Post by IAMCAPER on Apr 2, 2005 6:55:12 GMT -4
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Terri Schiavo's husband and her parents made plans on Friday for separate memorial services, as the family's bitter division over her fate endured beyond the brain-damaged Florida woman's death.
Schiavo, center of a wrenching legal dispute that drew in the U.S. Congress and President Bush, died on Thursday, 13 days after her feeding tube was removed under order from a state court.
Forensic experts performed an autopsy on the 41-year-old woman's body at the district medical examiner's office in Largo, Florida, and said in a statement the body was ready to be to released.
"The medical examiner will not comment on when the remains will be physically released," William Pellan, the director of Forensic Investigations said. He said the final results of the autopsy might not be available for "several weeks."
The long legal wrangle over Schiavo's fate wound its way through countless appeals in state and federal courts -- and it took a court order to rule that as her legal guardian, husband Michael Schiavo could cremate her body, followed by burial of the ashes in his home state, Pennsylvania.
The parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, fought the courts and their son-in-law to keep their daughter alive and wanted to bury her in Florida without cremation. They planned a memorial service in the St. Petersburg, Florida, area next week.
Schiavo died five years after a state court first ruled on the side of Michael Schiavo that she fell into a persistent vegetative state after a cardiac arrest in 1990, and would not have wanted to live.
The Schindlers, believing that their daughter responded to them and had a chance of improving with treatment, fought to prolong her life in a struggle taken up by conservative Christians, anti-abortion and disabled rights activists.
The Republican-controlled Congress passed a hurried law last month, which Bush interrupted a vacation to sign, to try to circumvent state courts and push the case into federal courts. But the effort failed in courts and polls showed it was unpopular among most Americans.
Circuit Judge George Greer, the judge who long presided over the case, ruled on Tuesday against an appeal from the parents to be allowed to bury their daughter in Florida.
"Michael Schiavo, as the ward's spouse and as guardian ... is entitled to make decisions regarding disposition of the ward's remains after her death," Greer said in his order.
Greer also ruled that Schiavo would have to inform the Schindlers of any memorial services and the location of the cemetery, but the order did not make clear whether he would have to tell them before the burial or services took place.
Schiavo had requested an autopsy to show the extent of the brain damage his wife suffered. His lawyer, George Felos, said on Monday this was partly to dispel criticism that in seeking a cremation he was trying to hide something.
The medical examiner's office said it was its decision, not that of any relative, to conduct the autopsy.
Terri Schiavo's parents and brother and sister implicitly rebuked Michael Schiavo in a statement on Thursday, saying she was at rest "after these recent years of neglect at the hands of those who were supposed to protect and care for her."
Michael Schiavo's brothers defended him.
"These people have done nothing but twist and turn and spin this thing. ... They've made my brother out to be a demon, vilified as a murderer," Michael Schiavo's brother, Brian Schiavo, told CNN's "Larry King Live" on Thursday evening.
Another Schiavo brother, Scott, was asked whether there could be eventual peace between the families. He replied, "I think if the Schindlers apologize to him there could be."
Schiavo, center of a wrenching legal dispute that drew in the U.S. Congress and President Bush, died on Thursday, 13 days after her feeding tube was removed under order from a state court.
Forensic experts performed an autopsy on the 41-year-old woman's body at the district medical examiner's office in Largo, Florida, and said in a statement the body was ready to be to released.
"The medical examiner will not comment on when the remains will be physically released," William Pellan, the director of Forensic Investigations said. He said the final results of the autopsy might not be available for "several weeks."
The long legal wrangle over Schiavo's fate wound its way through countless appeals in state and federal courts -- and it took a court order to rule that as her legal guardian, husband Michael Schiavo could cremate her body, followed by burial of the ashes in his home state, Pennsylvania.
The parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, fought the courts and their son-in-law to keep their daughter alive and wanted to bury her in Florida without cremation. They planned a memorial service in the St. Petersburg, Florida, area next week.
Schiavo died five years after a state court first ruled on the side of Michael Schiavo that she fell into a persistent vegetative state after a cardiac arrest in 1990, and would not have wanted to live.
The Schindlers, believing that their daughter responded to them and had a chance of improving with treatment, fought to prolong her life in a struggle taken up by conservative Christians, anti-abortion and disabled rights activists.
The Republican-controlled Congress passed a hurried law last month, which Bush interrupted a vacation to sign, to try to circumvent state courts and push the case into federal courts. But the effort failed in courts and polls showed it was unpopular among most Americans.
Circuit Judge George Greer, the judge who long presided over the case, ruled on Tuesday against an appeal from the parents to be allowed to bury their daughter in Florida.
"Michael Schiavo, as the ward's spouse and as guardian ... is entitled to make decisions regarding disposition of the ward's remains after her death," Greer said in his order.
Greer also ruled that Schiavo would have to inform the Schindlers of any memorial services and the location of the cemetery, but the order did not make clear whether he would have to tell them before the burial or services took place.
Schiavo had requested an autopsy to show the extent of the brain damage his wife suffered. His lawyer, George Felos, said on Monday this was partly to dispel criticism that in seeking a cremation he was trying to hide something.
The medical examiner's office said it was its decision, not that of any relative, to conduct the autopsy.
Terri Schiavo's parents and brother and sister implicitly rebuked Michael Schiavo in a statement on Thursday, saying she was at rest "after these recent years of neglect at the hands of those who were supposed to protect and care for her."
Michael Schiavo's brothers defended him.
"These people have done nothing but twist and turn and spin this thing. ... They've made my brother out to be a demon, vilified as a murderer," Michael Schiavo's brother, Brian Schiavo, told CNN's "Larry King Live" on Thursday evening.
Another Schiavo brother, Scott, was asked whether there could be eventual peace between the families. He replied, "I think if the Schindlers apologize to him there could be."