Disability Rights and Wrongs in the Terri Schiavo Case

Abstract Although the struggle over the fate of Terri Schiavo was waged in Florida and federal courts and in the media primarily by her husband and her parents, many other individuals and organizations enthusiastically and loudly joined in as well, including proponents of a right to die, health care workers, religious fundamentalists, politicians, right-to-life proponents, opponents of euthanasia and assisted suicide, lawyers, bioethicists—and disability rights activists. On October 15, 2003, Ms. Schiavo’s gastrostomy tube was removed for the second time pursuant to a court order. On October 21, the Florida Legislature passed “Terri’s Law,” which authorized the governor to issue an executive order directing the reinsertion of the tube. Governor Jeb Bush signed the bill and issued the order. On that same day, Michael Schiavo, her husband, filed a lawsuit arguing that “Terri’s Law” was unconstitutional and seeking an injunction to stop reinsertion of the tube; but the tube was reinserted anyway, and the controversy continued.