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 This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.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

You're just so frickin' generous.

But why? After all, she was 'beautiful and serene'! Why would you want to interfere with that?!

/disgust

Damn, my disgust key won't shut off...

[ContraryMary]

KDD: as far as the money goes, the schindlers wanted a repayment of money they had previously loaned michael. there is nothing wrong with that especially with limited funds.

L.N. Smithee: Exactly! And even if all these muted allegations that the Schindlers are greedy scumbags had any weight, the natural progression of such a viewpoint is that they wanted to keep Terri alive out of spite!

No, they wanted to remove Michael as guardian and have Terri divorce him so they could become Terri's heirs-at-law. This is the result of court testimony, and it has been recognized by the courts that money was a motive on both sides. And, BTW, the Schindlers wanted more than a reimbursement of expenses; they wanted half the court award.

[ContraryMary]

I'll gladly admit that Terri should have had at least a damp cloth to relieve the parchment of her mouth and tongue.

A statement like that deserves applause.

You should have printed the whole statement. Here it is.

Water on parched lips is not an extraordinary measure. The forbidding of it is certainly extraordinary. I'll say that it should have not been so, but I'll also say the Schindlers were partly responsible. If they hadn't whipped up such a media circus -- something they are ENTIRELY to blame for -- many of the orders would not have been necessary. It doesn't help anyone -- least of all Terri -- to have some whack job claim that because a few drops of water made it down her throat successfully, bypassing her lungs, that is evidence she could swallow. It would have started another round of pointless and fruitless court battles.

When you admit that the Schindlers created much of the media circus themselves and that they have to live with the consequences of that, then I'll glady admit that Terri should have had at least a damp cloth to relieve the parchment of her mouth and tongue.

You took my statement out of context. I'm saying it was unfortunate, but it couldn't have been otherwise given the media circus the Schindlers created. If anything, they deserve much of the blame for this lack of routine, ordinary care for the dying.

[joesbucks]

So all the peripheral issues are really meaningless. Why then has so much time been spent on the peripheral issues. Why has the press releases from the family, their supporters, their activists, their legal team and so on spent so much time in the peripheral issues? Why didn't they just fight and say even if these were Terri's wishes, it is wrong and it shouldn't be done? Were they being intelectually dishonest?

[ContraryMary]

Why didn't they just fight and say even if these were Terri's wishes, it is wrong and it shouldn't be done? Were they being intelectually dishonest?

Yes.

[joesbucks]

I know you weren't arguing this side of the argument, but if Terri had planned on leaving him, then wouldn't that have violated her Catholic faith that the family claims she clung so closely to? Unless he committed adultry or he as a non believer chose to leave her, then her thoughts and possbile plans were a violation of the same faith that is being so loudly professed.

[bvw]

I did NOT quote out of context. I took part of your soul and made it clear for you to see.

You put the shrivled little black heart of meanness back in. Is it a comfort to you?

[joesbucks]

The angelic Schindler's? The Patron Saints of court ordered killing? They were in it for the $$$$$? My, maybe the culture of life folks better also get on the culture of christian living train too. Let's see, greed.....where does that fit in as a virtue?

[bvw]

They are the train of the bride's dress. You do not want the bride naked in her stroll to the altar.

[68 grunt]

... In this case, our leaders have been short-sighted unto blindness.

Justice is supposed to be blind. Emotion - that's all your side has. Emotion - that's why you're so lacking in credibility.

It sure would be nice to give lady justice a tune-up, but the emotional blowout of the whacky right wheel has brought our vehicle to a halt.

[joesbucks]

Terri was no bride. Fact of the matter is there was lots of smoke over an issue that plain and simply was a group of people, including the family was hell bent on not even allowing her wishes to be carried out if those were her wishes. So from the beginning, their whole program was a sham and a parade. It may be morally wrong to die that way. It may be a sin. But it is just as morally wrong and a sin to cloak an argument in peripheral issues that had no meaning, and letting the masses believe something that at face value isn't really the issue. That's called deceit. That too is a sin.

[DCPatriot]

Don't be fooled by what you read on FR; it's not the GOP as a hole,...

Couldn't resist... ;^)

The Schiavo threads dominated by the religious fringe does indeed make FR look like a hole. A black hole where no light is allowed to shine on the truth.

[bvw]

Sins!

The purpose of life is to entertain them!

But not to allow them to be our masters, and please don't be inventing any new ones -- there's plenty already.

The bride is the ideal. The ideal of life -- to live. A bride, once taken on is a duty -- "to have and to hold". Life! Suicide is illgeal and the most dire of "sins".

To argue the train -- the peripheral ideas of Terri's case -- is to do the bride great honor, btw. It is life. Life is in the details and how they get hammered out, get made into fine lace and embroidery from the spun-threads of ideas argued and discussed and considered.

[68 grunt]

Thank you for sharing your story. God bless.

[KDD]

How much communion wine did you have to imbibe to spin that kind of anology out of this mess.

[68 grunt]

He was also mistaken in a post to me in this thread. Called me a liar. I'll betcha this milquetoast doesn't speak like that to people in person. Irony is obvious. I believe his 'mistake' intentional. Hmmmm, what does that make him? Hmmm?

[DCPatriot]

There were a few freaky people there, which the media of course focused their cameras on. Selective editing, their most powerful weapon to lie.

You mean selective editing showing Terri "smiling" at her mother...or tracking a balloon?

[The Coopster]

There is no evidence.

Hysterics and conjecture have made up 75 percent or more of this entire circus, and 80 percent or more of the posts by the person you were replying to. "Innocent until proven guilty" is one tenet of our justice system. Not "judge people on your opinion/percieved moral high ground and make baseless accusations based on opinions".

And another poster pointed out that many of the hysterical crowd were wailing for the DCF to get involved. Now that their views weren't supported, the DCF is evil. And so it goes.........

[cyncooper]

Oh please. We can all see where you're coming from and it isn't nice.

[DCPatriot]

i think michael's motives are pretty damn clear for anyone who has a brain.

Well, at least Terri didn't notice then...

;^)