Terri Schiavo 10 Years Later: Her Parents Still Await Apology

On the tenth anniversary of Terri Schiavo's death, March 31, 2005, her family hopes her husband, Michael Schiavo, will one day repent for having her taken off life support.

"I pray that Michael will one day admit that what he did was wrong," Terri's brother, Bobby Schindler, 50, told the New York Daily News this week.

Schindler said that while his sister could not speak, she could breathe on her own. Taking away her feeding tube on March 18, 2005, caused her to slowly starve to death over the course of two weeks.

"People have the impression that Terri was on machines. They think she was dying," he said. "We wanted to take care of her. She was a living human being."

Schindler's parents, Robert and Mary Schindler, spent years fighting to keep their daughter alive, however the U.S. Supreme Court ultimately ruled in favor of Michael Schiavo, her legal guardian.

Michael said his wife never wanted to be kept alive with tubes, and pointed out that several doctors had diagnosed her as being in a persistent vegetative state since she collapsed at their home in 1990 at the age of 26. The Schindlers said that their daughter was conscious, responded to stimuli, and released video to the public of them interacting with her to tell their side of the story.

"I don't think that Terri would ever, ever, request that she be starved or dehydrated to death," said Bobby. "That's quite different from being stuck on machines."

The Schindlers fought their way through 14 appeals and five federal lawsuits total, and along the way gained the support of Pope John Paul II, President George W. Bush, and Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.

At the same time, Michael Schiavo moved on, and got engaged to Jodi Centonze, a woman he met in a dentist's office.

Bobby Schindler said that the years-long battles over his sister's custody and welfare took a heavy toll on his parents. His father died in 2009 at the age of 71.

"It essentially killed my dad," he said. "My dad could never live with the fact that he wasn't able to stop his daughter from being killed in that way."

Related Stories:

• Terri Schiavo Foundation Helping Brain Dead Jahi McMath
  
• In Iowa, Jeb Bush May Have to Explain His Loss in Schiavo Case
  
• 5 Years After Schiavo, Few Make End-Of-Life Plans