Only in the afterglow of the Schiavo debacle is it possible to sort out exactly what led to her death. The whole spectacle was a sordid affair replete with press conferences, rhetoric and more legal action than Florida had seen since Bush vs. Gore. But as the dust and smoke settles, an inescapable conclusion is left standing: the outcome was inevitable.
To those who gave sweat and prayers for Schiavo's life, it is not a pleasant conclusion. The facts surrounding the case left plenty of room for doubt that the outcome was unjust, but beyond those and other ancillary factors, Terri Schiavo's death happened because of two failures: her family got thrashed in the courtroom and the U.S. Congress wrote a bad law.
The first blow came early on; the Schindler family got pummeled in front of Judge Greer. Power Line picked up on a letter written by an anonymous Florida attorney and posted by blogger Steve Sailer pointing out that the initial malpractice award Michael Schiavo received gave him the resources to hire the best lawyer he could. Schiavo did just that, hiring George Felos; the Schindler family had no such funding available. Instead, they got an "inexperienced lawyer" who "had almost no resources to work with and no experience in this area of the law ... once a trial court enters a judgment into the record, that judgment's findings become the facts of the case."
In short, that judgment becomes the basis for all other legal decisions. The events as put forth by Michael Schiavo became the basis everything was decided upon thereafter. A bad lawyer made it practically impossible for the Schindlers to prevail.
The congressional action did not help Terri, either. Lawmakers were frantically rushing around trying to find a hook under which they could get the full case heard afresh. While they were within in the bounds prescribed by the Constitution, they wrote a bad law.
The guts of the law were that "[t]he District Court shall determine de novo any claim of a violation of any right" for Terri. The problem was it was tailored too narrowly, focused on her rights and not her desires or predicament. The legislative intent was for a "de novo" (brand new) hearing, but the language gave credence to a review of her rights only. In doing that, courts focus on the procedures, specifically due process.
It was impossible for the Schindler lawyers to claim a rights violation given that Terri's cause had been argued and appealed all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. After twelve years of legal hearings, the Schindlers could not make that case. Congress acted nobly but hastily and was unable to make the eleventh-hour rescue.
The Schiavo affair leaves a bitter taste on the palette because a woman was allowed to be starved and dehydrated to death as an embittered husband wouldn't relinquish Terri to a family who was willing to bear the burden. It is certainly arguable that her death was wrong -- a method of death nobody would wish to suffer. Terri's "death process" began much earlier than the feeding tube being removed as the case got its life support pulled early on and the reinsertion effort came too late.
Write to Jeff at
mannedarena@yahoo.com
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