This past week the autopsy report for Terry Schiavo was released. Among the findings from the autopsy report were the following:

He also said she was blind, because the “vision centers of her brain were dead,” and that her brain was about half of its expected size when she died 13 days following the feeding tube’s removal.

…

“The brain weighed 615 grams, roughly half of the expected weight of a human brain,” he said. “This damage was irreversible, and no amount of therapy or treatment would have regenerated the massive loss of neurons.”

So it would seem like those that argued that Terry Schiavo was responsive to visual stimuli and that she would someday recover were sadly wrong. A lot of politicians used this case to further their political goals and ambitions. The worst was Senator Bill Frist who hoped that his “leadership” role in this mess would cement support for him among the religious right. He got on the Senate floor and on TV to use his medical background (he’s a doctor) to add legitimacy to his otherwise politically crafted opinion. “She certainly seems to respond to visual stimuli,” he said then. Well, these days he’s denying this to anyone that asks. I wish he would just admit that he was wrong.

Of course, then he wouldn’t be part of the modern Republican leadership, would he?

Speaking of Republican leadership, I have no words for what Jeb Bush did today:

TALLAHASSEE, Florida (AP) — Gov. Jeb Bush asked a prosecutor Friday to investigate why Terri Schiavo collapsed 15 years ago, calling into question how long it took her husband to call 911 after he found her.

In a letter faxed to Pinellas-Pasco County State Attorney Bernie McCabe, Bush said Michael Schiavo testified in a 1992 medical malpractice trial that he found his wife collapsed at 5 a.m., and he said in a 2003 television interview that he found her about 4:30 a.m. He called 911 at 5:40 a.m.

…

An autopsy released Wednesday concluded that she had been in a persistent vegetative state and revealed no evidence that she was strangled or otherwise abused before she collapsed

Yeah, you know, this guy hasn’t suffered enough. This family hasn’t suffered enough. It’s time to reopen this case based on two diverging accounts several years apart. It’s now been 15 years. For God’s sake, can’t we just let these people be? This posturing by the Republicans is absolutely pathetic and unprincipled. I can’t believe that this is what anyone on any side wants… are we reduced to seeking revenge now because the autopsy didn’t show what the religious right wanted?

(some of the links come via Atrios and Amanda’s post at Pandagon)

A really great editorial puts the Schiavo case in some much needed perspective. Found on Atrios.