A Life That Matters: The Legacy of Terri Schiavo -- A Lesson for Us All (Hardcover)

~ Terri's Family: (Author), Mary and Robert Schindler (Author), Suzanne Schindler Vitadamo (Author), Bobby Schindler (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

In 2004-5, when the Terri Schiavo case divided the country, one side of the story was buried under the avalanche of politics and power. Now, Terri Schiavo’s parents, brother, and sister speak out—for Terri and themselves. A LIFE THAT MATTERS may well change every assumption you have about Terri’s too-brief life and prolonged, agonizing death.

Here the people who loved her and knew her best tell the story not only of the fifteen years Terri struggled to stay alive, but of a gentle child who brought happiness to everyone she touched. This is the story of a normal adolescent who blossomed into the beautiful young woman who captured Michael Schiavo’s heart. And it is the inside story of their troubled relationship, for the members of Terri’s family were witnesses to a growing tension—and were her confidants as she struggled in her marriage with the husband who would later crusade for her premature and unnecessary death.

A book that stakes clear moral ground without a political aim, A LIFE THAT MATTERS takes us inside Terri’s family when the courts ordered her feeding tube removed, and it leads inexorably to a scene that will haunt readers forever: a bereft family barred by the police from their daughter’s hospice room in the final moments of her life.

A LIFE THAT MATTERS separates lies from truth, myth from facts, and politics from people. It challenges us to hear the words and feel the emotions of the warm, intensely private family who never sought the media storm that accosted them, or the devastating legal battle that broke their hearts. The book asks us what we would do if we found ourselves, as the Schindlers did, wanting nothing more than to love and care for a daughter as long as she could live.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 251 pages
• Publisher: Grand Central Publishing; 1st edition (March 27, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0446579874
• ISBN-13: 978-0446579872
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #626,471 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Case with No Winners!!!!, November 24, 2007

By	Sylviastel - See all my reviews (VINE VOICE)

Regardless of how you feel about the case, I read the book with an open mind. I could see how the Schindlers really felt and how they viewed their son-in-law Michael Schiavo. Of course, he could have divorced Terri and moved on with his life but he didn't. He stayed for 15 years plus the 6 married years of life. This book paints a complex portrait of the marriage and family relationships. Before the media stepped in, Terri's family fought hard to maintain their daughter's life even if it was in a state of almost wheelchair bound and hospitalized. According to Michael, Terri never wanted to live like that and I couldn't imagine anybody living the remainder of life like Terri did all those years. While her family was comforted by Terri's existence, we will never know what Terri might have wished for in the first place. There are no winners, neither Michael nor the Schindlers won anything here. Terri had a right to die just as she had a right to live. I don't know what happened that February night in 1990 that would cause her to live in such a state. According to the autopsy report which I read, she wasn't abused or neglected. She was treated and liked by the hospital staff. You wonder if Michael made the right decision in fighting for Terri. It would have been easier to let go and give her back to her parents and siblings. They would have cared for her regardless of the expenses but who would it be for the Schindlers or Terri's happiness. We'll never know the truth. I keep thinking about the family of Ron Goldman when I read this book. it was told from the Schindlers' points of view which made it confusing after a while. Still, I know that Terri is at peace somewhere which comforts the Schindlers to know that Terri is in heaven and that her life mattered to so many people. She had one miracle, she brought Jesse Jackson and Sean Hannity in a room together to pray for her joked Glenn Beck. Rest in peace, Terri and Ron, where-ever you may be right now.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Emotionally compelling, but in the end lacking..., October 21, 2007

By	D. Roth (Bellevue, WA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I first read Michael Shiavo's book and decided to read this to get "the other side" of the story. Michael Shiavos' account was pretty compelling and I wondered if I'd be able to give this viewpoint fair consideration.

In the end, reading this book reinforced to me that there is always more than one side to a story. The book is emotionally compelling and certainly brings a different perspective on Michael's personality and behavior. However, the book ignores and glosses over many things established as fact in court. Michael Shiavo, Judge Greer, George Felos, and everybody that disagreed with the Shindlers are judged to be either intellectually, emotionally, or morally dishonest. The Schindlers make many innuendos in footnotes throughout the book (the most significant that Michael strangled Terri which was the cause of her collapse), but they are based on no credible evidence. They completely ignore factual medical evidence that contradicts their claims that Terri was conscious and could intellectually react to her environment.

