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 This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.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

[The Ghost of FReepers Past]

Working for the Dean team as usual.

[cyncooper]

It's a pattern all right. A pattern of a coordinated campaign by people like those that have been posting on this issue right here on good old kooky FR.

One of the other many threads on this has an article that points out that many of the calls came during a concentrated period very recently.

Also, some of the complaints were against the Schindlers (I see that's noted in this article, too, but you chose to represent the complaints as all against the husband).

[cyncooper]

I really think it goes beyond Florida and the whole northern hemisphere has now been implicated.

[thoughtomator]

So if they released the complaints, is the record available? It would be nice to see it firsthand and not have to rely on the notoriously slanted media to tell us what it says.

[Recovering_Democrat]

I'd say those last 13 days of her life were abusive. But that's just me--I might be crazy thinking that denial of hydration and nutrition are abusive.

[thomaswest]

brilliant

Once a conspiracy theory is entrenched, there is no way to end it. Facts don't count.

[sgtbono2002]

Facts havent counted in this case since the far right nutbags took it over.

[Earthdweller]

Funny....then why were they ready to take custody of Terri in the end?

[MagnoliaMS]

There is a new show on Terri on A & E right now.

[Freee-dame]

her Pinellas Park hospice.

How about being sent to a hospice when you are not dying? Then being deprived of therapy or stimulation for 5 years?

[spokeshave]

And the "experimental" electro-schock therapy complete with implanted electrodes......?.......

[EternalVigilance]

Facts havent counted in this case since the far right nutbags took it over.

How abused would you feel personally if you were locked in a room and denied water and food for two weeks?

Once again, the gnat gets strained out while the camel is swallowed whole.

Got indigestion?

[EternalVigilance]

Do you think your quality of life is better than Terri Schiavo's was? Why does that matter legally?

Do you think your rights as delineated in the Bill of Rights are important? Do you believe every American has an equal share in those rights?

Do you think your rights as delineated in the Bill of Rights are superior to those of a person in Terri Schiavo's condition?

Do you think a person in Terri Schiavo's condition has forfeited their right to life as delineated in the Bill of Rights? If so, why? What is your authority to make that judgment?

Am I a 'far right nutbag' for asking you these very timely questions?

Are you on the right website?

[EternalVigilance]

i note that death mongers NEVER answer your question

You noticed that too? ;-)

[chadwimc]

Don't lock me in a room for two weeks. Give me my revolver and a bullet. I'll meet God standing tall and proud...

[sgtbono2002]

Well personally I would feel pretty bad, but then I am not in a vegetative state.

[sgtbono2002]

Yes : I do feel mu quality of life is better than Terri's was , but it only matters legally when you are in a permanent Vegetative state as she was.

Do you think you no more about Terri's state than many doctors and 19 judges? Obviously you do. What is your medical education?

Certainly : legally when Terri is no longer capable of making decisions ,someone has to make them for her. Your problem is who has the right to make that decision her husband or her parent, Legally in Florida her husband has that right, If you dont like it ---Demand it be changed. Dont harangue me about rights, I believe every human has rights, but when they cant communicate those rights that resp[onsibility is given to others. Do you thin. Joan Kennedys kids have the right to take away her rights and control her? She still has a mind even though it is pickled.

As for being on the right website I would ask you that same question since you evidently dont feel I have a right to have an opinion you dont agree with.

[EternalVigilance]

You remind me of Joe Kennedy. He thought he had the right to do a frontal lobotomy on his retarded daughter because she still had a sexual drive. Turned her into that person you describe.

Same spirit.

I asked if you were on the right website because you were tossing out insults usually used only by the Left.

But I notice you didn't even come close to answering my questions in any kind of substantive way.

Obviously you think your rights are superior to those of the disabled, and have no concept of what 'inalienable' means.

Sad that such thinking has found so many fertile minds in America these days. Too much liberal fertilizer, obviously...

[EternalVigilance]

I'll meet God standing tall and proud...

And having broken the commandment, "Thou shalt not kill."

Some areas the LORD reserves for Himself. This is one of the most obvious.