Florida Euthanasia Case Continues to Move through the Courts

By Liz Townsend

Terri Schindler-Schiavo still clings to life in a Florida nursing home as court battles continue between her husband, who wants to have her nutrition and hydration stopped, and her parents, who want her to live, according to the St. Petersburg Times.

A three-judge panel of the Second District Court of Appeal ruled July 11 that the case must return to Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge George Greer, the judge who originally ordered Schindler-Schiavo's feeding tube removed, the Times reported. Her parents have until July 20 to give Greer evidence that their daughter would have wanted to remain alive in her current condition. Greer will then consider the evidence and decide whether to hold another hearing or again order Schindler-Schiavo's death by dehydration and starvation, according to the Times.

"We are happy," Pat Anderson, the Schindlers' attorney, told the Tampa Tribune. "It means we get a hearing, which is all we've wanted all along. This clearly sends a message to Greer to look at what we file."

Schindler-Schiavo, 37, has been in a condition of diminished consciousness since a heart attack 11 years ago. In April, she was deprived of food and fluids for 60 hours at her husband Michael Schiavo's request, the Times reported.

"There is no distinction between 'extraordinary care' and 'ordinary care' in the law," Wesley J. Smith, author of Culture of Death: The Assault on Medical Ethics in America, told NRL News. "A feeding tube, which provides basic sustenance, is considered by law to be the same as an antibiotic, an aspirin, a ventilator, surgery, or chemotherapy. As a consequence, throughout all 50 states, cognitively disabled people - - both the conscious and unconscious - - are dehydrated to death as a matter of medical routine in hospitals and nursing homes."

Smith added, "As long as families agree, there is nothing either in law or medical ethics to prevent this from occurring. Indeed, medical staff members often pressure families to remove feeding tubes. It is only when family members disagree that these cases go to court."

Michael Schiavo insists that his wife is in a vegetative state, unaware of her surroundings, the Times reported. "This is about Terri," he told the newspaper. "This is not living. It's existing."

Schiavo also asserts that, before her heart attack, Terri told him she would not want to live on artificial life support if she was incapacitated, according to George Felos, Mr. Schiavo's attorney, as reported by the Miami Herald. "She said, 'No tubes for me,' that kind of thing," Felos told the newspaper.

Basing his decision mainly on Michael Schiavo's testimony, Judge Greer authorized Schindler-Schiavo's starvation and dehydration death February 11. She received what was supposed to be her last feeding at a Pinellas Park nursing home April 24.

But her parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, strongly dispute that their daughter would want to die. After Schindler-Schiavo's feedings were stopped, they brought new evidence to Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge Frank Quesada, who granted a temporary injunction of Greer's ruling April 26 and ordered that her feedings resume, according to the Times.

The new evidence consisted of statements from a former girlfriend of Michael Schiavo, who told the Times that she asked Schiavo what his wife would have wanted and he replied, "How . . . should I know? She was 25 years old and we did not talk about it."

On May 8, attorneys on both sides questioned the girlfriend, Cyndi Brashers Shook, according to the Times. In addition to Shook's new testimony, a nurse who cared for Schindler-Schiavo filed an affidavit with the court May 11, the Associated Press (AP) reported.

Doreen Mello testified that when she visited Schindler-Schiavo and spoke to her, she seemed to be aware of her environment.

"The odd thing is that I knew she heard me, and felt she wanted to respond," Mello said in the affidavit, according to the AP. "There is no doubt in my mind that she is not in a vegetative state."

Complicating the case further is a million-dollar lawsuit settlement that was awarded to Schindler-Schiavo in 1993. The settlement came from a malpractice suit filed by Michael Schiavo against Terri's doctors, who failed to detect the low potassium levels that caused her heart attack. Only $350,000 of the settlement is left, however, according to the Times.

Previously thought to be used only to pay Schindler-Schiavo's medical costs, the Times reported that court records show it has also been used by Michael Schiavo to pay for lawyers seeking to remove her feeding tube.

"This is outrageous. It's offensive," Schindler attorney Anderson told the Times. "It's not being used for the purpose for which it was given."

The Schindlers have filed a lawsuit against Schiavo, accusing him of fraud and of seeking to gain control of the money that is left by misrepresenting his wife's wishes and misleading the judge who ordered her feedings stopped, the AP reported. On June 1 the Schindlers filed a motion asking the court to make sure Terri stays alive because she is a "material witness" to Schiavo's actions, according to the Times.

"Plaintiffs believe that if their daughter could speak or otherwise communicate in a systematic fashion - - either through responsive speech or gestures or other, non-verbal means," the motion states, according to the Times, "her evidence would be devastating to the defendant."

While the court cases swirl around her, Terri Schindler-Schiavo remains in Hospice House Woodside in Pinellas Park, receiving the nutrition she needs to survive. Her parents hope she will continue to be given the chance to live, the chance that her condition may improve one day.

"Their main concern was their daughter," Joe Magri, an attorney for the Schindlers, told the Times. "They're very happy that she would continue to be fed."