The following article appeared in the Canon City Daily Record in April of 2005.
Terri Schiavo and You
The legal and moral, and now political, issues regarding the sad circumstances of Terri Schiavo will remain with us for a long time.
Issues such as whether the law was correctly applied, whether state or federal law should govern, and the separation of powers between the judicial branch of government and the executive and the legislative branches are important. They will keep legal scholars, religious and ethics experts, and talk show hosts and callers, occupied for a long time (though I think the latter will move on to other things more quickly than the others).
These larger questions are important to us all. But the real point to consider, is how this impacts us individually.
Terri Schiavo and her family's dilemma cause me to think about what this all means to me and my family, and to other people who are involved in my life or may want to become involved in my life.
The real lesson of Terri Schiavo is that all of what went on could have been avoided. If she had left a written expression of what she would have wanted to have happen to her, her family would have been spared all the grief they went through.
What the rest of us and the government think would not have mattered at all if she had told her family what she would have wanted in advance. She was not alone in this, however. A recent study revealed that just 15 to 20 percent of Americans have living wills or similar documents.
Colorado law allows, and encourages, the creation of living wills, advance medical directives and health care powers of attorney. Properly drafted life and death declarations are valid, and must be followed.
The time to communicate your wishes regarding life ending versus life sustaining decisions is before you are unable to either make those decisions for yourself or to communicate those decisions to others.
Our office recommends that everyone, in addition to having a well thought out and an attorney drafted will, have a:
Colorado statutory form of declaration as to medical or surgical treatment,
Advance medical directives, and
A durable medical power of attorney.
Usually advance medical directives and medical or health care powers of attorney are combined into a single document. All three of these have to be consistent with one another, and not later be replaced with printed form documents often available at hospitals and from other sources.
In addition, people should consider having a durable financial or general power of attorney, so that others can manage their financial affairs if they become disabled.
This recent sad event serves to drive home the fact that there is more to dying than dying. With modern medicine and technology, there is now a netherworld between fully living and finally dying.
What are your wishes should you enter that netherworld?
Terri Schiavo tells us to make your wishes known. Now, before it is too late.
John McDermott, who includes life and estate planning among his various legal specialties, and who after law school coincidentally worked as the research assistant to the Chief Judge of the Florida Court of Appeals which first reviewed the various Terri Schiavo cases, is an attorney with the McDermott Law Firm in Canon City, Colorado.