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Posted By: monk Date: Monday, 28 February 2005, 7:51 a.m.
Terri Schiavo is a married woman. Her husband, Michael, promised at their wedding to love her, to honor her, to comfort her, to keep her in sickness and in health, forsaking all others, and to be true to her as long as they both should live. After Terri was rendered severely brain-damaged due to hypoxia 13 years ago, Michael filed a medical-malpractice suit on her behalf. In his testimony for that lawsuit, Michael reaffirmed his devotion to his now-disabled wife: "I believe in the vows I took with my wife: through sickness and health, for richer or poor. I married my wife because I love her and I want to spend the rest of my life with her. I'm going to do that." The sympathetic jury awarded Michael $640,000 for loss of consortium; Terry was awarded nearly $800,000 to be used for her rehabilitation and lifetime care. Because he is Terri's husband, Michael has the authority to administer this fund and to make medical decisions regarding her care.
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It seems odd that a husband with such questionable motives should be granted so much power over his wife's life. The case reminds one of the old view of marriage as the incorporation of the wife into the husband's legal and social identity: Married women had no independent rights. Feminists have been challenging this idea for more than a hundred years. Where are they now? Feminists for Life is the only feminist group to object to Michael's nearly total control over his wife's destiny. Regardless of one's opinion about what course of action is in Terri's best interest, the courts' given Michael such unfettered control ought to be a cause for concern.
