ASSOCIATED PRESS (April 30, 2001)
DUNEDIN, Fla. (AP) — A man seeking to end the life of his comatose wife against the wishes of her parents asked for a court order Monday that would allow him to again cut off her food and water.
Michael Schiavo asked the 2nd District Court of Appeals to lift a lower court’s injunction that allowed nutrition to be given to Terri Schiavo last week at the request of her parents.
“My wife Theresa is entitled to die with dignity,” Michael Schiavo said in a statement read by his attorney, George Felos. “This heinous act is an affront to her and is a violation of her most sacred rights of liberty.”
Terri Schiavo, 37, is in a hospice near St. Petersburg. She slipped into a coma in 1990 following a heart attack as a result of a potassium imbalance.
Her husband has maintained that she did not want to be kept alive artificially.
Care was cut off last Tuesday but resumed on Friday after the injunction was granted at the request of Terri Schiavo’s parents, Robert and Mary Schindler. The couple say their daughter isn’t brain dead and filed a lawsuit accusing Michael Schiavo of lying about her wishes so he could inherit her money.
The suit cites statements from Cynthia Brashers Shook, a former girlfriend of Michael Schiavo. The Schindlers’ attorneys argued that Shook remembers Michael Schiavo being uncertain of his wife’s wishes, but Felos said her comments applied only to uncertainty over where Terri Schiavo should be cared for.
In Monday’s court filing, Felos accused the couple of violating their daughter’s dignity with a “fraudulent and malicious” effort.