Terri Schiavo would be 61 years old today. Instead, many people around the United States honored the twentieth anniversary of her death — some even argue her murder — this week. Schiavo was euthanized at 9:05 a.m. on March 31, 2005. Her autopsy report states that her cause of death was dehydration.
For those who don't remember the case, Terri was a 26-year-old woman who went into cardiac arrest at her Florida home in 1990. When paramedics arrived, she was lying on the floor, not breathing, but they managed to resuscitate her. The lack of oxygen damaged her brain. Doctors eventually decided that she was in a persistent vegetative state with no hope for recovery. However, while she could no longer feed or care for herself, she was alive. She was breathing on her own. Her heart beat on its own. She could move her arms and legs. She was not terminally ill.
Her husband, Michael Schiavo, who was also her court-appointed guardian, claimed that she wouldn't want to live life this way. Her parents and siblings disagreed. This led to a years-long legal battle. Michael wanted to remove her feeding tube. Her family fought it. I don't want to focus on all of the legal details, but the case was such a big deal that the Supreme Court, the Vatican, Jeb Bush (who was governor of Florida at the time), bipartisan members of Congress, and George W. Bush (who was president at the time) all got involved.
I remember the case myself, and I was amazed that even the president of the United States would go to great lengths to save this woman's life. Terri had no living will and obviously could no longer speak for herself, so no one knew what her true wishes were, but I could never understand why Michael wouldn't just step aside and let her family have custody of her. Her parents, brother, and sister begged him to walk away and let them handle her care.
Not doing so seemed cruel, especially when I learned that he had moved on long before the cause gained national attention. Schiavo had been dating other people and living with another woman since 1995, five years after Terri's incident. They had two children and were considered "engaged." But as court documents point out, "he and his domestic partner may not marry until either Mrs. Schiavo is dead or he divorces her." I don't judge him for moving on at all, but I do judge him for not divorcing her and honoring her family's wishes, especially considering that he potentially stood to gain a lot of money if Terri died.
Of course, no one knows his motives but him, but I never felt he was doing it out of love for her. I have a hard time believing that a 26-year-old woman who dreamed of having a family and seemingly had everything ahead of her would even talk about her wishes for the end of her life should she become incapacitated. On top of that, Terri was said to be a devout Catholic, and that went against the teachings of the Catholic Church.
While doing my research to write this article, I also found some information that I didn't know. According to the Patient's Rights Council, Michael refused to allow Terri to take food or beverages via her mouth, even though a doctor testified that it was possible. He refused to allow anyone to take her outdoors to feel the sun or breeze on her skin. He suppressed media access to videotapes showing that she was very much alive and sometimes responsive to people. Before he began his efforts to essentially euthanize her, he actually won a malpractice case during which he never mentioned that she would not want to live this way.
Despite all of this, a court ordered her feeding tube to be removed on March 18, and after 13 days without nutrition or hydration, she died.
On March 18, 2005, Terri Schiavo’s feeding tube was removed.
— Frank Pavone (@frfrankpavone) March 27, 2025
I was there during those final days, helping however I could. Working quietly behind the scenes—supporting the family, helping get the truth out, doing what needed to be done.
It was one of the most heartbreaking and… pic.twitter.com/8qbjXkCOmR
Not only did I feel like this was cruel for her family, but I also felt like this was a slap in the face of the sanctity of life. As I've written here before, I've been extremely pro-life all of my life, and I'm not just talking about abortion. I've had people accuse me of forcing my faith on others, but I never saw it as a faith thing. I always felt that it was more science than faith. These days, I guess, I see it as a blend of all of it.
As the Bible says, "Defend the weak and the fatherless; uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed. Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked." (Psalm 82:3-4)
Scientists overwhelmingly agree that life begins at conception. Clinical death is when your heart stops beating. Terri's heart was beating on its own. This wasn't a matter of removing her from machines that kept her alive.
As a human being who simply realizes what a privilege it is to be alive, I believe that all life is sacred, and I believe that those of us who are capable should care for the living who can't care for themselves until their bodies give out. Many of the court arguments claimed that Terri couldn't take care of herself, but she was still a life with a beating heart. Who am I to judge what kind of value her life had? There are so many people who wouldn't be alive today without ongoing medical intervention. Where do we draw the line?
If someone can speak for themselves and say that they want to be euthanized at the end of their life or if they find themselves in a certain state similar to Terri's or otherwise, that's their business. My personal beliefs and values do not agree with forcing death like that, but my personal beliefs and values also respect other people's ability to decide for themselves and deal with the consequences, whatever they may or may not be.
But Terri never spoke for herself. And, unfortunately, it seems like the respect for life has only gotten worse in this world since Terri's death.
In February, I wrote about how, in many countries around the world, the abortion rate for babies diagnosed with Down syndrome in the womb is between 90% and 100%. We've watched as Luigi Mangione, a man who murdered someone's father, has been cheered on as some kind of hero over the last few months. Abortion has become an acceptable mainstream form of birth control. The elderly are often tossed aside when they are no longer of use to us. Countries like Canada that do offer voluntary euthanasia are abusing it for the purpose of convenience.
I even think back to when my mom was in the hospital for three weeks before she died. When she first went in, it was supposed to be a quick thing. She'd get the treatment she needed and come home. Something happened during the first 24 hours that doctors and nurses couldn't explain, and my dad and I couldn't wrap our heads around it. She went from needing a basic treatment to basically being unresponsive for a couple of days.
When she did finally come around, they told me she suddenly had a "do not resuscitate" order. I argued that this is not congruent with her previous wishes, and they told me she must have changed her mind because that's what she said. When I was able to talk to my mom again, one of the first things she said to me was, "They tried to put me on a breathing machine. Why? I'm breathing fine. I told them no."
She'd obviously misunderstood and thought they wanted to hook her up right then and there, not if it became necessary. She was so upset when I explained it to her and asked me to get them to change it. When I went back to the ICU doctor to tell her that they'd obviously misunderstood her, the doctor rolled her eyes and copped an attitude with me and said, "I was in the room when she was asked. She didn't misunderstand."
After that, there was nonstop "give up the fight" and hospice talk from the ICU staff. We weren't done fighting. They tried desperately to persuade me to get her to give up. It took me calling my mom's regular nephrologist personally, who was on vacation at the time, to make it stop. He sided with me that it wasn't time yet, even though we may be approaching that time in the near future. Thank God he's highly respected at that hospital because all of their tunes changed quickly once he got involved. I wonder how many doctors in the future will fight for their patients like that?
Convenience and cash seem to trump the life of each individual person more and more each day. If there was ever any sign that our culture was in trouble, surely this is it. And I don't see it getting any better. Unfortunately, as we look back on the life and death of Terri Schiavo, it reminds us that she was seemingly a victim of that even two decades ago. May she rest in peace.
Twenty years ago, Terri Schiavo died not from illness or injury—but from court-ordered dehydration and starvation. Her death was slow, silent, and heartbreaking. Deprived of food and water, Terri’s life was ended. We will never forget her. pic.twitter.com/ISAG67QYzH
— National Right to Life (@nrlc) March 31, 2025
