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April 01, 2005
The Terri Schiavo Travesty and Her Legacy
By Cindy Tucker
Terri Schiavo is gone now, and from the evidence of her life, she is probably worshipping with the Lord and His saints face to face. Over the past two years I have prayed and wept for this woman. I even called Florida legislators, Judge Greer’s office, and Gov. Bush’s office. This last go round I kept thinking surely reason and right would prevail and Terri would be allowed to live. There was so much conflicting information surrounding her injury, subsequent care , rehab, and her hearsay statement that she wouldn’t want to be hooked up to a life-support machine. Not to mention the suspicious behavior of a husband that had moved on with his own life but seemed hell-bent on Terri’s demise even though she had a family willing to care for her and relieve him of all responsibility. There seems to be a question of where the money for Terri’s rehab and care went- it seems a great deal went for legal fees to get permission to starve and thirst her to death. I know dehydration is the proper term, but it just doesn’t quite paint the picture of the man in the desert panting for water that I think we need to understand when we contemplate removing “hydration” from someone.
I really have nothing new to say, but I believe I have a truly unique perspective. 18 years ago, I had a car accident. At the age of 28, I had injured my spinal cord. My husband was told I would never walk again, would spend the rest of my life “confined”(I hate that word; I’d be confined without the chair) to a wheelchair, and perhaps never have children or a normal life. I was bleeding to death and needed surgery. Since I was unconscious, my husband needed to sign for my surgery. Thank God he did.
You see, we had conversations about what would happen if one of us had been incapacitated. I had said if I was ever in a wheelchair I wouldn’t want to live like that and I certainly wouldn’t expect him to stick around and take care of me. I would want him to move on. (Our hearsay conversation.)
Thank God I married a man of conviction who took his wedding vows seriously. He stuck by me. During my 3 months of rehab, he brought me my school work (I was working on my Master’s) and visited me 3 times a week. God gave me the grace and determination to finish my schoolwork and go back to my job as a teacher, and to live all these years in a wheelchair.
O.K. I wasn’t brain-damaged. I can speak for myself. But, from my perspective, I can tell you we don’t know how Terri felt after her accident. She appeared to respond to her loved ones and find pleasure in their company. She appeared to try to communicate.
Maybe it was a reflex, but what if it wasn’t? And pain. I myself have an incomplete spinal cord injury so I have limited movement but I have nearly normal sensation. When I had to have a cut stitched last summer, I quickly told the doctor I had sensation so he would numb my calf before sewing me up. It still was uncomfortable! If I hadn’t told him, he would have made the assumption “she can’t feel below the waist.” So who are we to assume Terri couldn’t feel hunger pains and thirst over 14 days? In a recent World article, Lynn .Vincent tells the story of Kate Adamson. Kate suffered a double brain stem stroke and was unable to move at all, not even blink. She was however, fully cognitive. She heard the doctors tell her husband she was a “vegetable.” At one point they removed her feeding tube for eight days. She was in terror and great pain. She has now regained most of her abilities and is understandably an advocate for the disabled. Also, the same medical and legal minds that told us starvation and hydration is a euphoric experience allowed Terri to have morphine when they saw grimacing and twitching-I guess what we lay people would call signs of pain.
Why, as President Bush asked, if we err, don’t we err on the side of life? I thank Congress for trying to stop this innocent death, but I now urge them to pass a law requiring living will statements specifying the patient’s desire before nutrition and water is removed. We all need food and water to live; it is not a heroic measure. I am also very concerned about those who only have government insurance. Those who advocate national state insurance need to consider this case with great concern. It’s not too far-fetched to foresee a future where the state decides when a person’s life is too costly to maintain, when their value to society is not worth the upkeep, and the decision is made to withhold food and water. It could happen; it happened 60 years ago in Nazi Germany.
For the public record- I do not want to go by starvation or dehydration.
Posted by fraubleuler at April 1, 2005 11:16 AM
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Comments
Cindy, this is a tremendous perspective. Your personal experience brings new light to the importance of decisions made between a husband and a wife. This inspires me to remember and take a moment every now and then to reflect on the seriousness of what God meant when He created two to become as one.
Your husband Tony, a friend of mine told me about your blog. You and I met briefly in Saint Augustine Florida when Tony was there for a Christian school leadership conference.
He speaks so highly of you and your writing, so I had to check out your blog!
Posted by: Zach Clark at September 13, 2005 09:46 AM