The basis for decisions to end life. The Schiavo dilemma: an essay by the special guardian ad Litem

Jay Wolfson

Colleges of Public Health and Medicine, Florida Health Information Center, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, USA

At age four, my eldest son once asked me “Daddy, how old are people when they die?”. I allowed “As old as they are going to get”. In this, Theresa Marie Schiavo, who died at 41, is no different from Pope John Paul II, who died at 87. They were each as old as they were going to get. One died as a consequence of an express decision to remove a medical intervention, the other as a consequence of the natural course of illness.