Terri Schiavo, Michael Jackson and a massive earthquake (search) — there just wasn't enough time to cover it all Monday on “DaySide,” but you can bet we're covering it all Tuesday.
Regarding Terri, we're pursuing questions about the sounds and movements she's making today: Is she, in fact, struggling to speak? Or are her parents so ravaged by grief that they interpret random, uncontrolled movements and sounds as something they're not? (See below for your e-mails.) Is Bob Schindler (search) correct that doctors are hastening Terri's death by giving her morphine?
As for Michael Jackson (search), Judge Rodney Melville has just dropped a bomb on the defense: He will allow evidence and testimony of certain earlier molestation allegations against Jackson. After reviewing some of these earlier allegations, they are so dramatic that I predict more dramatic scenes with Michael at court. If the current case has shaken the pop star to his core, I think bringing in the old cases will floor him.
In addition to these stories, we're also talking to Army PFC Jeremy Church (search), who is about to be awarded the prestigious Silver Star for his bravery in the ambush in Iraq last year; this was the attack in which Matt Maupin (search) went missing and Thomas Hamill was abducted.
And on the lighter side, we're getting a visit from NASCAR star Kevin Harvick (search). Is he the bad boy he's portrayed as being — the kind of guy who bumps competitors' cars and causes pileups? Racing fans, I'd like to hear from you. What do you think of Kevin? Want to ask him about his racing career — or about some of his competitors? E-mail me at: dayside@foxnews.com.
Okay — now back to your e-mails on Terri Schiavo:
How can anyone even suggest that Terri Schiavo is fighting so hard to live, this is a circus.
—Dave
Terri Schiavo has shouted loud and clear that she desperately wants to live. Not in words, but in actions!... After having gone [11] days without nutrition and hydrations, Terri fights for life. This speaks volumes to me, since I've seen what happens when patients lose that will to live. They will die in spite of everything you do to save them...
—Barbara Bivins, retired healthcare professional, Corinth, Mississippi
[Your guest today] Dr. Goldstein was sugar-coating the issue of morphining people out. Morphine is a respiratory depressant. I've worked in many hospitals that increased the morphine drip when death was imminent. It is done to hasten the inevitable...
—M.A. Nowak, San Diego, California
Will Terri's parents be able to sue Michael Schiavo for wrongful death when Terri dies, since she is dying at his insistence?
—Betty De Matteo, Tyler, Texas
I urge [doctors]... to consider saving face by ordering an immediate autopsy... This is the only viable way that... the state of Florida can properly end this matter. If you do not do this you will always leave a doubt in the entire world's mind...If there was no foul play it will clear her husband, if there was foul play it will prevent guilty parties from walking away scott free...
—Steve Brazell
I don't think the Schindlers can sue for wrongful death, since the highest courts in the land have sided with Michael. But then again, the autopsy question is a valid one. I think that, even when you take away allegations that Michael abused his wife and wanting to find out if there's evidence of it in the autopsy, shouldn't there be an autopsy at least to advance our scientific understanding of what was really going on inside Terri? Was her cerebral cortex liquefied, as some doctors have concluded? At the very least, maybe in death Terri can help us all know a little more what happens to people who are in her condition.
See you Tuesday.
Linda
Watch "DaySide with Linda Vester" weekdays at 1 p.m. ET
Send your comments to dayside@foxnews.com.
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