End of the beginning

Denied "the reasoned attention" her case deserved, Terri Schiavo reaches the end of her life as a watershed debate over euthanasia begins | Lynn Vincent

By March 31, David Nee of West Palm Beach, Fla., his 17-year-old daughter Kira, and his son Evan, 10, had for a week stood vigil outside the Woodside Hospice, praying for a miracle. But that morning, as a trio of news helicopters beat the air overhead, the Nees and about 80 others absorbed the news: Terri Schiavo had died.

Shortly after 9 a.m. EST, Paul O'Donnell, a spiritual advisor to Mrs. Schiavo's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, delivered the news to reporters encamped outside the hospice. Then the word filtered across the street, stunning the small group of supporters and protesters, even though they'd been expecting it for days. At first, people wept and milled aimlessly as though lost. Then, Mr. Nee said, "We offered condolences to each other, and prayed together, holding on as we must to the promises and the hope found in God's word."