Posted on 03/21/2005 6:02:28 PM PST by wagglebee
Michael Schiavo, reportedly angered by the latest developments in Washington, has done an about-face in his longstanding position of not allowing visitors to meet his estranged wife, Terri, the brain-injured Florida woman whose right to live is at the heart of a cliff-hanging euthanasia battle.
According to the St. Petersburg Times, Schiavo invited both President Bush and his brother, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, to visit Terri at the hospice where she is undergoing a court-ordered starvation death after her feeding tube was removed Friday.
"Come down, President Bush," Schiavo said in the Times interview Saturday. "Come talk to me. Meet my wife. Talk to my wife and see if you get an answer. Ask her to lift her arm to shake your hand. She won't do it.
She won't, because she can't, said Schiavo.
"Terri died 15 years ago," he said, referring to her collapse in 1990 that cut off oxygen to her brain, leaving her seriously brain injured and unable to talk.
A handful of physicians say she is in a persistent vegetative state -- that is, she may seem to be alert and awake, but the smiles and laughter she exhibits are simply reflex actions. Florida law permits removal of feeding tubes from patients who are PVS.
More than 40 physicians and therapists have weighed in on the side of Terri's parents, Robert and Mary Schindler, who maintain she is aware, though seriously impaired, and could improve with therapy.
Regarding his invitation to the president, Schiavo said he made a similar offer to Gov. Bush last week but has not had a reply.
Schiavo described U.S. House Majority Leader Bill Frist, who led the effort to extend Terri's life, as a "little slithering snake" pandering for votes.
"To make coments that Terri would want to live, how do they [members of Congress] know?" he asked.
"What color are her eyes?" he demanded. "What's her middle name? What's her favorite color? They don't have any clue who Terri is. They should all be ashamed of themselves."
Schiavo's invitations to the president and his brother represent an exception to his long-standing ban on visitors, which has kept Terri in near-total seclusion at the Woodside Hospice Facility in Pinellas Park, Fla. Only her parents and siblings are allowed ready access. All others, including her priest and the attorneys representing her parents, may visit only when accompanied by an immediate family member.
Nancy Valko, a critical care nurse in St. Louis activist on euthanasia and related pro-life issues, reacted with caution to Schiavo's invitation to the president and governor.
"Hopefully, Terri is not being sedated or is too debilitated now from the dehydration to be seen, but it doesn't look good if Michael is saying this," she commented. "Personally, I think the fear of having Terri seen by the authorities and/or public is what was behind the quick removal of feedings Friday. Otherwise, why has Michael refused to allow pictures or to allow Terri outside?"
Except when she is taken to a whirlpool bath, Terri never leaves her room -- not even to attend functions offered all other residents, such as sing-alongs and concerts. This past Christmas, when "Santa Claus" visited the hospice, her door was kept firmly shut to prevent the jolly gentleman from catching a glimpse of her, and she of him. Carolers, too, were barred.
Even Judge George Greer, who has presided over the contentious case since September 1999, has not met Terri, having been persuaded by Schiavo's attorney, "right-to-die" advocate George Felos, not to visit her at the nursing home where she then was living.
On January 10, 2000 - just days before the trial that sealed Terri's fate was scheduled to begin - attorney Pamela Campbell, who represented Terri's parents, formally asked Greer if he would visit the disabled woman so he could see for himself how alert she is.
At a hearing on the matter, Felos argued that since both parties had agreed Terri was in a persistent vegetative state, to observe the patient was futile and unnecessary.
The judge accepted Felos' arguments, rejecting the opportunity to see for himself the woman whose life was in his hands.
The ban on visitation, which Schiavo defends as a necessary protection of his wife's privacy, came after a short video was played to the court during the 2000 trial, showing Terri alert and interacting with her parents.
The video, played at the trial over the objections of Felos, later was released to the public and run on a local TV channel.
Upon seeing the tape on TV, three physicians contacted the Schindlers offering to help.
Robert Schindler took each doctor in turn to the nursing home to meet his daughter. They were there long enough to see she was not in a persistent vegetative state, Schindler said, and they signed separate affidavits to that effect.
They also asked to be allowed to intervene in the case, but Greer rejected their requests and granted a motion by Felos for a no-visitation policy. Aside from nurses and her attending physician, the three doctors were the last professionals to have any contact with Terri for more than two years.
Other physicians in 2001 stated they believe Terri Schiavo is not PVS, but have been limited to basing their opinion on observing videotapes.
This holds for the 33 physicians who recently signed affidavits stating she is minimally conscious "or better," as opposed to being PVS.
Terri's eyes are brown
In his interview with the St. Petersburg Times, Schiavo took particular umbrage at no one knowing what color his estranged wife's eyes are. They are brown.
