Terri Schindler-Schiavo -- Myths vs. Reality

TERRI SCHINDLER-SCHIAVO - - MYTHS VS. REALITY

By Megan Dillon
Director of Media Relations

Editor's note. Although the court battle to save Terri Schindler-Schiavo's life is now in its eighth year, there are a number of myths about Terri that stubbornly persist. Megan Dillon, NRLC's director of media relations, provides a brief but very useful rebuttal to the primary myths and misunderstandings about Terri.

MYTH

Terri is in a coma or comatose-like state.

REALITY

None of the doctors who have examined Terri currently maintain that she is in a coma. Some contend that Terri is in a so-called "persistent vegetative state" (PVS). Others strongly disagree. They believe she may be in what has come to be called a "minimally conscious state," or some other condition less severe than a PVS.

Important note:

The definition of PVS in Florida is found 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.

This simply does not describe Terri. By now most Americans have seen footage of Terri interacting with her mother. It is hard to ignore the way in which Terri appears to light up at the sound of Mary Schindler's voice.

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 a ventilator or a heart machine, or requires kidney dialysis. This is flatly wrong.

Terri is a healthy woman with a severe disability. She is not "hooked up" to any machines, as has been widely reported. Terri breathes on her own. She receives her nutrition and hydration through a feeding tube. Her parents are convinced that had Terri been given aggressive

therapy, she would be able to swallow on her own, "which leads to an ... uncomfortable question," according to Philadelphia Inquirer columnist John Grogan: "If Schiavo merely required spoon feeding instead of tube feeding, would anyone seriously be arguing to withhold food and water? Does not every human, no matter how incapacitated, deserve sustenance?"

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 severe brain injuries. To induce someone's death by denying him or her nutrition and hydration is a cruel and despicable act. Terri's parents have asked her husband, Michael Schiavo, to step down as her legal guardian and allow them to care for their daughter.

MYTH

Terri's case is about the "right to die."

REALITY

Terri's husband and two of his relatives say Terri told them prior to the night she received her brain injuries that she would not want to be kept alive "artificially." Her parents and siblings adamantly deny Terri would have said anything like that. Terri left no advance directive specifying what she would want if she were in the condition in which she is now. When there is such a dispute over her wishes, the logical thing to do is to allow Terri's family to take her home and care for her, as they have told the courts repeatedly they would do, if allowed.

MYTH

Death by starvation and dehydration is painless.

REALITY

Such a death is so painful, so inhumane, that Florida law does not allow a dog to be subject to death by starvation and dehydration. Why should Terri, a human being, be sentenced to such a hideous death?

St. Louis neurologist Dr. William Burke explained to author Wesley Smith what actually happens to a person deprived of food and fluids. We read in Forced Exit that "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."

By the time you receive NRL News, there will have been any number of new developments not covered in this edition. For the latest updates on Terri Schindler-Schiavo's case, please visit http://www.nrlc.org.