Terri Shiavo Summary

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The purpose of this paper is to summarize the case of Theresa Marie “Terri” Shiavo and examine how a few simple steps prior to her injury would have prevented a 15-year medical legal battle between her family members and the courts. The case opened several doors for self interest groups and caused much controversy in both state and federal court rooms. Fortunately, much awareness about healthcare priorities has come from the case. There has been much more emphasis placed on the education and use of advance directives and other health care conversations and plans that should be made if a person becomes unable to make decisions regarding care and treatment. Personally, I think it’s kind of sad that documentation of a simple conversation could have gone a long way and saved a lot of time and anguish to Mrs. Shiavos’ family and herself. In 1990 Terry Shiavo was 26 years old when she suffered cardiac arrest …show more content…

Especially when it comes to tough decisions and the person is very sick. Dr. Rebecca Dresser discusses her personal experience in a video where she admits that against medical advice she just didn’t make the greatest decisions for herself with delaying the use of a gastrostomy tube. She, unlike Mrs. Shiavo, was competent but not exactly compliant with her provider’s recommendations. Terri Shiavo had absolutely no way of making decisions for herself. The debate came about with who could legally make decisions about her medical care? Her family felt that she would or could improve over time with unproven treatments and wanted to keep her on artificial nutrition. Her husband briefly described having a conversation with her about the topic at some point in their marriage and didn’t feel like that was a way that Terri wanted to live. Who’s really to say who was making a good or bad decision but the problem was that Terri couldn’t make a bad decision for herself if she wanted

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