Terri Schiavo lives on
Actually, those of us who covered the end of life and the death of Terri Schiavo know that the truth has never fully come out yet, and that its consequences reach way beyond her singular life. Her case only started the national dialogue on human rights for the disabled, on end-of-life issues, on euthanasia, living wills, the ‘persistent vegetative state,’ and how it’s all defined and decided.
Wesley Smith covered it, stayed with it, and still writes and speaks about the morality and ethics of these dicey issues. And he raises lots of good questions in his blog, particularly the post on “Terri Schiavo and the ‘Unconcscious,’ Interactive Patient.”
A lot of people thought about poor Terri when it was revealed that a British patient diagnosed as PVS was clearly interactive, based on MRI testing. That brought to many people’s minds, mine included, the request of Terri’s folks that she receive a test that would measure brain function rather than mere structure. This was refused adamantly by Judge Greer.
I have been checking to see if the test used on the British woman would have been usable with Terri. The answer is no. The test in the British case was a form of MRI. Terri couldn’t have an MRI because the strong magnetic field generated by the test would not have been safe due to the fact she had electrodes implanted in her brain from an experimental procedure she received early in her disability.
By the way, how many people even know that Terri still had electrodes implanted in her head, many years after the doctors who temporarily put them there urged Michael Schiavo to have them removed?
Back to Smith…
However, she could have had a PET scan, which uses radiation to measure function. This was the test the Schindlers requested. Which raises the question of whether a PET scan could have provided the same kind of details about Terri that were revealed about the British patient from the MRI…
Important details, yes. But as Smith points out, not the “quick snapshot” some people want.
Still, the bottom line is that while Terri was lying in the bed waiting for the appeals courts to deliver her death warrant, it would have done no harm to give her a PET scan to see what could be seen. Nor would it have harmed anyone for Judge Greer to have permitted very respected rehabilitation therapists, who believed they could have helped Terri relearn how to swallow on her own, to give it a try. Judge Greer’s adamant refusal to permit a PET scan and therapy is inexplicable–if, that is, he wanted the fullest record possible before the helpless woman he was duty-bound to protect was dehydrated to death.
That’s no longer a hypothetical. As we know, Wesley, Greer did the original — and one and only — fact-finding on this case. It’s rather breathtaking that no one along the way in all the appeals court processes ever made another attempt — or allowed one — to get the original facts straight.
Considering that we’re all only a few breaths or heartbeats away from this same possible occurrence, keeping the issues alive could save someone you know and love.
