The Terri Schiavo Case

There are many controversial questions posed today in society. A question of human and civil rights came into the spotlight this year with the case of Terri Schiavo. The questions posed: Should a person be taken off of life support. To sustain one's existence beyond what is considered as a reasonable quality of life has sparked a large amount of controversy between those who support or oppose the notion of nutritional withdrawal as a way in which to aide a terminal or comatose patient's death.

Terri Schiavo was a women from St. Petersburg, Florida who went into cardiac arrest and collapsed in her home in early 1990 causing severe brain damage. She was in a coma for ten weeks. Within three years of her cardiac arrest she was diagnosed to in a persistent vegetative state, also known as PVS, with little chance of any recovery. In 1998 Terri's husband Michael Schiavo petitioned to remove the feeding tube that was keeping Terri alive. According to Michael Schiavo, his wife, who had no living will, had expressed her wishes not to be kept on life support with no hope for improvement. Terri's parents Robert and Mary Schindler denied these claims, stating that their daughter would not want to be taken off the machines due to the fact that she was a devout catholic and would not wish to go against the Church's teaching. A series of legal battles were then fought by Terri's parents and her husband. By March 2005, Terri's case included fourteen appeals and countless motions, petitions, and hearings in the Florida courts; five suits in Federal District Court; Florida legislation struck down by the Supreme Court of Florida; a subpoena by a congressional committee in an attempt to qualify Schiavo for "witness protection"; federal legislation (Palm Sunday Compromise); and four denials of certiorari from the Supreme Court of the United States. In spite of these efforts the courts continued to find that Terri was in a PVS with no hope for recovery. Her feeding tube was removed for the final time on March 18, 2005. After thirteen days of starvation and dehydration Terri Schiavo died.

The argument of Terri Schiavo's parents as well as many others was that Terri's religious beliefs would go against Michael Schiavo's claims that his wife would not want to prolong her life with no hope for recovery. Terri was a devout Catholic and in a statement from the Vatican her treatment was condemned as euthanasia.. Pope John Paul II stated