Mullane: 'Culture of death' killed Terri Schiavo

In the decade since Terri Schiavo’s forced death, her life is clouded in myth.

Misconceptions persist. She was “terminally ill” or “in a coma.” That she lay in a Florida hospice “unable to communicate.” That her agonizing death by and dehydration was “with dignity.”

“All of these things are still being reported inaccurately,” said Terri’s brother, Bobby Schindler.

In fact, Terri breathed on her own. Video shows her smiling, responding to commands, recognizing her parents, Bob and Mary Schindler. She tries to speak.

“The truth is my sister was profoundly disabled from a brain injury,” Bobby Schindler said. “The one thing Terri needed is what she was denied — ongoing rehabilitation and therapy.”

Ten years ago this week Terri became a victim of the culture of death, where the strong target the weak and defenseless, because the weak and defenseless are deemed inconvenient. Death for the disabled is prescribed as an act of mercy.

The Schiavo case is not about the “right to die,” but about the right of the disabled to live. More disability rights groups rallied to Terri than did pro-life groups, a fact rarely reported.

Former U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa, liberal champion of disabled persons, spoke powerfully for Terri’s right to live. So did Rev. Jesse Jackson, who traveled to Florida to pray with the Schindlers, and counseled them to stay strong as a family, even as Terri’s feeding tube was ordered removed by Florida state Judge George Greer.

These events followed an epic legal battle between the Schindlers, who wanted to keep and care for their daughter, and Terri’s husband, Michael Schiavo, who insisted that his wife did not want to live because she was in a hopeless, persistent vegetative state.

“The media never reported that, a few years after her initial collapse, if you look at her medical records, my sister was forming words and trying to communicate,” Bobby Schindler said.

Among those listed in the medical files telling nurses that Terri was trying to speak was Michael Schiavo.

Terri’s saga began on Feb. 27, 1990 when, for reasons still unclear, she collapsed in cardiac arrest in her Florida home. Lack of oxygen caused brain damage, and rendered her unable to swallow. Nourishment came through a feeding tube. She was 26.

At first, Michael Schiavo and the Schindlers worked together on her rehabilitation. Michael even went to nursing school to learn how to care for Terri.

But after winning a malpractice lawsuit, he seemed to lose hope that Terri would improve. Without divorcing her, he began living with another woman with whom he fathered two children. Then he petitioned the Florida courts to have Terri’s feeding tube removed so she would die, which he claimed was her wish.

The Schindlers went to court to stop him, and lost.

Not even a last ditch attempt by the U.S. Congress to place Terri’s case in the federal courts (with the support of then-Sen. Barack Obama) could save her life.

Terri lingered for 13 days. Michael Schiavo’s lawyer, George Felos, informed the press that her death was “peaceful” and “beautiful.”

Bobby Schindler said it was horrifying.

“Inhumane in every sense of the word. To describe what happened to my sister as ‘death with dignity’ is absurd,” he said.

Terri’s mother, Mary, was not permitted to place ice chips in her dying daughter’s mouth to ease her agony. In Terri’s final days, the Schindler children would not permit their mother to see Terri.

“Look at pictures of concentration camps. That’s what my sister looked like. It’s the stuff of nightmares,” Bobby said.

Terri’s case haunts as the culture of death metastacizes among young people.

“There has been a lot of research on brain injuries, especially with soldiers returning from the war. Neuroscience has made great progress,” Bobby Schindler said. “But as a society, we’re going in the opposite direction. The bioethics movement is on college campuses, and you can see college students today are actually more in favor of killing what they call ‘non-persons.’

“This is someone who is unaware of their surroundings, or any sense of time. A newborn baby fits this description, and guys like (Princeton bioethicist) Peter Singer actually believe a newborn is not a ‘real’ person, and can be put to death by parents without consequence,” he said.

“Just read anything Singer says on the subject. It’s chilling,” he said. “It’s convincing a generation of kids that it’s OK to kill people who are imperfect. It’s frightening.”

Discrimination is rooted in revulsion of the imperfect, an attitude of “better dead than disabled.” Its rationale is, “I wouldn’t want to live like that — who would?”

“Who would?” always becomes “Who should?”

Parents of disabled children know this, and fear it.

A few years ago I attended a dinner at the Knights of Columbus in Levittown, Pa. A guest speaker from Easter Seals described a boy, age 7, who was profoundly disabled and unable to speak.

Hope of improvement was written off by specialists. The child would always be trapped in a seizure-prone body, strapped in a wheelchair, completely dependent on others, and what kind of life is that?

The boy’s courageous parents dismissed the degreed experts. They found a computer engineer who created a device that allowed the boy to communicate his thoughts for the first time. His first message to his parents was, “I love you.”

Terri Schiavo, profoundly disabled, was denied that hope, and her parents were denied that moment because her life was denied on state orders.

J.D. Mullane can be reached at 215-949-5745 or jmullane@calkins.com. Twitter: @jdmullane