a family dialogue, a national dialogue and perhaps a worldwide dialogue. |
Each of us -- and the Florida Supreme Court has said this -- has a right to control our own body. We have a fundamental right to make our own medical treatment choices, and the state doesn't have a right to override our wishes. |
he was obviously delighted and very grateful to Judge Baird and hopeful that with the momentum of this decision that Terri's rights can be carried out. |
I am told that it was an emotional occasion. Prayers were said at the time, and the feeding tube was disconnected. Mr. Schiavo currently is with his wife, at her bedside. |
I know very close friends, when they found out that each of them had voted for the other person, had to say to themselves, 'We better not talk about that because it might jeopardize our friendship,' ... How deeply those divisions are in our country. I hope the considerations of the Schiavo case as it ensues will not just more deeply divide, but there's some healing to be found there. |
is not brain dead but she has no consciousness, she has no thought, she has no cognition, she has no awareness and she never will. |
It was a very emotional moment for many of us there. |
it was apparent that it was the final moments for Mrs. Schiavo. |
It's our understanding that the Schindlers spent some time with Terri's body. They were free to spend as much time as they chose with her body. After they left, the hospice workers bathed Terri's body, and Mr. Schiavo and all of us went back in to spend some more time. |
Mr. Schiavo's overriding concern was Mrs. Schiavo has a right and had a right to die with dignity and die in peace. She had a right to have her last and final moments on this Earth be experienced by a spirit of love and not of acrimony. |
Mrs. Schiavo died a calm, peaceful and gentle death. |
She said, 'I don't want to be kept alive artificially -- no tubes for me. I want to go when my time comes. Take the tubes and everything out.' |
Terri is in a persistent vegetative state and the court found as such, ... There are no treatments or therapies that can help her and the judge's ruling supports that position. |
Terri was almost a week into her death process, ... The doctors have said that introducing hydration and nutrition artificially, she may have already suffered massive organ failure and kidney damage. What this may have done is just prolonged her death process. |
Terri's eyes do look more sunken, ... And her breathing was a little on the rapid side. |