One such document was the autopsy report. There were others that were not objective. Most of the less objective ones were based on religious beliefs rather than fact, evidence, and reason. Edward Furton's article in the book, for example, questioned the basis which a person can be said to be "unaware". Furton believed in the Catholic view of the human soul (whatever that might be). Such writers have not answered the basic question that Ronald Dworkin posed in "What is Sacred?" (Bioethics, Oxford University Press, 2001). Even assuming that a person in a persistant vegetative state (as Terri was)could regain momentary consciousness from time to time (which wasn't the case with Terri Schiavo), the question would be whether that person would desire continued medical treatment or be left to die without further and useless treatment? Would that person himself/herself wish to be in THAT condition - physically paralysed, unconscious 99% of the time, and in rare moments of wakefullness, be incacapble doing anything. The materials in Caplan's book will help the reader contemplate this question rationally. The non-rational religious declarations only serve to highlight how unreasonable we can be when it comes to the rights of other people. As Dworkin wrote: "Making someone die in a way that others approve, but he believes a horrifying contradiction of his life, is a devastating, odious form of tyranny."

Essays cover everything from legal issues and points to ethical concerns
At first glance it would seem that THE CASE OF TERRI SCHIAVO: ETHICS AT THE END OF LIFE is another focus on her case alone - but actually its focus on end-of-life ethical questions holds far more meaning for the living than for the dead of the past. The ethical dilemmas surrounding end of life are many - and are surveyed in depth in a coverage which uses not just Terri's case but similar cases to expose issues, struggles and obstacles to quality of life and survival. Essays cover everything from legal issues and points to ethical concerns.

Diane C. Donovan, Editor
California Bookwatch
... Read more

Product Description
Girls, memory, parenting, millennial fear -- all served Coupland-style.Karen, an attractive, popular student, goes into a coma one night in 1979. Whilst in it, she gives birth to a healthy baby daughter; once out of it, a mere eighteen years later, she finds herself, Rip van Winkle-like, a middle-aged mother whose friends have all gone through all the normal marital, social and political traumas and back again!This tragicomedy shows Coupland in his most mature form yet, writing with all his customary powers of acute observation, but turning his attention away from the surface of modern life to the dynamics of modern relationships, but doing so with all the sly wit and weird accuracy we expect of the soothsaying author of Generation X, Shampoo Planet, Life After God, Microserfs and Polaroids from the Dead.Amazon.com Review
In this latest novel from the poet laureate of Gen X--who ishimself now a dangerously mature 36--boy does indeed meet girl. Theyear is 1979, and the lovers get right down to business in a veryCouplandian bit of plein air intercourse: "Karen and Ideflowered each other atop Grouse Mountain, among the cedars beside aski slope, atop crystal snow shards beneath penlight stars. It was aDecember night so cold and clear that the air felt like the air of theMoon--lung-burning; mentholated and pure; hint of ozone, zinc, skiwax, and Karen's strawberry shampoo." Are we in for an archetypal'80s romance, played out against a pop-cultural backdrop? Nope. Onlyhours after losing her virginity, Karen loses consciousness aswell--for almost two decades. The narrator and his circle soldier on,making the slow progression from debauched Vancouver youths tosemiresponsible adults. Several end up working on a television seriesthat bears a suspicious resemblance to The X-Files (surely aself-referential wink on the author's part). And then ... Karen wakesup. Her astonishment--which suggests a 20th-century, substance-abusingRip Van Winkle--dominates the second half of the novel, and givesCoupland free reign to muse about time, identity, and the meaning (ifany) of the impending millennium. Alas, he also slaps a concludingapocalypse onto the novel. As sleeping sickness overwhelms thepopulace, the world ends with neither a bang nor a whimper, but auniversal yawn--which doesn't, fortunately, outweigh the sweetness,oddity, and ironic smarts of everything that has preceded it. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (179)

It wasn't THAT bad.
Girlfriend in a Coma.... not something I'd usually pick up, but the title and description intrigued me, so I picked it up randomly one day.

The book starts off interesting and really grabs you but half way through the book when you fast forward to the "present" time, it starts to slow down... drag on even. And okay yes, it could probably put you to sleep.

The book is for the most part, narrated by Jared, a mutual friend of their group of friends who has already passed on. He seems to play a part in telling them "where to go from here". Karen falls into a coma after she loses her virginity to Richard. Way to make your boyfriend feel like he did something right! Karen ends up pregnant and having a child while still in a coma. Making Richard a pretty much, single father. The book fast forwards and updates you on what the circle of friends are up to, what Richard is up to and what their daughter (who's name I have completely forgotten) is up to.

One day, Karen comes back and suddenly, she can tell the future. The future that no one believes she's telling the truth about. Would you believe a girl who just woke up for a coma saying this and that is going to happen... soon? I think not! But Karen was right and all but her group of friends survive. Kinda odd, right?

I'm glad I stuck it out and forced myself to finish this book. The ending was well worth the slow and dragging half way point. The ending was both shocking and heartbreaking. And it provokes thinking! I enjoyed this book!

Someone... please... help!!!!!
This has got to be the worst book I have ever read!!! OK I will admit me wasting my money was my fault because of the interesting cover (white with the barcode and title on each cover). But uuughh, if this isn't the worst book ever. It started off very well with the first 46 pages, then the book got stupider and stupider. The plot sounded interesting with the idea of a girl being in a coma for 18 years, but as the book went on, it became the reader that's in a coma. This is the first, and probably the last Coupland book I will ever read. Avoid.

Possibly the worst book I have ever read
I read this for a book club and I am embarrassed to say I finished it.The writing is plain, too obvious, and juvenile.Even if I had been able to enjoy the plot, the writing made the reading experience painful.I do not recommend this book.

odd little book
This book starts with a 17 year old girl (Karen) going into an unexplained coma the night that she loses her virginity to Richard in 1979.However, the night she goes into a coma she confides to Richard visons or dreams of the future that she doesn't believe she should be seeing.Just weeks after entering into the coma it's learned that she is pregnant.After giving birth while still in the coma to a healty baby girl, the narratation goes into the lives of Richard and his friends who seem to drift through their 20s.Karen awakes 20 years later to a world she doesn't really know how to react to and can't help getting the feeling that the end of the world is near (I won't give anymore away).The book is interesting enough, but doesn't always keep me reading, because I don't always care about the characters.The ending of the book was also a disappointment.Overall, the book is a quick read and does have its oddly funny moments and version of the appocalypse that makes you wonder.

So close, and yet...
I really, really wanted to like this book...and it came so close to winning me over.Unfortuantely, the last quarter of the book falls apart so quickly and so badly, that it ruins whatever good experience I had with the first three quarters.

The story is really interesting, and a quick read, throughout most of the book.Then, once the Supernatural Twist occurs, it just goes downhill.From there, Coupland spends FOREVER getting to the end, and he just rambles for several chapters until he gets to the letdown that is the ending.That letdown could've come about five chapters earlier, too, since one of the characters actually warns of it...again and again and again."I've got something to tell these people", is what he essentially says, then spends five chapters getting around to saying it.

...And, when this "bombshell" is dropped, it's boring.Plenty of people on this site have given the ending away, so I won't do that.Suffice to say, it's simplistic, it's preachy, and it isn't remotely groundbreaking.In fact, it isn't even interesting.It's just pretentious, which is a shame because so much of the book was so interesting.

I really wanted to like this book, but it just spirals out of control near the end.It seemed thrown together, and ruined a book that would've easily gotten three or four stars from me had it not lost itself in the final act. ... Read more