Terri Schiavo Case Study

Intro to the Case:

For the past few weeks in G&T, we have been studying bioethics; specifically the Terri Schiavo Case. For more info on the case click here, here, here, or here.

Terri Schiavo was overweight in highschool, and her husband had repeatedly talked to her rudely about her weight. Saying that if she ever became that "fat" again, that he would divorce her. This is probably what lead her to having an eating disorder that made her collapse. Terri went into a vegetative state, and could respond to light, touch, sound, etc. Some say that initailly her husband wanted to help her, and get her therapy. Which he did, and there was little improvement. However, when the doctors told him that there was no reversing the effects of the brain damage, he decided that he wanted them to "pull the plug." Terri's family, however, did not want to do that, but since no one knew what Terri actually wanted, the case went to court. Even the president got involved with the case. Terri, however, just got worse. She went into a coma, and stopped responding to things. Eventually, after 15 years, Terri's feeding tube was removed. She died on March 31, 2005.

Ethical Dilemma Question:

Do you believe that the decision to disconnect Terri Schiavo from life-support was justified?

No, I do not believe that the decision was justified. Just think, what if the day after she died, doctors came up with a way to take her out of the coma. She'd just have brain damage, but that's better than dying. She could still enjoy things, and do things. Unless someone asks to have the doctors take them off life-support in that situation, everyone deserves the right to live as long as they can. I think that, until you turn 18, it should be your parents' decision, but after that, you need to have an official document stating what you want them to do. Unfortunately, Terri didn't have any way of telling them what she wanted, so there had to be a debate over it. In the end, I don't think that the husband should've won either, because he started the whole thing in the first place. Also, her husband wasn't a blood-relative, so he didn't know her long enough or well enough to make that decision for her. Here's a link that I found that greatly sums up my point. All in all, I dont think that Terri's life should've ended.

Personhood:

Is Terri still a person? Is she the same person?

Yes, of course she is still a person. Even a dead person is still a person. As long as someone has human DNA, they are still a person. Terri Schiavo, however, is not the same person. She became extremely brain-damaged, and she couldn't do the same things that she was able to do before. She could only say a few words, and she couldn't eat on her own, but she could still enjoy life up to a certain point. Her family and friends still loved her, even if her husband didn't. (He had a girlfriend and was going to divorce Terri before the accident.) She loved them, too, as shown in the previous link. Terri was still a person, but she would never be the same.