Kerre Woodham: Public battle for life or death robs Terri of her dignity

I wonder how many Terri Schiavos there are in this country. The tug of love over this severely brain-damaged Florida woman has made headlines around the world, as her parents fight in vain to have her feeding tube reinserted and her husband fights for her right to die.

I'm quite sure that once this particular legal battle is over, Michael Schiavo will begin another against those people and lobby groups who have made all sorts of allegations against him. No one is sure what caused Terri Schiavo's heart to stop beating back in 1990 but rumours abound. Some say it was brought upon by an eating disorder; those in the parents' camp mutter darkly that the reason Michael Schiavo doesn't want his wife to recover IS because she'll be able to tell the truth about what happened that fateful night.

All the medical evidence suggests that Terri Schiavo would never have been able to tell anybody anything ever again even if her feeding tube had remained, but her parents are unwilling to accept that.

And I suppose you can hardly blame them for holding out hope for a miracle. It's easy to understand their motivation for wanting their daughter kept alive. Harder to understand Michael Schiavo's motivation for wanting his wife dead.

He's been offered millions of dollars by Christian businessmen to keep her alive. Apparently there's $10 million with his name on it if he drops his legal action.

So it can't be about any money he'll collect on Terri's death. He'd be able to divorce her to marry his current partner. No court in the land would blame him for seeking a divorce so he hardly requires Terri's death to marry again.

Surely he can't want the sort of attention he's receiving, even in this age of instant celebrity. Maybe, then, he's doing it because he knows that Terri Schiavo would never ever have wanted to remain in a vegetative state. Who would?

I hope someone has the courage to set me free should I ever end up like that. The thought of festering in a nursing home, becoming a black hole for public health funds and a stinking albatross around the necks of my family doesn't do it for me.

But while the media circus continues over the life and death of Terri Schiavo, hundreds of families in similar situations are playing out their own tragedies in private. And that's the way it should be. The ethics of playing God are being debated endlessly in the Schiavo case, but the ethics of co-opting a damaged woman, a grieving family and a much-maligned husband for the purpose of pushing particular political viewpoints seems to be acceptable.