Terri Schiavo Documentary: The Case's Enduring Legacy | Retro Report | The New York Times

The controversy over Terri Schiavo's case elevated a family matter into a political battle that continues to frame end-of-life issues today.

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Terri Schiavo Documentary: The Case's Enduring Legacy | Retro Report | The New York Times
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[music]

>>In the debate over a sick patient's right
to die, there has rarely, if ever, been a case

like the one in Florida.
>>In 2003, America watched

as a private family struggle
became a very public feud.

>>Terri Schiavo's husband and her parents in
Florida have been fighting for a long time

about whether her feeding
tube should be disconnected.

>>And a personal battle eventually
sparked a political firestorm.

>>I'm asking you, isn't she being murdered?
>>...an extraordinary session here on Capitol Hill.

>>Tonight this Congress is
about to commit a travesty.

>>Today, we're still grappling
with end-of-life issues, but will

scientific advancements help to clarify
them, or only make them more complicated?

>>Some patients who appear to be entirely
vegetative are actually quite the opposite.

[music]

>>[Narrator] Terri Schiavo's case started
long before the cameras appeared.

It was February of 1990 when the
26-year-old suffered a cardiac arrest.

>>[Bobby Schindler, her brother] She
went several minutes without oxygen

from her collapse and experienced
a profound brain injury.

The first couple days, doctors didn't
know if she was going to live or die.

>>[Narrator] Lack of oxygen left Schiavo
with severe brain damage and in what

doctors call a persistent vegetative
state, or PVS, a condition in which

the parts of the brain that control thinking
and awareness are damaged or destroyed.

Only the brain stem, which controls basic
reflexes like breathing, remains.

Initially, Terri's husband and parents
cared for her together, exploring potential

treatments and rehabilitation.

But, 4 years after her collapse, Michael Schiavo
says doctors gave him a grim prognosis.

>>[Michael Schiavo] It was to a point
where Terri wasn't going to function.

There was nothing more, and they told us, her
mother was sitting right there at the time,

there was nothing more
they could do for Terri.

>>[Narrator] In 1998, Michael Schaivo petitioned
to have his wife's feeding tube removed,

saying she had told him and others she
wouldn't want to live in this condition.

Her parents, Bob and Mary Schindler,
fought desperately to keep her alive,

insisting that removing her feeding
tube would be tantamount to murder.

>>[Bobby] People think Terri was in a coma,
she was brain dead, that she was terminal.

Terri was not dying. Terri had a profound
brain injury. And our family wanted to

care for her just they was she was.
>>[Narrator] With no living will

expressing her wishes, it was up to the
state courts to decide Terri's fate.

>>[Dr. Arthur Caplan] They went
to court more than anybody

has ever gone to court, in my experience,
in fighting about an end-of-life care case.

>>[George Felos, Michael's attorney]
This was probably the most litigated

case that I can think of.

We were up and down the Federal court system,
the state court system, many, many times.

>>[Narrator] At least 19 judges heard
the case through various appeals and the

decisions were all ultimately in Michael
Schiavo's favor. Going back to the original

court ruling that said that there was
"clear and convincing evidence" that

Terri would not want to be kept alive and
that her feeding tube should be removed.

>>[Michael] She told me what she wanted and the
courts heard it, over and over and over again.

>>[Narrator] For Terri's parents,
the legal decisions were devastating.

The appeal to the media and the public:
>>[Mary] Please, please, please, save my little girl.

>>[Dr. Caplan] They became a cause, they
got picked up by talk radio, they had

religious groups weighing in on their behalf.
>>[praying] Spare this innocent child.

>>[Dr. Caplan] There was a fear, across
the board, of euthanasia, assisted suicide,

abortion, and abandonment of the disabled,
if you will. That's what a lot of the

motives were that drove those who
rallied to the side of Terri's parents.

>>[Randall Terry, Operation Rescue]
To deliberately starve her to death

is an act of cruelty, and
ultimately it's murder itself.

>>[Bobby] Terri touched a nerve with so
many people because they saw a family who

was willing and wanting
to care for her.

