Schiavo Case Spurs Hunger Strike

Six Harvard students vowed yesterday not to eat solid foods until brain-damaged 41-year old Terri Schiavo is reconnected to a life-sustaining tube—or until she dies in her Florida hospital bed.

The students launched their hunger strike at 3 p.m. yesterday afternoon, just hours after a U.S. district court judge in Tampa rejected a motion from Schiavo’s parents that would have forced caretakers to reinsert the feeding tube.

The tube was removed Friday after a protracted legal battle pitting Schiavo’s parents against her husband, who says that his wife had previously expressed a wish not to be kept alive artificially.

Doctors have testified that Schiavo has been in a “persistent vegetative state” for the last 15 years and is incapable of thought or emotion.

Medical experts estimate that Schiavo could survive until the end of next week if the feeding tube is not restored.

“We feel [Schiavo] is being unjustly starved to death,” said Divinity School student Bronwen Catherine McShea ’02, explaining her motivation for organizing the strike. “I wanted the press to pick this up, just for people to be aware of Terry Schiavo’s situation.”

Although Schiavo is not receiving any fluids, the strikers will continue to drink water and may also consume caloric liquids such as Gatorade, McShea said.

Fortifying himself yesterday afternoon before beginning the fast, third-year law student Ryan S. Hecker gobbled down a burrito at Boca Grande, a Mexican eatery on Mass. Ave.

“That’s pretty healthy. High in protein,” Hecker said.

Hecker is one five graduate student strikers who share a house on Forest Street, north of Harvard Yard.

A sixth striker, Luisa M. Lara ’07, a biochemistry concentrator in Quincy House, prepared for the fast with a helping of refrigerated veal left over from the Grafton Street Pub and Grille.

Lara vowed to stick to her fast even though she will likely sit through two midterms during her strike—an organic chemistry test today and a French exam tomorrow.

“[Schiavo] is a human being with dignity who is not being treated as she should be,” said Lara, who is also secretary of Harvard Right to Life. “I’m hungry with her.”

McShea, in an e-mail message urging others to join the strike, wrote that “we think it is more than coincidental that this horrendous battle over Terri Schiavo’s life is occurring during Holy Week, when we remember the suffering and death of Jesus of Nazareth.”

While the strikers are predominantly Roman Catholic, several downplayed the role of religion in the movement to keep Schiavo alive.

“I think my appreciation for the dignity of human life is very much intertwined with my being Roman Catholic, but I don’t think you have to be Roman Catholic to understand human dignity,” said Lara.

Hecker, a self-described secular Jewish libertarian, said his stance is “morally and ethically motivated.”

“As a libertarian, I think it is especially heinous given that [Schiavo’s husband] is imposing his will and his life choices on her,” Hecker said.—Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.

—Staff writer Daniel J. Hemel can be reached at hemel@fas.harvard.edu.