Erring on the Side of Theresa Schiavo: Reflections of the Special Guardian Ad Litem (The Schiavo Case: Four Commentators Discuss What Made It So Difficult, Why It was More Complex Than the Most Realized, And What We should Do Differently.‪)‬

For Theresa Marie Schiavo, good science, good medicine, and the careful application of the law were not enough. Her loving parents begged the world to save the life of their brain-damaged daughter, while her devoted husband sought removal of a feeding tube to fulfill what he believed were his wife's wishes not to be maintained in a diagnosed vegetative state. As the whole world watched, legal and political armamentaria were mightily assembled and deployed. The life and death conflict ended Easter week, 2005--some asserted from painful starvation and dehydration, others said from a peaceful, natural shutting down of her systems. In October 2003, I was appointed Ms. Schiavo's guardian ad litem and was afforded thirty days to complete a report to the courts and the governor of Florida. I was charged with preparing a comprehensive medical and legal summary of her care and with making recommendations about the feasibility of conducting additional swallowing tests, which the governor of Florida considered a benchmark for assessing her condition. During that time I met with Theresa, her parents, siblings, husband, hospice staff, attorneys, and the governor, and engaged the nearly fourteen years and thirty thousand pages of legal and medical records in her case. My goal was to maintain balance and seek to represent exclusively Theresa's interests. To do this, acquiring the trust and active input of all parties was essential. There had never been a permanent guardian ad litem appointed for Theresa, even though the dispute over her guardianship had lasted more than a decade.