The long goodbye.

Byline: The Register-Guard

It's tempting to suggest that now Terri Schiavo can rest in peace, but neurologists who examined her would be quick to correct that misperception. For 15 years before her death on Thursday morning, Schiavo was enveloped by the unconscious peace of devastating brain damage. Now, she is simply at rest.

It's Schiavo's husband, Michael, and parents Bob and Mary Schindler, who need to find the peace in which to grieve and heal, away from the powerful pull of cameras, crowds and courtrooms. That doesn't seem likely to occur anytime soon.

The rancorous feud that estranged Michael Schiavo and the Schindlers continued up to the moment of Terri's death. There remains deep disagreement about funeral arrangements. The heartache in this sad saga knows no end.

The bitter seven-year battle between Michael Schiavo, who was recognized by all the courts as Terri's legal guardian, and the Schindlers over removal of Terri's feeding tube will go down as one of the most polarizing right-to-die cases in U.S. history. Her husband insisted that Terri told him at her grandmother's funeral that she would never want to be kept alive in a hopeless state. But Terri's parents strenuously disagreed with the doctors who said her 1990 brain injury was irreversible. The Schindlers claimed Terri responded to them and could get better with the right treatment.

Such divisions are not uncommon in families struggling to do the right thing for a loved one who can no longer communicate and who has left no written instructions. It's hard enough to resolve such issues in private; it's impossible in the glare of 24-hour news coverage.

The Schiavo tragedy proves the maxim that "bad cases make bad law." The shameless last-minute intervention of Congress with its massively flawed "Terri's Law" was a disservice to the Constitution, in addition to being entirely unhelpful as a means of resolving the dispute.

There are no happy endings here. Terri Schiavo's last seven years were torturous. Her feeding tube was removed and reinserted twice before being removed for the last time on March 18. The nation's voyeuristic participation in her death was dreadful.

But the real tragedy is that nothing was resolved with Schiavo's passing. The ambiguity that tore her family apart will continue to divide families in the future until Americans overcome their reluctance to openly talk about and plan for death.