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Terri Schiavo, 41, Dies
Aired March 31, 2005 - 13:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is with great sadness that it's been reported to us that Terri Schiavo has passed away.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MILES O'BRIEN, CO-HOST: Life ends for a brain-damaged woman at the center of a family battle that turned into a national legal, political, and religious fight.
From the CNN Center, I'm Miles O'Brien.
CAROL LIN, CO-HOST: And I'm Carol Lin in for Kyra Phillips. We have special coverage of the death of Terri Schiavo on CNN's LIVE FROM, which is starting right now.
O'BRIEN: A personal tragedy turned legal controversy, turned political, judicial, moral, ethical powder keg. Start to finish, the Terri Schiavo saga lasted 15 years. The finish coming, as you surely know, just after 9 this morning, 13 days after Schiavo's feeding tube was taken out, supposedly in accord with her own wishes.
In the end, it was personal again, if not entirely private, and today all sides are grieving.
Our coverage this hour begins with CNN's John Zarrella with a look back.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Terri Schiavo was 26 years old when her life and the lives of those who loved her changed forever. Heart failure stopped the flow of oxygen and left her severely brain damaged.
For the next 15 years, her parent, Bob and Mary Schindler, believing their daughter could be rehabilitated with therapy, fought to have her kept alive.
MARY SCHINDLER, TERRI SCHIAVO'S MOTHER: I've always thought there was hope. When I go in there, you know, and she responds to me, she knows I'm there.
ZARRELLA: Although Terri did not leave written instructions, Michael Schiavo insisted his wife made it clear she would never want to live on life support. MICHAEL SCHIAVO, TERRI SCHIAVO'S HUSBAND: She didn't want to be kept alive on anything artificial. She didn't want any tubes. She didn't want to be a burden to people. She's made that comment to me. She's made the comments to other people, also.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: On page 14 of the initial brief...
ZARRELLA: The battle over what was best for Terri went to state and federal court and through the appeals process. In nearly every instance, the court sided with her husband.
In the eyes of the court, a circuit court, Terri Schiavo was in a, quote, "persistent vegetative state." The court ruled there was no evidence that therapy would lead to any form of recovery.
In October 2003, Terri's feeding tube was removed. Outside the hospice, people who believed that rehabilitation should be given a chance, prayed.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We pray to the divine intercessor, almighty God.
ZARRELLA: The family, out of legal options, met with Governor Jeb Bush, asking him to intervene.
GOV. JEB BUSH (R), FLORIDA: I don't have the power to overrule a court decision.
ZARRELLA: Six days later, he got it. The Florida legislature passed Terri's Law, which allowed Bush to order the feeding tube reinserted. He did. Michael Schiavo immediately challenged the constitutionality of the law. It was ultimately ruled unconstitutional.
J. BUSH: In my heart I believe we did what was right, but I'm respectful of the Supreme Court's decision.
ZARRELLA: Terri's parents tried other strategies in state court. Those, too, failed. On Friday, March 18 of this year, her feeding tube was again removed. With time running out, the U.S. Congress stepped into the fray.
REP. TOM DELAY (R-TX), MAJORITY LEADER: A young woman in Florida is being dehydrated and starved to death.
ZARRELLA: Over the Palm Sunday weekend, Congress in short order passed and President Bush signed legislation giving the Florida federal court jurisdiction in the case. The courts all the way up to the Supreme Court refused to intervene.
With their daughter slowly dying, Bob and Mary Schindler kept vigil at the hospice, praying for a miracle. Perhaps it would come from the governor, the state legislature...
SCHINDLER: Please, senators, for the love of God, I'm begging you, don't let my daughter die of thirst. ZARRELLA: But one after the other, efforts failed. Terri Schiavo's life was defined by a bitter fight she had no control over. And the fight only ended when that, quote, pretty little girl with the big smile, as husband Michael called her, passed away.
John Zarrella, CNN, Pinellas Park, Florida.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LIN: Well, the man whose signature made a federal case of the Schiavo/Schindler dispute says the lessons to be learned extend far beyond one family.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Today millions of Americans are saddened by the death of Terri Schiavo. Laura and I extend or condolences to Terri Schiavo's families. I appreciate the example of grace and dignity they have displayed at a difficult time.
I urge all those who honor Terri Schiavo to continue to work to build a culture of life, where all Americans are welcomed and valued and protected, especially those who live at the mercy of others.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LIN: Now we are told that Michael Schiavo, the husband, was at his wife's bedside when she died, and Terri Schiavo's brother and sister were there just minutes earlier. Her parents were let in shortly after.
Visitation arrangements were only one source of bitterness making Terri Schiavo's condition all the more tragic. And now we get the very latest from CNN's Anderson Cooper, who's standing by in Pinellas Park.
Anderson, the description, frankly, that I gave didn't do justice to the drama that took place at the microphones. Clearly -- or is it so clear that there was an argument in the last minutes of Terri Schiavo's life as to who would be in the room?
ANDERSON COOPER, HOST, "ANDERSON COOPER 360": At this point it's really not clear exactly what happened in those -- that 15-minute -- that last half-hour time frame. There was a priest there for the Schindler family.
In the end, though, we found out from CNN's David Mattingly that Michael Schiavo was with Terri. She passed away at 9:05 Eastern Standard Time. Her life ended this morning, 9:05.
