Deja vu all over again: the false dichotomy between sanctity of life and quality of life.

The case of Theresa Marie Schiavo aroused the longstanding claim that any judgment that death is preferable to life violates the important concept of sanctity of life.1 Right-to-life advocates largely chose to ignore the judicial finding that Terri Schiavo had, by oral expressions, dictated her own medical course. Instead, they portrayed her husband’s determination to let her die as reflecting his judgment that her impoverished quality of life in a permanently unconscious state had “no value.”2 In turn, the Florida courts’ acceptance of such a determination supposedly contravened society’s respect for the intrinsic value of all human life. This theme—that a quality-of-life ethic undermines sanctity of life—has long been a contention of right-to-life advocates.3 In 1987, one judge objected to the removal of life support from a permanently unconscious person: