Terri Schiavo Class

In our G&T class we were discussing the case of terri schiavo and this is a summary of the case.In 1990 through 2005 a women named Terri Schiavo lasped into a coma. It started on febuary 25th when she collapsed on the floor of her home in full cardiac arrest. She suffered massive brain damage from lack of oxygen, and after being in a coma for about two and a half months her condition or diagnosis was elevated to vegitative state. There were various experimental therapies attempted in the next two years on her by doctors hoping to return terri to a state of awarness. Eight years after she fell into the coma, in 1998 Micheal Schiavo petition the court to remove her feeding tube according to the Florida Statutes section 765.401. Terri's parents didn't approve of this petition and opposed him. The base of their argument to keep her alive was that she was conscious. In the next couple of years the court favored Mr. Schiavo's side of the argument and removed her feeding tube for the first time on April 24th, 2001 for a few days and then reinserted again. On Febuary 25th, 2005 her feeding tube was removed, but put back in a few days later. However, on March 18th 2005 the feeding tube was permanately removed and she died on March 31.

I do believe that the removal of the feeding was justified, because she wasn't going to ever wake up from coma based on what doctors said. she went through various experimental therapies, and she didn't respond to the therapies performed on her. These therapies were supposed to raise her mental awareness, but since she did not respond to them in the slightest way, we can assume that she had no mental awareness at all. Also 15 years is a lot of time, and if she didn't wake up from the coma already, there is a very slim chance she will ever wake up at all, she would have most likely stayed in her vegetative state till she died and started decomposing. she was wasting medical equiptment, and a lot of money. Also her legal guardian (her husband) said that she would have wanted him to pull the plug. That is why i think that the removal of the feeding tube was justified.