Terri Schiavo Dies
Terri Schiavo died this morning, 13 days after her feeding tube was removed and fifteen years after the heart attack that left her in a persistent vegetative state. The heart attack resulted from an eating disorder.
PINELLAS PARK, Fla. - Terri Schiavo, the severely brain-damaged woman who spent 15 years connected to a feeding tube in an epic legal and medical battle that went all the way to the White House and Congress, died Thursday, 13 days after the tube was removed. She was 41.
Schiavo died at the Pinellas Park hospice where she lay for years while her husband and her parents fought over her in the nation’s most bitter — and most heavily litigated — right-to-die dispute.
The feud between the parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, and their son-in-law continued even after her death: Franciscan Brother Paul O’Donnell, an adviser to the Schindlers, said they and their two other children "were denied access at the moment of her death. They’ve been requesting, as you know, for the last hour to try to be in there and they were denied access by Michael Schiavo. They are in there now, praying at her bedside."
David Gibbs III, a lawyer for the Schindlers, said: "This is indeed a sad day for the nation, for the family. Their faith in God remains strong." He added: "God loves Terri more than they do. She is at peace."
May she finally rest in peace.
It was so bizarre to watch a lawyer and a spiritual adviser for the Schindlers on TV this morning call Terri Schiavo’s death a murder while at the same time saying that the Schindlers had accepted that Terri’s death was "God’s will."
Sorry, but you can’t have it both ways.
If it is God’s will that Terri die this way, then those who made her die this way are saints rather than murderers, right? Isn’t the theory that those who do God’s will are the good people and those who resist it are the bad people?
If it’s God’s will that Terri be murdered then it is murderers who are carrying out God’s will.
The Schindlers continue to demonize Michael Schiavo. They fought with him over who had the right to be at Terri’s side when she died (he did) and now they will fight over where her remains are to be laid to rest. That is his choice as well.
The Schindlers definitely have a big problem dealing with reality. For them, religion is an escape from reality.
It is their ability to deny reality that has enabled them to reject clear evidence of Terri’s severe brain damage as shown on her CAT scan.
All flights from reality ultimately cause problems for everyone close to the escapee as well as the escapee him/herself. The Schindler’s fifteen year flight from reality has created misery for many, especially Michael Schiavo, while costing the taxpayers a small fortune in legal fees.
Terri’s death is both very sad and a relief. I am reminded of the words of Martin Luther King: "Free at last, free at last, thank God Almighty I’m free at last."
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March 31st, 2005 at 9:48 am
I want to thank you for such a level-headed post regarding this. While the religious implications will probably be up in the air on this for several years (I have my own opinions, as does everyone else), I think it’s good to see that the courts have done exactly their job by upholding the rights of the next of kin.