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TERRI SCHINDLER-SCHIAVO—MYTHS
vs. REALITY
By
Megan Dillon
Director of Media Relations
National Right to Life
mediarelations@nrlc.org
For the latest updates on Terri Schindler-Schiavo’s case, please visit
www.nrlc.org.
This
memo seeks to clarify several misconceptions that have been circulating
throughout the media in the case of Terri Schindler-Schiavo.
MYTH
Terri is in a coma or comatose-like state.
REALITY
None of Terri’s doctors currently maintain that she is in a coma. Some
doctors believe that Terri is in a persistent vegetative state while others
disagree and believe that she is “minimally conscious.” Most Americans have
seen footage of Terri interacting with her mother by now and it is hard to
ignore the way in which she appears to light up at the sound of her mother’s
voice.
Important note:
The
definition of PVS in
Florida Statue 765.101:
Persistent vegetative state means a permanent and irreversible condition of
unconsciousness in which there is:
(a)
The absence of voluntary action or cognitive behavior of ANY kind.
(b) An inability to communicate or interact purposefully with the
environment.
MYTH
Terri is on life support.
Terri requires machines to live.
REALITY
To state that Terri is on life support or that she requires machines to live
implies that Terri is dependent upon what has traditionally been considered
life support, such as a ventilator, heart machine, or kidney dialysis.
Terri is a healthy woman
with a disability and she is not hooked up to any machines as has been
widely reported. She breathes on her own and merely receives nutrition and
hydration through a feeding tube, much the same as a baby is sustained by
the nutrition he or she receives through a bottle.
MYTH
Terri’s parents refuse to
let her go and allow her to die.
REALITY
Terri is not terminally
ill — she is a healthy woman with a disability. To induce someone’s death
by denying him or her nutrition and hydration is an act of starvation.
Terri’s parents have asked for Michael Schiavo to step down as her legal
guardian and allow them to care for their daughter.
MYTH
Terri’s case is a
right-to-die case.
REALITY
This claim is disputed.
Terri’s parents and siblings say that she does not want to be starved to
death and are asking the courts to allow them to care for her.
MYTH
Death by starvation and
dehydration is painless.
REALITY
Florida
law does not allow a dog to be subject to death by starvation, so why should
Terri, a human being, be sentenced to such a death?
In Wesley J. Smith’s book,
Forced Exit, St. Louis
neurologist William Burke said:
“A conscious person would
feel it [dehydration] just as you or I would. They will go into seizures.
Their skin cracks, their tongue cracks, their lips crack. They may have
nosebleeds because of the drying of the mucous membranes, and heaving and
vomiting might ensue because of the drying out of the stomach lining. They
feel the pangs of hunger and thirst. Imagine going one day without a glass
of water! Death by dehydration takes ten to fourteen days. It is an
extremely agonizing death.”
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