TERRI SCHIAVO Biography - Famous Medicine & health care related men and women

 
 

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TERRI SCHIAVO

Name: Terri Schiavo                                                                 
Born: 3 December 1963 Lower Moreland Township, Pennsylvania                         
Died: 31 March 2005 Pinellas Park, Florida                                           
                                                                                     
Theresa Marie "Terri" Schiavo (December 3, 1963 - March 31, 2005), from St.         
Petersburg, Florida, United States was a woman who suffered brain damage and         
became dependent on a feeding tube. She collapsed in her home on February 25,       
1990, and experienced respiratory and cardiac arrest, resulting in extensive         
brain damage, a diagnosis of persistent vegetative state (PVS) and 15 years of       
institutionalization. In 1998, Michael Schiavo, her husband and guardian,           
petitioned the Pinellas County Circuit Court to remove her feeding tube. Robert     
and Mary Schindler, her parents, opposed this, arguing she was conscious. The       
court determined that Terri would not wish to continue life-prolonging measures.     
This controversy stretched on for seven years and included involvement by           
politicians and advocacy groups, notably pro-life and disability rights ones.       
Before the local court's decision was carried out, on March 18, 2005, the           
governments of Florida and the United States had passed laws that sought,           
unsuccessfully, to prevent removal of Schiavo's feeding tube. These events           
resulted in extensive national and international media coverage.                     
                                                                                     
By March 2005, the legal history around the Schiavo case included fourteen           
appeals and numerous motions, petitions, and hearings in the Florida courts;         
five suits in Federal District Court; Florida legislation struck down by the         
Supreme Court of Florida; a subpoena by a congressional committee to qualify         
Schiavo for witness protection; federal legislation (Palm Sunday Compromise);       
and four denials of certiorari from the Supreme Court of the United States.         
                                                                                     
She died at a Pinellas Park hospice on March 31, 2005, at the age of 41. Some       
have since maintained that her death constituted judicial murder.