Her body has been taken already from the hospice. Two white vans arrived at the county coroner's office. A short time ago, Susan Candiotti was there bringing us reports. The gates opened. There were no protesters there. They had a police escort, two police motorcycles brought Terri Schiavo's body where an autopsy will be performed. As you know, Carol, Michael Schiavo has agreed in these last days and weeks to have Terri Schiavo autopsied. The Schindlers had wanted an autopsy all along. Michael Schiavo says he now will -- will grant that.
After the autopsy, her body will be cremated. The Schindlers, again, Carol, you talk about these points of contention. They don't see eye to eye on anything, except for having this autopsy now. She will be cremated. The Schindlers had wanted her body buried intact in the ground in Florida. Terri Schiavo, according to Michael Schiavo, will be cremated and returned to Pennsylvania, where they met, where they each were born.
CNN's David Mattingly was with a member of Michael Schiavo's new family, as his critics call it. David joins me now.
You were there when he received the phone call that Terri Schiavo died?
DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. I was standing right next to John Centonze. He is Michael Schiavo's future brother-in-law. He's been very close since Michael every since Michael and his sister have begun their relationship, which has been going on for 10 years now.
And when that phone call came in, you could clearly hear how shaken up he was. We're going to play that for you right now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN CENTONZE, JODI CENTONZE'S BROTHER: All right. All right, man. All right. Bye. Man, everybody's crying.
MATTINGLY: What did he say?
CENTONZE: Just crying. It's -- she got the call from Mike, and told her and she just broke down crying. So I guess she was bringing her daughter to school.
MATTINGLY: This is really affecting you. You're getting goosebumps on your arm.
CENTONZE: It's sad. It's really sad, but you know, I'm happy for Terri, but it's still sad all the way around. I know Mike is very upset. My sister's crying, so it's very emotional.
It's been a long hard fight, but I believe she's happy. Terri is probably happy now, you know, to be free, and not being, you know, shown all over TV. And you know, I would imagine, if that was me, I'd be very embarrassed, everybody looking at my picture laying there, can't speak to anybody. But it's going to be very hard for everybody right now.
MATTINGLY: Through this entire thing, what has been the toughest thing for your family to put up with? CENTONZE: Everybody getting in your face with false accusations and threats, and I'm sure it's not going to go away anytime soon. People just don't know the facts. People hear what they want to hear, you know, without ever being there or without ever seeing her. You know, it's a grapevine thing. One person says something, it just goes through and everybody takes it, you know, for fact, and that's -- that's not how it's been.
MATTINGLY: How do you believe Michael is handling this right now?
CENTONZE: Right now? He's probably beside himself right now. He's -- just from the phone call that I got, Michael is very emotional and he brother could hardly understand what he was saying. He was just in tears.
You know, it's been a long time coming, and even though reality is hitting him right now, it's hard. I mean, he truly loved that woman and, you know, to turn down millions of dollars shows you it wasn't about the money. You know, he swore that he would follow out what she wanted, and he did it, no matter what, no matter what everybody said, no matter how much everybody bad-mouthed him, he stood by her side to the end.
MATTINGLY: You never actually met her, did you?
CENTONZE: I've seen her. I've seen her and...
MATTINGLY: But not prior, not before her...
CENTONZE: Not before. Not when she was up and around, I never saw her.
MATTINGLY: And yet at her passing, I can tell you're very upset by it.
CENTONZE: It's -- I mean, I've seen and know so much about her and listened to all the stories that's Mike told me about, you know, things that they've done and what they wanted to do. I feel like I've known her for 15 years, you know? It's very hard.
MATTINGLY: What has his life been for the past week?
CENTONZE: His life's been hell, just -- I know a lot of things on TV he tries not to watch, because will bad mouth him. And he's like, you know, that's why he didn't want to go public with any of this, but it came to a point where he had no choice.
People can just call you so many names and bad-mouth you so much until you just can't take it anymore. And that's what this -- that's what this whole thing turned into. It was just a lot of publicity from the other side, and you can only take so much and you've got to stand up for yourself.
I mean, for the last few years, it's -- it's just been driving me crazy, not being able to speak out and say anything. But Mike just wanted it to be private. He thought, you know, nobody else should have any say-so in it, especially the -- you know, the government.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MATTINGLY: John Centonze telling me that Michael Schiavo was in the room at the time of Terri's passing, also saying that, based on information he had yesterday, he did not believe that Terri Schiavo would have lived through the day.
COOPER: And Michael Schiavo has been sleeping inside the hospice?
MATTINGLY: That's correct. They made special arrangements, we're told, by the family for him in the hospice. He had a special room there, not in the normal residential area where some families are allowed to stay, apparently a security measure so people wouldn't see him coming and going.
COOPER: And their -- you mentioned that he's been -- they've been getting threats.
MATTINGLY: They've been getting threats by mail. They've been getting threats by phone. There's been almost a nonstop police presence in the Schiavo's neighborhood, and you hear him saying they don't think that's going to stop anytime soon.
COOPER: All right. David Mattingly. The anger, the division continues here in Pinellas Park, Florida. Let's go back to Miles O'Brien in Atlanta -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: Thank you very much, Anderson.
