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 This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.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

[bvw]

Suicide and assisted suicide are and ever have been crimes, joesbucks. Felos de se. Call it a cherry milk shake, call it "living with dignity death". It is what it is: suicide and murder.

[sakic]

Only 89 complaints? Heck thats not a pattern. Nothing to see. Move on to the next feeding tube!

89 complaints by one or two people is not the same as from 89 different people.

[Miss Behave]

BEHEMOTH BUMP.

[Earthdweller]

Hey let's make it an even bigger Circus!!!!

Let's call for the lawful murder of all "veggies"

Let's see..I know of at least four or five that are living happily in their homes right now in my neighborhood.

How dare those evil families keep such deprived subhumans alive!

Call out the "Freepers" to rescue them from a fate worse than death!

New Freeper motto..DEATH TO ALL VEGGIES!!

Disclaimer: Anyone who refuses to agree with this new motto will be determined to be insane.

[joesbucks]

Poetry? My question was if it was in writing, would you agree with her desires if it was in writing not to live with the feeding tube>?

[joesbucks]

So your arguement is not all the peripheral issues of whether she could have wanted to not live in the state she was in (I'm not saying she expressed that, only if she had).So we should maintain all life by whatever current means we have. No ifs, ands or butts. We as society will have to live by your wishes and perspective about when life begins and when it should end.

[maica]

I agree with you.

Does anyone wonder why there has been not a word of follow-up on the delivery man in NYC who was stuck in a broken elevator for 3 and a half days. Apparently he does not speak English, (and is not legally in the US) but I am sure that through an interpreter he could share his experience of suddenly being separated from food and water without warning.

Terri was not a dying person, whose digestive system was already shutting down. She was living in a certain state of equilibrium and suddenly had food withheld. We would not do that to an infant (at least in the hospital where I worked) and they could not feed themselves or talk either!

[Earthdweller]

If..what if..how 'bout if..

What If ....Howard Dean decided to swooped down and give you a big kiss for supporting his platform?

[cyncooper]

I am pro-life (and have stated so openly) and Christian. That does not bar me from pointing out the malicious comments of others.

For you to say to me that I don't claim to be pro-life goes in the vicious column. Noted.

[cyncooper]

Glad you see her husband an accused stalker and serial philanderer as an upstanding role model!

That's not what I said and there is no way on God's green earth to get that out of anything I've said. But facts don't matter, right?

[Earthdweller]

Some of them have been around a while and are just financial conservatives that love to harass Christian conservatives.

A heartless bunch of bean counters that wouldn't know what a moral was if it bit them in the arse.

...but they are sometimes more salvageable than most liberal birds on DU because they know they can't survive without the Christian Right.

Dollars & Sense don't ya know.

[cyncooper]

I'm not your sweetie. I don't think you're for real. If you don't like it, too bad.