Free Republic

The end of this month marks the anniversary of the judicially-ordered killing of Terri Schiavo, age 41, carried out at the behest of her husband who was living with another woman and his Scientologist lawyer. She was not brain-dead. She could breathe on her own. Yet despite the best efforts of Terri's family and the pro-life and disability-rights communities, the courts ordered Terri Schiavo to be killed by dehydration. Rush Limbaugh described the day as "the day our country hit rock bottom." One year later, it is still an apt description. Terri Schiavo left no written instructions nor a living...

During the tumultuous final weeks in the life of Terri Schiavo, the young woman who died in a Florida hospice in April, press reports in the nation’s media typically focused on the bitter conflicts among members of her family over her treatment, disagreements among consultants over her state of consciousness, and the increasingly intense arguments in legislatures and the courts over her guardianship. Since her death, the case and the story of her death and dying have been mined for their bearing on our ongoing culture wars and for the debate over the place of “values” in our politics. In...