Bioethical Analysis of the Terri Schiavo Case

This article provides a bioethical analysis of the Terri Schiavo case, a right-to-die legal case in the United States. It explores the ethical issues surrounding the decision to remove her feeding tube and the arguments from different perspectives.

Introduction
Ethics refers to the principles developed from a set of standards and it is highly
associated with medical industry. When the complexity of healthcare decision increases, it
might create ethical issues. It involves issues which are related to the beginning as well as the
end of human life (Ramos et al., 2015). Various medical cases are there that raises question
regarding the bioethics of the case. One of them is Terri Schiavo case. It was basically a
right-to-die legal case in the United States of America held from 1990-2005. In the year
1990, at the age of 26, Terri Schiavo sustained a cardiac arrest which created massive brain
damage and left her in comatose condition where without any improvement she survived in
vegetative state for years. Doctors attempted various therapies without any success and her
husband Mr. Schiavo petitioned the court of Florida to remove her feeding tube in order to
allow her to die. Finally, after many appeals and hearings, the court granted and her feeding
was removed on 18th March, 2005 and she died on 31st March, of the same year (Rohlinger &
Proffitt, 2017).
Bioethical Analysis
Terri’s parents bitterly disagreed with the decision as they were hoping that the
condition of their daughter is not permanent. It was an extremely emotional as well as
extraordinary public battle in the USA which presents a fundamental challenge to all the legal
and medical ethicists. It was a challenge to the broadly accepted bioethical constructs. It is
considered as the more general disability critique of bioethics that has been argued in the
literature as well as publicly (Rohlinger, Pederson & Valle, 2015). Bioethics mainly concerns
with the questions of human values such as the rights to life and health. The health
professionals are the main stakeholders to issue such ethical crisis that impact on the families
of the patients along with the laws and regulations. In this case, critics say that the death by

starvation and thirst has caused suffering for the patient and it is not legal or ethical in
medical field. Further, some researchers argue that her quality of life was insupportable and
therefore, the death was more preferable to continuation. However, this argument found
support from various literatures regarding medical ethics and bioethics. The argument was
also given weight in the series of clinical studies published. Legislatures are the most
appropriate place in order to seek a long-term relief and it also helps in replacing codes
informed by any kind of ethical perspective (Koch, 2005).
Conclusion
This case should impress upon the laypersons and the professionals created argument.
However, nobody is aware of the opinion of Terry and in her absence her parents were
against the decision or opinion of her husband. It is also not known that whether she was
minimally conscious or permanently unconscious. Most importantly, all the uncertainties
became pale in front of the ethical frame associated with the case. It impacted the decisions
of the healthcare professionals and in future they will take similar decisions if required.
However, the bioethicists in this case, dismissed all the arguments of the critics and with the
help of supporting evidences from existing literatures they neutralised the questions raised
from different ethical framework or perspective.

References
Koch, T. (2005). The challenge of Terri Schiavo: lessons for bioethics. Journal of medical
ethics, 31(7), 376-378.
Ramos, F. R. S., Brehmer, L. C. D. F., Vargas, M. A., Trombetta, A. P., Silveira, L. R., &
Drago, L. (2015). Ethical conflicts and the process of reflection in undergraduate
nursing students in Brazil. Nursing ethics, 22(4), 428-439.
Rohlinger, D. A., Pederson, J., & Valle, G. (2015). Inclusive discourse? Local media
coverage of the Terri Schiavo case. Sociological Spectrum, 35(1), 1-25.
Rohlinger, D., & Proffitt, J. M. (2017). How much does ownership matter? Deliberative
discourse in local media coverage of the Terri Schiavo case. Journalism, 18(10),
1274-1291.