i'm ayman in new york. start right now. have a good night. a good night. (wind chime dinging) (wat splashing) - when i would go see her, i used to stand by her door, and if she was looking the other way, i would stand there and say, "terri, it's mommy." she would turn right around and look at me, okay? right at me, and nobody believed me. well, that's their problem. (gentle choral music) she was there. she could hear me. she knew i loved her. she wanted to be there. (gentle choral music) hi sweetheart. hi. it doesn't matter what was wrong if she just laid there for the rest of her life. all i wanted to do was love her and take care of her. hi babe. but then everything changed. terri. - [interviewer] you got a letter in the mail. do you remember what the letter said? - just that they wanna kill my daughter. (dramatic music) - [news reporter] the battle over terri schiavo has come to involve state judges, federal judges, the supreme court, the congress, and even the president of the united states. - [voiceover] you have to understand what the fear of death is. what are you so afraid of? why do we feel so negative and so helpless? we are afraid of the unknown. - [pastor] god determines when life begins and when it ends, not anybody else. she's not a vegetable and she needs to be loved. why do you wanna kill her? - [protestors] let terri live. let terri live. let terri live. - terri schiavo, a woman that most americans have never heard of. - let terri live. let terri live. - now at the center of another cultural debate in america. - [protester] this is the rise of christian fascism. let her die in peace! (escalator whirring) (footsteps tapping) (gentle music) - [anita] i covered the terri schiavo case for the tampa bay times, and it really, really resonated with everybody. - it seems to me like this case is starting another debate. when does life end? - we now define life with squiggles of electrical phenomena and pieces of paper, and this case shows us our own feelings about our mortality. we are afraid to let her go because we are afraid of our own mortality. - you know, who is to decide what is a good life and what's not? and i think that everybody has their own view on that. - i would never pull the plug on anybody, because there's always the chance that they might be alive again. even if somebody, even if a doctor tells you that they won't be. - i think there is eventually a better life for people, but they need to move on to that better life, so i believe very much in pulling the plug. - and so when i was writing, i struggled a little with whether it was a right-to-die case or a right to life case. totally different, but it was both of those things. (birds chirping) (gentle music) (traffic rumbling) i first heard about terri schiavo back in 2000 when i got an anonymous tip that i should go to a certain courtroom to see a trial that was about to start. it was in probate court, which is generally people you know, dealing with wills and, you know, people, what happens after they die, so i didn't know at all what it could be, and so i just kind of wanted to sit down and just listen for a little while. (lawyer and judge speaking faintly) and i had never seen anything like it. (lawyer speaking faintly) - terri's very difficult to take care of. she needs a lot of care. - it was this family that was divided. - [lawyer] and provide oral evidence. - [anita] bitterly divided over this woman, terri. - to say (indistinct) - after her accident, she couldn't talk. and so they were trying to basically piece together what she would've wanted. (lawyer speaking faintly) you know, it was this whole trial about someone who wasn't in the courtroom. - [lawyer] have you noticed any improvement in theresa schiavo's mental condition? - no. - ever? - no. - [anita] and everybody wanted to know what terri was like. - i believe she understands. i believe that she knows that i'm there. - the schindler's were positive that she was conscious, that she was thinking and feeling. - she started tracking me with her eyes. - but michael schiavo was confident that she was gone. - [production staff] you ready to roll, fred? ready? - i am. - okay. - speeding here. - you know when it gets into this story, sometimes you lose the perspective of time. this has been going on for a very long time. - 10 years. - is there any way to express what these 10 years have been like for you? - somebody that i loved, (gentle music) somebody that i adored was taken away, ripped out of my life, and to see her in this condition, it's awful. (static buzzes) - after it happened, i remember going to visit her, and how emotionally upset i would get when i would see her like that. i guess when you see the movies, you see someone in a coma and then the next day they wake up and everything and they're fine. you know, i didn't understand anything about brain injury, so there's probably part of me that thought that, okay, one day i'm just gonna walk in and terri's