Ethics Newsline®

WASHINGTON
Legislators, lawyers, pundits, protestors, and competing family members all squared off last week in a fierce ethical and legal debate over the fate of Terri Schiavo, a Florida woman in a “persistent vegetative state” for the past 15 years.

Schiavo’s husband Michael has been fighting to end her life, saying she did not want to be kept alive via life support. Her parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, want her kept alive via a feeding tube.

The extensively litigated case erupted into national controversy last week after Congress hastily intervened, adopting a one-time-only law effectively blocking the removal of Schiavo’s feeding tube.

Congress’s remarkable intercession called for the appointment of a judge to review the case before life support could be removed.

The judge, randomly chosen by a computer, last week rejected Congress’s arguments and the Schindlers’ pleadings, saying the legal system upheld the right of Terri’s husband to make her end-of-life decisions.

The Schindlers last week failed to convince an appeals court panel, the full appeals court, or the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn that decision, apparently exhausting their legal options, according to press reports.

The Florida legislature and Gov. Jeb Bush, both of which have been rebuked for allegedly violating the Constitution in efforts related to Schiavo, also failed last week to wrest legal control of Terri Schiavo from her husband.

Terri Schiavo, who was removed from life support last week, is expected to die soon.