What NOT to ask Michael Schiavo on Larry King Live---anything he can answer with a spin that makes him sound high-principled and loving.
Try to put yourself in the shoes he wants to be in. Think how he can best spin his reply before you decide. Don't give him opportunities to advance his agenda.
This is the email I sent to Larry King
larry.king3@turner.com Dear Larry King:
I have heard that you will be interviewing Michael Schiavo, who wishes to end his wife's life by dehydration and starvation, on your Monday evening show. I hope you will ask him whether Terri drools, or if she can swallow her own saliva. I also hope you will ask him how Terri obtained nourishment prior to the insertion of her feeding tube. Also I hope you will ask him why he does not permit swallowing tests to be done every 6 months, as, in my understanding, is required by Florida law. Even if not required by Florida law, why does he refuse permission to perform swallowing tests on Terri from time to time, and refuse efforts at teaching Terri to obtain nutrition by mouth? And I hope you ask him why he did not permit Terri to receive Viaticum during her 'death process' as part of her free exercise of her religion (a tiny, moistened particle of wheat that has become the Body of Christ, according to Catholic Last Rites). It would also be nice to ask him why he never mentioned Terri's 'wish to die' before he was awarded $1.2 million, money earmarked for her treatment, tests, and rehabilitation efforts. Also, I would like for you to consider whether someone should be permitted to remove someone else's feeding tube when the condition is not terminal (Terri's condition is not terminal - she is severely brain-damaged, but death is not imminent). Terri may be on the 'more dependent' end of the spectrum of those who use feeding tubes - (as I understand, many others who rely on feeding tubes live otherwise normal lives) - but is her dependence on others a sufficient reason for her to have her feeding tube removed? If Terri didn't want to live by 'artificial means', how does Mr. Schiavo know that Terri considered a simple feeding tube to be the particular 'artificial means' that she wouldn't want to live with? Maybe she meant 'being hooked up to machines', a situation she is not in currently. Why doesn't Mr. Schiavo give Terri the benefit of the doubt under such uncertain circumstances about Terri's actual wishes, and allow Terri to continue receiving nutrition via her feeding tube, and let her parents, who very much wish to do so, care for her for the rest of her life? Mr. Schiavo would then be free to divorce Terri and marry his live-in girlfriend, Jodi Centonze, and raise his two children by Jodi (daugher Olivia, and a second child on the way.)
These are very important questions that matter very much to me, a concerned viewer who has no connection to Terri Schiavo other than a common humanity, a shared American citizenship, and the same Catholic faith. Please find it in your heart to ask these questions of Michael Schiavo. The more light shed on this difficult situation, the better.
Thank you very much.
Sincerely,
(firerosemom)