Bobby Schindler, the younger brother of Terri Schiavo, the Florida woman in a coma whose family is fighting over whether her feeding tube should be removed, speaks with a reporter about his sister's case Monday on the University of Florida campus.
Posted on 02/22/2005 1:00:01 PM PST by nickcarraway
A group of about a dozen students and activists wearing "Save Terri Schiavo" T-shirts stood outside the Reitz Union on the University of Florida campus at noon Monday.
As students hustled past on their way to lunch, the demonstrators asked passersby to sign a petition calling on Circuit Court Judge George W. Greer to step down from the case that has been fought in the courts for nearly eight years.
Schiavo, now 41, suffered severe brain damage 15 years ago. She resides in a Pinellas Park hospice. Her husband, who has testified that his wife would not want to be kept alive artificially, has asked that her feeding tube be removed.
That order could come from the 2nd District Court of Appeal as early as 1 p.m. today.
Schiavo's brother, 40-year-old Bobby Schindler, was in Gainesville for the rally. Schindler argued that a dozen doctors who have voluntarily looked into his sister's case believe that she could be helped, that with intensive therapy, she could be taught to speak and eat on her own again.
"We are trying to educate people as to the facts of this case," Schindler said. "Nobody knows the facts, because they aren't being reported to the public."
Some doctors have ruled that Schiavo is in a persistent vegetative state with no hope for recovery. Others have said she still has some mental capabilities. She left no written directive for her family or her husband to follow.
Brother Paul O'Donnell of the Franciscan Brothers of Peace of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis was among the speakers at Monday's rally.
The black-robed Franciscan brother said the eyes of the nation are on Florida, and the decision in the Schiavo case which could come today.
If the court rules that Schiavo's feeding tube must be removed so that she can die, O'Donnell said it would launch "a tsunami of euthanasia."
Schiavo is not in a coma, and she is not brain dead, he insisted.
"She is a disabled, brain-injured woman who uses a plastic tube to eat instead of a knife and fork," O'Donnell said.
"If Florida kills Terri Schiavo, there are hundreds of thousands of residents in nursing homes in this state who need a nurse's aide to feed them, or are dependent upon feeding tubes, who could find themselves in the same position. It would be the start of a tsunami of euthanasia."
The Schiavo case has drawn international attention and rallied right-to-life and religious forces worldwide.
Matthew Irwin heads the student group Gators for Terri, which sponsored the rally. Irwin said he hoped to send a message to Judge Greer, who is a graduate of UF's Levin College of Law, that not everyone supports the position of the court.
"We believe that Terri has the right to live," Irwin said.
Terri Ping!!
May the Lord greatly bless his efforts and grant the desire of his heart ...
ping
Not hard when half the country supports you. And given that a good bit of that support is found here on Free Republic, it's not just the Blue half either. This country is much more enmeshed in the Culture of Death than people generally care to admit.
Bump
Ping! Thanks! Terri!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
A hearing is sought
the lawyers are bought
the court won't let her eat
the papers applaud
when judges play God
and Terri is getting weak
They're drawing a bead
reciting their creed
"Respect A husband's Choice"
I've heard that before
how can you ignore
that Terri has a voice
Adapted from Steve Taylor's Baby Doe
Only when they know the facts. Just yesterday the scribble at the bottom of Fox News incorrectly reported "Terri Schiavo who is dependent on machine support to live".
machine: "A combination of interrelated parts used for applying, storing, or transforming energy to do work." - Bit like a heart or a lung!
i have a question. just sort of throwing it out there...
is it impossible that her husband actually is, or thinks he is, acting in her best interest? I would imagine he knew her on a much deeper level than her imediate family, at least in the sense of knowing her innermost feelings and values.
Its a shame that this entire situation has devolved into accusations of greed, infidelity, and even murder. Its a shame that this womans life has become the subject of debate to pro-lifers and pro-choicers who never even knew her. I find it very arrogant for anyone to take such an extreme view on this woman's right to die or right to live without knowing any of these people personally.
my two cents
Ping
There are people here who know the family of Terri personally...
I don't know if you have reviewed the facts. Here are a few:
Said 'husband' is living with another woman and has two illegitimate children with her.
He never remembered that 'she wouldn't want to live that way' until after he had a huge settlement in his favor, which he vowed at trial would be used for her rehabilitation.
A feeding tube is not extraordinary means of keeping a person alive.
I find it a little strange that you have signed up today to post this...
fair enough...
i had heard stuff about the settlement, but to be honest, with a case that has been so politicized, i don't know who to believe. If you are in fact correct about this settlement issue, then i am wrong.
I was making a point that people are often too quick to take sides in situations which they don;t know much about based on their general ideologies, without completely understanding all of the issues. Maybe this is not one of those cases..
The judge in this case has never even taken the time to go over and see this woman.
Too quick to take sides??? Jonlane, this has been going on for 15 YEARS!!! Take a little time and do some research - check out terrisfight.org. You don't know the half of what this "loving husband" has done to Terri!
how can he be the judge on a case when he has never met the woman? what a bonafide loser that judge is. he needs his butt kicked out of the courtroom. Jesus will be his final judge and he will have already lived out his life spreading death.
I find it very arrogant for anyone to take such an extreme view on this woman's right to die
You would need to know where your 'rights' come from. IF you did, you would search your Bible and then our 'Bill of Rights' and find nothing pertaining to a right to die.
IF you found one, it would be in the same chapter that gives one a 'right' to kill their child.
just to be clear, i wasn't taking a position one way or the other. I am disgusted by those people out there essentially rooting for the husband to win based on their personal ideologies.
as for the right to die issue (which, I am well aware, may not apply in this case), i'd like to share a brief personal experience: my father was ill for the majority of his life with numerous health problems. he told me once, when he was i believe 50 years old, that if he needed to have another surgery, he wouldn't do it. it woudn't be worth it. This obviously broke my heart, but i realized it was his decision. it was his life, his pain that he had to live with. Would you say he doesn't have the right refuse medical treatment? are you so sure that your values are correct, enough to force someone to suffer far longer than nature would have prescribed?
as for the "right"-to-die idea, its not really a right. Its a liberty, which DOES NOT need to be enumerated in the bill of rights, or any other law for that matter, for it to exist. It is truly beyond me how people who claim to share conservative values can question this liberty. How can these "conservatives" say the government should not allow this? aren't we supposed to be opposed to these blatant violations of our freedoms?
i pose another question: if there were someway (of course, there is not) to know for sure that terri would not want to continue to live in this state, would you still oppose the removal of her feeding tube?
sorry for the rant, but this is one issue (in general, not this specific case) that i feel quite strongly about.
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