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 This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.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

[Dolphy]

But, doesn't the patient have the right to determine the quality of life they want? Isn't this solely in their hands and no one elses? I wouldn't want someone else to decide for me how I should have to live.

Absolutely and I'm sorry to see so many miss exactly that point. The Schiavo case was about substituting judgment for an incapacitated person. I continue to be stunned at how willing some are to give the protection of that right away. I don't know if Terri Schiavo would have wanted to live but since nobody could testify that she had said so (and what would one expect from a person her age), a few contemporaneous remarks and an expert witness became the clear and convincing evidence that she did not.

[EternalVigilance]

I agree with you, and think you ask some good questions.

But officially, the party has 'defined it' very clearly ever since Reagan. The Republican Party Platform is solidly pro-life.

The problem is that too may of our elected leaders have only paid lip service, and have neither led nor acted when the rubber really met the road.

[presently no screen name]

Personal attacks? You have nothing to say so you say I attacked someone? EXCUSE ME? Where? Pro-Life?
Christian?

My reunion had different opinions than someone else and you use that as I attack someone? What does that have to do with pro life - and Christian?

You need to explain. Or is that personally attacking your reading comprehension to ask for an explanation. If you read my post and make that comment - slander is your game - when you have nothing to say :)

[Pan_Yans Wife]

Your curiosity is grotesque. She did starve herself for two weeks, then climbed into a drainage ditch, slit her wrists, and laid down in the water face down. HAPPY NOW?

[KDD]

i have NEVER met or heard of ANYONE who wanted to be starved and dehydrated to death even as a method of suicide. have any of you?

I believe that most people would prefer to be medicated with an overdose of morphine rather then have, or start forced feeding if they knew beforehand that they were going to have to linger forever in a PVS...but under the law that would be proactive method...or suicide. Not the same as refusing medical treatment.

The Schindlers stated they would not stop the forced feeding of Terri even if they knew she would not have wished to have that inflicted upon her.. Do you agree with that? Do you think a free people should be forced to accept medical treatment under the auspices of government mandate?

[EternalVigilance]

There was plenty of food all over the hospice. All Terri had to do was get up and get some.

By the way, that was one of the most hard-hearted comments I've ever seen on FR.

I'm sure your Turkey friends will be proud of you.

[andysandmikesmom]

Regarding your post #322...you have hit on something very important here...when you said that eventually interest in this case will wane, and that years from now Greer will still be sitting on the bench...I think you are correct...there is still lots of interest in the Shiavo case on FR, but I think, in the general public, very few people are interested...I am not really sure how many people were actually interested in the case when it was going on...There are still many on FR, who are seething, and who are seeing cases of folks being murdered everywhere...but I am just not sure, that outside of FR, that many people are concerned at all over the Shiavo case...most people feel its over, and lets move on...that just how people are, in general...

One other thing...you know, Pres. Bush, and Gov. Bush, and Tom DeLay, and Jesse Jackson, and Randall Terry, all have the means to have great access to all sorts of doctors, and lawyers...and surely they would have the best lawyers in the world...and yet, we have lots of what I would call 'pseudo-lawyers', ,and 'pseudo-doctors', on FR, telling the rest of us 'dummies', how the law works, or they interpet the Constitution, or they give out their 'expert' medical investigation and knowledge, and think that we are all going to buy into what they say, without doing our own investigation......

If Pres. Bush, and Gov. Bush, with their access to the best legal minds, did not rush in and save Terri, physically, then I hardly think that the 'pseudo'lawyers' on FR, have any wiggle room to make their case, that they, and only they, know how it could have been done...

All that aside, I still wish that Terri could have gone home with her parents, and gotten cared for by them and by her siblings...

But I am sick of the so called 'experts' on FR telling the rest of us, that they had the answer...

[Central Scrutiniser]

Oh, so somehow you knew all of Michael's motives, how special of you. Thanks for the unintentional humor.

[Pan_Yans Wife]

Exactly. And NO GREAT LAWYER, of national fame, from anywhere in America rushed down to Florida, pro-bono, to save Terri from the law of Florida. It WOULD have been great publicity, but I truly believe the law, the case, the rulings, etc... put EVERYTHING on a certain path. And the outcome was inevitable. She was going to die, anyway. There was no wiggle room to save her, and the Schindlers kept losing time after time in the courts. No magic wand to save Terri. The huge legal minds of America read about the case, most certainly, but there wasn't anything they could do to stop it.

[restornu]

CTR

[budwiesest]

I knew that the day I got married.

No one ever mentioned that to me ;^)

Since 50% of marriages end in divorce, I suppose that 'spouses' may not always be the 'go-to-guy' in cases such as this. As a gambler, I don't think bad luck ought to carry a death sentence. The system played out and the results stink. Not the first time, and won't be the last.

There are many liberties yet to be denied by lawyers and judges who now hold all the aces. Problem is: when they're wrong (and I feel they were in this case) how do you kick their arses?

Liberals will have a field-day with the all-powerful, legislating from the bench, activist judges that will make their way to the highest courts. The greatest threat to our republic has reared it's ugly head again and for this, I thank Terri and her family for their sacrifice.

[Pan_Yans Wife]

She was my Great-Aunt and died decades before I was born.

You match your screenname, speaking ill of the dead, calling her crazy.

No need to post to me, again. In my mind, your posts no longer exist. I will not tolerate such ignorance from the likes of you.

[Dont Mention the War]

i'm still waiting to hear - either you - or PanHan's wife or whatever the bleep she calls herself - tell us more specifics about these people who want to be starved and dehydrated over a 2 week period.

I don't personally know any. So what? Terri didn't want or not want anything, having had no higher brain function.

[Let's Roll]

Of course she wasn't abused - because if she had been then the DCF would have done something about it.

But they didn't, did they? Ergo there must not have been anything to do anything about.