Terri Schiavo died yesterday, and our thoughts must be with all her family members as they grieve. But as someone who is not personally affected by her death, I find myself mulling over the ethical questions tha arose during this case, and I have been trying to separate out the ethical issues from the media hype and legal frenzy. The ethical questions prove to be difficult to address, and worthy of serious reflection.

The obvious ethical question is: Under what conditions is it OK to cease medical care for a person? But there are other, related, questions. Ignoring the legal requirements, after someone becomes incapacitated, what ethical standards allow us to say we know a person’s wishes? If someone does not agree with current legislation and/or judicial rulings in this area, is civil disobedience justified? — especially if, as Thoreau mentions in his famous essay on civil disobedience, we can point to higher principles as justification for such civil disobedience? Final question in this area: is this an ethical issue we can safely delegate to the legal realm?

One or two knotty ethical questions get raised by the struggle between Terri Schiavo’s husband and her parents. Most people would agree that when we are children, our parents have primary responsiblity for us, but when does that primary responsibility end? Can that primary responsibility end, but then return later at some level, e.g. when an adult child becomes incapacitated, terminally ill, disabled, etc.?

Similarly, we are confronted with ethical questions regarding marriage. (I am limiting my definition of “marriage” as two people joined in a religious or social ceremony of marriage or union, i.e., I’m not including legal definitions of marriage.) Did Terri Schiavo’s husband give up his ethical rights as a husband when he began building another family? What are the ethical rights of a spouse, anyway? In what areas and in what circumstances can spouses speak for each other? All of this raises difficult questions, including some ontological questions, e.g., do spouses lose something of their individuality when they become partners?

Another set of ethical questions concerns how public persons should get involved with the personal and/or family concerns of a single individual or small group of individuals. We might ask a question like this: Given the reality of the impact of mass media on our lives, at what point does the personal become public? — and therefore, what is the ethical responsibility of the public regarding the personal lives of individuals? A related question: If I am a public figure, how do I make the determination that a personal matter has become public, to the point that I can now ethically get involved as a public figure (e.g., elected official, appointed public official, judge, well-known minister, etc.)?

It is unlikely these ethical questions will have simple answers. (Nor will these questions have answers that neatly follow partisan politics!) Unfortunately, I suspect the public debate around the Terri Schiavo case will move away from the ethical issues, in two directions — into the realm of constitutional politics on the one hand, and on the other hand into overly simplistic debate between extreme views at both ends of the spectrum. But the ethical questions are there, and they won’t go away.