Terri Schiavo’s Estranged Husband Still Considering Ending Legal Battle 
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
November 5, 2004
Clearwater, FL (LifeNews.com) — Though his attorneys have filed an appeal to lift a judicial order preventing him from removing Terri Schiavo’s feeding tube, Terri’s estranged husband Michael continues to move closer to giving up the fight to take her life.
Michael’s attorney, euthanasia advocate George Felos, previously told reporters that he was beginning to think it was hopeless to continue the legal battle and said he might advise Michael to give up.
In an interview earlier this week with the Springfield Times newspaper, Felos acknowledged Michael, too, is growing tired of the fight.
Felos said Michael may decline to participate in the next phase of the decade-long legal battle if Terri’s parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, are able to get a Florida appeals court to hear their case that removing Terri’s feeding tube would violate her Catholic beliefs.
If the appeals court takes the case, "Mr. Schiavo is seriously considering just simply not participating in appellate proceedings," Felos told the Times.
Acknowledging that such a move may make it more likely that the appeals court would rule in favor of Terri’s parents, Felos added, "What’s his alternative otherwise? His alternative is participating in a shell game in which he continually wins but the case is never concluded."
Last week, Felos told the Tampa Tribune newspaper, "it would appear that pursuing any remedy through the judicial system is simply a waste of time."
"It is hard to see where there is any benefit in staying the course in this case," he added.
"Eventually they are going to get the point that maybe what they are trying to do is just wrong,” Bob Schindler told the Florida newspaper in reaction.
The Schindlers lost their latest attempt to save Terri’s life when Circuit Court Judge George Greer said he did not agree with the Schindlers’ contention that statement from Pope John Paul II, saying removing the tube would constitute "euthanasia by omission," meant Terri’s First Amendment rights would be violated by euthanizing her.
The Schindlers have appealed the decision and Greer issued a stay preventing Michael from removing her feeding tube while the 2nd District Court of Appeal considers their request.
If the tube is removed, Terri is expected to die a painful two-week starvation death.
Related web sites:
Michael’s motion to lift the stay –
https://www.terrisfight.org/documents/102904felosmotion.pdf
Terri Schiavo’s parents – https://www.terrisfight.org
