Terri Schiavo Case Summary

The main ethical issue with the Terri Schiavo case is a struggle between sanctity of life versus quality of life (Perry et al. 747). On one hand, Terri Schiavo's parents were Catholic, which means that sanctity of life was very important to them. Even though they were informed that there was no hope that their daughter’s condition would improve, they still held on to her life. What was really important to them was their daughter remained alive. On the other hand, Terri’s husband did not share the same faith as her parents, and it is clear that he valued quality of life instead. He knew that his wife would never return to her normal self again, and he claimed to know that his wife would not want to live in a PVS for the rest of her life. Regardless …show more content…
Under such circumstances, it is possible that she would have no longer considered her life meaningful and that she would want to be unplugged. Since she was not able to communicate with people around her, there are only indirect ways of finding this out. The convincing evidence given by her husband referencing her life before entering a PVS coma (her written or oral statements, belief etc.) revealed how she would have felt about being in a coma or in a vegetative state in which she is unresponsive. Using this knowledge as a base, the act of unplugging Terri Schiavo’s feeding tube turns out to be ethical if we apply the Principle of Double Effect. First of all, the act of unplugging her feeding tube in itself was not an evil act. And, even though the action led to her death, good followed as a result because Terri’s wish was respected. This was the reason behind her husband’s actions, thus his intentions were good. It was important for him to make sure that Terri’s Autonomy was respected since she was no longer capable of defending her wishes. Thus, her death is ethically allowed. In this case, letting Terri Schiavo die is considered as an act of respect for her Autonomy.