Shepherd on Schiavo

New on SSRN: Lois L. Shepherd, Terri Schiavo and the Disability Rights Community (forthcoming in the U. Chi. Legal F.). The abstract:

According to many disability rights organizations, the issues surrounding the removal of Terri Schiavo’s feeding tube were disability rights issues. Many such organizations joined the fight against the removal of Schiavo’s feeding tube and, following her death, have urged changes in state legislation that would restrict the removal of nutrition and hydration from individuals who have never clearly expressed a desire to refuse such treatment. Concerned to limit the effect of inappropriate “quality of life” evaluations in decisions to remove life support, these groups have characterized the permanent vegetative state as a condition of disability indistinguishable in many respects for other disabilities. This article examines the implications of these positions for people who are profoundly developmentally disabled. It argues that the view that the permanent vegetative state is merely at one end of a continuum of disabilities appears to serve neither the profoundly disabled person who has entered a permanent vegetative state, nor profoundly disabled people in general.