I highly recommend Bob Destro’s article on the Terri Schiavo case. “Learning Neuroscience the Hard Way: The Terri Schiavo Case and the Ethics of Effective Representatation,” at 78 Miss. L. J. 833-903 (2009).
There have been scores of articles on various aspects of the Schiavo controversy. (My own short paper on the Schiavo case is available here. http://www.uffl.org/Vol14/myers-04.pdf )
Bob Destro’s article is one of the few that can be characterized as necessary reading. Bob writes from a unique perspective. He played an important role in the latter stages of the litigation; he represented Governor Bush and also the Schindler family in efforts to protect Terri’s life.
The article is lengthy and difficult to summarize in a blog post. The distinctive features of the article include its focus on the rapidly changing state of neuroscience as it relates to the diagnosis and potential for rehabilitation of patients with severe brain injuries, its contention that withdrawal of treatment in a case such as Terri’s ought to require the due process protections that we require in capital cases, and its focus on the ethical obligations of the legal and medical professionals involved.
Richard M.
Richard Myers
Richard S. Myers, the Vice-President of UFL, is Professor of Law at Ave Maria School of Law, where he teaches Antitrust, Civil Procedure, Conflict of Laws, Constitutional Law, and Religious Freedom. He is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Kenyon College and earned his law degree at Notre Dame, where he won the law school's highest academic prize. He began his legal career by clerking for Judge John F. Kilkenny of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Professor Myers also worked for Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue in Washington, D.C. He taught at Case Western Reserve University School of Law and the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law before joining the Ave Maria faculty. He is a co-editor of St. Thomas Aquinas and the Natural Law Tradition: Contemporary Perspectives (Catholic University of American Press, 2004) and a co-editor of Encyclopedia of Catholic Social Thought, Social Science, and Social Policy (Scarecrow Press, 2007). He has also published extensively on constitutional law in law reviews and also testified before Congressional and state legislative hearings on life issues.
Married to Mollie Murphy, who is also on the faculty at Ave Maria School of Law, they are the proud parents of six children - Michael, Patrick, Clare, Kathleen, Matthew, and Andrew. http://www.avemarialaw.edu/index.cfm?event=faculty.bio&pid=11705E7D4E0111010366
