Do you believe Terri Schiavo should live or die?
The Terri Schiavo case (pronounced /ˈʃaɪvoʊ/) was a successful seven-year long legal effort by Michael Schiavo to have his wife, Terri Schiavo — already diagnosed as being in a persistent vegetative state (PVS) for several years — disconnected from her life-sustaining feeding tube, which subsequently resulted in her death by dehydration. As early as 1993, Michael, as Terri’s guardian, had entered a do not resuscitate order for her but was convinced by the nursing home staff to have it rescinded; in 1998 he petitioned the Sixth Circuit Court of Florida (Pinellas County) to remove her feeding tube under Florida Statutes Section 765.401(3). He was opposed by Terri’s parents, Robert and Mary Schindler, who argued that Terri was conscious. Michael later transferred his authority over the matter to the court, which determined that Terri would not wish to continue life-prolonging measures. On April 24, 2001 Schiavo’s feeding tube was removed for the first time and then later reinserted severa
The Terri Schiavo case (pronounced /ˈʃaɪvoʊ/) was a successful seven-year long legal effort by Michael Schiavo to have his wife, Terri Schiavo — already diagnosed as being in a persistent vegetative state (PVS) for several years — disconnected from her life-sustaining feeding tube, which subsequently resulted in her death by dehydration. As early as 1993, Michael, as Terri’s guardian, had entered a do not resuscitate order for her but was convinced by the nursing home staff to have it rescinded; in 1998 he petitioned the Sixth Circuit Court of Florida (Pinellas County) to remove her feeding tube under Florida Statutes Section 765.401(3).[2] He was opposed by Terri’s parents, Robert and Mary Schindler, who argued that Terri was conscious. Michael later transferred his authority over the matter to the court, which determined that Terri would not wish to continue life-prolonging measures.[3] On April 24, 2001 Schiavo’s feeding tube was removed for the first time and then later reinserted
The Terri Schiavo saga in Florida, where a patient in a vegetative state has recently had her feeding tube reinserted by order of the legislature and governor, reminds us of the reality of modern life. An inescapable result of the extraordinary technological progress of the last several decades has been that critically ill patients who would have died early in their illnesses, often in the relative comfort of their homes, are now kept alive much longer in hospitals, often suffering great pain.
