End-of-Life Issues in the Terry Schiavo Case Internet Download - Nancy J. Duff : TheThoughtfulChristian.com

In the spring of 2005 it was impossible to turn on a television or read a newspaper without encountering reports of the ongoing battle between Terri Schiavo's husband and her parents regarding her medical status and treatment. The purpose of this study is to consider end-of-life issues by first focusing specifically on the controversy surrounding Terri Schiavo and then examining theological issues that Christians need to consider in the debate over withdrawing life support in cases similar to that of Terri Schiavo. While the session focuses very specifically on the issue of withdrawing a feeding tube from a person in a persistent vegetative state, the hope is that these reflections will help participants reflect on a broader range of cases where withdrawing or withholding life support is contemplated.

Nancy J. Duff is the Stephen Colwell Associate Professor of Christian Ethics at Princeton Theological Seminary, where she has taught since 1990. She is ordained in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). She is author of Humanization and the Politics of God: The Koinonia Ethics of Paul Lehmann. She is married to a United Methodist minister and is mother to two teenagers.