Euthanasia and Terri Schiavo
Opinions of the American public
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Opinions of the American public:
Several national polls of adult Americans have been conducted recently:
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2005-MAR-1 to 2: Fox News and Opinion Dynamics Poll
conducted a poll of 900 registered voters.
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59% of those polled said that if they were Terri's guardian, they
would have the feeding tube removed; 24% would kept it inserted. |
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When asked what they would want done if they were in Terri Schiavo's
situation, 74% would prefer the feeding tube be removed; 16% disagreed. |
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The margin of error is ~+mn~3%. 1 |
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2005-MAR-10 to 13: ABC News and Washington Post conducted
a poll of 1,001 American adults.
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An overwhelming majority, 87%, said they would not want to be kept
alive if they were in Schiavo's condition. The margin of error is
~+mn~3%. 2 |
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2005-MAR-20: ABC News conducted a poll
among 501 American adults. |
They found that 78% of those polls would not want to be kept alive if they were in Terri Schiavo's condition; 16%
would wish to remain alive. | |
70% of those polled felt that it was inappropriate for Congress to become involved in the case. 27% felt it was appropriate. | |
63% of those polled support the removal of Terri's feeding tube; 28% favor its re-insertion. The opinion varied among persons of different
religious affiliations:
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46% of Evangelical Protestants favor removal; 44% are opposed. |
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63% of Roman Catholics favor removal; 26% are opposed. |
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77% of non-Evangelical Protestants favor removal; 18% oppose.
3 |
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The margin of error is 4.5% 1 | |
The conservative Christian group WorldNetDaily suggests that the results of this poll are unreliable because the preamble to the
polling question was deceptive. The polling subjects were told that "Schiavo suffered brain damage and has been on life support for 15
years...Doctors say she has no consciousness and her condition is irreversible." They suggest that the term "life support"
does not accurately describe a feeding tube. They feel that Terri is conscious, disabled and treatable. |
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2005-MAR-21 to 22: CBS News conducted a poll
among 737 American adults. The margin of error is
~+mn~4 percentage points. They determined that:
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82% of American adults believe that the Congress and President
should stay out of the matter. 89% of Democrats, 84% of liberals, 76% of
conservatives, 72% of Republicans, and 68% of white Evangelical
Christians agree. Overall, 13% disagree. |
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74% believe that Congress became involved in order to advance a
political agenda. |
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Public approval of Congress was 34%, a drop from 41% in February,
and the lowest value since 1997. |
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President Bush's overall approval rating has dropped to 43% from 49%
in February. |
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66% believe that Terri's feeding tube should not be reinserted; 27%
disagreed. |
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61% believe that the case should not be heard by the U.S. Supreme
Court; 37% disagreed. |
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78% feel strongly about the issue; 19% do not feel strongly. |
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75% feel that governments should stay out of end-of-life matters.
13% believe that state governments should be involved; 9% feel that the
federal government should decide. |
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82% would wish that their feeding tube be removed if they were in a
coma. This is a slight reduction from 85% in 1990. This question does
not relate directly to Terri Schiavo's case. People in a coma -- even
one of long duration -- sometimes recover. There is a general agreement
among physicians and courts that Terri is in a persistent vegetative
state, with an atrophied cerebral cortex, and has no
chance of recovering. |
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62% feel that a person's spouse should make the final decision for
patients in a vegetative state; 15% say it should be up to the parents;
10% say it should be decided by adult children. |
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63% believe that it is not murder if a doctor injects a terminally
ill patient with a lethal dose of drugs; 28% say it is the same as
murder. |
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35% believe that abortion should be generally available; 37% believe
that abortion should be more strictly limited; 25% believe that abortion
should not be permitted. |
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26% regard themselves as either an evangelical or born-again
Christian. 73% do not; 1% don't know or didn't respond. |
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2005-APR-1 & 2: A USA Today/CNN/Gallup Poll was conducted among
1040
American adults. The margin of error is
~+mn~3 percentage points. Some results:
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53% thought that the feeding tube should
have been removed. This is a drop from 56% during MAR-18 to 20. |
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41% thought that the feeding tube should
not have been removed. This is an increase from 31% on MAR-18 to 20. |
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76% disapproved of Congress' involvement
in the case; 20% approved; 4% had no opinion. 7 |
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We have seen a number of letters to the editor in Canadian newspaper about
the Terri Schiavo case that advocate active euthanasia for persons in a
permanent vegetative state. That is, instead of interrupting her food supply,
and allowing her to die over about a two week period by dehydration, they
advocate that she be directly killed, perhaps through the administration of the
medications that are used to execute convicted murderers on death row. They
suggest that it would be a more humane method of dying which would involve
essentially no suffering. We have not seen this point of view expressed
extensively in the
American media. One exception is Kate Adamson who spent 70 days in a coma and
has since fully recovered except from some paralysis on her left side. She
suggested: "If they want to kill Terri they should have the guts to put a gun
to her head rather than condemn her to such a slow and painful death." 4 An informal Internet poll on CBS News suggests that
two out of three Internet visitors favored allowing Terri Schiavo to die. Results
on 2005-MAR-24 at 2 PM were 65.4% in favor and 34.57% opposed to letting her
die. 5
References used:
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"Terri Schiavo," PollingReport.com, at:
http://www.pollingreport.com/
This is a temporary listing.
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Gail Gibson, "GOP maneuver in Schiavo case stirs controversy," The
Baltimore Sun, 2005-MAR-19, at:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/
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"Federal Intervention in Schiavo Case Prompts Broad Public Disapproval,"
ABC News, 2005-MAR-21, at:
http://www.abcnews.go.com/ **
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Wesley J. Smith, "When did now one eats become the criteria for issuing a
death warrant?, " ToTheSource, 2005-MAR-23.
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Pop Question, CBS News, at:
http://www.cbsnews.com/
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"The Terri Schaivo Case: CBS News Poll," at:
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/
**
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Susan Page, "Survey reveals affection,
respect for John Paul," USA Today, 2005-APR-3, at:
http://www.usatoday.com/
** This is a PDF file. You may require software to read it. Software can be obtained free from:
Copyright © 2005 by Ontario Consultants on Religious
Tolerance
Originally posted: 2005-MAR-21
Latest update: 2005-APR-06
Author: B.A. Robinson 
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