But a neurologist personally selected by Schiavo and Felos to examine Terri prior to a medical hearing was unable to recall that particular fact on the witness stand.
In Oct. 2002, following a series of legal maneuvers by the Schindlers, the Second District Court of Appeal ordered a medical evidentiary hearing to determine whether Terri is, in fact, in a persistent vegetative state, and if she is, what treatments might help her.
Dr. Melvin Greer, chairman of the University of Florida's College of Medicine in Gainsville, was one of two physicians chosen by Felos to examine her.
After performing a few bedside procedures to test her vision and hearing and general reflexes, Dr. Greer diagnosed Terri to be in a persistent vegetative state, for which there was no treatment. To test what he actually remembered about her, attorney Pat Anderson, representing the Schindlers, asked Dr. Greer what color Terri's eyes are.
"I don't know," he declared simply.
"She has huge brown eyes," Anderson told Judge Greer in her closing remarks.
"If you remember nothing else about her, you remember that."
When questioned by Anderson, Dr. Greer admitted he had not read a certain, major article in a British medical journal reporting a 43 percent error rate in PVS diagnoses over a five-year period.
"Im VERY concerned with the govt. getting this deeply involved in mattesr that are traditionally left up to the family and doctors. This could really backfire on us down the road"
Yes, stopping the murder of disable persons would be a terrible thing.
Where are the IRS auditors when you need them.
And Michael to take lunch with Polonius
I think GW would just kick his ass.
"So is most of you hypocrites if you had to live away from your wife without sex for fifteen years."
In sickness and in health, keeping yourself ONLY unto her...
If he can't control his d*** all he has to do is divorce her.
The real hypocrisy lies in your statement regarding marriage equating to sex. I can only assume you modified your wedding vows to limit your fidelity and duty to your spouse to whether or not there was sex....or even "good" sex.
My hubby just said the same thing!
You got that right!
Praying with all my heart for Terri!
This whole thing disgusts me, frankly. As I said in my post, and my wife agrees: if something untoward happened to her, between the police who want a quick and easy conviction and the insurance companies, who want those premiums, but are reluctant to pay out, I would be on Death Row, just on circumstantial evidence. Some people are posting on here as if they lived with the Schiavos and know everything there is to know about them. You're absolutely right: if he was guilty of trying to kill her, why wasn't he charged? Why didn't all this supposed 'evidence'come out before?
If Terri Schiavo is, indeed, the victim of a murder plot, the killer ought to ponder the fact that in most states, there is no statute of limitation on murder--and I'm sure this is the case in Florida. A few years ago, a man in his sixties was convicted in Florida of a murder that he had perpetrated as a teenager in 1946.
"You're absolutely right: if he was guilty of trying to kill her, why wasn't he charged? "
OJ Simpson, anyone?
"Why didn't all this supposed 'evidence'come out before?"
Incompetance valid?
"OJ Simpson, anyone? ""
Nicole Simpson was brutally stabbed to death. There was, without a doubt, a crime committed.
"Incompetence Valid?"
I'm assuming that you've gone over all the documents and conducted exhaustive interviews with everyone involved and that you're totally objective about anything you've come across?
If there is something to all these allegations, why isn't this guy charged now?
Because if you're just going on what you've been reading, you know as little about all of this as I do.
If you reread #74, that's exactly what I meant by PET scans showing which parts were functioning, ie "electrical activity".
If you think the age of 27 sucks to face mortality, try 20 and having your head smashed in.
Try having your frontal lobe turned to hamburger.
What you call "juicy gossip" I call likely hypothetical situation.
I'd be willing to bet money that he tried to kill her.
Whether that's "Christian" to you or not is irrelevant to me.
I'd rather have to repent of the sin of false accusation if I'm mistaken than sit idly by while an innocent human is murdered and a criminal goes unpunished.
And FYI, I'm not "pretending" a damn thing.
I had a husband try to strangle me in the manner I believe Michael used on her.
I was one on the lucky who lived to tell the tale.
Be that as it may, I am happy you survived your ordeal.
"You're absolutely right: if he was guilty of trying to kill her, why wasn't he charged? "
I dunno.
Let's ask Ted Kennedy.
Same here, Mrs Nooseman...same here....:(
If Bush cannot visit Terri, she should visit him. He should send a secret service detail to take her out of that death house and bring her to a secure hospital in DC.
This is so sad!
I can't understand why he refuses to let Terri have her God given right to Eat and drink!
Some one should starve all these people!
Withholding medical care is also a gov't intrusion. There are no personal decisions. Even abortion is not a personal decision, it is selection of a State option. Everybody is an agent of the State in all actions. The scope and the power of the State is without limit.
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