Her fate has divided her family and friends, and entranced a nation that has watched them argue over the ultimate moral dilemma. But on Sunday night, the future of Terri Schiavo — the woman at the centre of an agonising right-to-die case — also became a political touchstone for an increasingly polarised United States.
President George Bush on Sunday cut short his holiday in Texas and returned to Washington so he could intervene on behalf of those who want to save Schiavo, who has been in a vegetative state for 15 years.
There was no time for delay because on Friday — on the order of a Florida judge — her feeding tube was taken out, a move demanded by her husband, Michael, who for years has petitioned that she should be allowed to die.
The view set him against Schiavo’s parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, and now he is being challenged by powerful Republicans and the White House, exposing the deep cultural and religious divides in the country.
”Everyone recognises that time is important here,” the White House Press Secretary, Scott McClellan, said on Sunday. ”This is about defending life.”
Conservatives vs activists
The case is pitting Christian conservatives against right-to-die activists; it has also stirred debate about how far the government should play a role in personal family matters.
Congressional leaders drafted a Bill over the weekend that will allow the feeding tube to be restored so that federal courts — rather than local ones — can review the case.
On Sunday night, the Senate unanimously passed the Bill, which is expected to be passed by the House of Representatives this morning. Bush is expected to sign the Bill as soon as it has passed through both houses of Congress.
The Senate majority leader, Bill Frist, a Tennessee Republican and potential presidential candidate in 2008, said he expects the state courts to order feeding be resumed so Schiavo can stay alive while the case is pursued in federal courts.
”We in the Senate recognise that it is extraordinary that we as a body act,” Frist said. ”But these are extraordinary circumstances that centre on the most fundamental of human values and virtues, the sanctity of human life.”
A memo from Republican officials, which has been seen by The Washington Post, said the Schiavo case is an ”important moral issue” and a ”great political issue” that could pay dividends with Christian conservatives in mid-term elections.
Arguments over Schiavo (41) have been raging since 1990, when she suffered huge brain damage after her heart stopped briefly because of a potassium deficiency.
The Florida judge who ordered that the feeding tube be removed said she is in an irreversible vegetative state, and doctors who have been treating her say she could probably survive for one or two weeks before dying of dehydration.
Political pawn
On Sunday, Michael Schiavo accused congressional Republicans of using his wife as a political pawn. He maintains that she had earlier told him she would not want to live in her present state.
”I’m outraged and every American should be outraged,” he told CNN. ”This government is trampling all over a personal family matter.”
Michael has twice before won state court approval to have his wife’s feeding tube removed. In the first instance in 2001, Schiavo’s parents successfully sued to have it reinserted. In the second, in 2003, Jeb Bush, the Florida Governor and brother of the president, intervened.
But Schiavo’s parents on Sunday made emotional pleas to Washington to intervene before their daughter dies. Mary Schindler disputes the argument that her daughter is in a fully vegetative state.
”We laugh together, we cry together, we smile together, we talk together,” she said on Saturday outside the Florida hospice where Schiavo lives. ”Please, please, please, save my little girl.”
The parents have pressed Michael to hand over legal guardianship of their daughter.
Democrats, bowed by last November’s election, have largely kept a low profile in the case. One exception has been the Florida Democrat Robert Wexler, who said it is ”unconscionable” that Congress has become involved.
On Sunday, the blinds of the Florida hospice room where Schiavo lay dying were drawn on her husband’s orders, shielding her from the bright sunshine and creating the illusion of a peaceful cocoon where she could live out her final days.
Protests
It contrasted starkly with the frenetic mood outside. Dozens of pro-life protesters waved banners, prayed, sang their support of efforts to keep her alive and occasionally clashed with police while awaiting news of the extraordinary political manoeuvring in Washington.
Four protesters, including a retired sheriff and a Vietnam veteran turned so-called freedom activist, were arrested as they attempted to enter the hospice in Pinellas Park. James ”Bo” Gritz, a former Green Beret who was one-time running mate of Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke in the 1988 presidential election, had a large American flag taken from him as he tried to get in.
On Sunday night, protest leaders said they were committed to peaceful campaigning after receiving a telephone call from Schiavo’s father, asking them to back off while Congress debated his daughter’s future.
But with anger still running high, the police were taking no chances. They maintained an armed guard outside Michael’s Clearwater house, where hundreds were expected to attend a candlelight vigil and protest last night, and at the door of Schiavo’s hospice room.
”Even though Michael Schiavo believes his wife is dead, she is alive, she has dignity and her life has worth,” said the Reverend Patrick Mahoney, director of the Christian Defence Coalition, one of many religious or right-wing groups organising protests at the hospice, Schiavo’s home and at the mansion of Jeb Bush in Tallahassee.
”We intend to stand peacefully outside his house and let him know this.”
Members of Operation Rescue, a pro-life group that rose to prominence in the 1980s with a series of militant protests at abortion clinics, were also present. Randall Terry, the organisation’s founder and former leader, is the official spokesperson for the Schindlers.
Campaigners said they are confident that Congress’s intervention in the case will lead to Schiavo’s life being saved. But Mahoney said the protests will continue until they are sure.
”We won’t be leaving here until we know Terri’s feeding tube has been reinserted,” he said.
Fifteen years of struggle
In February 1990, Terri Schiavo collapses when her heart stops briefly owing to possible chemical imbalance.
Two years later, she receives $250 000 from a malpractice suit brought against doctors for misdiagnosing her condition. Later that year, she receives $1,4-million in a separate malpractice trial.
In 1993, Michael and his wife’s parents fall out over care she is receiving. Legal challenge begins over access to her legal papers.
In May 1998, Michael files a petition to remove the feeding tube, but nothing is done until April 24 2001. Two days later, medical evidence compels an appeal court to insist feeding begins again.
In November 2002, a court agrees Schiavo will not recover and orders her feeding tube be removed again; this happens the following October. Florida Governor Jeb Bush uses a new law, Terri’s Law, to demand the tube be put back.
In September 2004, the Florida Supreme Court rules Terri’s Law unconstitutional and scraps it. The Appeal Court refuses and sets March 18 2005 as the day the tube will be removed. Last Thursday, Schiavo’s parents petition the US Supreme Court, insisting the feeding tube stays, but the court refuses to get involved. — Guardian Unlimited Â