More on Suspicious Behavior

The inestimable Slublog is blogging the hell out of this, and he sends me this:

The immediate cause of Terri's brain damage was cardiac arrest, which caused her brain to be deprived of oxygen for more than five minutes. In January 1993, Michael Schiavo won a malpractice award of $1.6 million from the hospital that treated Terri. He was also personally awarded $600,000 for loss of consortium. In his testimony, Michael spoke of his love for his wife and his intentions to honor his wedding vows for the rest of his life and to use the award money for Terri's care and rehabilitation. Indeed, Michael repeatedly assured Bob and Mary Schindler that he would seek rehabilitation therapy for Terri once he had obtained a settlement.

A month after Michael received the money, the Schindlers approached
their son-in-law to remind him of his promise. This led to a heated
argument, with Bob and Michael yelling in the hall outside Terri's
room. Michael stormed off and vowed that he was going to see his
lawyer and that Bob and Mary would "never see [their] daughter again."

...

The staff of Terri's nursing home was sympathetic to the Schindlers
and frequently gave them information in spite of Michael's medical
"gag order." Later that year, Bob and Mary learned that Terri had a
serious urinary tract infection and that Michael had ordered the
nursing home not to give her treatment, which would have consisted
of a simple course of antibiotics. They were informed by the nursing
home staff (going against the gag order), not Michael, as he himself
admitted in this exchange with the attorney for the Schindlers in the
1993 guardianship hearing:

Attorney: When you made the decision that you were not going to treat Terri's infection and you were, in effect, going to allow her to die, did you think that you had any obligation to tell her parents?

Michael: To answer that question, I probably would have let them know sooner or later.

Attorney: You never did let them know, though, did you?

Michael: No.

Left untreated, the infection would eventually have caused sepsis and
Terri's death. Fortunately the nursing home eventually gave Terri the
antibiotics anyway, and she recovered.

Hit Slublog's link for the full article and his thoughts... and a curious admission from "the husband."

I really don't want to hang Michael Schiavo in a kangaro cyber-court. But it is a fact that all of this is a bit suspicious and a bit strange, and under these circumstances, I just find it unbelievable that someone with no remaining familial or emotional ties to another human being could continue to be deemed the closest family she has on earth, and given the awesome responsibility of making life and death decisions about her.

Call me crazy-- I just don't think that's how this ought to work. I'm not part of the right-to-life movement. I am mildly pro-abortion and even mildly pro right-to-die.

But there has to be good evidence of someone's wish to be painfully killed. Not the say-so of a departed-but-financially-interested ex-husband.

posted by Ace at 05:18 PM

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