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LIFE AND DEATH TUG OF WAR
Parents must pay to visit disabled
daughter
Attorney demands visitation rights for Terri
Schiavo's family

Posted: May 14, 2004
1:00 a.m. Eastern

By Sarah Foster
© 2004 WorldNetDaily.com

An attorney representing Terri Schindler-Schiavo's
parents filed a petition Monday seeking an
emergency hearing to restore visitation rights to the
family of the 40-year-old, brain-disabled woman,
who has been kept in virtual seclusion for 46 days by
order of her estranged husband, Michael Schiavo.

Robert and Mary Schindler have not seen their
daughter since March 29, when their son-in-law –
who as Terri's legal guardian has absolute control
over her – barred all visitors pending completion of a
police investigation into suspicious marks, said to
resemble "puncture wounds," that were allegedly
found on her arms "immediately after" a 45-minute
visit by the Schindlers.

The implication was that Terri's parents had been
trying to inject something into her, or perhaps
withdraw blood.

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In fact, the "wounds" were discovered several hours
after the Schindlers visited her. A toxicology exam
conducted at Morton Plant Hospital concluded there
were no unauthorized substances in her system, and
the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration
reported that investigators sent to Terri on April 1
could not confirm the presence of needle marks, and
the skin on her arms appeared "intact."

Nonetheless, Schiavo refused to lift his ban on
visitation even at Easter, and the police investigation
has not been completed.

In her petition, Anderson slammed Schiavo's attorney,
George Felos, for sending out a press release "to
several dozen print and electronic media outlets," as
soon as he heard about the marks, "in essence
accusing the parents of criminally assaulting their
beloved daughter."

She also took issue that the media were notified of
Terri's physical condition before her parents had been,
as mandated by a 1996 court order, and that the
Schindlers only learned of the incident when a local
television channel phoned them for a comment.

"This family is enduring a nightmare, all because of a
staged incident," said Anderson. "Terri's mother cannot
even see her own daughter, comfort her, touch her or
interact with her.

"It's amazing to me that anyone would think Terri
Schiavo deserves this form of punishment," Anderson
continued. "For her to be confined and isolated in this
fashion is something I find cruel and completely
contrary to Florida Statutes. Death-row inmates get
better treatment."

No fee, no see

In the past month and a half, Anderson tried
repeatedly to get the Schindlers' visitation rights
restored.

Her decision to file a formal request with the courts
was prompted by a proposal Schiavo made just before
Mothers Day, that he might allow the Schindlers to visit
their daughter, but only if they agree to hire, at
unknown cost, an off-duty police officer to accompany
them each time they visit her. Should they refuse to
pay, they would continue to be denied access to their
daughter.

The offer was made in a letter faxed May 6 to
Anderson by Deborah Bushnell, another of Schiavo's
lawyers.

Posting a guard on Terri is nothing new in itself. In
compliance with Schiavo's wishes, at least one armed,
off-duty police officer has been stationed outside the
door of her room, around the clock, since October, at
$25 an hour. The cost is being borne by the non-profit
Hospice of the Florida Sun Coast in Pinellas Park, where
she's been a patient since 2000.

But the requirement that to visit their daughter the
Schindlers must pay for an additional guard who would
stay in the room with them to watch their every move
is new.

In her letter, Bushnell said she had asked the hospice
if it would be willing to allow its security officers to be
in the room with Terri's parents during their visits, but
had not received a reply.

Bushnell wrote "it does not seem likely that such an
arrangement can be made with them in the near future"
and suggested the Schindlers pay for the additional
security, whatever the cost might be.

Anderson blasted the suggestion Terri's parents be
forced to pay to visit their daughter – especially for
this past Sunday.

"No mother should have
to pay an admission fee
to see her child on
Mother’s Day," she
declared. "By
recommending that the
financially-strapped
Schindlers may only visit
Terri if they pay yet
another off-duty police
person to accompany
them, is an effort to inhibit them from freely seeing
their own daughter."

Anderson likened the suggestion to another Schiavo
made earlier in the case, which at first glance
appeared benevolent.

"A couple of years ago, Michael Schiavo contacted
Terri's parents and offered to give the balance of
Terri's money over to charity," Anderson recalled. "He
and his attorneys used this as a talking point for the
media –claiming that Michael had no financial interest in
Terri's death. What they neglected to mention was
that that particular offer was predicated upon the
Schindler's agreeing to Terri's dehydration and
starvation death.

"This latest tactic from Ms. Bushnell is really no
different. I will not be surprised if Ms. Bushnell uses
this as another talking point with the media in an
attempt to make herself and her client appear less
cruel," she said.

By "financial interest" Anderson was referring to Terri's
once-sizable trust fund a jury awarded her in a
malpractice suit in November 1992 to pay for
rehabilitation.

Where's the money?

As WorldNetDaily reported, Terri collapsed under
unexplained circumstances in February 1990 at the
age of 26. Oxygen to her brain was cut off for several
minutes, leaving her severely brain-disabled,
incapacitated, and dependent upon a feeding tube for
sustenance.

A jury awarded her nearly a million dollars to pay for
custodial care and her rehabilitation, and Schiavo
received $300,000 for "loss of spouse." None of her
money went for the intended rehabilitation, and the
family has been kept in the dark about the costs of
her care. In the past few years her fund has been
drained of its assets to pay the legal costs of Felos,
Bushnell and other lawyers hired by Schiavo to ensure
his wife's death. According to one source, there's only
about $50,000 left.

Schiavo – who for nine years has lived with another
woman with whom he has had two children – insists his
wife told him she would not want to be kept alive "by
artificial means," and four years ago he convinced
Pinellas County Probate Judge George Greer to allow
him to remove her feeding tube so she would die, as is
permitted in Florida.

Terri's parents and siblings don't believe she made the
statements attributed to her and through a series of
legal maneuvers have managed to keep the case and
their daughter alive. Their options appeared to have
run out last year when the 2nd District Court of Appeal
made a final ruling in Schiavo's favor, and the Florida
Supreme Court refused to hear the case.

In October, the disabled woman endured six days
without nourishment and hydration before Florida
lawmakers passed "Terri's Law" allowing Gov. Jeb Bush
to intervene and order her feeding tube reinserted, an
action immediately challenged by Felos and the
American Civil Liberties Union, which jumped in on
Schiavo's side.

Last week, Pinellas County Circuit Court Judge W.
Douglas Baird handed a victory to Schiavo by
summarily ruling the law was unconstitutional. The
decision could clear the way for removal of Terri's
feeding tube and her court-sanctioned death.

Ken Connor, representing Gov. Bush in the action,
immediately notified the court there's an automatic
stay on implementing the ruling and filed an appeal with
the 2nd District Court of Appeal.

But the stay could be set aside by Judge Baird and
the appeal court could rule in Schiavo's favor as it has
in the past.

"The effect of all of this of course is that Michael
Schiavo effectively gets to kill his wife through
starvation and dehydration, if in fact this order [by
Baird] is upheld," said Connor. "And yet that decision is
initiated by a man who has an admitted conflict of
interests."

No emergency

Judge George Greer, who has presided over the case
since 1999 and is responsible for the rulings, all of
which have favored Michael Schiavo, refused to hear
Anderson's motion on an expedited basis, stating he
does not consider it an emergency.

It will be heard May 26, at an already scheduled
hearing dealing with a request by Bushnell for
additional restrictions on visitation.

Information, including court filings, are posted on the
Schindler family website.