I attended a bioethics conference last week at which a featured speaker was Dr. Ron Cranford, the most prominent consulting neurologist in the Schiavo case. His presentation was interesting, not so much for its technical content (which was not new to most of us present) but for the general thrust of his remarks.

I don’t think it’s really my place to report his presentation in detail here, but I will recount a few of the things he had to say:

• Schiavo was a “classic case of PVS - no atypical features”
• Her EEGs were persistently flat and “worse than in most cases of PVS”
• Her CAT scans, through 2002, showed “widespread cerebral atrophy” that was “extremely severe” - and thus further CAT scans after 2002 were unnecessary and could not have provided a better prognosis
• He himself had “absolutely no doubt” about her diagnosis from the beginning
• He noted that the Sciavo case was “the longest-running court battle in history” in a case such as this
• He also noted that the Schiavo autopsy was “the best [he had] ever seen” and “better than the Kennedy autopsy”

His final slide was expressive and poignant. He showed a ph0tograph of Terri Schiavo’s headstone, erected byMichael Schiavo without, obviously, input from the Schindler family. It reads:

SCHIAVO
THERESA MARIE

BELOVED WIFE

Born: December 3, 1963
Departed This Earth: February 25, 1990
At Peace: March 31, 2005

I KEPT MY PROMISE