gonna be, "hey bobby, how you doing?" (gentle music) (people chattering faintly) and when that wasn't happening, yeah, i mean that was tough. because i knew terri before that as, i mean, just fun-loving, wonderful sister. (gentle music continues) growing up, we were very close. we were just 13 months apart. some referred to that as being irish twins, so terri and i were kind of joined at the hip. - he followed her everywhere. he just followed her around all over the place. (laughs) we had three children. terri was the oldest, my shy one. she had a couple friends, but not a lot. and she gained weight all the way through high school. - i remember terri kind of struggling with her weight. she stayed in more. she liked to draw. she had a passion for animals. she would talk about wanting to work at a zoo, eventually becoming a veterinarian. after she graduated high school, she started to lose weight, and she just became more extroverted. really a different person. and then she was getting attention from men, and that's ultimately how she met michael. (gentle choral music) she was 19 when they were engaged, and 20 when they got married. when michael asked to marry her, she was just overjoyed. - i, theresa, take you michael, to be my husband. i promise to be true to you in good times and bad, in sickness and in health. (gentle music) - it was in our lady of good council, our parish. michael wasn't catholic. he had to get a special dispensation to marry terri in the catholic church, and i remember, just a lot of dancing, you know, just a typical wedding. (people cheering and clapping) ♪ celebrate good times, come on ♪ ♪ we're gonna have a good time tonight ♪ ♪ let's celebrate - i'd like to thank my mom and dad and michael's mom and dad. we had a really good time. i hope everybody else had a good time. and what else? say something. - we love you both very much. - yeah. - thank you. (people chattering) (smooth music) detect this: living with hiv, i learned that i can stay undetectable with fewer medicines. that's why i switched to dovato. dovato is a complete hiv treatment for some adults. no other complete hiv pill uses fewer medicines to help keep you undetectable than dovato. detect this: most hiv pills contain 3 or 4 medicines. dovato is as effective with just 2. if you have hepatitis b, don't stop dovato without talking to your doctor. don't take dovato if you're allergic to its ingredients or taking dofetilide. this can cause serious or life-threatening side effects. if you have a rash or allergic reaction symptoms, stop dovato and get medical help right away. serious or life-threatening lactic acid buildup and liver problems can occur. tell your doctor if you have kidney or liver problems or if you are pregnant, breastfeeding, or considering pregnancy. dovato may harm an unborn baby. most common side effects are headache, nausea, diarrhea, trouble sleeping, tiredness, and anxiety. detect this: i stay undetectable with fewer medicines. ask your doctor about switching to dovato. power e*trade's easy-to-use tools, like dynamic charting and risk-reward analysis help make trading feel effortless. and its customizable scans with social sentiment help you find and unlock opportunities in the market. e*trade from morgan stanley. with powerful, easy-to-use tools, power e*trade makes complex trading easier. react to fast-moving markets with dynamic charting and a futures ladder that lets you place, flatten, or reverse orders so you won't miss an opportunity. e*trade from morgan stanley [upbeat music] ♪♪ ♪♪ new pork carnitas. only at el pollo loco. my sport propels me forward. ♪♪ contra costa college saw potential in me that i didn't know i had. focus. determination. drive. contra costa college helped me blaze the trail. now i'm a comet, and there's no stopping me. come on, this is your shot. take it. join the team at contra costa college. start today at contracosta.edu (♪♪) (♪♪) the new festive family meal. starting at $24. now celebrating at el pollo loco. aves splashing) starting at $24. - terri and mike, they were just lovely people. i remember they'd come in and they'd just like laugh and giggle and have a great time. we'd all have a great time with each other. you know, i could tell they were in love. to me, they were like ken and barbie. they decided to tie the knot and move here to sunny florida. they were just happy newlyweds that were looking forward to (sighs) a wonderful life. (gentle music) - when terri and michael moved down to florida, that really precipitated all of us moving, 'cause they went first and now we gotta go because she's down there. (laughs) back then, we were all so close, and michael was part of the family. terri was very happy. she kind of came into herself through florida. - i did terri's hair the day before she collapsed. and when it happened, i was just, i was devastated. everybody was just heartbroken. she was ready to start her life. (water splashing) (traffic rumbling) - so