Who has the right to kill another? In the case of Terri Schiavo this was the debate. Who was it to say that she was in a vegetative state and could never go back to the way she was again? Wasn’t there still a chance that she could make a recovery? Her feeding tube kept her alive, and she could’ve lived much longer with it. But what if it wasn’t the way she wanted it or she wasn’t happy? Her husband began giving up, but her parents wanted to keep fighting. Who is it to say if she will stay or go? Terri Schiavo never used to be the way she was in 2005 when she died.
She was once a happy, healthy young woman, but when an unexpected collapse happened, everything changed. Terri’s husband, Michael Schiavo, heard a ‘thud’ in the middle of the night saw Terri on the floor, and called 911. Terri went into a couple month long coma. When she came out she was not at all the same. She had a feeding tube put in place and some say she was in a vegetative state, but was she really? She couldn’t do anything she was able to do before, but Michael and her parents wanted to do whatever they could to rescue her. But that didn’t last for long.
Something changed inside of Michael and he wanted to take her off of life support when the feeding tube was the only thing that was keeping her alive (I Will Never Forget the Look of Horror on My Sister Terri Schiavo’s Face the Day she Died). Terri’s parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, decided to sue her husband because they felt they had the right to decide how Terri should live, not Michael. Michael argued that he was the legal guardian of Terri and her body wasn’t able to function with only the inserted feeding tube keeping her alive. He told them Terri wouldn’t have wanted to be this way.
She wouldn’t have wanted to be a burden on others, and she wouldn’t have wanted to be hooked up to the different machines. Michael told the court that he and Terri had talked about the situation if one of them had been put on life support, and hated the idea of being artificially being kept alive. He told them she would’ve been furious that other people were taking care of her bodily functions. At that point Michael though argued that he wanted $20 million so he could care for Terri at home. The $20 million would cover everything Terri needed for her new life expectancy of 50 years (The Whole Terri Schiavo Story; The Case of Theresa Schiavo).
Bob and Mary Schindler were the ones who brought about this 12-year court case trying to save their daughter’s life. They argued that since Terri was a Roman Catholic; she believed in the sanctity of life and would never want to be taken off of life support. They accused Michael of only bringing up his wife’s “wishes” after being awarded for over $1. 5 million against the physicians who cared for her who should’ve caught her potassium imbalance, which is believed to be the reason of her collapse. They gave the court evidence that Michael had tried to stop Teri’s medication for infection which would kill her. nd he had put a ‘Do Not Resuscitate’ on her medication charts.
Michael’s brother, Brian Schiavo, testified that he believed that Michael had lost all hope for Terri recovering from this and was finally seeing the reality of her most likely never recovering. The court had ordered her feeding tube to be removed, but three days into the removal of her feeding tube, it was ordered to be put back in because of the truth that Michael had let out. He said this after being asked about Terri’s treatment: “How the hell should I know? We never spoke about this.
My God, I was only 25 years old. How the hell should I know? We were young. We never spoke about this” (The Whole Terri Schiavo Story). In the case, Michael Schiavo more than $700,000 of the $1. 3 million awarded from the malpractice trial was placed in a trust fund to help cover the cost of Terri’s therapy and medical treatment. He was also awarded $600,000 for his loss. More than half of the money Michael had won was used in the legal battle to end Terri’s life. After attorney fees, only about $50,000 was estimated to be left of Terri’s medical-care fund.
After being awarded the money, Michael no longer wanted to help the Schindlers care and take care of Terri. The Schindlers were devastated that he no longer had any desire to help them. In court, there was a debate about whether Terri was in a vegetative state, or VS. (A condition in Florida necessary under law to legally permit the removal of her feeding tube. ) Michael Schiavo was not given the right to end Terri’s life by removing her feeding tube; it was said that two physicians had to determine if Terri had a “terminal condition” without reasonable doubt.
Four months later, the physicians ruled that Terri was in PVS and her feeding tube was disconnected for three days, but then a series of appeals put the order on hold. Going back to court the Schindlers argued that Terri’s condition was something resembling more of cerebral palsy, but the court wouldn’t consider the rehabilitation of Terri because of the previous stipulation. But the Schindlers continued to argue with it. They showed that 40-60% of the time PVS is misdiagnosed. The physicians who diagnosed Terri, were put on stand and denied that Terri was part of that 40-60%.
This case is not about a movement of philosophy it’s about caring for Terri’s wishes. ” One of the physicians stated in court. The physicians also showed that there were no improvements in the CAT scans of Terri’s brain even though some said that they have seen Terri making facial gestures and moan. The Schindlers refused to move on, but it seemed Micheal clearly had. He had gotten engaged(he couldn’t get married because he was still legally married to Terri) and fathered two children, but he wouldn’t divorce Terri no matter how hard the Schindlers tried to remove him as her legal guardian.
But Terri was then given a bone scan and they found the reason she had her mysterious collapse. She suffered head trauma and bone injuries, not a potassium imbalance. Michael was accused of strangling Terri, but there was no proof from physicians that there were marks around her neck after her collapse. The judge awarded the trial to Michael and the feeding tube was removed on March 4, 2005. On March 31, 2005, Terri died (The Whole Terri Schiavo Story; The Case of Theresa Schiavo; Terri Schiavo Case). After the evidence found and the stories told what actually happened to Terri. Did someone try to kill her?
Or was her winding up in the hospital unpreventable? Was her husband too fast? Maybe he just wanted the money from all of this and wanted Terri gone so he could move on with his life. But after this Michael nor the Schindlers will ever be the same. They know what it’s like to see someone’s life on the edge and what it’s like when you wish for only one thing in the world, and it doesn’t come true no matter how many things to do to make sure it happens. Was Terri killed? Or was she barely being kept alive? We hope now that there weren’t any mistakes made by the doctors about her diagnosis or her family about her wishes.
