Terri Schiavo suffered a serious brain injury and died in 2005 after her feeding tube was removed

The B.C. Catholic
NORTH VANCOUVER



Family members of a woman who starved to death 12 years ago are still raising the alarm about what they call a “deteriorating” health-care system and culture.

“What happened to Terri is happening every single day,” Bobby Schindler told 130 people at “The View” event venue in North Vancouver Sept. 29.

His sister, Florida resident Terri Shiavo, gained international attention after she suffered a serious brain injury in 1990 and her feeding tube was removed in 2005.

“People with cognitive disabilities who are not dying and are only receiving basic and ordinary care, food and water through a feeding tube because they are having difficulty swallowing, are being killed every day by having their food and water taken away from them.”

His sister, 26, inexplicably collapsed at home. Her brain went seven minutes without oxygen and she suffered severe but not terminal brain injury.

“Within the first year or so, when she was getting aggressive rehabilitation and therapy, she was starting to respond and communicate,” Schindler said.

Terri’s husband, Michael Schiavo, was responsible for decisions about her health care. In 1997 he officially petitioned the courts to have her food and water removed. Some argued she was in a vegetative state.

“My family’s only position was: ‘Michael, take whatever you want, just give Terri back to us,'” Schindler said.

Because of conflicts of interest, including more than $1 million in Terri’s trust fund and the fact that Michael had begun dating another woman, “We didn’t think there would be any judge in the world that would side with Michael.”

They went to court in 2000. After a week-long trial, the judge gave permission to remove Terri’s food and water.

What came next was a five-year legal battle and “tsunami of media attention” that sounded all the way to the Vatican.

The family did not win the fight to take over Terri’s medical care. On, March 18, 2005, her feeding tube was removed and she died of starvation and dehydration 13 days later.

“If you saw what was happening to her, it was insanity. It’s what nightmares are made of.” Terri, deprived of food and water for nearly two weeks, looked “tragically similar” to images of Auschwitz victims, he said.

After her death, the family launched the Terri Schiavo Life and Hope Network, and has since reached out to 1,000 families also fighting legal battles to continue feeding and hydrating their loved ones.

“It wasn’t that long ago where the thought of starving and dehydrating a cognitively disabled person to death would have been thought of as barbaric. In fact, if we do it even to this day to animals, it’s a felony crime in the United States.”

“I don’t understand how we got to a point that we accept this and allow it.”

Schindler was the guest speaker at LifeCanada’s first annual fundraiser, held in North Vancouver Sept. 29. The event raised nearly $40,000 for the educational pro-life organization.

“There’s a lot of misplaced compassion in our culture,” said director Natalie Sonnen.

Her organization is working on a curriculum that would help students “connect the intellect and heart” and understand the fundamental principles behind pro-life views concerning abortion and euthanasia.

LifeCanada, with 80 member groups across Canada, also runs various media campaigns, polls, and a national magazine.

“There is a tremendous need for education and outreach on all issues involving human life at all its stages,” said Monica Roddis, a member of LifeCanada’s board of directors for over 10 years.

“Our great concern for the tiniest in the mother’s womb is matched equally by our concern for those at the end of life’s journey.”