The Moral Failing in the Schiavo Case
Posted by
tgirsch
According to the doctors who invented the modern method of feeding tube insertion, it wasn’t the removal of the feeding tube, it was the insertion:
The doctors who created the current technique for inserting feeding tubes into patients said the procedure has gone far beyond its original purpose of helping infants and children who couldn’t swallow.…snip…
Ponsky said he and Gauderer never imagined the procedure would lead to a “massive ethical dilemma” such as the one involving Terri Schiavo, the brain-damaged Florida woman whose care has become the subject of a protracted legal battle.
Too often, Ponsky said, the tubes are used in patients with no potential for recovery. [Emphasis added]
“Once they’re in, it’s so emotionally difficult to take it out and let someone die,” said Ponsky, who heads the surgery department at Case Western Reserve University.
…snip…
Gauderer, director of surgery at Greenville Children’s Hospital in South Carolina, said it wouldn’t be appropriate for him to give an opinion on the Schiavo case, but he believes the government shouldn’t intervene.
“This is something that needs to be decided at the family level,” he said.
I emphasized the sentence above because I agree with it wholeheartedly. Admittedly, it’s a tremendously fine line, but there comes a time when it’s inhumane, and in my opinion, irresponsible, to go to extremes to keep someone alive who should be let go. If a person has a reasonable chance of making a recovery, then every effort should be made to helping them recover. But if there’s slim to no chance of that, then the humane thing to do is let them go to.
Evxcellent point. I’m not sure, though, that initially this observation would have applied to the Shiavo case. I think that they had every reason to go with the feeding tube for the first 3 months because there are instances of patients emerging from PVS under the three month time period. I can understand a family wanting to go to every extreme to attemp rehabilitation because there have been some remarkable cases or such reocvery within a certain period of time.
I think that the real moral failing of this case is perhaps the so-called relious leaders who are encouraging her parents to persist with their fight to keep Terri’s shell of a body breathing for their own political agendas. A reasonable, responsible and ethical member of the clergy would be assiting them in the process of letting her go after all this time and to not make false allegations again her husband in this fruitless effort to keep her “alive.” I have been appauled at seeing Pate Boone introduced as the “moral voice of the county” on Larry King Live and then to hear him spead widely false information about this case and to encourage the Schindlers to fight to the end. Granted, Boone isn’t a member of the clergy, but it would appear as though he is mouthing the words of the religeous right when he speaks. and yes, his grandson did suffer a horrible head trauma that left him in a coma and he has since emerged, and has since shown improvement. But responsible religeous leaders should be looking at what is best for the patient, not what is necessarily best for the parents who seem to have no grip on the reality of their daughter’s condition. A responsible clergy leads parents into accepting the truth about the loss, and doesn’t encourage what could be interpreted as a patholgical response to grief. The Schindlers appear to be completely selfish in their response and appear to really disregard Terri’s best interest.
I was struck by the brother of Terri Shiavo who today called for a release of a video tape that would show Terri on her deathbed. No wonder this woman had a eating disorder — it seems as though everyone in this family is bent on objectifying her body and has no respect for her privacy. Even the tapes showing her feeding tube in her abdomen are troubling to me — is that what she would have wanted? My guess would be that this has been ongoing throughout her life, and not just a recent development as a result of the outcome of this case.
May Terri be free from this insanity soon, and may her husband heal the hurt that he has suffered through the years, and may the parents come to accept that their daughter is gone and has been gone for some 15 years. May they all heal and find peace.
Comment 3/27/2005
soulsrvr:
I mostly agree with you, but I think you’re being far too hard on the Schindlers. Try to put yourself in their position. Suppose your daughter were in this state and you sincerely believed that she could be saved, or that she might recover. If you’re anything like me, you would do virtually anything in an attempt to save her life. Now I agree that the Schindlers are badly misguided in their beliefs, but I cannot fault them for the actions they have taken as a result of those beliefs. No offense, but I find your allegations of verbal abuse against the Schindlers to be in nearly as poor of taste as the allegations of physical abuse that were levied against Michael.
No, I instead reserve all of my scorn for the demagogues and idealogues who are using this tragedy to grandstand and score cheap political points.
Comment 3/27/2005
Well, tgirsh, I hear what you are saying, but don’t make the assumption that I haven’t been in somewhat similar situation already in my life with a loved one. . . . I have and that is partly where my point of view comes from — the selfless thing to do, in my opinion, is to look at the needs and wishes of the patient/loved one and proceed from there. This is, afterall, about Terri and her condition and her wishes. I’ve also been with a lot of people at the end of their life and have watched the process many times over. The allegations that are coming out from the Schindler family are pretty outrageous and that is doing nothing but inflaming thier supporters. That is why Michael Schiavo’s attorney had to come out yesterday and give a press conderence. To let people know that she really isn’t bleeding from her eyes or suffering.
And can you imagine being in the position that Michael Schiavo is in and having protestors going to your home, death threats on your life, and being painted as a murder — a lot of the latter has come directly from Schindler family members. It isn’t that I don’t have compassion for the parents — believe me, I do. I’ve lost a child. But I have seen way too much with this case and it makes me uneasy — the parents make me uneasy and the disregard for Terri Schiavo’s privacy makes me really uneasy. Michael Schiavo is with his wife and hasn’t left her side, and her parents could be there as well, but they are making choices that are preventing them from participating fully in her dying process and that is indeed a loss for them. As I said before, with proper guidance from “spiritual” leaders, they could be making better choices for themselves and their daughter. I’ve seen many parents who were in denial about their children’s condition be gently guided through the process of acceptance and of letting go — I was one of those parents and it hurts like hell. But that is what responsible parenting is all about — making the right choices for your children no matter how hard they might be…. My criticsms of the parents might seem harsh, but eating disorders don’t usually come out of nowhere and their behavior has led many people to make similar comments about their need to control and their objectifications of her. I’m not the only one who had made that observation.
Comment 3/27/2005