Photo by Joni B. Hannigan
Bob and Mary Schindler hold up one of two birthday cakes for their daughter, Terri Schiavo, who is at the center of a “right-to-die” debate. The party was hosted by www.Terrisfight.org
PINELLAS PARK (FBW)–Family and friends of a 41-year-old disabled woman at the center of a “right-to-die” dispute met at a park pavilion Dec. 12 to celebrate her Dec. 2 birthday.
The guest of honor was unable to attend.
Locked away in a Pinellas Park nursing home about 10 blocks away, Terri Schiavo is not allowed to leave her room. She’s been ordered to be starved to death twice. Her visits with her family are limited and she is not allowed to be involved in any kind of rehabilitiation.
In a case pro-life advocates say may decide the future of euthanasia in the United States, the U.S. Supreme Court may have the final say as to whether Terri Schiavo, a disabled woman living in Florida, lives or dies.
Lawyers for Florida Gov. Jeb Bush filed an appeal with the high court Dec. 1, asking the justices to take the case and overturn a ruling by the Florida Supreme Court that could lead to her death.
The woman at the center of the legal debate, Schiavo has been in what some doctors consider a persistent vegetative state since 1990, when she collapsed in her home. Her husband and legal guardian, Michael Schiavo – who has fathered two children with his live-in girlfriend – has sought the removal of his wife’s feeding tube for nearly a decade, saying it is what she would have wanted. However, no written request from Terri Schiavo exists.
Terri Schiavo’s parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, have long maintained that their daughter has not received the rehabilitation and care she requires.
Schiavo’s feeding tube was removed in October 2003, but the Florida legislature passed a law giving Bush the authority to order the re-insertion of the tube. He did so, and Michael Schiavo challenged the constitutionality of the law.
Terri’s siblings, Robert “Bobby” Schindler Jr. and Suzanne Vitadamo, and Suzanne’s daughter, Alex Carr, 11, joined attorneys, health care workers, ministers and others in the park to sing “Happy Birthday,” listen to special music and hear an update from a Schindler attorney on strategy related to guardianship matters before the state’s appellate court.
Angel Watson, who works with the Caring & Sharing Center for Independent Living in Tampa shared her story about being disabled after a skiing accident which resulted in her being considered in a “persistent vegetative state.”
Terri Schiavo needs therapy, Watson said.
“We need to get Terri out of the one little room that she’s stuck in,” Watson said. “Each and every one of you are her voice. Use it!”
Photo by Joni B. Hannigan
Angel Watson, from the Caring & Sharing Center for Independent Living in Tampa, spoke about a skiing accident which left her paralyzed and how her family had to decide whether to “pull the plug.”
Photo by Joni B. Hannigan
Young supporters of Terri Schiavo were among nearly 150 who attended her birthday party to listen to music, poems and testimonies about her life.
Photo by Joni B. Hannigan
Mary Schindler, Terri Schiavo’s mother, sings “Happy Birthday” for her disabled daughter.
Photo by Joni B. Hannigan
Thaddeus Malanowski (r), a retired military chaplain and a Catholic priest who visits Terri Schiavo, talks with a musician about his unlikely friendship with Elvis Presley in 1956-58 when both men were in the U.S. Army at Bad Nauheim, Germany, and Presley confided to him after the death of his mother. The musician, Wayne Galley, a native of Australia, shares a bit of his own past--which has included being a bodyguard for superstar Michael Jackson until just after Jackson’s arrest in 2004.
Photo by Joni B. Hannigan
Alex Carr, 11, Bob and Mary Schindler’s granddaughter and Terri Schiavo’s niece, helps clean up after the birthday party for her disabled aunt.
Photo by Joni B. Hannigan
Suzanne Vitadamo (r) wipes a tear after she mounts the platform with her family to thank guests for attending the celebration. Vitadamo credited her mother and father with saving Terri’s life again and again, and perservering in the face of great pain and disappointment.
Lawyers for Florida Gov. Jeb Bush filed an appeal with the high court Dec. 1, asking the justices to take the case and overturn a ruling by the Florida Supreme Court that could lead to her death.
The woman at the center of the legal debate, Schiavo has been in what some doctors consider a persistent vegetative state since 1990, when she collapsed in her home. Her husband and legal guardian, Michael Schiavo – who has fathered two children with his live-in girlfriend – has sought the removal of his wife’s feeding tube for nearly a decade, saying it is what she would have wanted. However, no written request from Terri Schiavo exists.
Terri Schiavo’s parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, have long maintained that their daughter has not received the rehabilitation and care she requires.
Schiavo’s feeding tube was removed in October 2003, but the Florida legislature passed a law giving Bush the authority to order the re-insertion of the tube. He did so, and Michael Schiavo challenged the constitutionality of the law.
Terri’s siblings, Robert “Bobby” Schindler Jr. and Suzanne Vitadamo, and Suzanne’s daughter, Alex Carr, 11, joined attorneys, health care workers, ministers and others in the park to sing “Happy Birthday,” listen to special music and hear an update from a Schindler attorney on strategy related to guardianship matters before the state’s appellate court.
Angel Watson, who works with the Caring & Sharing Center for Independent Living in Tampa shared her story about being disabled after a skiing accident which resulted in her being considered in a “persistent vegetative state.”
Terri Schiavo needs therapy, Watson said.
“We need to get Terri out of the one little room that she’s stuck in,” Watson said. “Each and every one of you are her voice. Use it!”
http://www.floridabaptistwitness.com/3627.article