The Scoop: Schiavo treated worse than a dog
The controversy surrounding Terry Schiavo’s right to live, or her right to die, lasted until her death yesterday. I don’t think I can offer any new insight into that argument, but I do have a major problem with how her case was handled.
Simply put, Schiavo should have never been left to starve to death for 13 days. That’s barbaric cruelty that should have never been permitted by any government, especially one which claims to be as compassionate as ours.
The ruling in this case was that Schiavo had the right to die. In fulfilling that wish, doctors removed her feeding tube and left her for 13 days without food or water. It amounted to a slow death and the entire country followed it every step of the way.
Instead of removing her feeding tube and leaving her to starve, doctors should have given her a lethal injection. If that’s not appropriate, they should have electrocuted her, hung her, or even put her in a gas chamber. That may sound ridiculous, but all are better options than what was allowed to take place.
Under the laws of the great state of Florida, where Schiavo died, a person could be punished by up to five years in prison for leaving a dog without food and water for 13 days. I suppose in Florida, people don’t deserve the same treatment as dogs.
The last thing that should have happened was to let her die a slow — possibly agonizing — death that lasted nearly two weeks.
We had a story in Wednesday’s edition of the Standard where a 21-year prison sentence for Doreen Jones for starving an elderly man to death was upheld by the court of appeals. Jones must serve her time at 100 percent meaning she won’t get out of jail until we’re approaching 2025.
What’s the difference between Jones’ victim and what happened to Terri Schiavo? They were both starved to death. Schiavo may have earned the right to die, but with all the modern technology we have today, we could have certainly accomplished that goal more respectfully.
What about all the dogs our animal shelter is forced to kill every week? Do animal shelter workers leave the dogs without food and water until they starve to death? Of course not. If they did, they would be thrown in jail for animal cruelty.
Instead, the dogs are “put to sleep” which is a somewhat happy term considering most of us enjoy sleep. But at least those dogs enjoy a more humane death than Schiavo did.
If our court system sentences a convicted criminal to death, we don’t lock them in a cell without food and water until they die. The United States would be judged as one of the most cruel countries in the world if that sort of behavior was allowed to happen.
Instead, there is a great deal of concern for having prisoners die as painlessly as possible. That’s why some states no longer use the electric chair because there is the belief that the person suffers in the eight or nine seconds it takes to die.
If that’s the case, what about the suffering Schiavo suffered over a nearly two-week period. And I realize this is the point in the column for some folks to scream, “She didn’t suffer a bit. She was brain damaged.”
I’ve heard those claims and let me say they are just claims. No one can say with absolute certainty Schiavo didn’t suffer excruciating pain so we need to err on the side of caution.
In removing her feeding tube, doctors sentenced Schiavo to death. She should have been killed right there on the spot. Waiting 13 days for her to starve was not the right thing to do.
James Clark is editor of the Standard. He can be reached at 473-2191 or by e-mail at [email protected].