Posted on 04/16/2005 8:15:30 AM PDT by kingattax
TAMPA, Fla. -- 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
It would depend on how close we are geographically! LOL Nice Profile page BTW. Beautiful pictures. One can tell you are a big Bush supporter. See we have that in common all ready...
Q. And what was Dr. Mulroy’s advice to you, if any?
SCHIAVO: Not to treat the infection.
Per my own personal standards of behavior on Free Republic, I will admit I was wrong about Schiavo's conversations with Dr. Mulroy. I did not see that part of the transcript in any of the hundreds of links resulting from searches regarding that deposition.
I have not been able to find a central place where all the documents are available easily. I have been through the Florida Courts page, and have no idea how to find any specific documents (without registering with the site), especially not ones from a dozen years ago.
This, however, doesn't change the fact that Schiavo alone made the initial decision to let Terri's UTI go untreated, as he admitted in that deposition. In the same deposition, he suggests that the Schindlers no longer cared about Terri, and that if legally the hospital could allow Terri to go untreated, he wouldn't necessarily have told her parents.
According to the Wolfson report (that factual report to the Governor that you all seem to run from), the doctor's advice was to not treat the infection.
Don't count me among those who "run from" the Wolfson report! I addressed not only Wolfson's report to Bush (what I was able to read before leaving for Sunday worship this morning), but that same specific paragraph you referenced. I hadn't gotten to references about Mulroy, or else I wouldn't have responded the way I did.
If her parents and she were so strong in their faith as we were told to believe, what does it say about them that they would want to keep their daughter in that state for a few more years at most instead of standing in Heaven?
(snip)
I know where I'm going when I die and I don't want my family sitting around a bed looking at me in a comatose state when they could be out enjoying their lives the Good Lord gave 'em.
If you are a person of faith, you know that there are a myriad of schools of thought as to what "God's Will" is in situations that deal with life and death.
I will, however, point out this fact: in scripture, no one recognized as a righteous lover of God committed suicide nor committed an act of what would be termed nowadays as "euthanasia." Off the top of my head, only two suicides come to mind: King Saul, who was on the outs with God and fell on his sword rather than allow a Philistine to deal the final blow, and Judas Iscariot. On the other hand, Job refused to facilitate his own death despite the urging of his wife, who apparently couldn't stand to see him suffer.
I wouldn't dare suggest to your family members to do with you, so I find it hypocritical that you pass judgment on the Schindlers' statements.
Thanks. It took me a long time to learn how to post pictures but some nice freepers helped. I'm in South Carolina so if you're nearby, we'll have lunch.
Well, I tried to reach out to you and drew back a nub. Now I know why you're so angry - you're just a typical lib who hates himself and eveyone around him.
Have a nice lib life.
"If her parents and she were so strong in their faith as we were told to believe, what does it say about them that they would want to keep their daughter in that state for a few more years at most instead of standing in Heaven?"
As a matter of fact, most people who are very strong in their faith refrain from sending those who suffer on earth on that quick ticket to heaven. Our faith teaches us that life's journey is not easy for anyone. To be faithful is to know God's work in your life and His home is the end of the journey. We don't cut short the journey for earthly reasons.
We don't cut short the journey for earthly reasons.
And we don't extend it for others for self serving reasons either.
Hope your wife remains healthy for years to come.
She does, then she does. If I do, then I do. But when it comes time to make that decision, it's a decision that will be made by our family, our doctors, and prayer. Not by the national government through another useless edict and overstepping of states' rights
May I recommend the example of Michael Schiavo? First, obtain a jury award of 1.4 million dollars. Then pull the plug.
I have it clearly in a living will and have made it clear to more than a few that I don't want family members sitting around a body that will never recover. No, my requests are to just cut off or unhook anything that may be keeping me there, shut off the light, get out the door, and head on with their lives.
"His motives may have been wrong but the decision was still his according to the state of Florida"
The decision, according to the state of Florida, is hers. He represented one view of her wishes and her parents represented another view of her wishes.
No, the decision according to the state of Florida is the guardian's, which happened to be Schiavo. Under your logic if someone is laying in a bed with no brain left, they would never be able to disconnect them because the person didn't sit up and tell them to. His view was supported by law where her parents view was supported by what I have no idea other than emotions.
Look don't bother responding because frankly I'm tired of arguing about this crap (and that's what it is). The rule of law stood. You didn't like it, so your side chooses instead to play word games. The rule of law in Florida stood and thank God the national government couldn't find the angle to get involved. And I will personally do everything that I can that statists that believe as you do (that the national government had any issue in this matter) will never get elected into office now or in the future. If that means eventually replacing every politician from the one big party in Washington then so be it.
You are mistaken. The guardian petitioned the court to remove the feeding tube based on his representation of her wishes.
I can think of a hundred other cases where the rule of law has been applied and found lacking in it's application or interpretation. It is not revolutionary in American governement to respond by enacting more suitable laws.
The national government simply attempted to provide Terri Schiavo's parents an appeal based on a rehearing of their case as the orginal case had been so poorly represented. The Schindlers paid their initial legal fees out of pocket while Michael Schiavo paid an experienced attorney $350,000 out of the jury award he had received ostensibly for the treatment and therapy of Terri Schiavo.
I agree 100% with your views. Do you have a sense that this forum has taken a real destructive tone since the Terry Schiavo case caught the spotlight. I have voted conservative since 1964 (Barry Goldwater) and will never waver from my political stance, but if you don't agree with the zealots on the right you are somehow branded a murderer. That poor woman lay 15 years in a vegetative state (confirmed by many doctors). I really think this forum has been taken over by radicals on the right in the same way the dimocrats have been taken over by the kook fringe on the left.
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