To judge from the court rulings -- and there were lots of court rulings -- the Schiavo matter really wasn't terribly complicated. Her condition was debatable, but her husband's standing as guardian, mostly not. And his assertion -- assertion of her wishes was consistently upheld, even in the face of very high-powered opposition. And that is an important legal point.
CNN's senior legal analyst, Jeffrey Toobin, joining us with more on all this.
Jeff, there's so much politicization. It has been politicized in so many ways: the Supreme Court, the White House, the U.S. Congress, the state house in Tallahassee, on and on it goes.
Let's try to boil it down to just the legal case here. And the legal case was no one really ever disputed that Terri Schiavo said -- didn't write down, but at least said to her husband and others that she would not want to live that way.
JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: And that's right. And that's what courts struggle to do when there is an absence of clear instructions, is figure out what the person would have wanted to do.
And if there is any positive result from this terribly sad story, is that it has sent thousands of Americans, and perhaps even millions of them, to write wills, to write down what their wishes are, who should make the decisions about their care, about feeding, about pain medication, about the withdrawal of all of that. Living wills are -- people are writing them more and more, and if people do, they avoid these kinds of fights.
O'BRIEN: And a living will is something you have to -- you don't write it and put it in a safe-deposit box. You also need to talk to your loved ones about all this. It's very important to have a verbal as well as a written record and also constantly update that living will, isn't it?
TOOBIN: That's right. And you know, it is not just for old people, obviously, as this case makes clear. You know, most people think of living wills in terms of people toward of end of their lives, but of course as we all know, Terri Schiavo was 26 years old when shy was struck by this terrible cardiac arrest and has spent the -- the next 15 years in -- in suspended animation.
Everybody should -- should write those things down. It's not a happy topic. It's not something people want for spend much time thinking about, but the alternative is the nightmare that this family went through, and that clearly is worse.
O'BRIEN: I think it's probably true to say that if you're younger, it's that much more important, because a healthy body will endure in this state for quite some time. And this is the case in point of that.
Let's -- even at the end, with all those 11th hour appeals, right on up to the Supreme Court, I never saw anything that really went back to the heart of the matter, questioning the evidence of the witnesses who heard Terri Schiavo speak. Did you see anything along those lines?
TOOBIN: No, and I think that's one reason why the Supreme Court consistently refused to get involved. Six times this case went to the Supreme Court, four times in the last month, and each time the Supreme Court said, "We're not getting involved," because at its core, this case was about the individual facts of the case, judges determining what did Terri Schiavo want.
And every judge who looked at the facts of this case said, "We think that Terri Schiavo would want this feeding tube removed." That factual finding is not the kind of thing appeals courts tend to overturn. They overturn legal rulings, whether the wrong law was applied, but the U.S. Supreme Court does not sit in review of individual factual determinations. They only rule on law. This was not, at its core, as you point out, a complicated or apparently even difficult legal issue.
O'BRIEN: All right. So going forward here, undoubtedly there will be people out there who are in this very predicament in the future. Does the Terri Schiavo case -- it might change things by way of perception. It might change things politically. But does it change? Has the law changed one iota through all this? TOOBIN: Well, I think in one profound way it has. And I think the real important legal implication of this case is what Congress did two weeks ago, because that was really extraordinary. You know, before Congress got involved, this was a complicated long case, but legally, as you point out, it wasn't all that unusual.
But when you have the United States Congress pass a law directed at a single family's situation, and essentially ordering a federal court to get involved and ignore all that went before, if that becomes a precedent, if Congress and state legislatures start to do that more often, that will be something that is deeply legally controversial, as we saw in yesterday's opinion from a very conservative judge on the 11th Circuit, saying this was really out of bounds. That is something I think that we can look forward to as a major legal controversy in the future.
O'BRIEN: So -- so really the last chapter legally has not been written yet?
TOOBIN: By no means, and I think one of the peculiarities of this law is that it passed with overwhelming support in the Congress, and President Bush, you know, flew home in the middle of the night to sign it. But in the two weeks subsequent, there has been quite a negative reaction, if polls are to be believed. So I don't know how Congress feels about what it did and whether they will rush back into doing this again.
I think it's left a very uncertain political and legal legacy, but that just goes to your point that it's not clear what that legacy will be.
O'BRIEN: Jeff Toobin, our legal analyst, thanks as always for boiling it down for us. We appreciate it.
TOOBIN: OK.
O'BRIEN: The right to live, the right to die. You have another opportunity to speak out on this issue tonight. Join Larry King as he moderates a live three-hour national conversation. Along with him, Anderson Cooper, Paula Zahn, Aaron Brown, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Nancy Grace, and a host of others. That's tonight, 8 Eastern. Watch "LIFE AND DEATH: AMERICA SPEAKS OUT." You'll see that only here on CNN.
LIN: And of course, we're covering this from the governor's office in Tallahassee, Florida, to the halls of Congress. Terri Schiavo's personal struggle became a political cause. So straight ahead on LIVE FROM, the impact of the Schiavo situation on shaping of future decisions in Washington and what it means to you.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LIN: There has been some extraordinary legislative action on behalf of Terri Schiavo's parents, who were seeking to try to keep their daughter alive. And there was reaction from the power players in this case, no less than the house majority leader and the governor of Florida, who just so happens to be the president of the United States' brother.
