This will hopefully be the last bit I do on the whole Terri Schiavo affair.

First, we didn’t know what Terri wanted. Period. You cannot continue the sentence with “therefore we must……” because you’re wrong if you think there’s an accurate, default stance to take in these situations. Erring on either side is still erring which means “I’m wrong”.

Now that she has passed away, I’m hoping that the rhetoric will subside a little as there is no time constraint any more. I think a lot of people made impassionate arguments because they felt they were running out of time. Now that there is no stopwatch, I hope that the level of discourse can rise up a bit. I can’t believe the accusations of “murderer” that have been thrown around like insults on a playground.

Let me inject my own personal beliefs and feelings, because that’s all that 100% of everybody has done anyway (remember my first point).

I think Terri should have never died through slow starvation and dehydration. If there was even the slightest chance she was minimally conscious, everything should have been put in place to ensure she died peacefully. Once it was decided she would have her feeding tube removed, death was imminent. There was no harm in ensuring the body did not feel pain.

Another disappointing reaction by so many people was the incessant implications that allowing Terri to die was the same as executing disabled people. Severely disabled people still affect the outcome of their lives. They can communicate their needs and wishes to others. For me, it had nothing to with being disabled, but rather the opposite. Had she any consciousness left (and I just don’t think she did), how horrible would it be to watch your life go by and have absolutely no control over it? This is where I interjected my own personal feelings into the story because I were in a PVS or even MCS, I would prefer to die. This is not the same as saying “I think anyone who relies on another person to feed them should be euthanize”.

Someone should press charges against Michael Schiavo. Since a lot of people appear to have absolute proof he was an abusive husband (which is illegal), they should take their irrefutable facts to court and have him punished. If you do not possess said facts and evidence, then you need to check your premise. I’m not defending Michael, I am defending everyone’s right to be judged by facts and not emotions.

Neither side of the people actually involved in this case seem squeaky clean to me. Did Terri get the best treatment possible? Why wasn’t an MRI scan requested by the Schindler’s legal team? Why did the Schindler’s originally urge Michael to date other women even though he was still married to Terri? Why, if Michael was so sure his wife was brain dead, did he not allow further tests (although I suspect that he had enough evidence to satisfy himself and knew that her parents would continue to request tests after tests until one showed a possibility that Terri might regain some part of her life, thus making this a never ending cycle)?

This was and still is a very emotional issue for people, but the fact is Terri Schiavo received massive brain damage 15 years ago, brain damage that for the most part could not be reversed. Even if some of her brain could regenerate, all the parts that held her memories and her persona were probably damaged to the point where Terri Schiavo effectively died in 1990. I think a lot of people assumed that, given the correct treatment, Terri Schiavo would have one day woken up exactly the same as before the accident. Now, I’m no doctor so it’s only an educated guess that the best she could have ever hoped for is the ability to eat on her own. It would not have been the 1990 Terri.

The fact that politics were involved was a crime in my mind. While the government is there to provide us protection against injustices, laws made in haste often acerbate the problem instead. Laws should be malleable but the change should be a slow, well thought out process. To jump in and make laws rapidly to solve an impending crisis is a bad idea (Terri’s Law was voted on, signed, and applied within 24 hours). That is what I have the issue with, not the content of the law.

This has been a tragic time. I don’t think it’s a “seminal point in American History”, but it has pitted many people against their own. Hopefully more people will make out their living wills and avoid this type of circus so at least some good comes out of this.

Rest in peace Terri.