They didn't understand why they
weren't being allowed to do that.

>>[Narrator] On both sides...
>>[Crowd] Let Terri live! Let Terri live!

>>[Narrator] ...emotions ran high.
>>[man] No one would want to live this way.

>>Twenty times in court! Twenty times!
>>This is the Roe vs. Wade of euthanasia.

>>[Michael] I used to say, "What are these
people doing? Why Terri?" People's feeding

tubes are removed every day. To this day
I don't know why, but it was very surreal.

>>[Oprah] Should Terri
Schiavo live or die?

>>[reporter] What evidence is there that
this woman has any brain function or not?

>>[Narrator] Michael Schiavo believes the
media fanned the flames. Especially after

the Schindlers released a series of videos that
they said proved Terri was conscious and aware.

[Terri making guttural vocalizations]
>>[Mary] It's Mommy!

>>[Narrator] But, Caplan says
the videos were misleading.

>>[Dr. Caplan] It was irresponsible beyond belief
that it was run unchallenged and unexamined.

It was too attractive to the media not to
use. Here she is! But, it was assembled

selectively and it was staged and it
did not indicate what she could do.

>>[Narrator] Caplan says that what looked
like intentional responses in Terri were

just reflexes that are common in people
in a persistent vegetative state.

>>[Dr. Caplan] A lot of our bodily systems
are run off that part of the brain that

Terri still had. That tape used that fact and
made it look as if she was thinking and feeling.

>>[Narrator] While most of the doctors who
examined Schiavo believed she was in a

vegetative state, not everyone
in the medical community agreed.

>>[reporter] There's a total of about 14
specialists in brain injury and stroke,

which is her situation, who have come out
to say she is not in PVS, not in a coma,

does respond, is alert, and actually
has even the ability to communicate.

>>[Narrator] With each side entrenched,
arguments turned to threats.

>>[Felos] It's no fun getting up in the
morning and looking under your car before

you start the engine to see if there's a
device because you've had people contact

you saying that they're going to blow you
to bits if you keep working on this case.

>>[Michael] My house was invaded day in
and day out. And these are people pushing

their views on me. And I don't understand
that. You have your view on things and you

have your beliefs, that's great.

But, don't stand outside somebody
else's house and push that on them.

[crowd chanting]

>>[Narrator] And the more the fight played
out in public, the more political it became.

>>[Rep. Sandra Murman] Who's going
to look out for this girl's rights?

We have to.

>>[Narrator] In 2003, Florida legislators
passed "Terri's Law," which gave Governor

Jeb Bush the authority to
reattach Schiavo's feeding tube.

The tube had been removed
by court order 6 days earlier.

>>[Jeb Bush] We did what was right and I'm
proud of the legislature for responding.

>>[Narrator] The state law was eventually
found to be unconstitutional, but in 2005,

the fight moved to Capitol Hill.
>>[reporter] There are extraordinary

events happening in Washington tonight
as the U.S. Congress and President move

toward passing a law before morning to
intervene in the case of Terri Schiavo.

>>[Narrator] By then, Schiavo's
feeding tube had been removed again.

>>[Rep. Tom DeLay] If we do
not act she will die of thirst.

>>[Narrator] Conservative law makers led
the charge to pass a law that would give

Terri's parents the chance to
continue their fight in Federal court.

>>[Sen. Bill Frist] These are extraordinary
circumstances that center on the most

fundamental of human values and
virtues, the sanctity of human life.

>>[Narrator] Opponents argued that politicians had
no place interfering in personal medical decisions.

>>[Rep. Debbie Schultz] Do we
really want to insert ourselves

in the middle of families' private
matters all across America?

>>[Rep. Jim Davis] This Congress should
respect the law and the rulings of courts

and not trample the Constitution.

>>[Narrator] After a late night
emergency session of Congress...

>>For the relief of the parents
of Theresa Marie Schiavo...

>>[Narrator] The bill came to a vote.
>>203 yays, 58 nays. The bill is passed

and without objection a motion to
reconsider is laid upon the table.

