Mar 31, 2006 8:04 pm US/Eastern
DeFede: The Terri Shiavo Feud Continues
by Jim DeFede
(CBS4 News)
It was exactly one year ago today that Terri Schiavo died.
Her death came 13 days after her feeding tube was removed and more than 15 years after she had slipped into a persistent vegetative state.
Her case evoked strong emotions by those who argued she should be kept alive and by those who believed it was her desire and her right to die with some semblance of dignity.
Shamelessly, politicians injected themselves into this private affair, exploiting Terri's saga for their own benefit.
Ultimately it was the courts - including the United States Supreme Court, which had to step in and bring the charade that Terri's life had become to an end. On March 18, 2005 Terri's feeding tube was removed and on March 31st she was dead. A subsequent autopsy showed that her brain had shrunk to half its normal size. She possessed no understanding of her surroundings, no awareness of her condition.
Terri's death, however, did not end the debate nor the anger that grew between her husband, Michael Schiavo, and her parents, the Schindlers. Both Michael and the Schindlers sear with hatred for one another, and this week both sides published books arguing their point of view.
Michael Schiavo's is called: "Terri: The Truth."
The Schindlers book is called: "A Life That Matters."
Already we are seeing those familiar, albeit tired, faces making the rounds on the talk show circuit, picking at an emotional scab that apparently neither side wants to see healed.
I have no interest in reading either book. On the day that Terri died, I said a short prayer, a simple prayer. A prayer that Terri would finally find the peace in death that had escaped her in life.
Today, a year later, it remains my prayer, only now I add her parents and her husband to it. For the past decade their lives have been defined by this struggle and within it they have become caricatures of themselves.
The easiest thing for me or for anyone to do would be to tell them to move on, that Terri would want them to get on with their lives, but both sides seem trapped. A persistent agitated state, as it were.
But sadly there is no one who can free them. No judge to let them go. And no sign that their lives will ever get any better.
(© MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
Click to enlarge
I-Team: Tracking The Florida Stimulus Money Trail 
Stumble It!