Both spoke out today. CNN's Ed Henry reporting in from Washington on what these men, who put their political lives on the line, have to say, their reaction to Terri Schiavo's death -- Ed.
ED HENRY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good afternoon, Carol. You know, they're all focusing on condolences, but they're kicking up controversies as well.
Governor Bush said today there's sadness in his heart. He wishes he could have done more, but as he told CNN over the weekend his hands were basically tied in this case, despite all of the political pressure on him to act. And today you could see in the governor's face. This case is still weighing on him.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
J. BUSH: It's heartbreaking, to be honest with you. My thoughts and prayers go out to her family, to all the people that wanted -- wanted her to live, and to everybody. This was a very, very emotional couple of weeks, and I would hope that from this that all of us can grow as people in terms of our appreciation for end of life issues. The mystery of life itself is -- it's pretty wondrous.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HENRY: Now, on the controversy, in his written statement earlier today, Governor Bush only mentioned and offered condolences to the Schindlers. That is the parents and the siblings of Terri Schiavo. He did not mention Michael Schiavo, of course, the husband of Terri Schiavo.
When pressed on this, a spokesman told CNN earlier today that the governor has been involved in, quote, the biological family of Terri Schiavo and then hung up the phone.
So obviously, you can see the controversy is still going on between the different sides of the family and where politicians are coming down there.
Now, you mentioned House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. He's also kicking up some controversy. In his statement today, he said that this death is a result of the legal system in America, and he said, quote, "The time will come for the men responsible for this to answer for their behavior, but not today."
I can tell you Democrats on Capitol Hill behind me are already pouncing on this. They say that this goes too far, that it's a threatening statement in their eyes, in the Democratic eyes, to federal and state judges who were involved in this case.
A spokesman for Congressman DeLay. Dan Allen (ph), told CNN that the congressman is just disappointed that the courts did not follow the congressional intent of that emergency legislation that was passed two weekends ago. When pressed on it, the spokesman for Mr. Delay said the congressman himself will be having a press conference today, and he'll speak for himself on what he meant -- Carol.
LIN: All right. Thanks very much, Ed Henry.
In fact we are going to be hearing from the house majority leader himself at a 2:30 news conference. In fact, a lot is going to be going on at 2:30 Eastern Time, so stay with us, because so many people have waited. You're going to hear from the house majority leader.
And wee waiting for official comment from Michael Schiavo's side of the story. We're going to hear from his attorney, George Felos. He's going to be making his statement in the next hour at 2:30 Eastern. We're going to bring all of that to you live. Remember, we have not heard directly yet from Michael Schiavo. So his attorney at 2:30.
O'BRIEN: Of course, we're going to devote a great deal of programming today to the life and death of Terri Schiavo. Hers is a story that reflected this country's religious, social and political climate.
Here is CNN's congressional correspondent, Joe Johns, on how the case will resound in the nation's capitol.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOE JOHNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): At its heart, the story of Terri Schiavo is a deeply personal one, of a woman's struggle and family strife, but one that turned into a national firestorm.
DELAY: This is about Terri and her life and her family that wants to take care of her. It has nothing to do with politics, and it's disgusting to even suggest it.
JOHNS: House Republicans became passionate advocates because her case, dealing so directly with the sanctity of human life, unleashed the full force of increasingly influential social conservatives.
RANDALL TERRY, SCHINDLER FAMILY SPOKESPERSON: If he dies, there's going to be hell to pay with the pro-life, pro-family, Republican people of various legislative levels, statewide and federal wide, who have used pro-life, pro-family, conservative rhetoric to get into power and then when they have that power, they refuse to use it.
JOHNS: House Republican leader Tom DeLay, carrying the flag for these intensely motivated religious conservatives, did more than anyone to turn Terri Schiavo's fate into a Capitol Hill debate...
DELAY: One thing God has brought to us is Terri Schiavo to elevate the visibility of what is going on in America. That Americans would be so barbaric as to pull a feeding tube out of a person that is lucid and starve them to death for two weeks, I mean, in America, that is going to happen if we don't win this fight.
JOHNS: DeLay insists he was guided by moral values, not politics.
DELAY: This has nothing to do with polls or politics. This has everything to do with saving a life.
JOHNS: Motivations aside, the push by DeLay and others to have Schiavo's feeding tube reinserted went against public opinion. Polls showed Americans broadly disapproved of Congress and the president intervening. But they were in line with religious conservatives.
AMY WALTER, COOK POLITICAL REPORT: There may be a very short- term gain or loss for Republicans. I think in the long term, though, the base continues to be motivated and happy by what the Republican leadership has been doing, and they continue to come and turn out to vote.
JOHNS: Still, some Republicans have serious reservations about what is essentially an anticonservative position.
SEN. JOHN WARNER (R), VIRGINIA: I feel as sad about this case as anybody in America, but I do believe that the Congress must move very carefully, particularly as it relates to the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution, which simply says, unless the federal government has express authority of the Congress, the states have to handle these situations.
JOHNS: After all the effort, the extraordinary congressional move to force the courts to save Terri Schiavo failed. That much is clear, even as the political consequences remain uncertain.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And we have no moral right to be doing this.
