Food and Fluids

Questions and Answers about "Artificial Feeding" The ethical implications of withholding or withdrawing food and fluids.

Symptoms of Dehydration If all food and fluids are removed from a person, death by dehydration will occur.

Cases: Wendland(CA) Schiavo(FL) Martin (MI)

"Awakenings: The Schiavo case revisited" by Wesley J. Smith
Only months after being nearly dehydrated to death when his feeding tube was removed, Jesse Ramirez walked out of the hospital on his own. (Weekly Standard, 11/5/07)

SCHIAVO CASE

"The Case of Theresa Schiavo" by Joan Didion
Exceptional, detailed, and lengthy discussion of Terri Schiavo's life and death.
(The New York Review of Books, Volume 52, Number 10)

"Schiavo marker stirs family hostility"
Michael Schiavo chose to list Feb. 25, 1990 (the date of her collapse) as the date Terri "departed this earth" and inscribed "I kept my promise" on her bronze grave marker. (USA Today, 6/20/05)

"Autopsy proves one thing: Schiavo's dead - now"
"...strangling Terri Schiavo in her bed one day before she died of dehydration would have elicited homicide charges..." (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 6/18/05)

Autopsy Report on Terri Schiavo (6/15/05)

Terri Schiavo died of dehydration on March 31, 2005, thirteen days after her feeding tube was removed. Her parents, brother and sister were denied access to her bedside at the time of her death.

"Human Non-Person" Terri Schiavo, bioethics and our future. (3/29/05)
Wesley J. Smith discusses Florida bioethicist's revealing views on severely disabled individuals.

Facts you may not know about Terri Schiavo's case.

International Task Force amicus curiae brief in Terri Schiavo case.
Discusses biases of "expert" who testifed on behalf of Michael Schiavo.

"Starving for the Truth" (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 3/20/05)
Disability rights perspective on Terri Schiavo's case.

"Starving for a Fair Diagnosis" (National Review Online, 3/16/05)
"Terri Schiavo is not out of medical options. But that's the 'fact' her husband wants you to believe."

U.S. Supreme Court refuses to hear case regarding "Terri's law" (January 23, 2005)

"Michael Schiavo tiring of fight." Latest court ruling may lead Terri Schiavo's husband/guardian to drop court battle to end her life. (St. Petersburg Times, 11/2/04)

Transcript of 9/27/04 Larry King Show with Terri's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler.

Text of amicus briefs defending the law's constitutionality.
Brief of Not Dead Yet and 16 other disability rights organizations (7/12/04)

"Schiavo case to highest court" (St.Petersburg Times, 6/17/04).
Florida Supreme Court will decide fate of "Terri's Law."

"The Assault on Terri Schiavo Continues" (Weekly Standard, 4/30/04)
Judge has permitted Michael Schiavo to act as Terri's guardian without a guardianship plan in effect even though, under Florida law, this means that Michael has no legal authority over her.

"The Rule of Terri's Case Strikes Again" (National Review Online, 1/30/04)
Terri's parents are held to the letter of the law; the man who is trying to kill her is given heaping amounts of "judicial discretion."

"With intent to kill: The battle over Terri Schiavo's life continues" (International Task Force Update, Special Edition, 12/29/03)

"Was Terri Schiavo Beaten in 1990?" (Village Voice, 11/14/03)

"Judge says case of brain-damaged woman can proceed" (Bradenton Herald, 11/14/03)

"In Sickness: The unfettered right to love, honor, and pull the plug" (National Review, 11/13/03)

"A 'Painless' Death?" Michael Schiavo insists that dehydration is the most natural way to die. It's more like torture. (Weekly Standard, 11/12/03)

"Life Death and Silence" (Weekly Standard, 10/31/03)

"The Interview That Wasn't" Michael Schiavo went on the Larry King Show last night to tell the world his side of the story. (Weekly Standard, 10/28/03)

Close friend said Terri Schiavo considering divorce prior to her disability
(CNN International, 10/25/03)

Statements Regarding the Terri Schindler Schiavo Dispute
Text of statement issued by Michael Schiavo (Terri's guardian) and the Schindler family response to that statement.

