Relatives of Terri Schiavo planning for two funerals

Published on Sunday 3 April 2005 01:14

THE post-mortem examination on Terri Schiavo has been completed and the body is ready for release to her husband, who plans to cremate her remains and bury the ashes in an unspecified family plot.

Results from the brain-damaged woman’s post mortem, which was completed on Friday, were not due to be released for several weeks, according to the medical examiner’s office.

In a case that divided America and gripped the world, Schiavo was at the centre of a long legal battle over whether she would have wanted to be kept alive with a feeding tube for 15 years, after suffering a devastating brain injury.

Michael Schiavo has said he hopes the post mortem will settle questions about his wife’s medical condition, but experts differ on whether that will happen.

Schiavo’s parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, and Michael Schiavo spent Friday planning separate funerals for the 41-year-old woman, who died last Thursday, 13 days after her feeding tube was removed.

The Schindlers have scheduled a funeral Mass for Tuesday in their hometown of Gulfport. The Mass will be preceded by a gathering for people to express their condolences.

Schiavo’s family has said he plans to take the cremated remains to Pennsylvania, where his wife grew up, but her parents and siblings had wanted to bury her body in Florida so they can visit her grave.

David Gibbs, the Schindlers’ lawyer, said there have been no further discussions between the two parties about the remains. The Schindlers do not plan to press the issue in court, he said. "The court has already determined that [Michael Schiavo] will control the burial decisions," Gibbs said.

Outside the Pinellas Park hospice, where Schiavo lived for five years, a few protesters returned yesterday to hold a brief Mass.