[1] The long tragic case of Terri Shiavo recently produced an
outpouring of response throughout the United States. Her death was
reported on April 1, 2005, nearly two weeks after life support was
removed in accord with a court order. Terri Shiavo suffered severe
brain damage in 1990 when she collapsed at home after suffering a
heart attack. She was eventually deemed by the Florida courts to be
in a "persistently vegetative state." A long legal battle between
her husband and legal guardian -who believed that she would not
have wanted to live in her condition-and her parents began in 1998
in the Florida state courts when he first asked the court for
permission to remove her life support. Her parents believed that
she might improve with therapy and petitioned the courts not to
order her food and hydration removed. Her case was reviewed by
medical ethics teams and ethics committees several times. Her
husband eventually prevailed in Florida state courts. Legal
proceedings finally ended up in Federal Courts after President
George W. Bush signed into law legislation passed by Congress which
gave her parents access to Federal courts. The Federal courts
declined to order reinsertion of life support after the Florida
courts refused to do so. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to reverse
lower court rulings.
[2] We present two thoughtful and contrasting Lutheran comments on
the circumstances surrounding her recent death for reflection and
deliberation by JLE readers about the end-of-life matters raised by
her case. William Rodriguez argues from Stanley Hauerwas' vision of
the church as a community of character that her family should have
been allowed to care for her indefinitely and that life support
should not have been withdrawn. ELCA Bishop Edward Benoway wrote a
pastoral letter to members of his Florida-Bahamas Synod based on
the ELCA "Message on End of Life Decisions" and said that
withdrawing life support may be morally responsible when such
treatment "will not lead to improved health, and is preventing
natural death from occurring. . . ."
[3] JLE readers will find the full text of the Message on End of
Life Decisions at http://www.elca.org/Faith/Faith-and-Society/Social-Messages/End-of-Life-Decisions
JLE Portfolio: Reflections on End of Life
Decisions
A
Community of Character at the Intersections of Life and
Death
by William Rodriguez
Bishop's
Pastoral Letter on End of Life Decisions
by Bishop Edward R. Benoway