Terri Schiavo Abuse Document Cites Complaints Against Michael

Bioethics   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Mar 4, 2005   |   9:00AM   |   WASHINGTON, DC

Terri Schiavo Abuse Document Cites Complaints Against Michael Email this article
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
March 4, 2005

Clearwater, FL (LifeNews.com) — Documents filed by a state agency seeking to investigate concerns of abuse of Terri Schiavo cite 30 allegations of abuse or neglect of the disabled woman.

The Florida Department of Children Families submitted the 11-page document to Circuit Court Judge George Greer last week and it hoped to obtain 60 days to investigate the concerns.

Instead, Judge Greer ruled that Terri’s estranged husband Michael could remove her feeding tube on March 18. He issued a second ruling Thursday opening up the document to media and public scrutiny.

The DCF filing says it received "30 detailed allegations of abuse, neglect or exploitation in a 34 page document received by the DCF hotline." The information came to the agency on February 18 and 21.

According to the St. Petersburg Times newspaper, which obtained the DCF report, there is no indication of who provided the state agency with the details of the abuse.

However, the allegations point directly to Michael and echo many of the concerns brought up by Terri’s parents Bob and Mary Schindler over the last years of the legal dispute.

They involve Michael’s failure to follow state law and provide an annual guardianship and medical care plan for Terri, failure to provide Terri with medical care and rehabilitative therapy as he told a court he would do, and lack of moving Terri from her bed which has caused her "severe contractures."

"The allegations … go to the heart of whether abuse, neglect and/or exploitation has been perpetrated by the guardian such that any relief afforded by this court to this guardian prior to the conclusion of such investigation would be tragically misplaced," the petition said.

DCF adult investigations supervisor Michael Will wrote the paper.

Judge Greer will hear argument next week to decide if the March 18 day for Michael to starve Terri to death should be pushed back while the DCF investigates.

George Felos, the euthanasia advocate who is Michael’s lead attorney, calls the DCF filing "political arm-twisting" and told the Times that previous investigations of abuse have turned up nothing.