St. Petersburg, FL (LifeNews.com) -- Four years ago today, Terri Schiavo succumbed to the effects of the painful starvation and dehydration death her former husband subjected her to over a 13-day period. Terri was killed on March 31, 2005 when her former husband won a protracted legal battle against the Schindler family for the right to disconnect her feeding tube.
Now, the Schindler family -- Terri's mother and father and brother and sister -- honors her memory by fighting for other disabled and minimally conscious patients to receive the kind of medical care, rehabilitative treatment and food and water Terri was denied.
"Four years ago today, by the order of Judge George W. Greer, Terri Schiavo died a slow barbaric death by starvation and dehydration over a period of almost two weeks," the Schindler family said in a statement to LifeNews.com. http://www.lifenews.com/bio2052.html
"We must never forget what happened to Terri and the horrible way she was killed," they added.
"However, just as important is to remember that what happened to Terri is occurring every day in our nation," the Schindler family continued. "In this very moment countless people are suffering slow, agonizing deaths in hospice, nursing homes, and hospitals in America and around the world."
Bobby Schindler, Terri's brother, talked about the anniversary with OneNewsNow.
"It certainly is a sad day. March 31 will mark the fourth year of Terri's death by dehydration, and there's really not a day that doesn't go by where our family doesn't think of Terri," he notes.
"More importantly now is that there are other lives that are in jeopardy of being killed the way Terri's was," he adds. "Our family fights every day for other families faced with similar circumstances. This issue did not die with my sister."
Doctors who examined Terri say she was not in a persistent vegetative state and that her condition could have been improved has she been given access to more medical care and rehabilitative treatment.
After her death, Michael Schiavo and the Schindler family took different routes.
Schiavo eventually founded a political action committee called TerriPAC to attack pro-life lawmakers who aided her family in their fight to save Terri's life. After violating FEC reporting requirements on numerous occasions and slapped with fines from the agency, Michael closed the group at the end of 2007.
The Schindler family started the Terri Schindler Schiavo Foundation and has helped disabled patients and opposed assisted suicide and euthanasia since Terri's death.
Recently, a new documentary about Terri's life that presents facts that the mainstream media distorted has been getting rave reviews.
Franklin Springs Family Media has put out a newly-released documentary called The Terri Schiavo Story that it says provides previously unexplored facts of the case through in-depth interviews with participants in the saga.
The documentary is hosted by author and speaker Joni Eareckson Tada, who became personally involved in the case in 2005 and is herself disabled because of a diving accident.
Related web sites:
Terri Schindler Schiavo Foundation - http://www.terrisfight.org
