DCF: Terri Schiavo Not Abused, Exploited

ABC/AP ^ | 4.16.05

[ambrose]

DCF: Terri Schiavo Not Abused, Exploited

State Agency: Terri Schiavo Was Not Abused or Exploited by Either Side of Her Family

By VICKIE CHACHERE

The Associated Press

Apr. 16, 2005 - State investigators found no evidence that Terri Schiavo had been abused or exploited by either side of her family, according to documents released by Florida's Department of Children and Families.

The agency investigated 89 complaints dating back to 2001, when Schiavo's feeding tube was removed for the first time and the legal battle surrounding her right-to-die case intensified.

The calls alleged that the brain-damaged woman was being mistreated by her husband and her parents for financial gain. One complaint alleged that Schiavo's parents were selling videos of her through a Web site; another said Schiavo's husband wasn't spending money intended for her rehabilitation.

But investigators said they found no evidence that either her husband or parents were exploiting her, and often noted in their records that they found Schiavo well cared for on their visits to her Pinellas Park hospice.

The agency released the records Friday under court order.

Schiavo, 41, died last month after her feeding tube was removed for the third time, ending a bitter court battle between her husband, Michael Schiavo, and parents, Robert and Mary Schindler, over whether she would have wanted to live in a vegetative state.

The repeated allegations of abuse were based partly on bone scans showing Terri Schiavo suffered fractures and statements she made to family and friends that she was unhappy in her marriage.

Schiavo's husband has denied harming his wife. His lawyer said the fractures resulted from osteoporosis caused by the woman's years of immobility and complications of her medication.

Robert Schindler declined to comment there on the release of the DCF documents. An attorney for Michael Schiavo did not immediately return calls.

Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Copyright © 2005 ABC News Internet Ventures

[EternalVigilance]

The years I've known you here, you've never expressed any Republican party ideals. You spend all your time bashing any Republican on these forums.

Oh really?

I've been active in the Republican party for the last fifteen years. I've served as a party official in my home state. I've supported hundreds of Republican candidates all over the country in more ways than I can count. I worked hard to elect President Bush in 2000 and 2004 and in rebuilding grassroots organization for the GOP in dozens of states. I've been active in working to make inroads into the black community in the urban areas. And much more.

I'll stack my work for the Grand Old Party up against yours any day, pal. I'll pit my knowledge of 'Republican party ideals' up against yours any time, too.

I'll thank you to not lie about me again.

[EternalVigilance]

You're right. 'Quality of life' is another name for the slippery slope into barbarism.

[BigSkyFreeper]

Did you check your mail and get Out Of Time? LOL

[EternalVigilance]

You need to stuff it.

I will.

Right back down the throat of the defenders of the Felos death cult.

[nunya bidness]

You could have saved your time and mine by picking any one of the voluminous number of Schiavo threads and seen what it was you were looking for.

an·ec·dot·al    ( P )  Pronunciation Key  (nk-dtl)
adj.

1. also an·ec·dot·ic (-dtk) or an·ec·dot·i·cal (--kl) Of, characterized by, or full of anecdotes.
2. Based on casual observations or indications rather than rigorous or scientific analysis: “There are anecdotal reports of children poisoned by hot dogs roasted over a fire of the [oleander] stems” (C. Claiborne Ray).

---

anec·dotal·ist n.
anec·dotal·ly adv.

---

Rumors of a conservative/Republican Party split are grossly exaggerated.

[BigSkyFreeper]

I'll stack my work for the Grand Old Party up against yours any day, pal. I'll pit my knowledge of 'Republican party ideals' up against yours any time, too.

Go for it. You'll find I've done more in 12 years and not once did I try to abandon my ideals for some third party. Many on here can't lay claim to advancing anything by abandoning their ideals for a third party, only to entitle Democrats to 8 years of White House control.

[BigSkyFreeper]

I know what it means, and I will be the first one to tell anyone that a schism in the Republican party doesn't exist.

[budwiesest]

her next of kin spoke for her..

Her mother, who gave birth to her spoke, no one listened.

Her dad, who might have paid for a prom dress and worried that whole night spoke, no one listened. We need to revisit the meaning of kinship:

kin·ship (knshp) n. Connection by blood, marriage, or adoption; family relationship.

[EternalVigilance]

Once again, you make stuff up.

Where exactly did you get the idea I was going to a third party?

[KDD]

i would also like to know since when food and water were considered as "life sustaining measures". that is simply insane.

