For me, the intense drama, Herculean legal action and international attention focused on one woman, Terry Schiavo, in an incapacitated state for 15 of her 41 years (doctors appointed by Florida courts to examine Schiavo say "persistent vegetative state," other physicians have questioned that diagnosis - nothing in this case is without rancor and contention), reminds me that ultimately we are a nation — and a government — of individuals, that every life truly does count, and that people of good will can intensely disagree over matters of conscience.
U.S. District Court Judge James D. Whittemore scheduled a hearing for the afternoon of March 21 in Tampa on a motion for a temporary restraining order filed by the parents of Terri Schiavo against her husband, a state judge and the hospice in which she lies incapacitated, seeking to have Schiavo's feeding tube reinserted while the federal court considers the case.
The motion was filed in accordance with a new federal law (approved 203 to 58 by the House at 12:42 a.m. March 21 and rushed to Bush, who signed the bill into law at 1:11 a.m., saying, "I will continue to stand on the side of those defending life for all Americans, including those with disabilities"), whereby Congress gave jurisdiction over the case — this specific case only — to federal courts.
A Florida state court had ordered the tube removed March 18, agreeing with the claim by the woman's husband, Michael Schiavo, that he was honoring her wish not to be kept alive under such circumstances.
All subsequent appeals have been for naught - the feeding tube was not reinserted and she died March 31.
My personal opinion on the matter is that it just didn't seem right to let the woman starve to death, especially when her parents and siblings opposed such a "remedy," and it was costing the family nothing to keep her alive. And of course the appropriateness of the legislative and executive branches of the Federal government taking up THIS ONE CASE is a matter of intense debate as well.
Below is our ongoing coverage of the drama, dating back to last year:
Terri Schiavo and the end of decency
This news is more than a week old, but family matters and work responsibilities prevented me from blogging at a more appropriate time on the subject of Terri Schiavo.So, onwards ...The whole affair surrounding Terri Schiavo concerned a Gestapo-like mindset:...
Posted to Politics by Mark Edward Manning on April 10, 2005 08:03 PM
Intellectual Honesty is for Suckers
The GOP Terri Schiavo memo really doesn't tell us much. It just adds to the deafening roar.
Posted to Politics by Pete Blackwell on April 8, 2005 10:43 AM
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Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - NC
I'd be willing to let them do it if there were proof that that's what she really wanted. As it is, all we have is hearsay via her husband. Not good enough. The absence of any concrete evidence of intent on her part makes this less a question of what she wants than what he wants, and I'm not willing to see anyone starve on another's say-so.
2 - Lono
I have to speak on this: let her die and let her husband move on. 15 years in a coma is no quality of life. Also note that if she were in Texas they could have pulled the plug whenever they wanted if the family were not able to pay.
It is strange and I guess good to see the GOP take an interest in human life AFTER it is born. Seeing their take on not funding education, limiting health care, trying to get out of Social Security... the GOP has long taken care of the fetus. However, once you are born... they seem to not give two shits about you (unless you're crazy rich).
3 - Dawn
I was given information on this that had changed my opinion of the husband's so called "altruism". Apparently (and if I am incorrect, please feel free to correct) that she was found by the husband after having suffered a heart attack like episode and he provided no life-saving measures at time of discovery, and the two were engaged in the process of divorce.
That to me automatically rejects any claim he has on her final wishes and the parents should be given the power to decide what happens to her. And clearly starving the woman to death is hardly humane.
He sounds like a real creepy person who is using this entire situation for purely selfish and personal reasons.
4 - Aaman
I couldn't care less about the husband, but this episode to me, further emphasizes the need to draw up a living will soon for the family.
Why don't they follow an injection-type approach rather than starving? Would that be more humane?
5 - Will
After the husband and two other witnesses have convinced 19 judges that she did not want to live in this condition, why is there still this debate? She has no brain activity, that has been proven by scans of her brain. You need brain activity to feel hunger or thirst, therefore her death will be incredibly peaceful.
