The Case of Terri Schiavo • News and Reviews
"This collection of material is an attempt to understand why the Schiavo
case received the public attention it did, and to reflect on whether
there are any enduring lessons to be learned from it. The book does a
masterful job in achieving these tasks and the editors are to be
congratulated for including all of the essential material one needs in
order to consider the Schiavo case comprehensively, as well as setting
that material in context with short, accessible, and intelligent
introductions to the various parts of the book."
-Robert Scott Stewart, Ph.D.
Metapsychology, Jun 19th 2007 (Volume 11, Issue 25)
“The case of Teresa Marie Schiavo will long stand as an iconic moment (albeit a "moment" that lasted 15 years) in the history of the "right to die" in this country. The media's feeding frenzy is largely responsible for the notoriety, but theirs was a curiously fact-free frenzy, especially light on legal perspective, ethical context and expert medical opinion. This book - assembled by three bioethicists at the University of Pennsylvania, including the ubiquitous Art Caplan - gives us what thousands of pages and hours of pathos-soaked reporting largely ignored: key documents, judicial opinions, state and federal laws, timeline, and representative commentary that explain and clarify exactly what the Schiavo case was and wasn't about. Scholars, politicians, academics and citizens will debate the lessons learned from the Schiavo case for many years to come. That debate will be thin stuff, indeed, if the participants ignore the material in this important and definitive treatment of Terri Schiavo's case.” - Tom Mayo, The Dallas Morning News, August 9, 2006.
"With The Case of Terri Schiavo: Ethics at the End of Life, bioethicists Arthur Caplan, James McCartney and Dominic Sisti make a valuable contribution to the ongoing debate by allowing readers to digest the various source documents for themselves." - Nancy Frazier O'Brien, Catholic News Service. July 31, 2006.
"Decision making at the end of life is an extraordinarily complex endeavor. Those who wish to fully learn from the life and death of Terri Schiavo and who seek to deepen their understanding of how various individuals confront these difficult decisions will find ample resources in this remarkable collection of documents."- Paul Bascom, MD, JAMA. 2006. 296:339-340.
“At first glance it would seem that The Case of Terri Schiavo: Ethics at the End of Life is another focus on her case alone – but actually its focus on end-of-life ethical questions holds far more meaning for the living than for the dead of the past. The ethical dilemmas surrounding end of life are many – and are surveyed in depth in a coverage which uses not just Terri's case but similar cases to expose issues, struggles and obstacles to quality of life and survival. Essays cover everything from legal issues and points to ethical concerns.” - California Bookwatch, May 2006.
"The only book I'm interested in reading about the Terri Schiavo case - if and when I'll ever have the stomach to revisit it - will be the new one co-edited by Penn medical ethicist Art Caplan. The Case of Terri Schiavo: Ethics at the End of Life breaks down the issues of Terri's death in a way that's enlightening to the national debate about who gets the final say about how we die. Unlike the other books, it exudes dignity. Now there's a legacy for Terri Schiavo." - Ronnie Polaneczky Philadelphia Daily News, Tue, Mar. 28, 2006.
"The case had a searing impact in many ways on Americans in terms of the battle, and the plight of the young woman, and the family fight was certainly dramatic and commanded everyone's attention ..." said Arthur Caplan, co-editor of The Case of Terri Schiavo: Ethics at the End of Life." March 28, 2006, The Guardian
"[This] book is a dossier that includes court documents, the autopsy report, the text of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist's March 17 statement that questioned Terri Schiavo's diagnosis and various statements by the Catholic Church on artificial nutrition and other end-of-life issues." The Philadelphia Inquirer, Feb. 19, 2006.
"...this book is an objective scholarly anthology of documents, reports, and opinion pieces highlighting the complexities of an emotional case...Highly recommended for academic, health, and larger public libraries." --Tina Neville, University of South Florida, Library Journal Reviews, Feb. 1, 2006.
Advanced Praise
"...The Case of Terri Schiavo will prove to be an invaluable resource for anyone teaching courses in law, medicine, and bioethics. Nowhere else will they find such a complete source of primary documents on the full range of issues that marked the Schiavo controversy. This anthology is truly an outstanding collection of sources that would otherwise be unavailable except to the most resourceful scholar.”
—John J. Paris, SJ, Walsh Professor of Bioethics, Boston College
“This is likely to be the definitive resource on this landmark case for years to come. It is readable by persons with a passing acquaintance of the case as well as expert audiences... The editors have gathered essays by a broad array of scholars and activists in order to present all points of view on this important case.”
—Mark G. Kuczewski, PhD, The Fr. Michael I. English, SJ, Professor of Medical Ethics & Director, Neiswanger Institute for Bioethics & Health Policy, Loyola University Chicago
“Regardless of whether you view the death of Terri Schiavo as a watershed in medical ethics or as a three-ring politico-media circus, this anthology of essential documents, essays, bombast, and timeline will undoubtedly serve as the best compilation of perspectives on this tragic story for years to come.”
—Steven Miles, MD, Professor, Center for Bioethics, University of Minnesota
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After
the Nancy Cruzan case was decided by the Supreme Court in 1990, and
ultimately resolved by the Courts of the State of Missouri, the
decision to withhold or withdraw life-prolonging nutrition and
hydration appeared to many to be as noncontroversial as decisions to
refuse respirators or dialysis. Even the Catholic Church held that,
although there should be a presumption in favor of providing nutrition
and hydration, the patient or the patient’s surrogate could overrule
this presumption, if either believed the treatment was disproportionate
or burdensome.
The Schiavo case changed all that.
This
in-depth examination of these dilemmas provides information and
documentation from many perspectives. The editors have included a
foreword by Dr. Jay Wolfson, Terri Schiavo’s court-appointed guardian
ad litem, as well as Dr. Wolfson’s report to Gov. Jeb Bush on the case
and Gov. Bush’s reply; public statements by President George Bush and
Senators David Weldon, Rick Santorum, Tom DeLay, Bill Frist, and Barney
Frank; statements by the Pope and other representatives of the Catholic
Church on this issue; plus much medical and legal background material
on both precedents to the Schiavo case and its aftermath, including the
results of the autopsy report.
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The Editors
Arthur L. Caplan, PhD, is director of the Center for Bioethics and chair of the Department of Medical Ethics at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, and author, coauthor, or editor of numerous books, including The Ethics of Organ Transplants (with Daniel H. Coelho) and Who Owns Life? (with David Magnus and Glenn McGee)
James J. McCartney, PhD, is an associate of the University of Pennsylvania's Center for Bioethics and associate professor of philosophy at Villanova University.
Dominic A. Sisti, MBe, is a research associate at the University of Pennsylvania Center for Bioethics and a PhD student at Michigan State University. He is coeditor with Arthur L. Caplan and James J. McCartney of Health, Disease, and Illness: Concepts in Medicine.
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