The autopsy on Terri Schiavo confirms she was not mistreated and the decision to remove her feeding tube was based on sound medical evaluations.
A Times Editorial
Published June 16, 2005
The autopsy on Terri Schiavo provides some clarity about her condition before her death and refutes many of the claims made with such certainty and emotion at the height of the controversy. It vindicates Michael Schiavo's efforts to have his wife's end-of-life wishes carried out, and it should comfort those who empathized with one family's terribly difficult struggle. It also should cause politicians and opportunists to think twice about recklessly intervening again in such a personal tragedy.
Pinellas-Pasco Medical Examiner Jon Thogmartin found nothing to suggest that Schiavo was not in a persistent vegetative state or that her condition would improve as her parents maintained. Her atrophied brain was about half the normal weight, and the massive damage was irreversible. No amount of treatment or rehabilitation would have helped, the medical examiner concluded. She was dependent on the feeding tube and likely would have choked to death if she had been fed by mouth.
One by one, many of the allegations that fueled the worldwide debate over Schiavo's fate were refuted. The autopsy found no evidence of strangulation or trauma to support the baseless allegations that Michael Schiavo abused his wife. Her bones were soft because of severe osteoporosis typical in patients with long-term paralysis. There were no indications that Schiavo had been given harmful drugs before her death March 31. All of this reaffirms that the last-ditch effort by Gov. Jeb Bush's Department of Children and Families to take custody of Schiavo to investigate renewed allegations of mistreatment was as unwarranted as it appeared at the time.
The autopsy also confirms the claims by Bob and Mary Schindler that videos indicated she responded to movement and commands were at best desperate wishes by devastated parents. Schiavo was blind, and there is no evidence she had any awareness of her surroundings. Those findings underscore that the governor, the Legislature and Congress had no business justifying their meddling with amateur diagnoses based on a misleading video. Voters should remember how Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee used his credentials as a medical doctor to irresponsibly prop up his armchair opinion of Schiavo's condition as Congress rushed to intervene.
Some questions about Schiavo never will be completely answered. The medical examiner cast doubt on the theory that her 1990 collapse could be traced to an eating disorder, and there was no evidence she had been using drugs or suffered a heart attack. The lack of clarity undoubtedly will continue to fuel conspiracy theories.
There will be those with personal or political agendas who refuse to accept these findings and let Schiavo rest in peace. But the medical examiner has performed a valuable public service. The autopsy confirms that the court rulings allowing Schiavo's feeding tube to be disconnected as she wished were based on sound medical evaluations and that she was not mistreated. It also is further evidence that such difficult end-of-life decisions are best made by families and their doctors, not politicians.
