TERRI'S BROTHER, BOBBY SCHINDLER, SPEAKS AT PRINCETON UNIVERSITY
Schiavo's brother pleads for right to life
http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/archives/2005/03/03/news/12237.shtml
A week after a Florida judge ruled that Terri Schiavo's feeding tube could be removed, her brother said that allowing her to die would put the United States on the path to Holocaust-style cruelties.
"What is the difference between what happened 60 years ago and what's happening today?" Bobby Schindler asked Wednesday before a crowd in McCosh 10. "What can possibly be crueler than allowing someone to endure a long and painful death because society doesn't want to pay for them or thinks they have no quality of life? As soon as we establish a criteria for starving people to death, we are establishing a second class of people."
Schindler called the conflict "a cultural battle between life and death" that affects the rights of the elderly and the disabled.
Schiavo, a 41-year-old Florida woman, is at the center of a raging debate over euthanasia. After suffering severe brain damage when her heart stopped in 1990, she now breathes normally but can only receive food and drink through a feeding tube in her stomach.
Her husband Michael and some doctors say that Schiavo is in what is called a permanent vegetative state (PVS) — a legal justification for ending life in the state of Florida — but her family disagrees.
Schindler said Wednesday that some doctors are "adamant that Terri is nowhere close to PVS" and called the criteria "so subjective you can almost describe anyone who is unable to communicate as in PVS."
Even if Schiavo were in PVS, Schindler added, "Why does it matter?" saying that all his family wants is to bring her to their home and take care of her.
A judge ruled last week that Schiavo is in PVS and that Michael, as her legal guardian, can remove the tube on March 18. Schindler called on Florida Governor Jeb Bush to intervene in the case for the second time to save Schiavo's life.
The situation is complicated by facts in dispute. Schiavo's husband has said she had told him she would not want to be kept alive.
Schindler said his sister, a lifelong Catholic, would not wish to die. They also claim that Michael has other motives.
"Michael suddenly remembered [in 1998] that Terri — in her early 20s — that she allegedly made a living will," Schindler said.
He also noted that Michael has been cohabitating with another woman for the past 10 years and has two children with her.
Michael also stands to inherit Schiavo's trust fund. Schiavo was awarded more than a million dollars in a 1992 medical malpractice suit.
Schindler said Michael testified at that trial that he wanted to spend the rest of his life caring for his wife.
Instead, Schindler said, Michael has neglected her, denying her sunlight, dental care and speech therapy, which she hasn't had since 1992.
"A lot of doctors are amazed at how well she is doing considering she hasn't had rehabilitation in 13 years," Schindler said.
Schindler also blamed bad judges, the media and changing cultural values for Schiavo's situation.
Claiming that groups such as the insurance industry have promoted euthanasia behind the scenes, Schindler also singled out University bioethics professor Peter Singer.
Singer, who supports voluntary euthanasia, said in an email prior to the talk that "the problem with this case is that the facts are contested, and I have no expertise about that."
Schindler opened his talk with a video of Terri's childhood and their court battle set to music by John Denver and the Beatles — some of Terri's favorites.
He ended by quoting the biblical story of the Good Samaritan.
Before Schindler spoke, Chris Tollefson, a visiting fellow at the James Madison Program, said, "Abortion and euthanasia are linked in principle, and both are deeply wrong."
The event was sponsored by Princeton Pro-Life.
Opinion
Letter: Davis failed to address other side in column
by Katie Tweedell
March 03, 2005
http://www.universitydaily.net/vnews/display.v/ART/2005/03/03/42269a727a3f1
Terri ping to 1152! If anyone would like to be added to or removed from my Terri ping list, please let me know by FReepmail!
Grounds for loss of custody and criminal action in fifty states.