Put Schiavo case to rest

Medical science says Terri Schiavo was in a persistent vegetative state. Pinellas-Pasco County Medical Examiner Dr. Jon Thogmartin, in releasing the findings of the 41-year-old Florida woman's autopsy, said the damage to her brain was irreversible and no amount of therapy or treatment would have regenerated her massive loss of neurons.

Perhaps most important, the autopsy also showed that Schiavo was not strangled or otherwise abused before her sudden collapse in 1990 that brought on massive brain damage.

In many respects, the autopsy vindicates Schiavo's spouse, Michael Schiavo, who had engaged in a 15-year right-to-die battle with Terri Schiavo's parents. Michael Schiavo has maintained that his spouse did not want to be kept alive if she was in a persistent vegetative state. For 1 1/2 decades, Schiavo fought to carry out her wishes. When a court ruled that Terri Schiavo's feeding tube could be removed in mid-March of this year, the fight to restore the feeding tube was waged in the courts, the Florida Legislature, Congress and the White House. Even Pope John Paul II, his own health failing, urged reinsertion of Terri Schiavo's feeding tube.

Michael Schiavo's attorneys eventually prevailed. Terri Schiavo died on March 31 in a Florida care center, 13 days after her feeding tube was removed. Medical examiners said she died of dehydration.

Her parents, upon hearing the autopsy findings Wednesday, continue to insist that their daughter was not in a persistent vegetative state, nor was she blind, as medical examiners have determined.

But the release of this report should put an end to the back and forth volleying over Schiavo's condition. Unlike her spouse or her parents, the medical examiners have no vested interest in the case. They simply reported what their investigation revealed.

The release of the autopsy report provides one more opportunity to urge all people to formalize their medical and end-of-life directives in a living will. Then, there will be no second-guessing regarding the dying wishes of a spouse, parent or child. No question, the carrying out of those wishes can be one of the most heartwrenching events in a person's lifetime. But the long battle over Terri Schiavo's life and death instructs us that an individual's dying wishes are best not left to chance.