Yep. And it would've been a lose-lose situation for him. The same people attacking him now for not signing her over to her family would be attacking him for giving her up and giving up their marriage vows and breaking her trust and abadoning her. They would've said, oh, what a selfish shithead, he doesn't care about her or their marriage vows ("in sickness or in health, 'til death do us part"), all he cares about is himself..
Funny that many of the people who talk about family values all the time would advocate a divorce and a clear dissent from the marriage vows.

As sad as it is that she has passed away, can we PLEASE let the family (parents, brothers, sisters AND husband) mourn in peace.

Ok?? This man is getting death threats for goodness sake! I'm not going through that for someone I don't give a damn about, who would?

It amazes me that Bush is praised for standing by his convictions(even if he's wrong) yet Michael is slammed for standing by his.

You know what touched me? Fox News said that there's only 40,000 left from that inheritance Michael got and he has it in a trust fund, he only touches it to spend it on little things like getting Terri a haircut, that just touched me for some reason. :)

This man put his life on the line. He turned down million dollar offers to relinquish control over Terri. He allowed himself to get slandered by the media. He probably can't ever go out alone again in public for fear that some nutjob will try to kill him. He is willing to let Terri have an autopsy to prove there is no foul play. He has put himself through unbelievable mental and physical anguish trying to fulfill his wife's wishes. Yet, people say he is a horrible person who doesn't love Terri. I can't think of a single person on this planet that would put themselves through Hell and back again in a situation like this if they didn't love their spouse.

He didn't divorce her and give the control to her parents because he loves Terri. He might have a new woman and children but that doesn't mean he doesn't still love Terri. There are millions of people who get remarried after the death of their spouse. It doesn't mean that they didn't love their late spouse; the widow just wanted to get on with their lives and find happiness again. If I were to pass on, I would hope that my boyfriend would find someone else to make him happy instead of being miserable for the rest of his life. In Michael's eyes, Terri had been dead since 1990. He still has many years left. Why shouldn't he try to find happiness again?

I don't think the media frequents this board very much, and I don't think that they'd listen. :)

I think it's a very interesting and important topic to talk about and discussion among people I know.

However, I don't agree with the media obsession and intrusion into the lives of those involved- including following the coroner's vehicle with a helicopter or whatnot. I do think that the family has a right to privacy there.

BUT, her parents brought the media attention upon themselves and were essentially media whores for their cause. I do NOT want to hear them ever cry for the media to leave them alone. They didn't care about pimping out their cause or intruding into the lives of others involved, such as Terri's husband and his girlfriend.

There's no reason why it can't continue to be discussed.

Agreed

I Agree

Did anyone just see the conference with Michael's lawyer? He confirmed that Michael had a room not too far from Terri's and that's why we didn't see him go back and forth like her family, wow. :(

Very well said, ZTAngel.

I totally agree with what you said about the parents. According to what my mother heard on one news station...it was Terri's parents who encouraged him to move on with his life. I don't remember EVER seeing him on the TV, talk shows etc.

I know it is going to be discussed for a long time. I am sure there are legislatures all across the country looking at their laws to make sure this doesn't happen in their state. I guess a big part of me just feels like the family now needs the time to mourn her. Not listen to more people debate about the decisions.

ZTAngel....loved the post.

I know I just posetd, but my mom sent me an email yesterday. It is sarcastic, but I think it nailed things right on the head....
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Living will is the best revenge

By ROBERT FRIEDMAN, Perspective Editor

Published March 27, 2005
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Like many of you, I have been compelled by recent events to prepare a more detailed advance directive dealing with end-of-life issues. Here's what mine says:


* In the event I lapse into a persistent vegetative state, I want medical authorities to resort to extraordinary means to prolong my hellish semiexistence. Fifteen years wouldn't be long enough for me.

* I want my wife and my parents to compound their misery by engaging in a bitter and protracted feud that depletes their emotions and their bank accounts.

* I want my wife to ruin the rest of her life by maintaining an interminable vigil at my bedside. I'd be really jealous if she waited less than a decade to start dating again or otherwise rebuilding a semblance of a normal life.

* I want my case to be turned into a circus by losers and crackpots from around the country who hope to bring meaning to their empty lives by investing the same transient emotion in me that they once reserved for Laci Peterson, Chandra Levy and that little girl who got stuck in a well.

* I want those crackpots to spread vicious lies about my wife.

* I want to be placed in a hospice where protesters can gather to bring further grief and disruption to the lives of dozens of dying patients and families whose stories are sadder than my own.

* I want the people who attach themselves to my case because of their deep devotion to the sanctity of life to make death threats against any judges, elected officials or health care professionals who disagree with them.

* I want the medical geniuses and philosopher kings who populate the Florida Legislature to ignore me for more than a decade and then turn my case into a forum for weeks of politically calculated bloviation.

* I want total strangers - oily politicians, maudlin news anchors, ersatz friars and all other hangers-on - to start calling me "Bobby," as if they had known me since childhood.

* I'm not insisting on this as part of my directive, but it would be nice if Congress passed a "Bobby's Law" that applied only to me and ignored the medical needs of tens of millions of other Americans without adequate health coverage.

* Even if the "Bobby's Law" idea doesn't work out, I want Congress - especially all those self-described conservatives who claim to believe in "less government and more freedom" - to trample on the decisions of doctors, judges and other experts who actually know something about my
case. And I want members of Congress to launch into an extended debate that gives them another excuse to avoid pesky issues such as national security and the economy.

* In particular, I want House Majority Leader Tom DeLay to use my case as an opportunity to divert the country's attention from the mounting political and legal troubles stemming from his slimy misbehavior.

* And I want Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist to make a mockery of his Harvard medical degree by misrepresenting the details of my case in ways that might give a boost to his 2008 presidential campaign.

* I want Frist and the rest of the world to judge my medical condition on the basis of a snippet of dated and demeaning videotape that should have remained private.

* Because I think I would retain my sense of humor even in a persistent vegetative state, I'd want President Bush - the same guy who publicly mocked Karla Faye Tucker when signing off on her death warrant as governor of Texas - to claim he was intervening in my case because it is always best "to err on the side of life."

* I want the state Department of Children and Families to step in at the last moment to take responsibility for my well-being, because nothing bad could ever happen to anyone under DCF's care.

* And because Gov. Jeb Bush is the smartest and most righteous human being on the face of the Earth, I want any and all of the aforementioned directives to be disregarded if the governor happens to disagree with them. If he says he knows what's best for me, I won't be in any position to argue.


> Robert Friedman is editor of Perspective. He can be reached at friedman@sptimes.com

> [Last modified March 27, 2005, 00:34:19]

wasn't sure if this should go in entertainment or news, but I thought everyone would like to see this...

http://durrrrr.blogspot.com/

The first time I saw that I laughed nonstop for at least 10 minutes.

I'd like to say that despite being a devout catholic, I think they should've killed the bitch earlier. People like her put a strain on our health care system.