The Husband is getting NOTHING out of this, he was offered tons of money to give Terri up to her parents, but he didn't. He isn't keeping profits from her estate. He's doing it out of love and that is the only explanation that makes sense.
6 - Tom Johnson
Yep, I agree with Will on this. I don't see how Michael could possibly be "selfish" in this decision - he's been fighting for this for years. Were he selfish, he'd simply have given up on it and let her family take control of her care. Why would he choose to not do this? What "selfish" reason would keep a person from giving up on an incredibly complicated, LONG battle in courts? What could he possibly get out of this in the end? I believe his intentions are entirely sincere, and he's attempting to do something to help everyone. In the end, Terry's parents will still have to move on with their lives, regardless of how long this poor body continues to churn on, entirely devoid of signs of intelligent life.
Has there ever been better publicity for living wills than this case?
7 - Dawn
I agree that everyone should have a living will and if anything good can come from this sad story, maybe a greater awareness of the need will be it.
I don't know what Michael Schiavo has to gain, but his motives and intentions aren't benign. He has deprived Terri of some very basic measures that could have provided her a hope for at least an improvement on her status, his MO from the very beginning is death by neglect. I feel quite sure that at this point he is fighting out of pride not love.
He wanted her dead since about '93 and while in general I think that he should have the final say on the matter, he has acted in a way that proves that Terri's best interests aren't at heart. At least with her parents you know that they are doing it out of love, and while they may be misguided and desperate they are genuine and sincere.
8 - bhw
Why don't they follow an injection-type approach rather than starving? Would that be more humane?
That's either euthanasia or assisted suicide, which are illegal in FL. What's happening now is different, legally speaking. She's refusing treatment, which all of us have the right to do in all 50 states -- enter the living will. It's just that Terri's not the one refusing, her husband is doing it for her as her guardian because he claims she would have wanted it this way.
There is no other alternative way to legally end her life except to withhold treatment.
9 - Eric Berlin
My wife is a nurse who believes very strongly in having a DNR (Do Not Resuscitate) and other legal documents filled out well in advance of any sickness of maladies. This is the only way to make sure that your wishes, when faced with this kind of situation, are fulfilled (over the potential emotions, objections, and concerns of family and the courts).
10 - Cheryl
Look at the videos on this site
I find it hard to believe that this woman is has NO brain activity after watching this. She may not be able to communicate the way we are accumtomed to, but she obviously knows who her mother is, and responds to various stimuli.
11 - Eric Olsen
thanks Cheryl, fascinating stuff - interesting that the site calls her "Terri Schindler-Schiavo"
12 - Tom Johnson
Cheryl, as sad as it is to say, all I see in those videos is response to stimuli - not the presence of a human intellect. These are, again, examples of what that "animal brain" does - it simply causes responses to stimuli. The eyes track the balloon because that's what that part of the brain does. She is not comprehending that there's a balloon there. All that is happening is essentially a reflex. I see no sense of comprehension in her eyes when her mother is there. I see her eyes finding a moving target to look at. This is not a sign of intelligent life. This sounds really mean, but this is like what fish do - they can track the movement of things around them, but that doesn't mean they're *thinking* about those things. They're simply reacting to stimuli.
13 - Eric Olsen
Tom, even if that is so, is it cause to starve her to death?
14 - Bennett Dawson
Hey Eric,
You also continue the MYTH that someone in Terry's condition will feel pain during the period of her slow drop into the relief of death. The MDs interviewed on PRI two days ago, were adament that in cases like Terry's, when the system shuts down there is no hunger, no pain, just a slow shutdown. I know this to be true. My buddy passed away in my living room from the big C, and hunger is not an issue when you're dying. No pain, no hunger. Just passing on.
The Delays of this issue want to spin this thing as a horrid death. It is not.
15 - Dave Nalle
>>For me, the intense drama, Herculean legal action and international attention focused on one woman, Terry Schiavo<<
Oddly, to me, it's a horrible reflection on the efforts of our media to manufacture news and raise to a level of great drama a tawdry little family squabble which should have been allowed to be resolved by the courts years ago. The good part is that Terry Schiavo - being without any thought processes at all - is the one person who doesn't have to watch or experience this orgy of opportunism and exploitation.
