TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Terri Schiavo’s parents asked a judge yesterday to allow the brain-damaged woman to divorce her husband, accusing him of adultery and not acting in his wife’s best interests during the 15 years in which she has been incapacitated.
It was one of a flurry of 11 motions filed by Bob and Mary Schindler, who have less than three weeks to find a way to keep their daughter alive.
Her parents have fought efforts by Michael Schiavo to remove his wife’s feeding tube and starve her to death, but Pinellas Circuit Court Judge George Greer ruled that Mr. Schiavo can have her feeding tube removed on March 18.
The Schindlers’ attorney, David Gibbs, said Judge Greer had indicated he will not hear the divorce request and five of the other motions filed yesterday, but that only means that the matters are now on their way to being appealed.
Appearing at a rally in Jacksonville, the Schindlers called on Gov. Jeb Bush to look into the circumstances that led to their daughter’s 1990 collapse and asked Attorney General Charlie Crist to investigate whether Mrs. Schiavo’s civil rights have been violated.
“We have filed divorce proceedings because of [Mr. Schiavo’s] total disregard for Terri as his wife,” Mr. Schindler said. “He is married to Terri, but he is living with another woman and he has two children by her. It has become quite obvious that his priorities are not in Terri’s best interest.”
“Remaining married to him is an embarrassment,” Mr. Gibbs said.
Mr. Schiavo’s attorney, George Felos, called the new motions little more than an attempt to clog the case with further delays.
Mr. Felos has said even if Mr. Schiavo were to divorce his wife, any new guardian would be obligated to remove Mrs. Schiavo’s feeding tube because the court has ruled it is her wish not to be kept alive artificially.
“I think everyone knows the parents are going to try anything, including throwing in the kitchen sink, to frustrate the court’s final judgment and Terri’s wishes,” Mr. Felos said.
Mr. Schiavo said his wife once told him, though he has provided no evidence, that she never wanted to be kept alive artificially.
Other motions by the Schindlers ask that some reporters be allowed to see Mrs. Schiavo’s interactions with her parents, since they contend she responds to them; that they be allowed to take pictures with her before she dies and that those photos not become Mr. Schiavo’s property, as a court order now requires; that she be allowed to die at home; and that they be allowed to bury her rather than have her cremated, as her husband has planned.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.