Terri Schiavo

To put into words what normal everyday people, family members of Terri Schiavo, are enduring as part of this media and court battle mess is beyond something I can describe. I don't know the details of Terri's mental or physical condition prior to her passing away a few hours ago. I don't know if she was able to comprehend what was happening to her. I don't know what side of the political and medical aisle to believe in this case. It is clear one side won the legal battle and that win resulted in Terri's passing today.

What can we do after this? We can make sure we have a "living will" in place. We can make sure our family clearly understands what our wishes are specifically to prevent such a recurrence. We can encourage our elected representatives to address this as a nationwide issue. After all, there must be thousands of such Terri's throughout this land in exactly the same situation. Yet, the media focused only on the pending starvation of Terri for days, ignoring the fundamental issue of how families should handle this same issue (in private). The family chose to put this to the media. I only hope my family would allow me, in the same situation, the dignity that privacy allows.