Who is Terri Schiavo?
The fight over her life — and death — is being played out, in this Easter week, as a uniquely American Passion play. Congress passed emergency legislation. The president signed it in the middle of the night, in his pajamas, after being awakened. There are picketers, prayer services, angry invective, impassioned appeals. The Vatican has weighed in. The Supreme Court has refused to do so.For seven years now, Michael Schiavo and the Schindlers — primarily, Terri’s parents, Bob and Mary — have been locked in a grueling war, a war over money, over control, and, in the end, over Terri’s future. Schiavo wants his wife to be allowed to die. That, he says, was her wish. The Schindlers want someone — the government, the courts, anyone with any possible authority in this situation — to restore the feeding tube that was removed, by court order, last Friday. They want their daughter, in whatever state she is, to live.It has been an extraordinary situation, marked by extraordinary efforts and