The State's imposition of medical treatment on an unwilling competent adult necessarily involves some form of restraint and intrusion. A seriously ill or dying patient whose wishes are not honored may feel a captive of the machinery required for life-sustaining measures or other medical interventions. Such forced treatment may burden that individual's liberty interests as much as any state coercion. See, e.g., Washington v. Harper, 494 U.S. 210, 221 (1990); Parham v. J.R., 442 U.S. 584, 600 (1979) ("It is not disputed that a child, in common with adults, has a substantial liberty interest in not being confined unnecessarily for medical treatment").

The State's artificial provision of nutrition and hydration implicates identical concerns. Artificial feeding cannot readily be distinguished from other forms of medical treatment. See, e.g., Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs, American Medical Association, AMA Ethical Opinion 2.20, Withholding or Withdrawing Life-Prolonging Medical Treatment, Current Opinions 13 (1989); The Hastings Center, Guidelines on the Termination of Life-Sustaining Treatment and the Care of the Dying 59 (1987).

Whether or not the techniques used to pass food and water into the patient's alimentary tract are termed "medical treatment," it is clear they all involve some degree of intrusion and restraint. Feeding a patient by means of a nasogastric tube requires a physician to pass a long flexible tube through the patient's [497 U.S. 261, 289] nose, throat and esophagus and into the stomach.

Because of the discomfort such a tube causes, "[m]any patients need to be restrained forcibly, and their hands put into large mittens to prevent them from removing the tube." Major, The Medical Procedures for Providing Food and Water: Indications and Effects, in By No Extraordinary Means: The Choice to Forgo Life-Sustaining Food and Water 25 (J. Lynn ed. 1986). A gastrostomy tube (as was used to provide food and water to Nancy Cruzan, see ante at 266) or jejunostomy tube must be surgically implanted into the stomach or small intestine. Office of Technology Assessment Task Force, Life-Sustaining Technologies and the Elderly 282 (1988).

Requiring a competent adult to endure such procedures against her will burdens the patient's liberty, dignity, and freedom to determine the course of her own treatment. Accordingly, the liberty guaranteed by the Due Process Clause must protect, if it protects anything, an individual's deeply personal decision to reject medical treatment, including the artificial delivery of food and water.

JUSTICE O'CONNOR, concurring.
U.S. SUPREME COURT
CRUZAN v. DIRECTOR,

[BigSkyFreeper]

Where exactly did you get the idea I was going to a third party?

Your profile page.

[Pan_Yans Wife]

Terri's mistake was marrying Michael, who automatically became her next of kin. He spoke for her, when she could not. Legally, he was her voice when she could not speak.

She also had this accident in a state where food and water are considered life saving measures, and can be removed under the law of Florida.

These are both facts. They determined the outcome of the case. Justice marched forward on a predetermined path. Terri Schiavo died.

[presently no screen name]

You tell me I don't know - yet you have all the answers.

How do you know at what age she made the comment about Quinlan? Did I say she said it when Karen was taken off the respirator? She could have said it five, six, seven years later. Why are you supposing her age at that time she said it to be young and impressionable?

You don't know and I don't know - but she did say it. So don't start nit picking - I don't know WHEN she said it BUT Mr. Joes KNOWS! She was too young to know what she even wanted. PLEASE!! Try a little bit not to be so obvious.
She could have said it when she was 12 through 20. Is that still too young for you.

And you only know by heresay what Terri's comments or wishes were. SO DO YOU REALLY know? You haven't heard from the other side so all we really have is heresay from one individual. SO YOU DON"T GO THERE. If that individual seems trustworthy to you - there is no more to be said other than wisdom and discernment are not your strong points.

We can't deal with "IF's" - the fact is nothing was written. So they relied on heresay. Why you bring suffocation into this discussion is for what point? Terri didn't suffer enough - it could have been worse? You truly are a piece of work. Let's make starvation and dehydration look ok - by throwing something else in. Hey, what about nailing her to a cross - that's worse. We can play this game all night - you got anything more gruesome - we can play this baby down to it's just a mild headache and it's beautiful - A LA FELOS!!

[Pan_Yans Wife]

Under the law, that is your spouse.

I knew that the day I got married. And I accepted it. But, I chose a good spouse.

[cdbull23]

I'm sure Michael Shiavo also "knew for a fact" that Terri would have wanted her feeding tube removed.

[EternalVigilance]

My sense is that there is no mass exodus from the GOP going on currently.

I made a personal decision to leave and to register as an Independent. Doesn't mean I won't support Republican candidates, I will. And I'll certainly never support a Democrat.

But my days as a party activist and organizer are over. I have other things to do with my life.

In many ways, I'm glad that part of my life is over.

[EternalVigilance]

Your profile page.

I don't mention third parties on my profile page.

I have portions of the state constitutions there, and the text of the Declaration of Independence.