Beloved in Christ,
Much of the media attention this week has been on Terri Schiavo and her personal journey toward death. This is a heart-breaking experience with all of America going through it as we have witnessed the struggle between Terri's husband on the one hand and her blood family on the other.
There have been some complicating and complex factors in this situation. Mr. Schiavo says he hadn't divorced Terri because he was standing with her and seeing her through to the end of life. I would weigh his words very heavily except for the fact that he hasn't stood with her; rather, he began and has continued a"partner" relationship with a woman who he lives with and who has borne him two children. His partner is his "wife" in most ways, though not legally, and so how can he say he hasn't really moved on in his life? Since he has another love interest who is the mother of his two children, and since he can marry her now that Terri has died, how can he be seen to have been objective as Terri's advocate? If he didn't stand to profit personally(perhaps not financially but in life issues) by Terri's death, Iwould be heavily inclined to believe his words that Terri wanted to be spared the kind of life she was living. Instead his adultery and his love for this other woman, and certainly his love for his two natural children born of her, compete with his representing Terri Schiavo's best interests.
It has been again heart-breaking that Mr. Schiavo didn't let her parents be at her bedside in her final hours. As a parent of three adult children, I cannot begin to imagine how heart-breaking it would be to be turned away from my child in the final moments. Likewise, I cannot imagine as a husband, no matter what the alienation with the in-laws might be, keeping them from the bedside of their child at the final time. However he has arrived at it, Mr. Schiavo has acquired a very hard heart.
It is troubling that convicted murderers get automatic appeals to the highest levels of the court system and are guaranteed adequate legal representation, but people in Terri's case aren't. I think, and this is new ground for most of us, thatbasic hydration and nutrition should be required for individuals in a condition similar to Terri’s if they are deemed to be"alive". Whether heroic measures should be taken if that individual’s heart were to stop, or he or she were to have a serious infection, is another issue. I think a decision not to go to heroic lengths for a person in a condition similar to Terri's is still up to either the individual or the family - but who was the family that could have truly spoken in an honest way forTerri? By withholding water and food, for whatever reason, they have executed her. Since that cannot be undone, it is importantto address the issue of how to arrive at a "right" decision in such cases.
If I were the judge, I would have recognized Mr. Schiavo's complicated personal life and given Terri a court-appointed independent legal guardian and set up a process whereby she would have had a new set of doctors thoroughly assess her conditionusing current technology. Instead we saw old videos of her; only her husband's doctors saw her and told us about her medical condition as well as described her prognosis. I just feel tha tthe courts haven't known what they need to know, decided to let her die, and then focused all the efforts of the courts to reinforce that decision. And now it is too late, and Terri is gone. I don't know what the right decision was for Terri, but I know that the method used by the courts and government as well as the medical community is deeply flawed and failed Terri's best interests.
You and I will probably never know Terri's real condition beforethe legal execution began, whether it was as bad as her husband characterized it, or whether there was some quality of life still there as her parents saw. What is better known is that Terri is in the hands of a merciful God, and now, rightly or wrongly, she has given up this earthly life, and she can see and know her Lord in a personal way that her previous condition made difficult here on earth.
None of us will be the same for having agonized with Terri and the family through this ordeal. May we be better for it.
Faithfully in Christ,
The Rev. Canon David C. Anderson
AAC President
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