A poll taken in the aftermath of Terri Schiavo’s death shows that 80 percent of Americans oppose removing the feeding tube of a disabled person who is not terminally ill or in a coma when that person has not left clear written wishes.
The poll, released April 6 by Zogby International, was conducted March 30 though April 2, after the death of Schiavo, 41, a brain-damaged Florida woman. Her feeding tube was removed March 18 after a legal battle that reached to the U.S. Supreme Court and involved intervention by both President George W. Bush and Congress.
The poll asked, “If a disabled person is not terminally ill, not in a coma and not being kept alive by life support, should or should they not be denied food and water?” It found that 80 percent said no, and only 7 percent said that food and water should be denied.
Of the 1,019 likely voters polled by Zogby, 54 percent said an incapacitated person should be presumed to want to live if there is no “living will” or other written document detailing his or her wishes. The poll, conducted on behalf of the Christian Defense Coalition, had a margin of error of plus-or-minus 3.2 percentage points.
Other organizations have reported very different finding than what Zogby found. The Gallup Organization, which polled on the case since 2003, found that in a series of polls, a majority consistently supported the removal of Schiavo’s tube, with 61 percent supporting the removal as of March 22.
Groups and politicians who had advocated for Schiavo’s tube to be reinserted were disappointed in the apparent discrepancy in findings and accused other pollsters and news organizations of distorting the facts to achieve political goals.
(RNS)
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