Florida Disabled Woman in Family Legal Battle Like Terri Schiavo Dies
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
September 21, 2008
Okeechobee, FL (LifeNews.com) — A Florida woman who was the center of a family legal battle in the same way as Terri Schiavo has died. The case involved 57-year-old Karen Weber, who doctors claim had been in a partial vegetative state since December, when she suffered a stroke.
The battle pitted the disabled woman’s husband against her family in a fight over whether or not to take her life. It was similar to the Schiavo case, which saw her family fight to prevent her husband from subjecting her to a painful starvation and dehydration death.
Weber did not have a living will or other advanced directive spelling out the kind of medical care she would like should she become unable to make her own medical decisions.
Before her death, she was on a feeding tube and her husband Raymond wanted to end her life by removing that and starving her to death. Karen’s mother, Martha Tatro, was hoping to get a court to approve her request to prevent him from taking his wife’s life.
The Tatro family issued a statement about Karen’s death, saying: “Karen Weber’s heavenly father called her home to her eternal reward. Her family knows she is in a better place. We look forward to meeting up with her again someday, but until then, she will be greatly missed as she was dearly loved by all of us."
A judge had issued an injunction prohibiting the feeding tube’s removal as the case moved through the courts.
Weber died in the hospital Wednesday night, said Tatro’s attorney, Joseph Rodowicz.
"It’s moot now," Rodowicz told the Associated Press. "It’s not good news. It just happened to be her time."
“I’ve told her she could live out the rest of her life and she would never have to worry about anything and I will protect her," Tatro said before her death. “I’m her mother and her husband filed a thing to take her life.”
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