that was their apartment right there. i lived just, maybe, i don't even think it's a quarter mile from here. so when i got the call, i was here within minutes. i just grabbed my keys and just threw a pair of shorts on and was here pretty fast. it was such a traumatic event that is something you just don't forget. - tell me about that night, that early morning in 1990. - yeah, i was asleep and i heard a thud, so i ran out to the hall, jumped outta bed, ran out to the hall, and found terri laying on the floor. i picked her up in my arms and i was holding her and i was shaking her. i was like, "terri, talk to me. you're scaring me. terri, talk to me." and she wouldn't respond. her neck and her arms and everything were just limp. so i laid her back down on the floor. i ran over and i called 9-1-1. - when i got to the hospital, the mood was very grim because nobody seemed to know what happened, other than she went into cardiac arrest, and she had been without oxygen for a very long time. it's called anoxia, and i remember them telling us that she was gonna have a significant brain injury. - she couldn't talk and she couldn't walk. but what happened to her? somebody just doesn't fall down and collapse without a reason. - they were trying to understand why her heart would just arbitrarily stop like that, so i think they were looking at her imbalances in her system. - because her potassium level was so low, they thought that could have been an indication that there was some type of eating issue. i never suspected it. i was out with terri a lot, but at the time it sounded plausible. - i didn't think she had an eating disorder, but i think maybe she did. you know, over the years she lost a significant amount of weight. - when you're with a client, you're not six feet away. you're right up in people's face, i mean right next to her, and you're touchin' 'em, and it's very intimate. she didn't look healthy to me. she seemed a little bit dark around the eyes. i believed there was a problem there, but she definitely kept her secret from me, and i think she kept her secret from mike, too. - [doctor] it's chocolate, terri. is she much of a chocolate lover? - [michael] she was more into fruity flavors. - [doctor] what do you think about this, theresa? (device buzzes) can you hear that? (device buzzes) - they said that she was in a persistent vegetative state. pvs. (mouse clicking) the definition of pvs is no interaction, response, unable to communicate in any way. (terri moaning) - all right, relax. it'll go away. it'll go away. - during that time, i just remember all the focus was on trying to get terri help and getting her rehab and try to improve her condition. (terri moans) - it'll go away. relax. (terri moans) it'll go away. - it was stressful. you know, michael was going through a lot, but he was doing just what he needed to do to try and help terri get better. (gentle music) - she is young, beautiful, and trapped in a coma. her only hope, experimental treatment. - no doctor can tell me that there's no hope, 'cause i know she's in there. she's just having problems coming out. - we heard about the doctor in california that did these brain inserts. - [news reporter] doctors in california plant electrodes at the base of the brain of coma victims to stimulate damaged brain cells. - he brought her home, but they had a thing that you had to turn. - this is the button you push. just take it up at 1.9. - [mary] and it was very complicated, but he learned all that. - [michael] now, terri, you're supposed to sit up. - [mary] and walk out of here. he was very dedicated. michael was very dedicated to her. - theresa, theresa, theresa. - michael and i, we got along very well, and we needed each other. both of us were taking care of her. michael, he would spend half day with her. - tell you what, see the big duck sticking out? it's nice out here, huh? - stretch up. hopefully those pathways to the brain will be reestablished. - [bobby] it was gonna be expensive to care for terri to cover what she was gonna need to help her. rehab, therapy, doctors. - theresa, theresa? can't see any scanning. - and once the insurance runs out, you're only provided a certain amount of days of rehab. once that's exhausted, you either do it yourself, find a way to pay for it, or they gotta be put in a nursing home and basically get warehoused. so michael filed a malpractice lawsuit against terri's previous doctors, their family doctor and her gynecologist, because it was felt that they could have prevented her collapse. - terri had been seeing her doctor with regards to trying to get pregnant, and the doctor should have caught her eating disorder because they should have seen her chemical imbalances and therefore may have been able to address that before anything happened. - they awarded $700,000 that was put into a trust fund for terri that was supposed to be used for her care therapy rehabilitation. - but the relationship with michael