On the July 14 edition of KDBI's Colorado Inside Out, Rocky Mountain News media critic and Independence Institute research director Dave Kopel called Michael Schiavo, former husband of the late Terri Schiavo, a “scumbag.” Kopel asserted that “after [Michael Schiavo received] the money [from a malpractice lawsuit] he won in court, years later after she first initially went into that coma, he suddenly remembers she'd always wanted to die of dehydration.”
Kopel was referring to a $1 million medical malpractice settlement won by Michael Schiavo in 1992. A March 25, 2005, USA Today article reported that "[b]y February 1993, Schiavo had the money from the lawsuit." According to a timeline in the March 27, 2005, issue of Time magazine, it was not until 1994 that Schiavo consulted with doctors and “conclude[d] that his wife [would] not recover” and then “authorize[d] a do-not-resuscitate order in case of a heart attack.” Moreover, Michael Schiavo did not file a court petition to actually remove his wife's life support until 1998, five years after he had received the settlement money.
In March 2005, Michael Schiavo also turned down a $1 million offer from San Diego businessman Robert Herring to turn over legal guardianship of Terri Schiavo to her parents. Michael Schiavo's lawyer called the offer “offensive” and said that a number of similar offers had been made to Michael Schiavo, who rejected them all because "[t]here is no amount of money anyone can offer that will cause him to turn his back on his wife."
Michael Schiavo was in Colorado on July 12 to raise money for Democratic candidates and to deliver a letter to Rep. Marilyn Musgrave (R-Loveland) expressing offense at Musgrave's statement on the floor of the House of Representatives on March 20, 2005, in which she said: “When we talk about a permanent vegetative state, I am offended by that. Terri smiles and acknowledges the people that love her when they come to see her. She cries when they leave. How heartless are we to call somebody like Terri Schiavo a vegetable? What are we thinking?”
According to a July 13 article in the Fort Collins Coloradoan, Michael Schiavo said that “Musgrave 'had no clue' about Terri Schiavo's medical condition” when she made her statement on the House floor, and noted that “his wife's autopsy showed her brain was half the size of a normal woman her age.”
Terri Schiavo was put on life support in 1990 after collapsing from an undetermined cause, which caused irreversible brain damage and left her in a permanent vegetative state, according to her doctors. Schiavo and his wife's parents were engaged in a bitter and widely publicized battle over continuing her life support. Terri Schiavo died March 31, 2005, 13 days after her feeding tube was removed. In a June 16, 2005, article about Terri Schiavo's autopsy report, the Los Angeles Times reported that "[d]uring Terri Schiavo's final days, when her fervent supporters said she was alert, responsive and trying to speak, she was massively and irreversibly brain-damaged, blind and oblivious to what surrounded her." The Times further reported that "[i]ndependent medical specialists" said the autopsy report was “in line with the prevailing consensus among neurologists that Schiavo had fallen into a persistent vegetative state brought on by lack of oxygen, causing brain cells to die.”
From the July 14 edition of KBDI's Colorado Inside Out:
KOPEL: Putting aside the politics of the Schiavo issue. This is the guy who, when he was in court trying to collect all this lawsuit money, told about loving his wife and taking care of her in sickness and in health. He trained himself to be a licensed nurse. Then, after the money, after he's won his case in court, years later after she first initially went into that coma, he suddenly remembers she'd always wanted to die of dehydration. Whether or not Congress should have done something or not, he is a scumbag.
