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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Since then, Schiavo's parents exhausted every legal avenue to keep their daughter alive; their unsuccessful appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court last week was their fifth. Along the way, they have made a number of arguments, and all were rejected: that because of his relationship and two children with another woman, Michael should be removed as guardian--although, according to court documents, the Schindlers originally encouraged him to see other women; that as a devout Catholic, Terri would want to live--although they have also acknowledged in court that they might have disregarded her wish to die even if stated in a living will; that Michael was abusing Terri, charges he has vehemently denied; and that her condition has been misdiagnosed, that she actually has a minimal level of consciousness and, with more therapy, could get better.

Even a bill signed by Governor Bush in 2003 to allow the tube to be reinserted ultimately didn't help, since the measure, dubbed Terri's Law, was declared unconstitutional. By the time they were able to persuade Congress to give them another chance to be heard in the federal courts, her parents were arguing that Terri was being denied due process, contending that her rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act were being violated and even claiming that Terri had recently communicated that she still wants to live. While the Schindlers and their supporters charged that Terri was being starved to death, her husband maintained that Terri was in absolutely no pain.

Almost from the moment that DeLay first came up with the idea of subpoenaing Schiavo as a way to prevent the removal of her feeding tube, the saga has had elements of a political circus. There was Congress, convening a special session during the Easter recess to pass a bill crafted just for one family, giving Schiavo's parents a final avenue of appeal. There was President Bush, for the first time cutting short a rest at his ranch to sign a bill. Top Republican staffers on Capitol Hill told TIME that it took some lobbying by congressional Republican leaders, who Bush needs for his controversial Social Security reform and budget cuts, for the President to return on short notice in such a visible role. There were members of Congress, including some physicians like Senate majority leader Frist, earning the derision of the medical community by voicing their own views of Schiavo's condition based on little more than court transcripts and some grainy, heavily edited three-year-old videotapes. ("We're not doctors," Democratic Representative Barney Frank quipped. "We just play them on C-SPAN.")

There were protesters suggesting that Governor Bush should, in an eerie echo of the Elián González snatching that took place five years ago, forcibly remove Schiavo from her hospice to make her a ward of the state--with the help of the Florida National Guard if necessary. At one point, they almost got their wish. Agents from Florida's Department of Children & Families actually did begin to head over to Schiavo's hospice, but local police at the scene made it clear that they would not allow them in without an order from Judge Greer, who had previously enjoined the state from taking such a drastic action. In the end, Governor Bush, a devout Catholic who scored valuable points with the religious right with his dogged work on the case, reluctantly admitted that "my powers are not as expansive as people would want them to be."