Terri Schiavo Should NOT Have Been Kept Alive Essay

Terri Schiavo Should NOT Have Been Kept Alive Does a written document such as a living will decide when someone should die or should the verbal wishes of the incapacitated person be followed if known? Such as the controversy over when life begins, we now face the ultimate question of when does life end. In 1990, Terri Schiavo, a young Florida woman suffered a heart attack caused by bulimia leaving her brain without oxygen for six minutes. According to medical opinions, she has limited involuntary physical movement. She has remained in a persistent vegetative state ever since. Terri did not have a living will or medical directive in place at the time of her heart attack. Michael Schiavo, Terri’s husband, has repeatedly sought the†¦show more content†¦Their wish is to seek rehabilitation therapy for their daughter in hopes she can regain a normal life. The Schindler’s maintain Michael Schiavo is abusive and neglectful of his wife’s medical condition. Furthermore, they claim he wishes her death so he can inherit her remaining estate. It is their wish to be granted guardianship over her medical care and financial estate (Martinez Kampert, 2003). Additionally, the Schindlers impassioned pleas to save their daughters life to the residents of Florida resulted in more than 100,000 communications to Governor Jeb Bush requesting he sign legislation making it illegal to remove Terri’s feeding tube. As a result the governor intervened and signed â€Å"Terri’s Law† allowing her feeding tube to be reinserted. As recently as October 2004, Governor Bush stated â€Å"I personally dont want to be a party to removing a feeding tube that causes us to take an innocent life† (Bell, 2004). However emphatically the Governor supports this law, the Florida Supreme Court denied his request to reconsider it’s ruling in favor of removing Terri’s feeding tube. The date for removal has not been set. The Value of Life Most of us in the course of a lifetime will be confronted in our own families with difficult choices on matters of life and death. There are many opinions on when life begins and now it also seems as to when life ends. Does life end when a person takes their last breath, is it