Florida dispute renews life-ethics controversy

Christian Century, Nov 15, 2003 by Robert Marus

Is the Terri Schiavo ease a clear pro-life issue, as Florida's lawmakers and governor see it, or is a significant gray area involved?

Some pro-life groups have championed the cause of the woman's parents, who have been fighting her husband, Michael, over her fate. Terri Schiavo collapsed and suffered subsequent brain damage as a result of a previously undiagnosed medical condition in 1990. She has been in what doctors describe as a "permanent vegetative state" ever since. In 1998, Michael Schiavo began legal proceedings to have his wife's feeding tube removed, thus ending her life. However, Terri Schiavo's parents have opposed his efforts, arguing that she can be rehabilitated and shows signs of consciousness.

But a court-appointed doctor agreed with Michael Schiavo that his wife's condition is irreversible. With state court permission, the tube was removed October 15. However, Terri Schiavo's parents and pro-life groups convinced Florida's legislature to pass an emergency law that gave Republican Governor Jeb Bush the authority to override the courts and have her feeding tube reinserted. The bill passed and was sidled October 21. Shortly thereafter, Bush ordered Terri Schiavo's doctors to reinsert her feeding tube.

Conservative Christian commentators hailed the action. Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics aim Religious Liberty Commission, said the ease reflected the "clash of two very disparate civilizations--the Judeo-Christian civilization, which is based upon the sanctity of all human life, and the neopagan relativist quality-of-life civilization," according to a statement.

But medical ethicists have disagreed that the case is a clear-cut example of life-ethics issues. Schiavo's parents' belief that their daughter shows signs of consciousness is simply wishful thinking, according to physicians quoted in a September 23 Washington Post story on the subject. Though the parents' ease was bolstered by videotapes of her seeming to smile and look at visitors, such signs are natural instincts of someone in a vegetative state, say many medical experts.

"The CAT scan shows massive atrophy of the brain," said Ronald Cranford, a neurologist who testified for Michael Schiavo in the trial. "What Terri Schiavo manifests is a classic vegetative state," he said to the Post. "It looks like she's looking at you, but really she's not. It looks like she's grinning at you, but she's really not." Cranford added that she does not show key signs of consciousness--the ability to "track" with her eyes.

But Joni Eareckson Tada, an evangelical author and a quadriplegic, said that shouldn't matter. On evangelical psychologist James Dobson's October 22 radio broadcast, she said even people in vegetative states "have a right to live. They have a right to human treatment. They have a right to be fed. They have a right to rehabilitative therapy. And these are the things that up until this point have been defiled Terri."

On October 29, Michael Schiavo and the ACLU filed suit to challenge the constitutionality of the new law signed by Bush.--Robert Marus, ABP