As I read the book, I felt compassion for Mary Schindler and her family, but I also got the impression that they were in severe denial and unwilling to look at any evidence that didn't support their hopes for Terri.

One interesting thing to note was that in Michael Schiavo's book he said that Terri was taken to the emergency room for what seems to have been food substance in Terri's lungs. He suspected that the Schindler family was trying to feed Terri by the mouth against the doctor's instructions (swallowing tests showed she could not swallow food). In the Schindler's book, they reveal that people were indeed trying to feed Terri by mouth. The timeline isn't clear, so this may or may not explain what happened to Terri in this regard.

Having read Michael's book, and having read other sources, I felt that the Schindler's book played pretty loose with the facts (or just ignored them). It is an emotionally compelling story, and if that is what you are looking for I can recommend the book. If you are looking for a discussion of the important facts of the case from the Schindlers' perspective, you will be disappointed.

It is difficult to review a book like this. It is a perspective piece and how can you give a low rating on someone's perspective? In the end, I think you have to take into account how broad, perceptive, and insightful the perspective seems to be. This book didn't provide much in that regard.

20 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Very difficult case, August 8, 2006

By	Elizabeth A. Root (Laurel, MD USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I hate trying to assign stars to a book like this. It's a very controversial topic, and one that I have strong opinions on. Still, I don't assume that everyone who disagrees with me is wrong, wrong, wrong. I have too much sympathy for all the combatants. I wish there had been a way to work it out peaceably.

There have been four books written by or with the cooperation of the principals in this case, and I have listed them in the productwiki. This came out at approximately the same time as Michael Schiavo's Terri: The Truth. It is interesting to see how the two books use the same witness, Cindi Shook, pp. 105-113 of this book and pp. 179-189 of Schiavo's. One might think that there were two different women.

The backbone of this narrative is by Mary Schindler, with other members of the family narrating specific events. This was a trifle confusing at first, but I rapidly got used to it. It reads pretty smoothly and has explanatory notes at the bottom of the page. It includes a section of color family photographs and four affadavits by doctors. Frustratingly enough, there is no index in any of the four books, so it is difficult to compare their handling of specific issues.

The Schindlers have three basic arguments: 1. Terri was not in a persistent vegetative state (PVS); 2. Even if she was in PVS, she left no instructions; 3. Even if she was was in PVS and left clear instructions "There is not now and never has been a 'right' to die" (p.221). That last statement not only makes the other two moot, and but I cannot help but wonder if to the Schindlers and their supporters, it justified saying just about anything in the first two arguments. With all the oversight that the case received, they simply don't convince me of the first two arguments. Michael Schiavo would have to have organized and sustained a large cabal of amoral doctors and judges, beginning before the case became famous and he became a poster-child for right-to-die issues, and continuing through a glare of publicity. Even assuming that they had no morals or professional ethics, Schiavo wasn't a politically powerful man, and the malpractice settlement simply wasn't that large, considering the expenses

The family strikes me as befuddled by grief. Despite their conviction that it really isn't relevant, the Schindlers still insist in the face of the autopsy that the doctors' diagnosis of PVS was wrong, the wild coincidence that it was confirmed is explained by the process of dying. Mary Schindler's description of her daughter as "healthy" is mind-boggling, even if she was at least minimally conscious. It strikes me as both delusional and heart-breaking. Bobby Schindler states: (p. 231): "Remember, most hospitals and many doctors WANT YOU TO DIE. It's convenient that way and much less expensive" [emphasis in the original]. I find that absolutely incredible! I can't imagine how so many people I know, including myself, have walked into those death traps and escaped!

I hope the Schindlers find consolation in their campaigns, but their agenda scares me. I believe that there should be a right-to-die, there is legally a right, I've left written instructions, and I certainly don't want the Schindlers and their ilk harassing my family. I wish the Schindlers all the luck in the world in creating their free hospital for those who want it, but I don't. I wonder which will take precendence: the political campaign or the hospital? I think it should be the latter: if the Schindlers can provide good care, then they might lovingly and gentle change people's minds in individual cases.

Certainly worth reading, but it doesn't convince me.