JOHNS: For Democrats, liberal activists complain they didn't do enough to stop the Republicans. Some even went along, possibly concerned about being held responsible for a woman's death come election season.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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Aired March 31, 2005 - 13:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is with great sadness that it's been reported to us that Terri Schiavo has passed away.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MILES O'BRIEN, CO-HOST: Life ends for a brain-damaged woman at the center of a family battle that turned into a national legal, political, and religious fight.
From the CNN Center, I'm Miles O'Brien.
CAROL LIN, CO-HOST: And I'm Carol Lin in for Kyra Phillips. We have special coverage of the death of Terri Schiavo on CNN's LIVE FROM, which is starting right now.
O'BRIEN: A personal tragedy turned legal controversy, turned political, judicial, moral, ethical powder keg. Start to finish, the Terri Schiavo saga lasted 15 years. The finish coming, as you surely know, just after 9 this morning, 13 days after Schiavo's feeding tube was taken out, supposedly in accord with her own wishes.
In the end, it was personal again, if not entirely private, and today all sides are grieving.
Our coverage this hour begins with CNN's John Zarrella with a look back.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Terri Schiavo was 26 years old when her life and the lives of those who loved her changed forever. Heart failure stopped the flow of oxygen and left her severely brain damaged.
For the next 15 years, her parent, Bob and Mary Schindler, believing their daughter could be rehabilitated with therapy, fought to have her kept alive.
MARY SCHINDLER, TERRI SCHIAVO'S MOTHER: I've always thought there was hope. When I go in there, you know, and she responds to me, she knows I'm there.
ZARRELLA: Although Terri did not leave written instructions, Michael Schiavo insisted his wife made it clear she would never want to live on life support. MICHAEL SCHIAVO, TERRI SCHIAVO'S HUSBAND: She didn't want to be kept alive on anything artificial. She didn't want any tubes. She didn't want to be a burden to people. She's made that comment to me. She's made the comments to other people, also.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: On page 14 of the initial brief...
ZARRELLA: The battle over what was best for Terri went to state and federal court and through the appeals process. In nearly every instance, the court sided with her husband.
In the eyes of the court, a circuit court, Terri Schiavo was in a, quote, "persistent vegetative state." The court ruled there was no evidence that therapy would lead to any form of recovery.
In October 2003, Terri's feeding tube was removed. Outside the hospice, people who believed that rehabilitation should be given a chance, prayed.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We pray to the divine intercessor, almighty God.
ZARRELLA: The family, out of legal options, met with Governor Jeb Bush, asking him to intervene.
GOV. JEB BUSH (R), FLORIDA: I don't have the power to overrule a court decision.
ZARRELLA: Six days later, he got it. The Florida legislature passed Terri's Law, which allowed Bush to order the feeding tube reinserted. He did. Michael Schiavo immediately challenged the constitutionality of the law. It was ultimately ruled unconstitutional.
J. BUSH: In my heart I believe we did what was right, but I'm respectful of the Supreme Court's decision.
ZARRELLA: Terri's parents tried other strategies in state court. Those, too, failed. On Friday, March 18 of this year, her feeding tube was again removed. With time running out, the U.S. Congress stepped into the fray.
REP. TOM DELAY (R-TX), MAJORITY LEADER: A young woman in Florida is being dehydrated and starved to death.
ZARRELLA: Over the Palm Sunday weekend, Congress in short order passed and President Bush signed legislation giving the Florida federal court jurisdiction in the case. The courts all the way up to the Supreme Court refused to intervene.
With their daughter slowly dying, Bob and Mary Schindler kept vigil at the hospice, praying for a miracle. Perhaps it would come from the governor, the state legislature...
SCHINDLER: Please, senators, for the love of God, I'm begging you, don't let my daughter die of thirst. ZARRELLA: But one after the other, efforts failed. Terri Schiavo's life was defined by a bitter fight she had no control over. And the fight only ended when that, quote, pretty little girl with the big smile, as husband Michael called her, passed away.
John Zarrella, CNN, Pinellas Park, Florida.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LIN: Well, the man whose signature made a federal case of the Schiavo/Schindler dispute says the lessons to be learned extend far beyond one family.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Today millions of Americans are saddened by the death of Terri Schiavo. Laura and I extend or condolences to Terri Schiavo's families. I appreciate the example of grace and dignity they have displayed at a difficult time.
I urge all those who honor Terri Schiavo to continue to work to build a culture of life, where all Americans are welcomed and valued and protected, especially those who live at the mercy of others.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LIN: Now we are told that Michael Schiavo, the husband, was at his wife's bedside when she died, and Terri Schiavo's brother and sister were there just minutes earlier. Her parents were let in shortly after.
Visitation arrangements were only one source of bitterness making Terri Schiavo's condition all the more tragic. And now we get the very latest from CNN's Anderson Cooper, who's standing by in Pinellas Park.
Anderson, the description, frankly, that I gave didn't do justice to the drama that took place at the microphones. Clearly -- or is it so clear that there was an argument in the last minutes of Terri Schiavo's life as to who would be in the room?
ANDERSON COOPER, HOST, "ANDERSON COOPER 360": At this point it's really not clear exactly what happened in those -- that 15-minute -- that last half-hour time frame. There was a priest there for the Schindler family.
In the end, though, we found out from CNN's David Mattingly that Michael Schiavo was with Terri. She passed away at 9:05 Eastern Standard Time. Her life ended this morning, 9:05.
