We Feed Roses, Don’t We?
Further thoughts on the passing of Terri Schiavo
Dr. Janet E. Smith, Chair of Life Ethics, Professor of Moral Theology
MOSAIC, Fall 2005

Terri Schiavo lived with brain damage for fourteen years until she passed away before the eyes of a grieving nation on March 31. She was not dying when her guardians withdrew artificial hydration and nutrition from her. Terri was not on “life-support.” She was receiving nutrition and hydration by one of the many means human beings receive them: in our lifetimes we are fed by the umbilical cord, the breast, a bottle, a spoon and sometimes tubes.

Tubes are not extraordinary medical treatment; they are fundamental care, much like a bed and a blanket and a bedpan. Terri did not die from an underlying disease. She died from starvation and dehydration because her caretakers refused to give her food and water.

Supposedly, at some point in her life, Terri said something like, “I would never like to live like that” (referring to a condition similar to her own). Inexplicably, that remark took on the force of a well-considered legal document.

Perhaps many of us could name conditions that we would not want to live in, but that does not mean we would commit suicide or ask others to kill us were we in those conditions. The scriptural Job certainly didn’t want to live in the conditions in which he was thrust, but he did not seek death. God is the one who is to determine the length of our stay on earth; we often have little choice over what are the conditions of that stay.

The fact is, Terri’s parents wanted to do what loving human beings want to do for each other—they wanted to care for her and love her and seek whatever improvement of her condition they could.

Some might say that those in a vegetative state can’t do anything. But they can “be,” and simply “being” is quite something. Not seeking death when suffering is a way of giving glory to God; it is a way of saying that we trust he is a loving God and he keeps us alive for a reason. Still, it is the case that those in a persistent vegetative state and those with severe dementia or retardation seem not to be aware of anything or are able to give God glory. The truth is, we don’t know what is going on in their interior, and so we can’t really say that they can’t actively praise God. But we do know the severely disabled serve a salvific purpose: they can be the object of other people’s love.

While there are certainly negatives to Terri’s condition, what is positive is that she was the object of the love of her family. Think of newborns; although they can really do almost nothing, we lavish our love upon them. Yes, we hope that they will grow and mature and return our love, but we love them just because they are. In fact, we lovingly care for plants and animals that don’t do much. We water and feed our rose plants, but we did not give water or food to Terri.

Again, what those who can “do” nothing, do, is receive our love. Although we don’t know what wonders that may be doing for them, we definitely know it is doing good things for us. We should not short circuit love.

Dr. Janet E. Smith is the Fr. Michael McGivney Chair of Life Ethics. She is an internationally recognized writer and lecturer on bioethics.