Saving Terri Schiavo Florida legislature steps in to save a woman whose husband is trying to kill her. (10/21/03)

"The fight to save Terri Schiavo's life"
Background and status of case through 1/31/03 (ITF Update, Vol. 17, No. 1, 2003).

"Judge: Remove woman's feeding tube."
Ruling says brain-damaged Terri Schiavo has no hope of recovery. An appeal is expected. (WorldNetDaily, 11/22/02)

"Emergency motion in right-to-die case" (WorldNetDaily, 11/13/02)
In testimony given during the 2000 trial, Terri's girfriend and co-worker said she frequently noticed discoloration or bruising on Terri that Terri attributed to her husband 'pinching her.'"

"Attorney claims a beating may have caused Schiavo's coma"(St. Petersburg Times, 11/13/02)
Evidence may suggest that Terri Schiavo's condition was caused in 1990 with a beating that broke several of her bones.

"Should Terri Schiavo's Feeding Tube Be Removed?" Transcript of CNN's Burden of Proof (5/3/01).

Official site of Terri Schindler-Schiavo Foundation

WENDLAND CASE

CALIFORNIA SUPREME COURT RULES IN WENDLAND CASE
In a 6-0 opinion, the California Supreme Court has ruled in favor of protecting vulnerable conscious conservatees. The Court ruled that food and water cannot be withdrawn from a conscious disabled conservatee unless there is clear and convincing evidence that withdrawing food and water is what the patient wanted or that doing so would be in the patient's best interest. The Court found that Rose Wendland (who sought to remove food and fluids from her conscious but severely brain-damaged husband ) had "offered no basis for such a finding other than her own subjective judgment that the conservatee did not enjoy a satisfactory quality of life and legally insufficient evidence to the effect that he would have wished to die." (August 9, 2001)
Attorneys for Rose Wendland petitioned the Court to reconsider its decision. The Court denied the request on September 28, 2001.

If Disabled Means Expendable
If Robert Wendland, 49, had been a convicted killer on death row, there would have been legions of righteous do-gooders demanding that he not be executed because he was mentally retarded...(San Francisco Chronicle, 7/24/01)

Robert Wendland Dies (July 17, 2001)

Letter from attorney for Robert Wendland's mother and sister sets record straight following Good Morning America broadcast. (1/23/01)
On Monday, January 22, 2001, ABC's Diane Sawyer interviewed Rose Wendland about her husband, Robert Wendland, on Good Morning America. Rose is seeking to dehydrate her disabled husband to death. Robert's mother, Florence Wendland, and his sister, Rebekah Vinson, are seeking to protect him from death by dehydration.

"A Life in Limbo" The court battle over Robert Wendland (CNN Burden of Proof transcript 1/15/01)

Seeking the Death of Robert Wendland Appeared originally in Sacramento Bee (11/14/97).

Editor's Update: Robert Wendland Spared Judge rules that there is not clear and convincing evidence that starving and dehydrating Wendland would be in his best interest. (IAETF Update, Nov.-Dec. 1997)

MARTIN CASE
Mary Martin Continues to Speak Out Mary Martin, who failed in her attempt to have her husband's food and fluids removed, claims that people like her husband could be the organ donors who are so desperately needed.(6/98)

Background Information on the Michael Martin Case Update articles from 1993-1995 which report on the case of Michael Martin and its outcome at the Michigan Supreme Court.

For an in depth discussion of the transformation of food and fluids into "medical treatment," see the following sections from the article "Words, Words, Words":

"The Morphing of 'Treatment'" The debate about treatment has traveled so far beyond the original meaning of the word that it begs for redefinition in Webster's.

"Food and Fluids as Medical Treatment" Considerable verbal engineering was required to transform denial of food and fluids into an appealing "removal of treatment."

"Tube Feeding: Neither New Nor Rare" Tube feeding is neither new, exotic nor rare.

"Lunch Trays Bearing Treatment" Those who advocate removing food and fluids from disabled people, contend that even food taken by mouth is treatment if the person's diet had to be approved by a physician.

"'Graceful Death' by Dehydration" A major medical journal portrayed dehydrating to death as a way for an elderly woman - who had no life threatening condition - to end her life "gracefully."