>>[Narrator] The bill was then rushed over to
President Bush, who signed it after midnight.

But, the law wasn't enough. A Federal
judge refused to order the feeding tube

reinserted because he found the arguments
were unlikely to succeed in Federal court.

The Schindler family kept appealing to no
avail. And on March 31, 2005, the long,

painful, public struggle was over.
>>[reporter] The end came this morning

for Terri Schiavo and her husband's lawyer
said she died peacefully 13 days after her

feeding tube was removed.
>>[Bobby] Terri, we love you dearly,

but we know that God loves you more than we do.
We must accept your untimely death as God's will.

>>[Narrator] Schiavo's autopsy eventually
confirmed what had been so hotly contested

for years in court proceedings. The damage to
her brain had been massive and irreversible.

Today, 9 years after Schiavo's death, while
we are still struggling with end-of-life issues,

advanced brain imaging is helping scientists
better understand the minds of people who

are unable to communicate. And they're finding
some surprising and unexpected results.

>>[Dr. Adrian Owen] It might be possible
in some of these cases that what you see

is not what you get.
>>[Narrator] Dr. Adrian Owen

is a neuroscientist who is using brain scans
to search for glimmers of consciousness

in patients who've been diagnosed in a
vegetative state. He says it wouldn't have

worked with Terri Schiavo, but his method
has shown promise with some patients.

Owen puts them in a high tech scanner and
asks them to imagine doing certain activities

like playing tennis or moving around their home.
>>[Dr. Owen] We're trying to get the patient

to do something when we ask them to do it,
but of course, they can't move because

that's part of the diagnosis
of vegetative state.

And our question was, well can some of
these patients do it with their brain?

I want you to imagine playing tennis only
if the answer to the question is yes.

Does your sister, Jen, have a daughter?
We're going to start the scan now.

>>[Narrator] He looks to see if his question
will activate a specific part of the brain.

>>[Dr. Owen] That's pretty good.
He has this whole band of activity.

Steven, we can see your brain lighting up
when you're trying to answer the question.

>>[Narrator] Even though his sample
size is small, Owen's work has garnered

attention from the scientific community. He
found that nearly 20% of the patients he's tested,

patients who meet the criteria for being
vegetative, have shown signs of awareness.

Including some, like Steven, who seem to answer
simple yes or no questions using only their minds.

For now, Owen is avoiding
the toughest question of all.

>>[Dr. Owen] We really haven't got to the
point of asking really tricky ethical

questions like, "do you want to live or die?"
In part, that's because the appropriate

ethical frameworks aren't yet in place for
deciding what we would do with that information.

>>[Narrator] Almost all of the patients
who've shown evidence of awareness have

suffered from trauma or blows to the head,
not oxygen deprivation like Schiavo.

But, Bobby Schindler says the extent of her injuries
wouldn't have made a difference to his family.

>>[Bobby] I think it's important to also
understand that none of this mattered to

my family in this battle. It didn't matter to us
if Terri never improved from her condition.

We loved her unconditionally.
We loved her that way.

>>[reporter] The family of a little
girl left on life support after a

tonsil surgery goes horribly wrong,
gets a really powerful ally.

>>[Narrator] Today, Schindler and
his family remain in the public eye.

They run a non-profit in Terri's memory
to help families facing similar issues.

>>[Bobby] ...the team put together and
we're doing everything we can to get Jahi

out of the situation with the hospital.
>>[Narrator] In one way or another,

Terri Schiavo's plight continues to leave a
mark on the nation. It inspired an initial

increase in living wills and advanced
directives just after she died.

And in 2007, she ranked just below Mother
Theresa and Oprah on a list of people who

moved us most in the last quarter century.
>>[Michael] I think the country has learned

something. I hope they say, "Remember the
Terri Schiavo story. What do you want me

to do if something happens to you?"
And I'm hoping that's Terri's legacy.

So, now she's at peace.
She has what she wanted.

And as her grave stone says at
the bottom, "I kept my promise."

[music]