Terri Schiavo’s Parents Ask Her Estranged Husband to Divorce 
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
January 26, 2005
Clearwater, FL (LifeNews.com) — With few legal remedies available to them to save their daughter, Bob and Mary Schindler are asking Terri Schiavo’s estranged husband Michael to divorce her.
David Gibbs, one of their attorneys, is asking Michael to "please, please, please let them keep their daughter and just walk away."
Though legally married to Terri, Michael has been living with Jodi Centonze for ten years and has had two children with her. He has refused the Schindlers’ requests that he divorce Terri and allow them to care for her.
Should Michael grant Terri a divorce, he would likely lose the remainder of a $1.5 million medical malpractice judgment awarded to him supposedly to be used to pay for rehabilitative and medical care for Terri.
Though promising to spent most of it on care for Terri, Michael has racked up $500,000 in legal bills in his bid to end her life. If Terri dies, Michael inherits what remains.
According to an unscientific Internet poll conducted by WCVB-TV in Boston, 63percent of the nearly 18,000 people who responded said they thought Michael Schiavo should "husband follow the wishes of Schiavo’s parents and dissolve his marriage and leave them in control of her destiny." Just 37 percent disagreed with such a decision.
The Schindlers have just three legal options left:
* an appeal to a Florida appeals court requesting a new trial based on the fact that Terri is a Catholic and would likely have opposed actions to starve her to death;
* a request that Michael Schiavo be removed as Terri’s legal guardian because of personal, religious, and monetary conflicts of interest;
* and a motion to reverse a local circuit court’s decision that Terri’s feeding tube be removed because Terri never had an attorney represent her interests during the years-long legal battle between her parents and Michael.
Related web sites:
Terri’s Family – https://www.terrisfight.org
