Terri Schiavo Should Be Allowed To Die
Bush the Savior
There you are, and the worst happens: your wife dies after a sudden heart attack.
Somehow, you get through the surreal nightmare of the funeral and all the rest, and begin the grieving process.
Several years down the road, if you’re lucky, your life has more or less returned to normal.
But not for Michael Schiavo. For him, the nightmare has continued for all of the last fifteen years.
As a side-effect of bulimia in February 1990, Terri Schiavo suffered a heart attack and sustained severe non-reversible brain damage as a result of prolonged oxygen deprivation during resuscitation.
The doctor’s diagnosis was that she was in a persistent vegetative state, with no hope of rehabilitation. She had almost no cerebral cortex left – it’s just gone, apparently as a result of the heart attack and oxygen deprivation. She could not feed herself; she had to wear diapers. She was, for all intents and purposes, “brain dead.” She had no cognitive abilities left; she was not self-aware.
Michael Schiavo disregarded the doctor’s advice and retained some hope she could get better. Against all odds, for the next eight years, different rehabilitation therapies were tried – but all to no avail.
So then after eight long years of torture, finally convinced his wife was truly not coming back, Michael Schiavo reluctantly petitioned the court to have her feeding tube taken out – allowing Terri to finish the process of dying.
But Terri’s parents opposed this in court, and she was kept alive, against the wishes of her husband.
And the un-ending nightmare for Michael Schiavo continues.
Terri remains today in the persistent vegetative state she entered fifteen years ago, with no improvements at all. Nothing has changed from 1990. The doctors all agree that barring divine intervention, there is no hope whatsoever for any recovery.
But her parents, the Schindlers, persist in their mindless quest to keep her body alive.
This is so sad.
I really and truly feel sorry for the Schindlers. I can understand the pain they are suffering; no parent wants to see their child die. It’s inconceivable a child should predecease a parent.