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Battle over Schiavo starts anew in books

By CURTIS KRUEGER
Published February 6, 2006

On March 27, a year to the week after Schiavo's death, the publisher, Dutton, plans a nationwide release of a book by Michael Schiavo, her husband. The next day, Warner Books plans to release a book her mother, father, sister and brother.

It means the two sides whose life-or-death debate stretched from a Pinellas County courtroom to the halls of Congress, the U.S. Supreme Court and the Vatican will once again face off. This time they'll tell personal stories about their lives with Terri, and their beliefs about how she should have been treated.

Both books are likely to generate nationwide media attention, with television shows such as Dateline and Today already lining up for interviews. And other voices are about to join in.

David C. Gibbs III, attorney for Bob and Mary Schindler, Terri's parents, is writing a book to be released in August. A book on Terri Schiavo edited by three bioethicists also is scheduled for release early next month. These follow at least four other already published books, including one by former O.J. Simpson case detective Mark Fuhrman and another by an attorney who assisted Michael Schiavo's legal team.

The new books have not yet been available for review, but Gibbs said he knows the Schindlers "would like to communicate the profound respect and love they had for their daughter and sister Terri and ... how terribly wrong it is to dehydrate and kill people as was done to Terri. In a sense, through their pain, they're hoping that no other family lives through the nightmare they endured."

A blurb on the cover of Michael Schiavo's book, which was written with author Michael Hirsh and is called Terri: The Truth, gives a hint of its tone:

A religious zealot offered $250,000 to anyone who would kill me. My two babies were threatened with death. I was condemned by the president, the majority leaders of the House and Senate, the governor of Florida, the pope, and the right-wing media, all because I was doing what Terri - the woman I loved - wanted. I didn't respond to their attacks. I didn't confront their lies. Until now...

George Felos, longtime attorney for Michael Schiavo, said, "the books that have come out already are basically political books, people on one side or the other side trading more shots. As for Michael's book and the parents' book, I hope it's not just like a continuing of the exchanges of salvos."

Felos is the author of a previous book, Litigation as Spiritual Practice, and said he too is "exploring" the idea of writing about the Schiavo case.

"The book that I'd like to write, I hope would be something a little broader and healing," Felos said. "I think the underlying message of Terri Schiavo is death and dying is still taboo in this society."

Terri Schiavo suffered cardiac arrest in 1990 for an unknown reason, depriving her brain of oxygen for five minutes and causing brain damage. Most doctors diagnosed her as being in a persistent vegetative state. That diagnosis means that even though she could smile, grimace, and at times appear alert, she actually was not conscious and had no awareness of her surroundings.

But her parents and some doctors denied that she was in a persistent vegetative state. They believed that, while she was impaired, she did have awareness, and could react to such things as family visits.

Michael Schiavo went to court and won the right to have his wife's feeding tube removed, saying it reflected her wishes. But the move set off a series of legal maneuvers and legislation that involved state and federal appellate courts, the Florida Legislature, and Congress, and produced comments from the governor, the president and innumerable pundits and protesters.

In her final days, throngs of people stood vigil outside Terri Schiavo's Pinellas Park hospice and waited for news on last-minute legal machinations to prevent the removal of her feeding tube. She died March 31 at the age of 41.

Given the tumultuous history, Gibbs, the Schindler family attorney, said he wouldn't be surprised to hear of even more books being released.

"Terri's case is going to be the Roe vs. Wade of our generation and I think you're going to see books and commentaries," said Gibbs, whose book is to be titled Fighting for Dear Life: Inside the Terri Schiavo Story and the Life-and-Death-Battle in America.

Jimmy Franco, deputy publicity director for Warner Books, said "it's a story that's very important for the Schindlers to tell and share."

Franco said the books by Michael Schiavo and the Schindlers are likely coming out in the same week because it's close to the anniversary of her death.

"If people want to get the personal, family story they're going to come to ours. And other people are probably going to go to Michael's also."

The book A Life that Matters: The Legacy of Terri Schiavo - A Lesson For Us All is by Terri Schiavo's parents as well as her brother, Bobby Schindler, and sister, Suzanne Schindler Vitadamo.

Hirsh, who is helping write Michael Schiavo's book, referred questions to the publisher, which released short excerpts from the book about "Michael Schiavo's epic battle first to heal his wife and then to allow her wish to die with dignity."

The book also is expected to discuss his relationship with Jodi Centonze, with whom he has two children. The two were married last month.

On March 1, Prometheus Books is scheduled to release The Case of Terri Schiavo: Ethics at the End of Life, by bioethicists Arthur L. Caplan, James J. McCartney and Dominic A. Sisti, which also includes a foreword by Jay Wolfson, who was Terri Schiavo's court-appointed guardian ad litem. Caplan is a member of the National Advisory Board of the Poynter Institute, which owns the St. Petersburg Times.

Other books already released include Silent Witness: The Untold Story of Terri Schiavo's Death by Fuhrman; Terri's Story: The Court-Ordered Death of an American Woman by Diana Lynne of www.WorldNetDaily.com and Using Terri: The Religious Right's Conspiracy to Take Away Our Rights, by Jon B. Eisenberg, who was a member of Michael Schiavo's legal team.

[Last modified February 6, 2006, 18:04:03]