The husband of Terri Schiavo hand-delivered a critical letter today to the Loveland office of U.S. Rep. Marilyn Musgrave.
Michael Schiavo is in Colorado raising money for Democratic candidates, including Congressional candidate Peggy Lamm, who is seeking to represent the 7th Congressional District, and Colorado State Rep. Angie Paccione, who is running against Musgrave in the 4th Congressional District.
Schiavo now heads a political action committee (TerriPAC) and has been involved in fund-raising efforts for U.S. Rep. Jim Davis of Florida, who is running for governor there.
Schiavo said today that Musgrave and other politicians interfered in his private affairs when Congress passed a bill last year attempting to overturn a court order that allowed Terri’s life support to be turned off.
At a Denver press conference held before he delivered the letter, Schiavo described the bill as “the most intrusive and illegal government act we will ever see” and he labeled Musgrave as among the most grievous elected officials to support it.
“Your outspoken and misguided attempts to have Congress overrule the legal courts and overturn the private medical decisions made by my family and my wife, Terri, were entirely inappropriate,” Schiavo wrote in the letter.
Terri’s parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, fought Michael Schiavo in court for years to keep their daughter on life support in hope that she would regain her health.
Terri Schiavo suffered heart failure in 1990, when she was 26, and could not live without the aid of a feeding tube. She died in March of 2005.
Musgrave was in Washington D.C. today and did not accept the letter personally. She released the following statement: “I have only compassion for Michael and Terri’s family, and all those who have lost a loved one.”
Paccione accompanied Schiavo today.
“He puts a human face on the invasion of privacy issue,” she said. “The federal government should stay out of private, painful, tragic decisions.”
Staff writer Kieran Nicholson can be reached at 303-820-1822 or knicholson@denverpost.com.
