Bobby Schindler's Plea to Rep. Moran

Schiavo's Brother Pleads With Democrat
Mar 20, 5:55 PM (ET)

By LAURIE KELLMAN

WASHINGTON (AP) - A House Democrat trying to stop legislation backed by Terri Schiavo's family turned down a request to reconsider his position from her brother when the two ran into each other Sunday in the House Press Gallery.

A little awkwardly, Bobby Schindler and Rep. James P. Moran, D-Va., shook hands. Schindler then launched into a passionate defense of the legislation. The bill would effectively take Schiavo's fate out of Florida state courts, where judges ordered the feeding tube removed on Friday, and allow Schiavo's parents to take their case to a federal judge.

As reporters and photographers gathered, he handed Moran a CD and urged him to consider footage of his sister.

"She's doing the best that she can trying to speak to my dad," in the footage, Schindler, a high school science teacher, told Moran. "I urge you, in fact I am begging you to at least listen to these videos of my sister communicating with my father."

"I am happy to take a look at that," Moran replied. "But my greater concern is not with the immediate facts of this case as much as it is the precedent, of overruling the state courts, of politicizing a tragic family situation."

The encounter took place after House GOP leaders were rebuffed by Democrats in their initial effort to rush the legislation through in the early afternoon. The House was returning later to consider the measure under less restrictive rules, aiming for a vote early Monday on the bill that was passed by the Senate late Sunday afternoon.

Family members believe that the footage and audio of Terri, 41, will convince opponents of the bill that she is not in a persistent vegetative state as her husband, Michael and several doctors say, but able to interact and emote.

Rep. Dave Weldon of Florida and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee, both doctors and Republicans, said footage they have seen has convinced them that she is not in a vegetative state.

Schiavo suffered severe brain damage in 1990 when a chemical imbalance apparently brought on by an eating disorder caused her heart to stop beating for a few minutes. She can breathe on her own, but has relied on the feeding-and-hydration tube to keep her alive.

Court-appointed physicians testified her brain damage was so severe that there was no hope she would ever have any cognitive abilities.