Another Schiavo Skirmish

By Clayton Neuman

Terri Schiavo died last March 31 after her husband Michael, over the anguished protests of her parents and siblings, won the right to remove her feeding tube. The bitter battle--which played out on TV and drew in Congress, the President, even the Pope--is set to resume in bookstores this week as both Michael Schiavo and Terri's family release competing memoirs ahead of the first anniversary of her death.

In Terri: The Truth, Michael--who after Terri's death married the mother of his two children and now works as a nurse in a Florida county prison-- reiterates the arguments he made last year: Terri would not have wanted artificial life support; she was beyond recovery; she felt no pain. He remains angry at his former in-laws. "They sunk so deep," he says. "They said I strangled Terri, I abused Terri. I have the medical examiner's report that says there's no abuse." Michael knows people will view his book as an attempt to settle scores but says, "It is not an attack on Terri's parents. It's just the truth of what happened."

In their book, A Life That Matters, Terri's parents and siblings disagree. The Schindlers blame Michael for her death and slam U.S. courts for allowing the removal of her feeding tube, equating that with the inhumanity of Nazi Germany. "Terri was killed for no reason," says her sister Suzanne.

Michael says telling his story has been healing--but again, Terri's family disagrees. "There will never be closure," says her father Robert. The only thing the two sides apparently agree on is that reconciliation seems impossible. "That bridge," says Michael, "is burned."