Terry Schiavo One Year Later

One year ago today Terry Schiavo succumbed to her illness and died. Most of the Conservative bloggers, journalists and legislators out there will tell you she was murdered, while most of the liberal bloggers, journalists and legislators will tell you she died a valiant death and secured the Right to Die for all American’s. I can tell you one thing, none of those bloggers or journalists or legislators ever spent anytime working in the healthcare industry or spent days watching patients suffer needlessly because their families were too scared to let them go, for if they had they would have known about the good Hospice can do for patients and their families.

This is one topic where I break ranks with my Conservative brethren, for after 13 years in the healthcare industry, I have seen the effects of long term hospitalization on patients and I believe that Terry had every right to die with dignity on her own terms. Sure there will always be some question about what her true concerns were but I have to error on the side of the spouse in this matter. I base my decision upon the answer to a simple question, when do the rights of a parent to protect their child end? In my opinion those right end as soon as the person turns of age. More importantly, those rights are transferred to another person upon the simple act of marriage.

This was the single question that was never answered in the Schiavo case as the entire case was supposed upon some belief that Terry’s wishes were not what were being presented. Every court that took on the case never answered the one question that should have driven this case and that being who had standing. In my opinion the parents of Terry Schiavo did not have standing and the first judge to hear this case should have stated as such, Terry was a grown, adult woman, married to an adult male, their parental rights were no longer valid and had been transferred to Mr. Schiavo on the day that he married their daughter. Case law supports this position for no law requires adults to obtain parental permission for anything that they undertake, whether it be obtaining a loan to purchase a home or car, or apply for a job.

Where then did this supposed right of the parent come that allowed them to intervene in the application of medical treatments authorized by the souse? Where they required to sign any documentation that authorized their consent in treatment of their daughter? No, the consent forms were required of her spouse, he husband, her protector in those times in which she could not speak for herself. No they were created whole cloth by legislatures and judges who felt that they knew better than the patient.

Terry Schiavo died one year ago today. She did not starve to death, she did not suffer and she did not win a great victory for the right to die. She simply died while in the care of Hospice, comforted from pain and suffering, and with her died the unwavering rights of adults to be their own masters.