Public Opinion and Activism
The seven-year case generated a great deal of public attention and activism. There was extensive media coverage and both sides courted public opinion. In 2000, the Schindlers created the Terri Schindler-Schiavo Foundation to garner support. During the weeks when Schiavo's feeding tube was removed in 2005, activists kept up an around-the-clock vigil outside her hospice. The protests were described as loud but non-violent. There were dozens of arrests, with most being for crossing a police line with water for Schiavo.
Two polls conducted shortly after Schiavo's feeding tube was removed for the final time in 2005 showed that a large majority of Americans believed that Michael Schiavo should have had the authority to make decisions on behalf of his wife, Terri, and that the United States Congress overstepped its bounds with its intervention in the case. However, other polls seemed to favor the Schindler family's position, and questions were raised about the wording of all the polls.
Read more about this topic: Selected Court Cases In The Terri Schiavo Case
Famous quotes containing the words public opinion, public and/or opinion:
“Public Opinion ... an attempt to organise the ignorance of the community, and to elevate it to the dignity of physical force.”
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)
“From a bed in this hotel Seargent S. Prentiss arose in the middle of the night and made a speech in defense of a bedbug that had bitten him. It was heard by a mock jury and judge, and the bedbug was formally acquitted.”
—Federal Writers’ Project Of The Wor, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
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—Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908–1973)