Her body has been taken already from the hospice. Two white vans arrived at the county coroner's office. A short time ago, Susan Candiotti was there bringing us reports. The gates opened. There were no protesters there. They had a police escort, two police motorcycles brought Terri Schiavo's body where an autopsy will be performed. As you know, Carol, Michael Schiavo has agreed in these last days and weeks to have Terri Schiavo autopsied. The Schindlers had wanted an autopsy all along. Michael Schiavo says he now will -- will grant that.
After the autopsy, her body will be cremated. The Schindlers, again, Carol, you talk about these points of contention. They don't see eye to eye on anything, except for having this autopsy now. She will be cremated. The Schindlers had wanted her body buried intact in the ground in Florida. Terri Schiavo, according to Michael Schiavo, will be cremated and returned to Pennsylvania, where they met, where they each were born.
CNN's David Mattingly was with a member of Michael Schiavo's new family, as his critics call it. David joins me now.
You were there when he received the phone call that Terri Schiavo died?
DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. I was standing right next to John Centonze. He is Michael Schiavo's future brother-in-law. He's been very close since Michael every since Michael and his sister have begun their relationship, which has been going on for 10 years now.
And when that phone call came in, you could clearly hear how shaken up he was. We're going to play that for you right now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN CENTONZE, JODI CENTONZE'S BROTHER: All right. All right, man. All right. Bye. Man, everybody's crying.
MATTINGLY: What did he say?
CENTONZE: Just crying. It's -- she got the call from Mike, and told her and she just broke down crying. So I guess she was bringing her daughter to school.
MATTINGLY: This is really affecting you. You're getting goosebumps on your arm.
CENTONZE: It's sad. It's really sad, but you know, I'm happy for Terri, but it's still sad all the way around. I know Mike is very upset. My sister's crying, so it's very emotional.
It's been a long hard fight, but I believe she's happy. Terri is probably happy now, you know, to be free, and not being, you know, shown all over TV. And you know, I would imagine, if that was me, I'd be very embarrassed, everybody looking at my picture laying there, can't speak to anybody. But it's going to be very hard for everybody right now.
MATTINGLY: Through this entire thing, what has been the toughest thing for your family to put up with? CENTONZE: Everybody getting in your face with false accusations and threats, and I'm sure it's not going to go away anytime soon. People just don't know the facts. People hear what they want to hear, you know, without ever being there or without ever seeing her. You know, it's a grapevine thing. One person says something, it just goes through and everybody takes it, you know, for fact, and that's -- that's not how it's been.
MATTINGLY: How do you believe Michael is handling this right now?
CENTONZE: Right now? He's probably beside himself right now. He's -- just from the phone call that I got, Michael is very emotional and he brother could hardly understand what he was saying. He was just in tears.
You know, it's been a long time coming, and even though reality is hitting him right now, it's hard. I mean, he truly loved that woman and, you know, to turn down millions of dollars shows you it wasn't about the money. You know, he swore that he would follow out what she wanted, and he did it, no matter what, no matter what everybody said, no matter how much everybody bad-mouthed him, he stood by her side to the end.
MATTINGLY: You never actually met her, did you?
CENTONZE: I've seen her. I've seen her and...
MATTINGLY: But not prior, not before her...
CENTONZE: Not before. Not when she was up and around, I never saw her.
MATTINGLY: And yet at her passing, I can tell you're very upset by it.
CENTONZE: It's -- I mean, I've seen and know so much about her and listened to all the stories that's Mike told me about, you know, things that they've done and what they wanted to do. I feel like I've known her for 15 years, you know? It's very hard.
MATTINGLY: What has his life been for the past week?
CENTONZE: His life's been hell, just -- I know a lot of things on TV he tries not to watch, because will bad mouth him. And he's like, you know, that's why he didn't want to go public with any of this, but it came to a point where he had no choice.
People can just call you so many names and bad-mouth you so much until you just can't take it anymore. And that's what this -- that's what this whole thing turned into. It was just a lot of publicity from the other side, and you can only take so much and you've got to stand up for yourself.
I mean, for the last few years, it's -- it's just been driving me crazy, not being able to speak out and say anything. But Mike just wanted it to be private. He thought, you know, nobody else should have any say-so in it, especially the -- you know, the government.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MATTINGLY: John Centonze telling me that Michael Schiavo was in the room at the time of Terri's passing, also saying that, based on information he had yesterday, he did not believe that Terri Schiavo would have lived through the day.
COOPER: And Michael Schiavo has been sleeping inside the hospice?
MATTINGLY: That's correct. They made special arrangements, we're told, by the family for him in the hospice. He had a special room there, not in the normal residential area where some families are allowed to stay, apparently a security measure so people wouldn't see him coming and going.
COOPER: And their -- you mentioned that he's been -- they've been getting threats.
MATTINGLY: They've been getting threats by mail. They've been getting threats by phone. There's been almost a nonstop police presence in the Schiavo's neighborhood, and you hear him saying they don't think that's going to stop anytime soon.
COOPER: All right. David Mattingly. The anger, the division continues here in Pinellas Park, Florida. Let's go back to Miles O'Brien in Atlanta -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: Thank you very much, Anderson.
