Ripping Back the Curtain.

For three and one-half years, from April 2001 until September 2004, I represented Bob and Mary Schindler in their attempt to save the life of Terri Schiavo, their eldest child. During that time, I filed dozens and dozens of motions and affidavits and appeals on their behalf, nearly all of them unsuccessful.

I decided to become involved in the Schiavo case when a friend called and described what had happened. No lawyer could resist getting involved in a case where a disabled person had been sentenced to death - - albeit on the civil side of the court system - - without even having her own lawyer at the trial that decided her fate. How could this be? I asked myself.

Previously, I had represented civil rights plaintiffs, including disabled individuals and several national disability rights organizations. So I knew that fear of disability can be so deeply rooted and so irrationally powerful as to cause otherwise sane people to do completely insane acts. I figured this was a case that could be easily and quickly straightened out, with a few motions and perhaps an appeal.

Very soon it became apparent to me that Pinellas County Judge George Greer, who presided over the guardianship of Theresa Marie Schiavo, had closed his mind to the possibility - - any possibility - - that he had made an error in granting Michael Schiavo's petition to withdraw life support after a trial in January 2000.

As I dug into the case, I was first dismayed and then horrified to learn that Florida laws define a feeding tube as a "medical treatment" and that, even without a written advance directive, a guardian such as Michael Schiavo can decide a ward, such as Terri, does not want any more medical treatments.

This combination of laws, of course, permitted what happened here: a slow death by dehydration and starvation - - what Nat Hentoff of the Village Voice called the "longest public execution" in the nation's history.

For most of America, I suspect, the feelings of helplessness and horror grew day by day after Terri's feeding tube was removed. Even those who thought Terri ought to die began to get queasy as the days dragged on, and she struggled to live.