Terri Schiavo — A Tragedy Compounded

Timothy E. Quill, M.D.The story of Terri Schiavo should be disturbing to all of us. How can it be that medicine, ethics, law, and family can work so poorly together in meeting the needs of this woman who was left in a persistent vegetative state after having a cardiac arrest?
Ms. Schiavo has been sustained by artificial hydration and nutrition through a feeding tube for 15 years, and her husband, Michael Schiavo, has
been locked in a very public legal struggle with her parents and siblings about whether such treatment should be continued or stopped.