To judge from the court rulings -- and there were lots of court rulings -- the Schiavo matter really wasn't terribly complicated. Her condition was debatable, but her husband's standing as guardian, mostly not. And his assertion -- assertion of her wishes was consistently upheld, even in the face of very high-powered opposition. And that is an important legal point.
CNN's senior legal analyst, Jeffrey Toobin, joining us with more on all this.
Jeff, there's so much politicization. It has been politicized in so many ways: the Supreme Court, the White House, the U.S. Congress, the state house in Tallahassee, on and on it goes.
Let's try to boil it down to just the legal case here. And the legal case was no one really ever disputed that Terri Schiavo said -- didn't write down, but at least said to her husband and others that she would not want to live that way.
JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: And that's right. And that's what courts struggle to do when there is an absence of clear instructions, is figure out what the person would have wanted to do.
And if there is any positive result from this terribly sad story, is that it has sent thousands of Americans, and perhaps even millions of them, to write wills, to write down what their wishes are, who should make the decisions about their care, about feeding, about pain medication, about the withdrawal of all of that. Living wills are -- people are writing them more and more, and if people do, they avoid these kinds of fights.
O'BRIEN: And a living will is something you have to -- you don't write it and put it in a safe-deposit box. You also need to talk to your loved ones about all this. It's very important to have a verbal as well as a written record and also constantly update that living will, isn't it?
TOOBIN: That's right. And you know, it is not just for old people, obviously, as this case makes clear. You know, most people think of living wills in terms of people toward of end of their lives, but of course as we all know, Terri Schiavo was 26 years old when shy was struck by this terrible cardiac arrest and has spent the -- the next 15 years in -- in suspended animation.
Everybody should -- should write those things down. It's not a happy topic. It's not something people want for spend much time thinking about, but the alternative is the nightmare that this family went through, and that clearly is worse.
O'BRIEN: I think it's probably true to say that if you're younger, it's that much more important, because a healthy body will endure in this state for quite some time. And this is the case in point of that.
Let's -- even at the end, with all those 11th hour appeals, right on up to the Supreme Court, I never saw anything that really went back to the heart of the matter, questioning the evidence of the witnesses who heard Terri Schiavo speak. Did you see anything along those lines?
TOOBIN: No, and I think that's one reason why the Supreme Court consistently refused to get involved. Six times this case went to the Supreme Court, four times in the last month, and each time the Supreme Court said, "We're not getting involved," because at its core, this case was about the individual facts of the case, judges determining what did Terri Schiavo want.
And every judge who looked at the facts of this case said, "We think that Terri Schiavo would want this feeding tube removed." That factual finding is not the kind of thing appeals courts tend to overturn. They overturn legal rulings, whether the wrong law was applied, but the U.S. Supreme Court does not sit in review of individual factual determinations. They only rule on law. This was not, at its core, as you point out, a complicated or apparently even difficult legal issue.
O'BRIEN: All right. So going forward here, undoubtedly there will be people out there who are in this very predicament in the future. Does the Terri Schiavo case -- it might change things by way of perception. It might change things politically. But does it change? Has the law changed one iota through all this? TOOBIN: Well, I think in one profound way it has. And I think the real important legal implication of this case is what Congress did two weeks ago, because that was really extraordinary. You know, before Congress got involved, this was a complicated long case, but legally, as you point out, it wasn't all that unusual.
But when you have the United States Congress pass a law directed at a single family's situation, and essentially ordering a federal court to get involved and ignore all that went before, if that becomes a precedent, if Congress and state legislatures start to do that more often, that will be something that is deeply legally controversial, as we saw in yesterday's opinion from a very conservative judge on the 11th Circuit, saying this was really out of bounds. That is something I think that we can look forward to as a major legal controversy in the future.
O'BRIEN: So -- so really the last chapter legally has not been written yet?
TOOBIN: By no means, and I think one of the peculiarities of this law is that it passed with overwhelming support in the Congress, and President Bush, you know, flew home in the middle of the night to sign it. But in the two weeks subsequent, there has been quite a negative reaction, if polls are to be believed. So I don't know how Congress feels about what it did and whether they will rush back into doing this again.
I think it's left a very uncertain political and legal legacy, but that just goes to your point that it's not clear what that legacy will be.
O'BRIEN: Jeff Toobin, our legal analyst, thanks as always for boiling it down for us. We appreciate it.
TOOBIN: OK.
O'BRIEN: The right to live, the right to die. You have another opportunity to speak out on this issue tonight. Join Larry King as he moderates a live three-hour national conversation. Along with him, Anderson Cooper, Paula Zahn, Aaron Brown, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Nancy Grace, and a host of others. That's tonight, 8 Eastern. Watch "LIFE AND DEATH: AMERICA SPEAKS OUT." You'll see that only here on CNN.
LIN: And of course, we're covering this from the governor's office in Tallahassee, Florida, to the halls of Congress. Terri Schiavo's personal struggle became a political cause. So straight ahead on LIVE FROM, the impact of the Schiavo situation on shaping of future decisions in Washington and what it means to you.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LIN: There has been some extraordinary legislative action on behalf of Terri Schiavo's parents, who were seeking to try to keep their daughter alive. And there was reaction from the power players in this case, no less than the house majority leader and the governor of Florida, who just so happens to be the president of the United States' brother.
