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Volume CXXXIII, Number 7 |
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Leave decisions to courts in disputes over death
JAMES BAUMBERGER
ORIENT STAFF
Beware: If you tell your spouse that you don't want to be kept alive by artificial means and you happen to fall into a permanent vegetative state, some Republicans might just force you to stay alive.
Such is the case of Terri Schiavo, a 39-year-old Floridian.
At the age of 27, Terri collapsed. As a result of the fall and a massive loss of oxygen, she suffered severe brain damage. For the last 13 years, Terri has been in what doctors call a persistent vegetative state.
In this state, Terri breathes without a respirator and blinks. As of now, she is being kept alive by a feeding tube. She's not in a coma; she has sleep-wake cycles just like any healthy person. But, essentially, she is brain-dead. Many doctors have testified that her brain damage is irreversible.
Sometimes she smiles and makes noises, giving the appearance that she is responsive to the environment around her. Doctors, however, have said that this is merely random behavior.
The fight over whether Terri should live or die is centered in a dispute between Terri's husband, Michael Schiavo, and Terri's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler.
Michael Schiavo asserts that Terri told him (and others) that she did not want to be kept alive artificially.
Life or death decisions such as removing a feeding tube from a patient are made daily around the country. These are grave, yet routine, decisions. Terri's case would have been equally routine, except that her parents and husband didn't agree.
Based on an assumption that she shared their strong Catholic views, Terri's parents dispute Michael Schiavo's claim that a merciful death is what she would have wanted.
The courts, however, have time and time again affirmed that there is clear and convincing evidence that Terri would not want to have been kept alive.
Terri's feeding tube was removed on October 15 by court order.
What seemed like a sad but necessary end to the unfortunate Terri Schiavo case was in fact only the beginning of a new debate, this time in the Republican-controlled Florida legislature.
What followed was a gross circumvention of the court process and a rather disturbing political intervention into the private lives of a husband and wife.
The state legislators decided that their judgment was in fact superior to that of Terri, her husband, and every court that ruled on the issue. They passed what has been called "Terri's Law." This law gives Governor Jeb Bush the authority to demand that a feeding tube-removed from a person in a permanent vegetative state-be replaced if a family member has challenged the decision.
Bush used this power to issue an executive order reinstating Terri's feeding tube. Most legal experts expect "Terri's Law" to be struck down as an abridgment of privacy protected under the Florida constitution.
Making individual life or death decisions is an intensely private matter. Whenever possible, they should be made by the family and the doctor, using what the patient would have wanted as a guiding principle.
If this doesn't happen and the family is in dispute over the correct decision, it should be the courts' place to intercede. The court system is without a doubt the institution most able to impartially determine the facts of each case and justly apply the law. The Schiavo case proved that the system worked, that is until politics entered the picture and undermined the integrity of the process.
If anything, the Schiavo case has taught us that we must be careful to prevent lawmakers from making our final and most private decisions for us. For the record, let me put this in newsprint: If I am in a persistent vegetative state and have no chance of recovery, please be merciful and let me go.
And, please, don't move me to Florida.
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