Spring Break
Keeping woman alive disregards her personal rights
By: David Shackelford
Issue date: 10/14/03 Section: Opinion
Florida Gov. Jeb Bush filed an amicus curiae brief on Oct. 8 to save an incapacitated woman from a death she had requested, according to The New York Times. Bush's effort to keep Terri Schiavo tethered to a feeding tube against her wishes is a gross disregard for well-established legal and ethical standards protecting individuals rights.
Schiavo suffered critical loss of oxygen due to a heart attack in 1990, leaving her with severe brain damage. She had requested before her husband and two relatives not to be kept alive by artificial means. For 13 years she has been in a permanent vegetative state which means she can breathe on her own but is unable think or speak. Her husband, Michael Schiavo, has spent five of those years fighting to honor her wishes in the Florida courts.
His legal opponent was not the state but Mrs. Schiavo's parents. Mr. and Mrs. Schindler were understandably driven by faith in the possibility that their daughter could recover, but another factor played in. Upon winning a malpractice suit, Mr. Schivo won $1.2 million on his wife's behalf. The money, allocated for Mrs. Schiavo's treatment and care, would be inherited by Mr. Schiavo pending her death. If he were to divorce her the money would go to her parents.
As the circumstances suggest, each party has grown suspicious of the other's motives. Because the dispute could not be resolved within the family, the court serves as a "proxy," an independent third party with authority to make the decision for the family.
According to court documents, selected neurologists found that Schiavo's condition was indeed permanent. They also could not fulfill the burden of proving that medical treatment existed that would restore her cognition. The decision to remove Schiavo's feeding tube went through three trial courts and was affirmed before a Florida appellate court. In a final statement, Chief Judge Altenbernd maintained that "(the panel of judges) understand why a parent who had raised and nurtured a child from conception would hold out hope ... but in the end, this case is not about the aspirations that loving parents have for their children. It is about Theresa Schiavo's right to make her own decision."
Schiavo suffered critical loss of oxygen due to a heart attack in 1990, leaving her with severe brain damage. She had requested before her husband and two relatives not to be kept alive by artificial means. For 13 years she has been in a permanent vegetative state which means she can breathe on her own but is unable think or speak. Her husband, Michael Schiavo, has spent five of those years fighting to honor her wishes in the Florida courts.
His legal opponent was not the state but Mrs. Schiavo's parents. Mr. and Mrs. Schindler were understandably driven by faith in the possibility that their daughter could recover, but another factor played in. Upon winning a malpractice suit, Mr. Schivo won $1.2 million on his wife's behalf. The money, allocated for Mrs. Schiavo's treatment and care, would be inherited by Mr. Schiavo pending her death. If he were to divorce her the money would go to her parents.
As the circumstances suggest, each party has grown suspicious of the other's motives. Because the dispute could not be resolved within the family, the court serves as a "proxy," an independent third party with authority to make the decision for the family.
According to court documents, selected neurologists found that Schiavo's condition was indeed permanent. They also could not fulfill the burden of proving that medical treatment existed that would restore her cognition. The decision to remove Schiavo's feeding tube went through three trial courts and was affirmed before a Florida appellate court. In a final statement, Chief Judge Altenbernd maintained that "(the panel of judges) understand why a parent who had raised and nurtured a child from conception would hold out hope ... but in the end, this case is not about the aspirations that loving parents have for their children. It is about Theresa Schiavo's right to make her own decision."
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