Customer Reviews

Using Terri: The Religious Right's Conspiracy to Take Away Our Rights

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I believe strongly that people should be able to decide for themselves, to the extent that it is possible, how much medical care they want. This goes both for people who want no heroic measures and people who want everything possible to be done. One of the most upsetting things about this story is that a number of people trying to keep Terri Schiavo on the feeding tube, including her parents, admitted that they didn't really care what she wanted, even if she had left even more specific instructions. Does the reviewer who professed to be distressed by the arrogance of Michael Schiavo, et al., apply the same standards to the Schindlers and others trying to warp the law and established practice? They were certainly convinced that they had a direct pipeline to God. The reviewer who claimed that he had no problem with the decision to remove the tube, but felt that Eisenberg was unfairly attacking Christian conservatives should give more thought to what they did. Did this person stand up and say, "You're not speaking for me when you claim that God requires extraordinary measures"? Eisenberg pointed out that a number of Christians, even conservative Christians, were puzzled by the reluctance to let Terri Schiavo go to God.

I already have advanced directives, and after this, I think that I will try to strengthen them.

Eisenberg's account of events was compassionate, careful and fair. In all that I have read about this, I have not seen any good evidence that Michael Schiavo was a bad husband while his wife was living with him, or failed to do the best for her until it became clear there was no hope. I cannot understand the argument that it is playing God to remove the tube any more than it was playing God to use it in the first place. Terri Schiavo would have died naturally more than 15 years ago.

There were times when I thought that perhaps Michael Schiavo should have turned care over to his in-laws, since they felt so strongly, but that is only because I don't think that Terri Schiavo was alive enough to care. I don't judge him for that, however. I know what it is to decide with family members when treatment should be ended since death can only be briefly postponed. I don't know what it is like to have to watch someone in that condition for more than fifteen years, convinced that they would not have wanted it to happen that way.

I hope that I am never the cause of putting my own family through such character assassinations, public intrusions and sufferings.

Its rare that a person who is not a celebrity, not an elected official, and not a criminal, captures the nation's attention for months on end. But this was the case of Terri Schiavo, ex-wife of Michael Schiavo, resident of Florida, cause celebre of the religious right, and martyr to many. This book is written by one of the lawyers of Michael Schiavo, and is a description of the legal proceedings surrounding the Terri Schiavo cae from the first day Terri collapsed into a coma, thru her decade+ in a hospital with Michael by her side, and then thru the circus that enveloped the Florida state legislature, Congress, and the courts of both Florida and the US Ninth Circuit.

By reading this book, one comes to see Michael Schiavo as the true hero of this story, a devoted husband who finally left Terri after her parents told him to get on with his life. One also comes to understand much of the science, policy and politics behind the right-to-die, assisted suicide, and right-to-life movements in the USA. The author does a good job citing court cases, laws, and even religious documents related to this subject. All in all, a good book. The only things that the author should have included is a timeline of events at the very end, and a diagram showing how Terri's case moved between different legal jurisdictions.

In the end, Eisenber's book is intended to move you to action. I fairly ran to do three things: review every word of my Advance Health Care Directive to be sure it explictly and unambiguously made clear my wishes; wrote a check to an organization that will protect my rights to make personal life decisions; and told everyone I knew to read this book and consider doing the other two things. After all I'd read about the Teri Shivo tragedy I found Jon's behind the scenes stories fascinating and frightening. He writes with insight, warmth and passion. He has a fine legal mind, a fierce commitment to individual freedom and an engaging writing style. Formidable.

This book provides a concise overview of the issues arising from the right to die, the politics and law behind those issues, and the reasons all American's should be worried about the Religious Right's efforts to forcibly impose their own brand of morality on all Americans.

This book should be on required reading lists for all college students... no, for nearly anybody.

Whether you agree with the author or not, the book lays out the history of the Terri Schiavo matter in a factual manner.

You know you're reading a darned good book when the author is just telling the honest truth (he even fairly presents the arguments of the other side) and you're scared out of your wits.

If you're liberal/progressive, you need to read this book. It'll fire you up for action.

If you're moderate or haven't given much thought to end-of-life decisions, you need to read this book. Even if you wind up choosing differently from the author, you'll learn about the issue and what you need to do to ensure your choices/desires are followed.

If you're conservative, you need to read this book, and you need to really let it spur your thinking about whether or not the people you've been voting for have your best interests at heart- or if they're just out to control everyone's lives.

Just a great book.

If you believe anything that Jeb Bush, George Bush, Tom DeLay, Bill Frist, Jesse Jackson, Robert Schindler, Mary Schindler, Bobby Schindler or Suzanne Schindler has said about the Terri Schiavo case, don't read this book. Actually, if you believe anything those people have said about the Schiavo case, you're not smart enough to read this book. Jon Eisenberg is an appellate attorney whose stock-in-trade is fact. Want to know who funded the Schindlers through bogus appeal after bogus appeal? Read Using Terri. Want to see how the judicial process can be undermined by the same people who scream about activist judges? Read Using Terri. It's an insider's view of what went on, written by a lawyer who has the ability to make it painfully understandable. It's worth paying retail for Using Terri!

