Posted on 03/22/2005 8:01:26 AM PST by tallhappy
St. Petersburg Times (Florida)
January 27, 2000, Thursday, 2 Late Tampa Edition
SECTION: TAMPA & STATE; Pg. 3B
DISTRIBUTION: TAMPA & STATE
LENGTH: 581 words
HEADLINE: Husband offered to give up cash
BYLINE: ANITA KUMAR
BODY: But the parents of a woman in a coma refused to remove her feeding tube in return for the $ 700,000 gift to charity.
Michael Schiavo desperately wanted his comatose wife to die.
So much so that in October 1998 he told her parents he would donate to charity the $ 700,000 he stood to inherit upon her death, if only they would allow removal of her feeding tube.
Bob and Mary Schindler flat-out rejected the offer.
In court testimony this week, they said they would use any medical treatment necessary to keep their daughter Terri, 36, alive. No matter what.
Schiavo's attorney accuses the Schindlers of disregarding their daughter's wishes. Attorney George Felos says they are trying to keep Mrs. Schiavo alive because it brings them joy, even though she has been comatose for 10 years in what doctors call a "persistent vegetative state."
He described the Schindlers as a financially strapped couple who blame Schiavo for not monitoring his wife's health before she lapsed into a coma from an inexplicable loss of potassium.
Felos said the Schindlers are bitter that Schiavo did not share half of a $ 300,000 malpractice settlement he received and that he failed to repay them $ 12,000 for rent and moving expenses.
But Mrs. Schiavo's parents say their son-in-law is after as much as $ 700,000 ininheritance and that he is eager to marry his fiancee of four years. They say he aggressively pursued treatment for his wife for years after her 1990 accident until the couple received $ 1-million in the malpractice suit.
"He's having my daughter put to death to get her money. That burns me up," Schindler angrily testified before bursting into tears.
But testimony Wednesday revealed that in October 1998, Schiavo offered to donate the entire $ 700,000 to charity if the Schindlers agreed to remove their daughter's feeding tube, ensuring she would die in a couple of weeks.
"Unfortunately, the fact that the law makes Mr. Schiavo the recipient of his wife's estate, has been utilized to cast suspicion on his motives," Felos wrote in a letter to the Schindlers' attorney.. "My client has also repeated with frequency that (his wife's) well-being is his only concern."
The Schindlers' attorney, Pamela Campbell, said the offer was not genuine and that Schiavo made it knowing the Schindlers would reject it.
Mrs. Schiavo collapsed at her home the morning of Feb. 25, 1990. Her heart stopped beating and she was deprived of oxygen for five minutes. She has not awakened since.
The trial will resume in Pinellas County Circuit Court today, but it could be weeks or months before Judge George Greer decides about the feeding tube. He must first decide whether Mrs. Schiavo, who did not write a living will, would have wanted to prolong her life by artificial means.
Schiavo said his wife told him several times she would not want to be kept on life support.
His brother, Scott, and the wife of another brother also said Mrs. Schiavo told them the same thing in the years before the 1990 accident.
The Schindlers say they don't believe them and wonder why their son-in-law never mentioned those wishes until 1998, after she had spent eight years in a coma.
The Schindlers testified that their daughter never talked to them about whether she would want to be kept on life support.
But, they say, she supported placing her ailing grandmother on a ventilator and commented once while watching the news that s+meone should be kept alive as long as possible.
GRAPHIC: BLACK AND WHITE PHOTO; BLACK AND WHITE PHOTO, JONATHAN NEWTON; Michael Schiavo; Suzanne Carr, Terri Schiavo's sister, speaks during the trial Wednesday.
This is different that what I have read.
In the interest of fairness, this is what the Schindlers said about Michael, until they started fighting about money.
http://www.sptimes.com/2003/11/23/Tampabay/Schiavo_clash_is_root.shtml
Terri needs to die and be cremated so that Michael's crime is hidden. At this point, I am convinced he harmed her.
I could not refuse the family of my spouse, especially if I had moved on with my life and had two other children. I would have divorced and turned over that care as soon as I moved on with another.
That is the key for me, as well as the fact for someone who it is claimed that did not want to live like this is still hanging on with only a feeding tube.
This appearance of doing what Terri wants does not pass the smell test.
She is not in a coma.
I agree with that in a lot of ways. I think what made Michael decide not to give in to the family was testimony they made in court.
The Schindlers testified that even if Terri got diabetes and had multiple amputations, they would keep her alive. They also testified that regardless of what she would want, they will keep her alive. I've posted the link several times but have lost it in the midst of so many freepmails right at the moment.
I thought this was an interesting article that shows the Schindlers once had nothing but praise for Michael and even wanted him to date again. But then money reared its ugly head.
http://www.sptimes.com/2003/11/23/Tampabay/Schiavo_clash_is_root.shtml
this would seem to give credence to theclaim that she needed her own legal representation
No. They said he should divorce her.
Don't lie.
"The Schindlers testified that even if Terri got diabetes and had multiple amputations, they would keep her alive. They also testified that regardless of what she would want, they will keep her alive. I've posted the link several times but have lost it in the midst of so many freepmails right at the moment."
That really does not bother me as one who does not rely upon 'man' to save life. Statements like this are not about money it is a parents love of a child. I would probably say the same thing, and yet do the complete opposite when faced with the actual situation.
How is it that the parents are held to a higher standard than a man who has moved on with his life? A decision was based upon a marriage vow, yet there was no marriage in existence, other than a piece of paper giving this man entitlement over her life.
I am not ready to make marriage mean this.
When one has a wife, and two children, but maintains the legal marriage to wife number one for the sole purpose of killing her, is it a legal marriage?"
....and why wasn't Michael Schavio charged with adultry?
"When one has a wife, and two children, but maintains the legal marriage to wife number one for the sole purpose of killing her, is it a legal marriage?""
That is the question I want answered, because a case could sure be made for it if this case is left standing.
Having a common law wife and 2 kids isn't helping his case much either.
This idea that MS has made some sort of noble gesture in the past by offering to give up the money if the Schindlers would consent to killing their child is laughable. An empty offer is no offer, it is bad theatre. Had he offered me that deal, I would have cold cocked him.
...reading.
Is that a crime in FL?
Someone called into Tony Snow and asked John Gibson, the guest host since he is still married to Terry and he has a common law marriage with that other woman if the creep of a husband can't be charged with poligamy
Are you really into posting partial truths and then accusing others of lying? That's good to know.
From the article to which I linked previously:
In some ways, Schiavo was treated as a son. He once brought a girlfriend home to meet the Schindlers, seeking their approval, and said they had encouraged him to date.
"I think I said he deserved to start a new life," Bob Schindler said in testimony in 1993.
He said he hoped his son-in-law eventually would divorce his wife and start a new life.
At the medical malpractice trial against doctors who treated Schiavo in 1992, Mary Schindler spoke with admiration about Schiavo's attentiveness to her disabled daughter.
"He's there every day," she said. "He is loving, caring. I don't know of any young boy that would be as attentive. ... He's just been unbelieveable. And I know without him there is no way I could have survived all this."
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