Terri Schiavo

5 Pages 1287 Words

What happened to Terri?

On March 31, 2005 at 9:05 a.m., a forty one year old woman, by the name of Teresa (Terri) Marie Schiavo died after her fifteen year struggle to live. The death of Ms. Schiavo became very political and controversial because of the court order finally being implemented to remove her feeding tube. Yes, at one point in time, Ms. Schiavo was a beautiful, healthy, and energetic human being. She could perform tasks by herself and was able to care for herself. She did, although, have an eating disorder. In 1990, she suddenly collapsed with brain damage and fell into a persistent vegetative state because of an unknown potassium deficiency and could no longer perform tasks or take care of herself. Who has ever heard of someone collapsing from a heart attack due to a potassium deficiency? From 1990 to 2005, there had been a major legal court battle on the removal of her feeding tube. On April 24, 2001, Terri’s tube was removed for the first time but re-inserted two days later. The second time her tube was removed was on October 15, 2003 and also re-inserted six days later; but on March 18, 2005, her tube was finally removed for good (www.miami.edu/ethics/schiavo/timeline.htm). America helplessly watched as she starved to death thirteen days later. During her death and still today, many Americans are torn because of her case. Was the court wrong for having the tube removed? How is it morally right for the court system to have the power to save or kill handicapped people? Does religion have a side on the preserving of life in Terri’s case? Is it technology’s responsibility for keeping alive a human being that is incapable of living independently? These are very tough questions that are difficult to answer, and result in great controversy, but in the end it was wrong for the court to remove her feeding tube and kill a handicapped person.

Martinez, 2
The court was wrong for having the tube removed and it is unmora...