Opinion:
Schiavo men reek of abuse
Teresa Marie Schiavo died last Thursday after being withheld food and water for nearly two weeks because her parents Bob and Mary Schindler lost a protracted legal fight with Terri’s husband Michael Schiavo.
I watched this situation closely as it unfolded for the past several weeks, listening to hours of radio programming and reading articles on the Internet including actual court documents. Alternately, I have felt angry, frustrated, helpless and hopeless watching the Schindler family try to save their daughter’s life only to join the nation watch as they lost her.
Since I began examining the Schiavo case I have smelled something very fishy emanating from Florida. The stench seems to be coming from three men: Michael Schiavo, Judge George Greer and Michael Schiavo’s attorney, George Felos.
Michael Schiavo reeks of opportunism, greed and possibly even criminal behavior. Perhaps coincidence, but perhaps more - he was the only person with Terri when she collapsed in 1990 depriving her brain of oxygen and becoming severely brain damaged. He has said that Terri had an eating disorder, which has not been confirmed by anyone else; that their marriage was happy at the time, which has been disputed by family and friends; and only sought to have Terri’s feeding tube removed after he won more than a million dollars in malpractice suits and was involved with another woman according to reports on worldnetdaily.com, the testimony of guardian ad litem, Richard L. Pearse Jr. and Michael Schiavo’s statements in court and to the press.
A 1991 bone scan, available on the Christian Communication Network site and FreeRepublic.com, taken about a year after Terri’s collapse, showed evidence of a broken back, several broken ribs, two broken knees and ankles and a broken femur. These seem to indicate more serious injuries from about the time of Terri’s collapse than just falling in her house. One doctor quoted in the Free Republic article said the injuries would be more consistent with a car accident.
Michael Schiavo is a controlling man who micromanaged Terri’s care from the outset. Nurse Carla Sauer Iyer, one of Terri’s nurses, swore in court that her “initial training there consisted solely of the instruction, ‘Do what Michael Schiavo tells you or you will be terminated.’ ” She said he was overbearing, menacing and intimidating to most of the staff and would not allow any therapy to be done, even “range of motion” exercises.
Michael Schiavo and his attorney have insisted that Terri Schiavo was incapable of swallowing her own food or water, that she cannot speak and that all of her movements and sounds are mere reflexes. Both Terri’s family, Bob and Mary Schindler, and nurses, like Iyer, have said that these statements are incorrect.
“Terri spoke on a regular basis while in my presence...‘Help me’ was, in fact one of her most frequent utterances,” Iyer testified. Terri also moved her arms and indicated needs for pain medication and diaper changes, but all of Iyer’s positive notes would be removed from the charts by the next shift she said in the affidavit.
Iyer said for years and recently on radio shows like “The Savage Nation” that her job was terminated after she went to the police because she found needle marks on Terri’s body and an insulin vial in the garbage after leaving her alone with Michael Schiavo. Two other nurses, Heidi Law and Carolyn Johnson, have also backed up Iyer’s claims. Their statements are available on Newsmax.com and other web sites.
The truth is that Michael Schiavo knew he would gain hundreds of thousands of dollars inheriting her entire estate when Terri died and he had a girlfriend he wanted to marry. Despite this, the courts let him retain custody of Terri, accepted his testimony that she would want to die and ordered her feeding tube removed.
That brings me to the second man in the Schiavo ordeal: Judge George Greer of Florida’s Sixth Judicia Circuit court. Greer’s stench is that of an arrogant and corrupt judge. Greer threw out the testimony of Terri’s second guardian ad litem, Richard L. Pearse Jr., who pointed out the conflict of interest on Michael Schiavo’s part and well as the coincidental timing of saying Terri “would not want to live like this” shortly after amassing over a million dollars from malpractice suits. Greer also prevented tests from being done on Terri as medical technology improved through the years.
Ann Coulter, Phyllis Schlafly and many others who make a living researching and writing about critical moral, social and political issues have pointed out that Greer ignored doctors and other people’s testimony that was favorable to Terri’s right to live, consistently denied appeals by Terri’s family, sometimes without giving reasons, and has refused to suspect philanderer Michael Schiavo of anything but love for his brain-damaged wife. That is absurd. Any person with a brain can look at the bare facts and say Michael Schiavo has motivation to get rid of Terri. So what’s the deal? How can a judge get things so very wrong?
Schlafly wrote in Human Events online edition that Greer has been asked to recuse himself five times and would not step down and “has ruled like a dictator over Terri, determined to ensure her death. Among numerous reasons Greer was asked to recuse himself, were his acting as Terri’s guardian ad litem against Florida law and a number of alleged conversations about the case as it was ongoing according to EmpireJournal.com. Judges are forbidden to discuss the case with other people because they could be influenced in some way.
There is no certain answer to the basis of Greer’s motivation to kill Terri, although campaign contributions from George Felos’s law firm, Felos and Felos, and other attorney’s working on the Schiavo case probably did not hurt it in any way. A list of contributions is available on the Empire Journal site, which also details a number of other possible acts of judicial misconduct by Greer. Felos’ contribution has also been detailed by a number of Internet news articles.
Despite claims that the Schindler’s had every opportunity and that many courts have examined the case, they have all relied on the decisions of Greer. In addition to possible corruption on Greer’s part, other Florida agencies including police ignored claims of abuse by Michael Schiavo and did not fully investigate the possibility that he was involved in the cause of Terri’s collapse.
The third man is George Felos whose odor is derived from a personal ideological bias. Felos, Michael Schiavo’s attorney, is a self-proclaimed euthanasia proponent and has at least one book written on the subject. He has spoken at events for what used to be called the "Hemlock Society," now "End of Life Choices," which promotes euthanasia.
His comments during the time that Terri was dying of thirst were such ridiculous pro-death propaganda that I wanted to gag. At televised press conferences, Felos continually referred to Terri’s death with euphemisms like the “dying process,” calling it “calm, peaceful and gentle.” His words were either blatant lies, or those of a man totally enamored with death. If it is that Felos is so in love with dying, I wish he would have found a more constructive outlet than helping and praising the “dying process” of Terri Schiavo. He also made reference to Terri’s dying with dignity the way she would have wanted. Tell me, is there anyone left on the planet who can believe that the Kevorkian-like attorney was sincere?
One World Net Daily article quoted another person who saw part of Terri’s “dying process.” Frank Parone said Terri was “obviously in deep distress and suffering.” That sounds slightly more on target since Terri had been dehydrating to death for nearly two weeks.
All in all, this seven-year battle for Terri Schiavo’s life stinks of horrendous injustice for the one person whose life depended on the fairness of the court system and who could not defend herself. Terri Schiavo died because of these three men and the complicity of too many others to mention. Justice was not served and although the battle is over, it still smells fishy.