Letters

Terri Schiavo’s case drew mail both heartfelt and reasoned, as readers grappled with the question of what constitutes human life and weighed the roles of U.S. courts, Congress and the presidency

I am a Republican and usually a staunch supporter of George W. Bush. But I was aghast at the flagrant political maneuvering over the fate of Terri Schiavo [April 4]. Shame on Bush, Representative Tom DeLay and all those others who wasted their time and our money on this right-to-life charade. Those same politicians are too cowardly to attack at the federal level the real right-to-life issuesabortion and the death penalty. I pray for Schiavo’s parents and husband. We all have a right to a dignified death without government meddling.
Bernard Joseph Wilson Jr.
Lincoln, Nebraska, U.S.

Schiavo, free of interference, has now peacefully passed through a natural stage of life. Life is precious because it is finite.
Alice Hooper
Rochester, New York, U.S.

The death and resurrection of Christ were meant to show us that death has no power, that the soul lives eternally while the body serves only as a container. Removing Schiavo’s feeding tube was not cruel or disrespectful of life. On the contrary, the real cruelty was keeping her shell alive and not allowing her to be at peace with God. It is agonizing to have to let go of a loved one, but as God showed us through the sacrifice of his son, it is the greatest love of all to do so.
Sandy Britt
Cumberland Furnace, Tennessee, U.S.

Michael Schiavo abandoned his marriage vows to Terri years ago. Yet our nation’s courts gave him the right as her husband to condemn her to a prolonged death. Michael claims that Terri wouldn’t have wanted to live as she did for the past 15 years: cared for by her loving family and apparently without suffering. Can he claim she would have wanted to die over a period of two weeks by starvation and dehydration?
Reine D. Bethany
Hempstead, New York, U.S.

We had police officers standing guard to ensure that a human being died a slow death while her family watched in horror and was powerless to do anything to help. Was this the U.S. in 2005 or a Nazi concentration camp in the 1940s?
Alan W. Garett
Corpus Christi, Texas, U.S.

The political hypocrisy in the Schiavo case was appalling. How many of those politicians and “right-to-lifers” who worked themselves into such a lather over this matter have also supported the death penalty or actually signed a death warrant? Those people are obnoxious.
Jim Cleary
Itasca, Illinois, U.S.

Although the Schiavo case was tragic, the reality is that life-and-death decisions are made every day around the country. That this situation rose to such notoriety was shameful for everyone involved. The folks on both sides of the bitter controversy should cease all their ax grinding and let Terri rest in peace.
Scott Thompson
Dallas

TIME’s story did not explore the guilt and uncertainty experienced by many who find themselves faced with a terminally ill loved one, especially when they wish an end to that life but are unable to take responsibility for the decision. Their uncertainty could be caused by family members’ anecdotal evidence of terminally ill individuals who were expected to die but made a miraculous recovery. It’s perfectly human to harbor such hopes, even unrealistic ones. Such events should be brought to the fore even if they are very rare. That can only make a constructive contribution to this debate.
Anwar Suleman Mall
Faculty of Health Sciences
University of Cape Town
Cape Town

I have been working for many years as a nurse in institutions in various parts of Switzerland as well as in the homes of terminally ill patients. Swiss law allows assisted suicide, and I have witnessed many doctors “helping” patients die quietly, peacefully and humanely. Though we must make sure there is no abuse, death with dignity, just like life with dignity, should be each person’s right.
Brigitte M. Vollmann
Geneva

It was understandable that people had conflicting thoughts about Schiavo and hesitated to take sides. I relate to those who wanted Schiavo to live because of her family’s grief and the belief that she might be helped by advances in medical science. Harder to comprehend was the passion of some who were eager for her death. Without a living will as proof of Schiavo’s desires and in light of her parents’ willingness to take full responsibility for her, should the life-or-death decision have been left to a husband who had moved on and started a new family?
Bonnie O’Neil
Newport Beach, California, U.S.

It’s ironic that so many Americans tore themselves apart over the death of Schiavo but had no qualms about sending thousands of able-bodied young men and women off to Iraq to kill and be killed in a needless war. If those people had spent as much energy trying to keep U.S. service members from killing and getting killed, the war might never have happened.
Frank Strylecki
Ottawa, Canada

A suspected eating disorder many years ago may have led to the permanent brain damage that landed Schiavo in the middle of a national debate. When the dust settles, I hope politicians and the media will turn their attention to the potentially fatal effects of eating disorders.
Mark Reese
Draper, Utah, U.S.

Of all the kindnesses shown to Schiavo during her 15 bedridden years of care, the greatest was allowing her to die naturally.
Wilbur F. Poppe
Denton, Texas, U.S.

Perhaps Schiavo’s most lasting legacy is greater public awareness of the importance of a living will. If composed with clarity and breadth, the document facilitates death with dignity and can ease the pain of survivors. With the aging of our population, the living will is a prerequisite for thoughtful family planning.
Arnold Mori
Fairport, New York, U.S.

President Bush’s hypocrisy has hit a new high. Here is a man posturing about the right to life and the need to protect the weak while at the same time avidly supporting the death penalty.
Phil Wilde
Cardiff, Wales

Surely any deliberate act leading to the death of a physically or mentally ill human being is morally wrong, irrespective of the life circumstances of the individual and the benign intention underlying the act. In the case of Schiavo, the immediate cause of death was the withdrawal of nutrients. Allowing her to die that way may have set a dangerous precedent and moved humanity closer to accepting euthanasia.
Joe McBride
Dublin

Some people will do anything in their power to protect the lives of those who desire death with dignity because they are terminally ill or so severely impaired that they cannot eat or even breathe. On the other hand, the same people often do anything in their power to enforce the death penalty. What word other than hypocrisy is appropriate?
Michel Berner
Wallisellen, Switzerland

Disputed Remains
“Bones of Contention” [April 4] reported that the North Korean government returned to Japan the cremated ashes and bone fragments of Megumi Yokota, a Japanese girl who was kidnapped by the North Koreans in the 1970s and later committed suicide. After running DNA tests, Japanese officials said the remains were not Yokota’s, and they blocked North Korean rice shipments in protest. But now they have announced that the remains might be Yokata’s. I am deeply shocked that I have heard nothing of that in the Japanese media. From the very beginning, Japan has handled the case of the kidnapped Japanese citizens very clumsily, if not slightly dishonestly. The Japanese government does not have the courage to admit that it made a mistake.
Takashi Moriyama
Chigasaki, Japan

A Life in the Fast Lane
John DeLorean, the flashy General Motors executive who started his own company and created the DeLorean sports car, died last month [MILESTONES, April 4]. TIME profiled him after his arrest for allegedly selling cocaine to finance his failing business; he was later acquitted [Nov. 1, 1982]:

“‘In many ways,’ DeLorean said in 1980, ‘Jesus was an outsider. Some of the really big things in life are achieved by those who refuse to conform. I stood up for what I believed. I’M AN OUTSIDER, AND IN MY OWN SMALL WAY I’M TRYING TO DO SOMETHING.‘ No one ever accused DeLorean of lacking hubris. But from all the evidence, his life has been less devoted to piety than to speed and glitter. ‘I live on adrenaline,’ DeLorean said flatly 13 years ago, when he was a golden boy at General Motors … A few months ago, just when the FBI says he began planning his drug-dealing scheme in earnest, DeLorean told a group of sports car dealers: ‘We will do anything to keep this company alive.’ But what he really seemed committed to keeping alive was an image of himself: John DeLorean, the smart and plucky maverick businessman, the high-stakes gambler who makes his own rules and always wins.”