The Exponent


04-01-2005	Previous edition: 03-31-2005

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Students discuss ethics of Schiavo case

By Kaitlin Vanderpool
City Editor

Terri Schiavo died at the age of 41 on Thursday, 13 days after her feeding tube was removed.

Schiavo spent 15 years in what the Florida courts deemed a "persistent vegetative state."

She suffered severe brain damage in 1990 after acquiring a chemical imbalance brought on by an eating disorder.

Doctors determined she had no real consciousness or chance of recovery.

Schiavo’s husband won the judge’s approval to remove his wife’s feeding tube on March 18, arguing his wife once told him she would not want to be kept alive by artificial means.

Schiavo’s parents, the Schindlers, objected on the grounds that their daughter’s condition could improve with treatment.

Florida lawmakers, the U.S. Congress and President Bush attempted to intervene on behalf of the Schindlers, but courts at all levels consistently ruled in favor of Schiavo’s husband during the seven-year battle.

The Schindlers began to refer to the removal of their daughter’s feeding tube as "judicial homicide."

The Rev. Frank Pavone, a spiritual adviser to Schiavo’s parents, agreed.

"This is not only a death with the sadness it brings," he told The Associated Press, "this is a killing."

But some Purdue students think differently.

Anita Klimek, a junior in the School of Mechanical Engineering, said if she happened to suffer similar brain damage, she would not want to live the way Schiavo had for the past 15 years.

She wouldn’t want to be a burden to her family.

"I personally think (Schiavo’s husband) did the right thing because I am sure she would want him to move on with his life," Klimek said.

But the battle between the Schindlers and Schiavo’s husband continued even after her death.

Franciscan Brother Paul O’Donnell, an adviser to the Schindlers, told The Associated Press that they and their two other children "were denied access at the moment of her death. They’ve been requesting, as you know, for the last hour to try to be in there and they were denied access by Michael Schiavo. They are in there now, praying at her bedside."

Schiavo died at the Pinellas Park hospice, where she rested for years while her parents and husband fought for her life.

Anne Di Fabio, president of Purdue’s Students for Life, was disappointed and saddened to hear of Schiavo’s death, calling it inhumane.

"In the United States, we don’t even make our death-row inmates starve to death because it’s not considered humane, yet this innocent woman endured just such a trial," the senior in the College of Liberal Arts said.

"I know people were starved to death in Nazi Germany, but I am sorry to think it has happened here in ‘the land of the free and the home of the brave.’"

Protesters outside Schiavo’s Florida home shared Di Fabio’s opinion.

Prior to Schiavo’s death, many protesters were arrested trying to bring her food and water.

After her death, activists continued to protest, singing religious hymns outside her home.

But Jennifer Phelps, a Purdue sophomore in the College of Technology, didn’t see the point of keeping Schiavo alive.

She said that since Schiavo had been vegetative for 15 years, she had become a financial and emotional burden to her family.

Phelps supported the husband’s decision.

"After that much time, there’s little hope of her recovering," she said.

Peter Schmitt and Nick Kissel, both freshmen in the College of Engineering, also supported the husband’s decision to remove the feeding tube.

"If I was in that state, I would want someone to remove my feeding tube," Schmitt said. "I wouldn’t want to go out starving to death, but I wouldn’t want to live like that either."

"It’s like a dog," Kissel said, "just put me down."

Still, after all the controversy, this "right-to-die" case hasn’t been the only one brought to the public’s attention.

Karen Quinlan lived for more than a decade in a vegetative state similar to Schiavo’s. Alcohol and drugs caused her condition in 1975 when she was 21.

New Jersey courts allowed Quinlan’s parents to take her off a respirator a year after her injury.

Nancy Cruzan, who was 25 years old when a car accident caused her to become vegetative, lived nearly eight years before the United States Supreme Court ruled her parents could withdraw her feeding tube.

Schiavo’s feeding tube was removed for a short time in 2001, but was reinserted after court intervention.

Her tube was removed again in October 2003, but Gov. Jeb Bush created "Terri’s Law," allowing the state to reinsert Schiavo’s feeding tube six days later. The Florida Supreme Court later ruled the law unconstitutional because it was interfering in the judicial system.

Schiavo’s tube was removed the third and final time on March 18.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Students discuss ethics of Schiavo case

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City editor: Kaitlin Vanderpool

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