If That Ever Happens to Me: Making Life and Death Decisions After Terri Schiavo

Studies in Social Medicine

by Lois Shepherd

Every day, thousands of people quietly face decisions as agonizing as those made famous in the Terri Schiavo case. Throughout that controversy, all kinds of people—politicians, religious leaders, legal and medical experts—made emphatic statements about the facts and offered even more certain opinions about what should be done. To many, courts were either ordering Terri's death by starvation or vindicating her constitutional rights. Both sides called for simple answers. If That Ever Happens to Me details why these simple answers were not right for Terri Schiavo and why they are not right for end-of-life decisions today.Lois Shepherd looks behind labels like "starvation," "care," or "medical treatment" to consider what care and feeding really mean, when feeding tubes might be removed, and why disability groups, the faithful, and even the dying themselves often suggest end-of-life solutions that they might later regret. For example, Shepherd cautions against living wil

240 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2009

Reviews

[Samuel Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

A useful, left of center but reasonably moderate review of the Terri Schiavo proceedings that also reviews general literature on the ethics and controversy around cases similar to Mrs. Schiavo's. The primary concrete proposals in the book are that we shift the evidence standard for living wills to preponderance of evidence and that we shift the burden of proof for ongoing artificial nutrition and hydration in the permanent vegetative state from ongoing treatment to cessation of treatment after, for instance, 1 or 2 years. I worry that these proposals will not gain much traction because they don't get at the underlying cultural rifts that have driven the controversies over medical treatments for individuals in a permanent vegetative state. But there is some sense in what she proposes that I think merits further discussion.