If you've been following the Terri Schiavo debacle, you probably fall into one of three categories: You're confused and you've given up trying to figure it all out, you're still ruminating on the matter or you've bought into someone's crap.
I've passed through all three but not in that order.
When I first read about this story -- months ago, before it became a national media firestorm -- I dismissed it as a sad case of grieving parents too selfish to let their daughter go.
If only it were that simple.
Fifteen years ago, Schiavo sustained brain damage after a brief heart stoppage. Since then she has required a feeding tube that provides nutrition and hydration just to stay alive. The official diagnosis is that Schiavo is in a "persistent vegetative state" with no hope of recovery.
Michael Schiavo, Terri's husband, says Terri would not want to live in such a manner. He maintains she verbally expressed such sentiments to him and that he is only trying to comply with her wishes.
If only it were that simple.
Nearly two weeks ago, Florida Circuit Judge George Greer ordered Schiavo's feeding tube removed. Shiavo is now undergoing the slow process of dying from lack of food and water.
I can only imagine that Greer based his ruling on the law. With one eye focused on the precedents of guardianship and the other on the ramifications of setting a new precedent.
It should never be that simple.
When you cut through the rhetoric of all the publicity-seeking, politically motivated, self-serving vultures, these are the pertinent issues that remain:
Terri's parents don't want to let her go is understandable, admirable even. However, as parents they need to ask themselves, "Would Terri really want to live like this?" Even if she is more cognizant of her surroundings than many medical experts would have us believe, she is still a far cry from the woman she was 15 years ago.
Then there is the question of whether Terri's situation is hopeless. Schiavo has received no treatment, no therapy or any reassessment of her condition in the past 10 years. The reason Terri has not received such care is that her husband has expressly forbidden it.
I'm not ready to brand Michael Schiavo a heartless villain the way many in the media have, but I'm also not going to nominate him for husband of the year. If he really is trying to fulfill Terri wishes, he has failed. For 15 years his wife has languished in a hospital bed -- something he supposedly vowed never to let happen.
When it became apparent Terri's mother and father were going to do everything in their power to prevent him from ending her life, he had two options: Step aside and let them become her guardians, or walk into Terri's room and keep his promise.
Instead he chose to let his wife's demise become a circus, and any chance Terri had for a dignified death is gone.
Michael Schiavo deserves no say in Terri's final disposition. If Greer would pull his head out of his precedents, he'd see that as well.
Unfortunately, court officials like Greer are so concerned about maintaining the "integrity" of the law they forget that the justice system was created to protect the rights of people like Terri. It is asinine to decide a case based on what other judges have ruled in "similar" situations.
All life and death situations are unique and should be evaluated independently. If Greer doesn't have the brains and/or guts to administer a "just" ruling as opposed to a lawful one, he and his entire precedent-enslaved ilk should turn in their robes.
Send Michael Schiavo home. Replace Terri's feeding tube. Administer the treatments and tests that have been neglected for the past 10 years. If the results confirm that Terri is brain-dead and will never recover, let her go.
Chris is an anthropology senior. Reach him at christopher.t.davis@asu.edu.
