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The term euthanasia is inextricably linked to story of Terri Schiavo. His was the first sensational events to give space to debate on the end of life: after 15 years of legal battles and suffering, the woman was left free to die. Her husband Michael will write on her gravestone: “I have kept the promise I made to you”.
The story of Terri Schiavo
Born in the registry office as Theresa Marie Schindler Schiavo, Terri was born in Lower Moreland Township on December 3, 1963. Up to the age of 27 she led a very normal life working as a clerk until, that February 25, 1990, suffers cardiac arrest. His brain runs out of oxygen for several minutes causing major brain damage: Terri enters a persistent vegetative state.
From then on, a series of legal battles ensued between Terri’s husband and guardian, Michael, and her parents opposed to euthanasia. In 1988, Michael Schiavo asks for the tube that keeps his wife alive to be removed, but Bob and Mary Schindler oppose starting a campaign supported by pro-life associations.
It took still other years for Terri’s will to be respected, before the event, in fact, he had expressly declared that he was not wanting to be subjected to a therapeutic persistence. In the 2000s, a hearing was held with the aim of determining Schiavo’s will and, the following year, for the first time, Terri’s tube was removed on 24 April. But after two days of agony, Judge Frank Quesada orders artificial nutrition and hydration to resume.
In 2003 a new sentence, on 7 October the tube is detached again but, again, the state Parliament approves the law save-Terri and George W. Bush orders the tube to be reattached. A real torture, an agony in the agony. Then the epilogue: the March 18, 2005 the tube is detached and after 14 days, Terri dies.
The world debate
The story of Terri Schiavo in the USA has become the symbol of the battle of euthanasia in support of a dignified death. However, history has divided public opinion in the middle with many repercussions in the rest of the world and in Europe where, in those years, countries such as Holland, Belgium and part of Spain they legalized euthanasia.
Italy, like the rest of the world, has split in half. In those years, the story of Terri is flanked by that of Eluana Englaro and the battle of her father Beppino who wants to give her daughter a dignified death after years of vegetative state. Those are the years in which the Church, supported by theodems and pro-life associations, takes to the streets with candles and processions. The scenario is similar to that of dark Inquisition and while the government decides the fate of Eluana on 9 July 2008, the others scream at Beppino “murderer”.
Terri Schiavo, portrait
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