Lessons of the Schiavo Battle

LIFE OR DEATH : Mary and Robert Schindler, the parents of Terri, speak to the media

CHRISTOPHER MORRIS / VII FOR TIME

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To many Americans, the idea that there could be any winners in this ugly and tragic family spectacle, filled with accusations of greed, abuse and adultery, must have been hard to believe. Beyond the heart-wrenching specifics of the case, the Schiavo controversy raised alarms for many about the federal government encroaching on states' rights, individual rights and the judiciary, not to mention the role religion should play in politics and the legal system. Most of all, though, it got people thinking seriously about what it means to be alive or dead, and how they might prepare for their own death. Suddenly, couples gathered around the dinner table or getting ready for bed were discussing how they would want to be treated near the end of their life and making plans to draft a living will and appoint a health-care proxy. Almost 70% of the people polled by TIME said they would want their feeding tube pulled if they were in Schiavo's situation, and some went to lengths to ensure they didn't end up in the same predicament. One Florida attorney told friends he had just drafted a new living will that included the words "I really, really, really mean this," and a Democratic political consultant says without joking that her new living will is going to include the words "Congress cannot overturn this by any legislation." Of course, having a living will doesn't guarantee it won't be contested. In a Bucks County, Pa., court this week, a daughter hopes to prevent her mother from having a feeding tube put into her Alzheimer's-afflicted father against the express wishes of his living will.

More than 15 years after she suffered cardiac arrest (from a potassium imbalance that may have been caused by an eating disorder), which deprived her brain of oxygen and left her in what most doctors have diagnosed as a persistent vegetative state, Schiavo has become a cause célèbre for the right-to-life movement. Already mentioned in all sorts of fund-raising literature, Schiavo is a symbol not just for those fighting the right-to-die movement but also in the battle over abortion, stem-cell research and judicial activism. "We're replacing the sanctity of life with the quality of life in this country," laments Ken Connor, Florida Governor Jeb Bush's counsel in the Schiavo case.

Over the course of the nasty seven-year legal battle between Schiavo's parents and her husband and legal guardian Michael, he has insisted that his wife, who did not have a living will, had previously made clear her wishes not to be kept alive in such an incapacitated state. She has been dependent on a feeding tube, though not a ventilator, and according to most medical experts, lacks a consciously functioning brain. Although Michael Schiavo and the Schindlers were initially united in seeking extensive treatment for Terri's condition, the two sides have been estranged since February 1993, when they apparently had a falling out over the $300,000 malpractice settlement that Michael won from Schiavo's gynecologist, who failed to detect the potassium imbalance that led to her collapse. (An additional $750,000 from the case was put into trust for Terri's care, although Michael Schiavo's lawyers claim almost all of it has been used for medical and legal bills.)