Both spoke out today. CNN's Ed Henry reporting in from Washington on what these men, who put their political lives on the line, have to say, their reaction to Terri Schiavo's death -- Ed.
ED HENRY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good afternoon, Carol. You know, they're all focusing on condolences, but they're kicking up controversies as well.
Governor Bush said today there's sadness in his heart. He wishes he could have done more, but as he told CNN over the weekend his hands were basically tied in this case, despite all of the political pressure on him to act. And today you could see in the governor's face. This case is still weighing on him.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
J. BUSH: It's heartbreaking, to be honest with you. My thoughts and prayers go out to her family, to all the people that wanted -- wanted her to live, and to everybody. This was a very, very emotional couple of weeks, and I would hope that from this that all of us can grow as people in terms of our appreciation for end of life issues. The mystery of life itself is -- it's pretty wondrous.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HENRY: Now, on the controversy, in his written statement earlier today, Governor Bush only mentioned and offered condolences to the Schindlers. That is the parents and the siblings of Terri Schiavo. He did not mention Michael Schiavo, of course, the husband of Terri Schiavo.
When pressed on this, a spokesman told CNN earlier today that the governor has been involved in, quote, the biological family of Terri Schiavo and then hung up the phone.
So obviously, you can see the controversy is still going on between the different sides of the family and where politicians are coming down there.
Now, you mentioned House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. He's also kicking up some controversy. In his statement today, he said that this death is a result of the legal system in America, and he said, quote, "The time will come for the men responsible for this to answer for their behavior, but not today."
I can tell you Democrats on Capitol Hill behind me are already pouncing on this. They say that this goes too far, that it's a threatening statement in their eyes, in the Democratic eyes, to federal and state judges who were involved in this case.
A spokesman for Congressman DeLay. Dan Allen (ph), told CNN that the congressman is just disappointed that the courts did not follow the congressional intent of that emergency legislation that was passed two weekends ago. When pressed on it, the spokesman for Mr. Delay said the congressman himself will be having a press conference today, and he'll speak for himself on what he meant -- Carol.
LIN: All right. Thanks very much, Ed Henry.
In fact we are going to be hearing from the house majority leader himself at a 2:30 news conference. In fact, a lot is going to be going on at 2:30 Eastern Time, so stay with us, because so many people have waited. You're going to hear from the house majority leader.
And wee waiting for official comment from Michael Schiavo's side of the story. We're going to hear from his attorney, George Felos. He's going to be making his statement in the next hour at 2:30 Eastern. We're going to bring all of that to you live. Remember, we have not heard directly yet from Michael Schiavo. So his attorney at 2:30.
O'BRIEN: Of course, we're going to devote a great deal of programming today to the life and death of Terri Schiavo. Hers is a story that reflected this country's religious, social and political climate.
Here is CNN's congressional correspondent, Joe Johns, on how the case will resound in the nation's capitol.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOE JOHNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): At its heart, the story of Terri Schiavo is a deeply personal one, of a woman's struggle and family strife, but one that turned into a national firestorm.
DELAY: This is about Terri and her life and her family that wants to take care of her. It has nothing to do with politics, and it's disgusting to even suggest it.
JOHNS: House Republicans became passionate advocates because her case, dealing so directly with the sanctity of human life, unleashed the full force of increasingly influential social conservatives.
RANDALL TERRY, SCHINDLER FAMILY SPOKESPERSON: If he dies, there's going to be hell to pay with the pro-life, pro-family, Republican people of various legislative levels, statewide and federal wide, who have used pro-life, pro-family, conservative rhetoric to get into power and then when they have that power, they refuse to use it.
JOHNS: House Republican leader Tom DeLay, carrying the flag for these intensely motivated religious conservatives, did more than anyone to turn Terri Schiavo's fate into a Capitol Hill debate...
DELAY: One thing God has brought to us is Terri Schiavo to elevate the visibility of what is going on in America. That Americans would be so barbaric as to pull a feeding tube out of a person that is lucid and starve them to death for two weeks, I mean, in America, that is going to happen if we don't win this fight.
JOHNS: DeLay insists he was guided by moral values, not politics.
DELAY: This has nothing to do with polls or politics. This has everything to do with saving a life.
JOHNS: Motivations aside, the push by DeLay and others to have Schiavo's feeding tube reinserted went against public opinion. Polls showed Americans broadly disapproved of Congress and the president intervening. But they were in line with religious conservatives.
AMY WALTER, COOK POLITICAL REPORT: There may be a very short- term gain or loss for Republicans. I think in the long term, though, the base continues to be motivated and happy by what the Republican leadership has been doing, and they continue to come and turn out to vote.
JOHNS: Still, some Republicans have serious reservations about what is essentially an anticonservative position.
SEN. JOHN WARNER (R), VIRGINIA: I feel as sad about this case as anybody in America, but I do believe that the Congress must move very carefully, particularly as it relates to the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution, which simply says, unless the federal government has express authority of the Congress, the states have to handle these situations.
JOHNS: After all the effort, the extraordinary congressional move to force the courts to save Terri Schiavo failed. That much is clear, even as the political consequences remain uncertain.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And we have no moral right to be doing this.
JOHNS: For Democrats, liberal activists complain they didn't do enough to stop the Republicans. Some even went along, possibly concerned about being held responsible for a woman's death come election season.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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