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Terri Schiavo: Bobby Schindler on His Sister's Starvation, Autopsy

by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
June 17, 2005

Minneapolis, MN (LifeNews.com) -- Bobby Schindler sat down with LifeNews.com to discuss his sister Terri Schiavo's starvation death and the autopsy report released on Wednesday. Bobby disputed the results of the autopsy and said the media's presentation of the debate surrounding Terri showed its bias and support for euthanasia.

"It's important that they promote this euthanasia agenda," Bobby said of the media coverage. "If you look at the way they handled my sister's case, they justified killing her."

The media's bias is "evidence of where we've come as a society - that we're perfectly okay defining someone as profoundly brain damaged and killing that person. We're starving people to death for the simple reason that they are brain damaged. Where is the compassion in that?"

Schindler told LifeNews.com that the autopsy raised more questions than it answered.

"It places more suspicion on Michael Schiavo than before," he said. "We've seen this for a long time now - everyone is concerned about Terri' condition and killing her because she not longer has any value for society, but they don't care what put her there in the first place."

Instead of praising Terri's estranged husband "for having the courage to kill his wife," Bobby said the public should be asking "some serious questions about what is going on here - he is the only one that knows what happened."

Governor Jeb Bush of Florida has asked a prosecutor to investigate the circumstances surrounding Terri's collapse. However, local investigators should have taken up an investigation back in 1990, Bobby said.

"Because she didn't die, it wasn't worth looking into," Schindler told LifeNews.com. "There were no thorough investigations at all at that time. Everyone assumed there was no foul play."

Though media reports say the autopsy confirms that Terri did not collapse as a result of physical abuse from Michael, Bobby disputes that contention.

"I don't think that provides conclusive evidence that nothing [problematic] happened to Terri that night," Schindler told LifeNews.com.

Bobby said the way Michael treated Terri after the collapse was cruel and inhumane.

"It's completely forgotten that he provided her no rehabilitative treatment and didn't take her outside for five years," he explained. "There was no interaction or medical treatment and he purposefully left our family out of the loop on receiving medical information. He treated her and by family worse than horrible - it was unconscionable."

"I'd like to see Michael answer some questions about her collapse, but he never will unless there is an investigation," he said.

Schindler told LifeNews.com he wasn't surprised that George Felos, the lead attorney for Michael, is a leading euthanasia advocate. He worries the media bought their representation of Terri's story.

"They lie about her condition and dehumanize people as much as they can. They lie about the manner in which they die and they know this is a barbaric way to kill someone," he said.

Terri's brother said he disagree with her autopsy report claiming that she was blind. He noted that the report did not say when Terri became blind and speculated that it could have happened during the thirteen days during which she was starved and dehydrated.

"It seems Terri was clearly recognizing us when we would get in front of her," Schindler said.

One of the unanswered questions of late has been whether Michael has buried the cremated remains of Terri's body or done something else with them. Michael is legally obligated to tell the Schindler family when and where he buries Terri's remains.

"I'm not going to speculate [on what Michael's done]," Bobby said. "It's just another sign of Michael trying to show he's in control and he's going to call the shots. We're going to have to play by his rules."

Schindler told LifeNews.com that he and his family will continue to speak out for the disabled and use their foundation for Terri to help other families that face similar circumstances. He also indicated the Schindler family may write a book at some point about their experiences.

Bobby Schindler spoke about the trials and struggles he and his family have faced throughout the legal battle to save his sister.

"It's been tough," he told LifeNews.com. "You need to have faith in God and Christ because if you don't you're going to be steering without a rudder."

"There is so much evil in this world. If you don't put your faith in God, then at the end if can really consume you."





 

 

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