abruptly changed after the settlement came in. michael felt differently about terri's care and decided that he wasn't gonna spend any more money on terri's rehabilitation. - [michael] sit up. there you go. sit up in the chair. sit up in the chair. - he said that he came to the realization that terri was no longer gonna improve. he said that he was terri's caregiver. he'll be making decisions and he basically informed my parents at that time that they were no longer gonna be part of the her care moving forward. before my doctor and i chose breztri for my copd, i had bad days, (cough, cough) flare-ups that could permanently damage my lungs. with breztri, things changed for me. breztri gave me better breathing. starting within 5 minutes, i noticed my lung function improved. it helped improve my symptoms, and breztri was even proven to reduce flare-ups, including those that could send me to the hospital. so now i look forward to more good days. breztri won't replace a rescue inhaler for sudden breathing problems. it is not for asthma. tell your doctor if you have a heart condition or high blood pressure before taking it. don't take breztri more than prescribed. breztri may increase your risk of thrush, pneumonia, and osteoporosis. call your doctor if worsened breathing, chest pain, mouth or tongue swelling, problems urinating, vision changes, or eye pain occur. can't afford your medication? astrazeneca may be able to help. ask your doctor about breztri. at changed your mind? astrazeneca may be able to help. - for four years, i thought she was in there. i believe she knew me and then she needed to get an eeg done, so i took her to a neurologist. he did the eeg on terri, and after the eeg was done, he pulled me into his office and he sat me down and he looked me right in the face, and he told me, "she died four years ago." (dramatic music) i exhausted everything i could do for terri. doctor after doctor, after doctor, and all of the rehab. the brain stimulator did not work. i had a meeting with all the doctors, and they said that this is terri, there's nothing more they can do for her. then it was starting to sink in. terri will never be terri ever again. (gentle choral music) - what? (terri croaking) what, baby? what? - you know, we didn't know what michael was doing or not doing for terri. we just knew that we weren't gonna be part of his life anymore. and then everything changed in 1997, when my parents received the letter. (dramatic music) (waves splashing) - we knew that michael didn't believe terri could get any better, but we were totally blindsided by that letter. it was from michael's attorney. the gist of it was michael wanted to remove terri's feeding tube. - this portion of the tube is actually in the patient's body going into the stomach, and then this end is attached to the feed like this. - terri, she wasn't able to swallow food, so that feeding tube was keeping her alive, and then michael was trying to actively end terri's life to kill her. - that's when we knew it was gonna go to court. that was it. we never spoke to him again, and i still haven't spoke to him to this day. (birds squawking) - in our society, there's such an underlying fear of death, fear of extinguishment. it's so deeply rooted in our culture, it triggers such strong reactions among so many. and i think this case helped bring those fears to light. - the bible says, "dust thou art and unto dust shall thou return." the basic fact of life is that it ends. right to die is a moniker for the legal right to refuse medical treatment that you no longer want. - there was nothing else we could do. we did what we had to do. - [george] it started in the '70s, and the initial cases were ventilator cases. there's a machine that is providing respiration, and the courts agreed. yeah, that's medical treatment and can be withdrawn. it's literally pull the plug. the electricity stops. no more breathing. and then you had the feeding tube cases in the '80s. - [group member] take up satan's teeth and pray, lord. - in the name of jesus. - oh, jesus. - the blood of jesus. - ride his mighty power. - people were more uncomfortable with the feeding tube cases. there's no machine, there's no plug, just a tube hanging on a pole. i handled florida's seminal right-to-die case. until that case, it was virtually impossible to remove a feeding tube in the state of florida. so i got to be known as the right-to-die expert, if you like. that's why michael came to me and he explained the family dispute. so, sure, i knew it would be a tough case, but i had no idea whatsoever it would turn into the case that it did. - okay, listen up. this is a tough question. could you decide if a loved one lives or dies? a bay area family is having to do just that. - it's now up to a pinellas circuit judge to decide the woman's fate. (water splashing) - terri schiavo had no advanced directives, so she had no living will, she had no healthcare surrogate. there was nothing in w