Terri Schiavo, the severely brain-damaged Florida woman whose husband won a court order last year to remove her feeding tube against the wishes of her parents, is still alive thanks to a last-minute intervention by Governor Jeb Bush and the Florida state legislature. Terri’s husband Michael has argued that Terri, who has been in a comatose-like condition since 1990, had earlier stated that she would not like to be kept alive in such circumstances. Her parents dispute that assertion and argue that Terri could be partially rehabilitated with special care. A court battle between the two parties has been raging for more than six years.
Six days after Michael won the right to remove her feeding tube in mid-October, the Florida legislature rushed a bill through that temporarily gave Governor Bush the authority to override the judge’s order. The constitutionality of the bill is now the subject of a new court battle.
The Schiavo case has fostered a great deal of new interest in living wills and advance directives. The protracted legal battle between Michael Schiavo and Terri Schiavo’s parents resulted because Terri had not left any written directions regarding her health care wishes. To help people and their families avoid being faced with such a situation, the Center has created an advance directives kit complete with a form and helpful resources to guide decision-making. Please see p. 7 of this newsletter for more details and ordering information.
Donald Kennedy, Stanford University scientist and editor of the journal Science, is publicly speaking out against providing businesses with access to the brain scans of individuals. He argues that the information available in such scans is too personal for businesses (including insurance companies) to know.
Some scientists already believe they can use brain scans to identify who will likely develop diseases such as multiple sclerosis and Alzheimer’s. In November, scientists announced they had used an MRI to determine if a person was harboring a racial prejudice. Kennedy believes that brain scans may soon be able to reveal moral values, intentions, and inclinations toward certain types of behavior. Kennedy was quoted in the British newspaper The Guardian as saying, “I don’t want anyone to know [information about my brain scan], for any purpose whatever, including those offered in my own interest. It’s way too close to who I am and it is my right to keep that most intimate identity to myself.” Kennedy believes that people’s brain scans should be awarded protection equal to that of their DNA.
The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), Britain’s fertility watchdog group, has decided not to allow sex selection except in cases where parents are attempting to avoid serious genderrelated medical disorders. They also recommended that sperm sorting, the process of separating X chromosomebearing sperm from Y chromosomebearing sperm based on their slightly different weights, should be regulated. Suzi Leather, chairwoman of HFEA, stated that the Authority is “not persuaded that the likely benefits are strong enough to outweigh the possible harm done.”
The decision was praised by most groups in the UK, including the British Medical Association, the British Fertility Society, and many pro-life and pro-choice groups. Dr. David King, Director of the pro-choice Human Genetics Alert, said, “It is wrong to choose the sex of a child simply because we happen to want a boy or a girl. The creation of a new life is the most morally serious thing you can do. We must not let it become just another consumer choice.” However, some fertility doctors denounced the ruling, saying that parents seeking to select the gender of their child would simply do so in another country.
HFEA said its research showed that 80% of the public was opposed to sex selection for social or “family balancing” reasons. HFEA examined the issue at the request of the British Government.
