Terri Schiavo - My Last Word

I intend this to be my last post on Terri. I think it's time to let her rest in piece. If something comes out from the autopsy, I may reconsider. But I do have an opinion on what has happened up to her death and I will express it now. I doubt that anyone will like everything I have to say. Some may like part of it and some may like others. I don't really care. It's my opinion.

As best I understand, Terri had not had any testing done for a number of years. I would feel better about Michael's decision to terminate her life if recent testing had been done and it was determined that she was in PVS, and it was irreversable. Medical science has come a long way over the last decade. I won't say she could have been helped, but without recent testing, I don't know that she couldn't have been helped.

I would also feel better about Judge Greer's decision to terminate her life had he visited Terri and seen her condition for his own eyes. I am not a lawyer and do not know the law, so I will have to accept that Judge Greer followed the letter of the law.

I think the appellate courts were wrong not to review the case in its entirety instead of apparently relying on court decisions. Had they done what the intent of Congress was, Terri might be alive today.

I feel that the various governmental bodies that tried to create legislation to save her life were wrong to do so. I feel they overstepped their boundries. But, I also feel that sometimes boundries need to be overstepped and maybe this was one of them. Had the Founding Fathers not overstepped their boundaries, we might still be under English law today.

I commend those who tried to do something to save Terri, from President Bush, to the Congress, to Governor Bush and the Florida Senate. I think that they just didn't have the law they needed.

Terri was not terminally ill. She may have lived for many more years. This is both a pro and a con. Terri apparently was not in any pain or discomfort prior to being denied nourishment and hydration, but had to be given morphine during her last hours. Morphine is a pain medication, is it not? Why administer morphine unless she was in pain? If she was in pain, she had feeling, and therefore this was not a humane procedure.

Since Terri was not terminally ill, I see no reason why her feeding tube had to be removed until all appellate pleas had been extinguished. To err on the side of life is preferable in a humane society. We make sure that the rights of convicted criminals are fully satisfied before they are executed. We will not execute a criminal or even an animal by starvation. It shouldn't happen to a human being.

There were unanswered questions as to whether Terri had been abused prior to and during her hospitalizations. I hope that the autopsy will clear this matter. However, if it shows possible abuse, will anyone be prosecuted? I think probably not.

I didn't know Terri, so I have no idea what her wishes were. Neither does anyone else who didn't know her. There are allegations that that for years after her collapse, Michael was saying he didn't know either. That raises red flags to me.

Apparently at some point in time Michael decided that Terri could no longer be helped and refused further treatment or therapy. Was it then he began saying Terri wouldn't want to live like this? Did he really believe this or had Terri become "inconvenient"? If so, he could have turned custody over to her parents and walked away. I doubt many people would have blamed him.

I believe that there was a reason for Terri's death to have gained national and international attention. Perhaps the purpose of Terri's death was to galvanize Congress, both State and Federal, into creating laws that will prohibit the removal of feeding and hydration unless the patient has left written instruction to do so.

I believe that everyone has the right to make certain decisions about their life and their death and that they should make their wishes well known among their friends and family so that a spouse cannot say they don't know what would be wanted. Better would be explicite instructions as to what is wanted or not wanted.

At this point, only Michael knows the truth about whether or not he truly carried out Terri's wishes. He is the one who will ultimately answer for his decisions. It was reported that Michael refused to allow Terri's brother and sister and possibly her parents to be present when she passed away. I can't imagine what he might have been thinking, but it was wrong. They needed to be able to be there when she died. They should have all been adult enough to put aside their differences long enough for Terri to die among the people she loved and who loved her.

As for the protestors who were at the hospice, I think they should be ashamed of themselves. They may have felt they had a God-given reason for being there, but disrupting the operation of the hospice, an elementary school, and workplaces near the hospice was wrong. Hospice patients were denied the use of the grounds; it may have been the last days of their lives and they were shunted aside because of the protestors and media. I heard that the protestors used expletives in "reprimanding" people for asking that they not park in a business parking lot and to a business owner working on Sunday. None of this, if true, gave credence to Terri's cause in particular, or to Christianity in general. It's impolite, inconsiderate, and Unchristian. Shame on them.

The media people were nearly as bad and have their own blame in loss of quality of life for the other hospice patients.

Some of the effects of the circus that few people have considered:

The students at the elementary school were moved to another school for the duration. This effected the students, parents, and staff of the school. Tax dollars were used to keep the school running although no students were in that school for several days.

Local law enforcement had to have more people stationed in and around the hospice causing the use of overtime pay and a redirection of manpower. More tax dollars used. Crimes may have been committed or lives lost because police manpower was redirected to the hospice.

Nearby workplaces were disrupted because of the media circus. They may have lost business because of the situation. Loss of money into the economy. When you are running a small business, the loss of only one day's business can mean be a problem.