Dave
16 - Geo
The parents and sibs ALL want to care for this human being, out of pure LOVE, no motive, no gain, just unconditional love for the family member.
This weekend on C-Span was an eye opener to just what ilk members of the esteemed Death-o-cratic party REALLY think about the sanctity of life. It's odd that the mindset is not centered on what the family really considers imperative, and that is that Terry is alive, Terry is someone they hold very dear in their hearts.
If you want to get to the heart of it... I'm begining to have 2nd doubts about the motives of the Dems. This, along with partial birth abortions, my word... they want to kill everything but murderers on death row.
The logic is skewed.
Hunter Thompson blew his brains out and the dems were all out in force eloquently espousing what a great.... etc etc... but the Dems I saw this weekend were lambasting the famility of Terry like they were nuts! Idiots! Simpleminded buffoons... The family just LOVES the poor dear, and wants to do for her what her husband doesn't.
What's the flippin' problem here!
17 - Big Time Patriot
"It's odd that the mindset is not centered on what the family really considers imperative" So isn't the spouse the MOST IMPORTANT member of someone's family? So it isn't the "families" interests that you favor, it's one PART of the families opinions, and not even any part of the family that is "Married" to the person concerned.
If you don't think spouses are part of someones families, perhaps you should ask George Bush to expand his proposed ban on homosexual marriages to include heterosexual marriages as well, it seems you have a very low opinion of Holy Matrimony.
18 - Thad Anderson
Dave said: "The good part is that Terry Schiavo - being without any thought processes at all - is the one person who doesn't have to watch or experience this orgy of opportunism and exploitation."
Wow - that was well said. I understand why this is such a controversial issue, but I have to wonder what she would think of the whole thing.
And what would Jesus do? I find it hard to believe that Jesus would really spend the massive legislative and judicial resources that are going into this, just to make a symbolic political point.
19 - Eric Olsen
Dave N, don't agree at all this is a media-driven exercise. It was a grass-roots effort on the part of the Schindler family that ws taken up by Christian groups, then politicians that got things to where they are now. If anything the media had been reticent until the weekend's extraordinary efforts
20 - Richard Porter
Eric
You are on the mark with the grass-roots effort comment. However, as you know the media is now steamrolling with this story and painting a very stark black and white issue.
According to the media, it's the big bad Government interfering with a clash between the conservative, religious right and the liberal, pr-euthanasia left. This story has so many layers, it does a huge disservice to the Schiavo family to offer this very typical scenario.
21 - Lisa McKay
I agree with you here, Richard, and I actually think that politics has very little to do with how most people feel about the issue. Like a lot of other people, I am really ambivalent about withholding nutrition from someone who is breathing on their own, although I do believe that Terri is, for all intents and purposes, not here anymore. On the face of it, I would always side with the spouse in terms of who should make decisions about a person not capable of making their own, but he's not the most admirable of characters, to be sure. But I also think that her parents are, understandably, grasping at straws.
22 - Richard Porter
Lisa
Thanks, if you haven't done it already, check out my post under POLITICS, Who gets to play God with Terri Schiavo's life?
There is alot of facts that are not freely fleshed out by the press.
23 - Eric Olsen
the ambivalence most people feel about the case is why there is such fascination with it, I think - it is very multi-layered, which even Bush said
24 - Lisa McKay
There's only fascination with it because her parents chose to make it public and have, in my opinion, been taken advantage of and exploited by groups who wish to use this cause as a way to further their own agendas. I think that the husband and parents are the only people in this whole scenario who actually care about Terri (and I'm not so sure about him at this point). But thousands of families all over the country are faced with decisions like this every day. The only thing I'm certain of in this whole thing is that Congress has no business in any of this.
25 - bhw
True, but I'm amazed at the number of comments I'm seeing in favor of just removing the feeding tube and getting it over with [which is underway].
I guess I'm surprised by the certainty that people have one way or the other. [Which is not the same thing as being certain one way or the other if the judge did the right thing yesterday, legally speaking.]