“The disabled are being dehydrated under this whole guise of quality of life,” said Bobby Schindler, brother of Terri Schiavo, pro-life advocate and Executive Director of the Terri Schiavo Foundation, as he began his lecture on Tuesday in Rigge 120.
Around 200 students listened as he told his account of the 15-year struggle for his sister’s life that involved legislative headaches and loved ones’ heartache.
Schindler began his presentation with the comment that Terri Schiavo was not dying or anywhere near death, despite her mysterious collapse in 1990 that left her severely neurologically impaired but fully conscious and alert. Only after the feeding tube was removed under court order did she begin to deteriorate and eventually die on March 31, 2005, after 13 days without hydration or nutrition, Schindler said.
“We want to remind the community that pro-life is bigger than abortion – we need to shine some light on related issues,” said Miriam Thorn, president of Creighton Students For Life, who organized the speaker’s appearance.
“It’s an outrage seeing her die,” said Arts & Sciences sophomore Kyle Simon, who attended the presentation after the persuasion of friends. “I don’t understand how the judge had the right to make such a decision even though she was not dying.”
“It’s surreal, I can’t describe it. It’s done in the strictest secrecy and behind closed doors. It’s absolutely barbaric,” Schindler said of the two weeks he watched his sister slowly dehydrate to death. The family had no control of Terri’s situation since Terri’s husband Michael Schiavo was the legal guardian and made multiple legal attempts to extract the feeding tube.
Schindler focused on two legal changes that he believes are impacting the public’s view of euthanasia and assisted suicide as appropriate and justified. One change was the introduction of the PVS (persisting vegetative state) diagnosis, which allows doctors to determine whether care should be continued for a person in a physically and/or mentally compromised state, an opinion which is completely subjective in Schindler’s opinion.
“What greatly concerns me is creating these person versus nonperson categories,” Schindler said. “The language of this diagnosis is dehumanizing.”
During the presentation, Schindler also focused on the impact of bioethicists and media on desensitizing the public.
“More and more bioethicists are contributing to teaching future nurses and doctors about futile care, which in a sense disregards a patient’s basic needs and allows the hospital to trump personal wishes,” Schindler said.
Freshman pharmacy student Elizabeth Doyle attended the presentation to inform herself about the issue of euthanasia that could appear in her future career.
“I wanted to get my feet wet since it’s close to me and includes situations I could encounter in the future,” Doyle said. “I’m shocked that hospitals can override patient’s wishes – that really hit me hard.”
Continuing with the journalistic malpractice of the media, Schindler explained how the media picked and chose facts of Terri’s story. He gave of an example of how the media manipulated Terri’s story in the use of the term “brain-dead.”
“Terri was not medically brain-dead,” Schindler said. “I constantly asked for corrections and even offered to provide medical documents, but the media refused to change the reference.”
The Terri Schiavo Foundation helps people with loved ones who are in situations similar to the one Terri faced.
On March 31, Terri’s Day 2009 will again be celebrated and all are asked to remember the tens of thousands of people who struggling to live another day.