In "Using Terri", Jon Eisenberg attempts to provide the reader with insight into the legal, ethical, moral, and medical aspects of the tragic death of Terri Schiavo. He falls far short of the mark on all of them. In his November 6, 2005 review for the New York Times William Saletan succinctly sums up the book: ""Using Terri" is just another use of Terri." Eisenberg begins with the death of his 79 year old aunt Ros trying to draw a parallel between her and Terri. The situations could not be more different. No one, not Eisenberg, nor her two brothers had any desire to care for Ros. Her case is indeed tragic and agonizing. Had she not been dehydrated to death her fate would most probably have been to remain institutionalized and uncared for until she finally succumbed to a sad end. A very different fate awaited Terri were she to be delivered into the care of her parents and siblings. She would have received the best loving care and devotion that her parents could lavish on her; she would have most probably lived a long life, giving love to all those around her and perhaps even being able to receive the love that was lavished upon her. But Eisenberg and the bioethics community would have us believe that Terri's life was a life "not worthy of life". They are absolutely certain, beyond all doubt, that a severely brain damaged person is, in fact not a person at all. He or she is simply a vegetable to be treated as an inanimate object. Vegetables, like pet rocks, and tomatoes can never receive love. Vegetables do not have, nor should they have, access to the rights and privileges that "normal" people take for granted. This certainty permeates Eisenberg's book at every level and every page. Symptomatic of this certainty is the obscenely arrogant inscription placed by Michael on Terri's tombstone which reads "Born December 3, 1963, departed this earth February 25 1989, at peace March 31, 2005." What Eisenberg and so many in the bioethics community conveniently forget is that all too often the most horrendous acts of cruelty and evil are committed by those that, like them, are absolutely certain that what they are doing is good and just. Jacob Bronowski devotes a chapter in his classic work "The Ascent of Man" to the issue of knowledge and uncertainty. In describing the Nazi horror he stands in swamp outside the crematorium at Auschwitz and declares: "When people believe that they have absolute knowledge, with no test in reality, this is how they behave. This is what men do when they aspire to the knowledge of gods... We have to cure ourselves of the itch for absolute knowledge and power."
If you feel you must read this book I would at least urge you to exam impartially the other side. Read Wesley Smith; read David Galenter, read Dr. Daniel Eisenberg; read Jacob Bronowski; read Rita Marker, and yes read father Frank Pavone whom Eisenberg so brutal and unjustly demonizes. They are my heroes. And question Eisenberg's statements, his description of the events, his conclusions and especially his demonizing of those who disagree with him. Sometimes one's motives and philosophies can be revealed in the most trivial passages. There is one such sentence that especially struck me in "Using Terri"; on p 191 Eisenberg describes the scene at the hospice on the last day of Terri life: "A woman blew on a shofar - a ritual horn sounded by the ancient Hebrews during battle." As a Jew and as human being I find such appalling ignorance of my religion deeply insulting. But in a wider sense perhaps it is symptomatic of Eisenberg's utter contempt for everything that does not fit into a purely secular framework and does not worship at the altar of the false god of autonomy.

My problem is, is that I didn't read any of the books. But just ordered one & waiting on it. I do feel that the people who think Michael Schiavo was thinking of the best interest of his wife, was only for his own personal needs. He wanted to move on with his life, he should have done it in a different way. He should of turned everything over to "Terry Schindler's" family. I am a CNA, and I have taken care of people who have had feeding tubes & did not feel they were in a vegetative state. When rolling them over in bed, from side to side as you are suppose to do every 2 hours, they look at you in different ways, they make noises if you ACCIDENTLY hurt them when turning them. They are people just like us. Just because Terry was supposevly running out Michaels money, that did not belong to him in the first place, was no reason for that Son of B*^ch to make her suffer the way she did. If Terry was going to die, she would have died a long time ago.....ON HER OWN!!! She was just to strong of a woman to NOT GIVE UP!! And as far as I see it, there is no reason to rate any of the books if you had followed the NEWS. That's what I did. It didn't take Michael to long to find another woman and move on with his life, no matter if he was there with Terry everyday. Michael was just lucky enough to find another woman to put up with that, or she was just looking for the same thing Michael was looking for. And I feel that was the rest of Terrys money, so they could enjoy there life with Terrys money. I think i've said enough......everyone needs to remember, "What Goes Around, Comes Around!" Michaels day is coming & when it does......Terry will be waiting!

Terri Schiavo wasn't allowed to die--she was slowly and painfully murdered. If she was in a PVS, why was she given morphine as she lay dehydrating and starving? People who are in a vegetative state are not supposed to feel pain--right!? Murderers are put to death in a more humane way than Terri was. They pass within minutes of their humane lethal injections. Terri suffered for two weeks until she died. And, since when is giving food and water artificial life support!!! I care for an 8-year old mentally challenged girl and I feed her strictly through a feeding tube. Terri was not on a respirator.

If you want the real truth about this case, first read SILENT WITNESS by Mark Fuhrman. It is an unbiased account of the Terri Schiavo case. Next, I recomment A LIFE THAT MATTERS by Terri's family. There has been so many lies and misconceptions about Terri's condition. One person and one person only decided Terri's fate--Juge Greer. One person should not have all that power. There was overwhelming evidence that Terri was not a "vegetable" and he didn't care. Please read the books I have suggested. If it is illegal to commit suiside, why is it legal to starve and dehydrate a defenseless human being? It's one thing to turn off a respirator, but to kill someone in the manner they did Terri is horrific. Didn't someone named Hitler do that across Europe several years ago?

Christine